Most people would have thought that two adults would have been able to steal two teenagers' jewelry by now. Unfortunately for the villains, they weren't successful.
Now, after a long battle in the Parisian heat, both teams felt ready to collapse. This was especially true for Mayura who, even with a fixed miraculous, was still weak.
Chat Noir must be tired too, it becomes easier to tell as he gets frustrated. All of their attacks are more reckless than they were at the beginning of the fight.
Mayura feels successful as she knocks Ladybug to the ground. The girl had not known how to use her lucky charm and tried to cover her earrings. Mayura had both of Ladybug's arms pinned away from her.
"Cataclysm," she hears behind her, but he isn't charging at her, he is going after Hawkmoth, he wants to end this once and for all.
"No!" Mayura shouts, she releases Ladybug and runs to push Hawkmoth out of the way because he looks frozen in place.
The pain surges through her body in a short second and she collapses with a shout of pain.
"Mayura!" Hawkmoth falls to her side.
Her body is curled in a fetal position, wishing, begging, willing to do anything for the pain to subside.
"How could you?" Hawkmoth screams but the heroes had disappeared, it was likely both were about to turn back into their civilian identities.
"Nath, please, say something," he begs.
"I'm sorry," she gasps.
"No, no, not that, you're fine, you're going to be fine, you're-"
"Dying," Mayura cuts him off.
Hawkmoth shakes his head, he refuses to lose another woman, not like this. He picks her up and holds her close to his chest. He didn't know how he was going to fix this, he was going to find a way, and fast.
"Hang on, please," Hawkmoth begs, he means to her life, "for-" he doesn't know what, "for me, for Adrien, I don't care, I just can't have you dying."
Her breathing is light, inconsistent, he tries to focus on the fact that it is better than not at all.
He sets her down on the bed she has come to reside in while at the Agreste mansion.
"Will you be alright if I take your brooch off?"
Mayura opens her mouth but can't find her voice to respond to anything.
"Squeeze my hand," Hawkmoth tells her and picks up her hand, "once for yes, twice for no."
Mayura squeezed once and so Hawkmoth removed the brooch. Nathalie didn't even know how to explain the amount of pain she was in.
"Are you okay if I remove your shirt?" Hawkmoth asks carefully, he doesn't want to offend her, but it would be better if he could see if there is any exterior damage.
Nathalie's immediate thought is to squeeze twice but before she does, she changes her mind and squeezes, it doesn't really matter if she is about to die. One hard squeeze to his hand signals she doesn't care.
Hawkmoth is cautious as he removes her blazer and then her turtleneck. Shock fuels his body as he sees her chest is blotched with black and purple bruises. A cataclysm shouldn't have caused that much damage, he must've been fueled with rage wanting to cause pain.
"Oh, Nathalie," Hawkmoth doesn't know what else to say, he doesn't have the power to go back in time and make sure this doesn't happen, he doesn't have the power to fix everything back to normal. He felt useless not being able to do anything.
"I-" Nathalie tries before harshly coughing, blood comes up and trickles down her face before hitting the silky sheets beneath her.
"Don't," Hawkmoth says, he realizes now he's crying because never had he felt so lost.
Nathalie forces her hand to put the middle and ring fingers down while keeping the other three out . (Meaning 'I love you') He can barely see the gesture with the tears pooling in his eyes. Her muscles relax, her hand falls flat, and she exhales for the final time.
"No!" he shouts at her body but that won't change her state now, "no, please, Nathalie, I need you, I can't do this without you, I-I love you, you're not allowed to leave me like she did."
~~~~~~~~
"Father," Adrien's voice is careful as he enters his father's office.
The boy had never seen the place, nor his father, such a wreck. He recalls when his father had been akumatized into the Collector, but Adrien knew this was worse. He was surprised that his father hadn't been akumatized. Unless, of course, Hawkmoth was still caring for Mayura, he knew cataclysms were very painful but especially with a miraculous, she should be fine.
"Where is Nathalie?" Adrien asks.
"She is gone," Gabriel manages to answer his son.
"You gave her the rest of the day off?" Adrien clarifies, 'gone' was a word that they didn't use very often in the Agreste family.
"No," Gabriel tells him.
"She is out doing something important for you? Perhaps in the car going to meet someone for a virtual meeting?" he asks desperately.
"No," Gabriel's voice cracks.
"Then where is she?" Adrien's voice has risen, demanding an answer from his father.
"She's gone," Gabriel cries.
"No! No, she can't be," Adrien starts crying, "how? She was getting better."
Gabriel doesn't realize that his son had been coming closer until his arms had wrapped around his waist.
"She-" Gabriel exhaled, "Chat Noir- Nathalie was cataclysmed by Chat Noir."
Adrien swears he has stopped breathing. Was he Copycat akumatized again? He didn't cataclysm Nathalie, he wouldn't do that, he loves Nathalie. But Chat Noir hadn't even been out much today, unless...
"Mayura," Adrien suddenly gasps.
Now it's Gabriel's turn to feel like the world has stopped running. How could he have found out?
"What about Mayura?" Gabriel asks, deciding to play like he doesn't know.
"Chat Noir only cataclysmed Mayura today, Nathalie had to be Mayura," Adrien explains.
"How do you know this?"
"I-" Adrien stops, "I'm Chat Noir."
"My son," Gabriel doesn't believe it, he couldn't have been putting him in constant danger, "no, you can't, I couldn't have fought you all this time."
"Father?" Adrien's voice is hardly above a whisper, "you knew Nathalie was Mayura, didn't you because you're Hawkmoth?"
Gabriel doesn't answer, but the silence is everything. Neither moves from their embrace because somehow their identities don't matter, not when Nathalie is gone.
"I didn't want this," Gabriel now says as if that could explain everything, "I had many and many plans but I never wanted this, not for her, not for you. I wanted your mother back, I was so blinded by it."
"I'm sorry," Adrien sniffles, "I never meant to hurt her."
"I wish you would've hit me," Gabriel admits. He should've gotten hurt, it is likely that in his condition he would have survived too. This pain is worse than anything he thought a cataclysm could produce.
"She would've done anything for you," Adrien manages to say, "she loved you."
"I know," he does know now, "I just wish I would've known sooner," does he? He had been so obsessed with Emilie, he doesn't know if it would make a difference how Nathalie felt.
Neither Adrien nor Gabriel know how long they stay like that. The son clinging to his father, the father who he knows he has been fighting after all this time. The father has his hands lightly draped around his son as if to apologize for the times he had been too harsh. Both are still crying at the loss of the raven-haired woman that had meant so much to both of them. She wasn't there anymore to remind them of the other things that their schedules had for them, but a missed meeting, a missed Chinese lesson, was nothing in comparison to the feeling of missing the Sancoeur woman.
