Chapter 13 – The Death of Ladybug and Chat Noir
Author Note: Read the title. Yes, there will be character deaths
In the past...
Adrien stepped through the door like he was stepping into the principal's office. "You wanted to see me, Father?"
"Yes, son, come in." Gabriel stood transfixed by the mural of his lovely wife.
Adrien worried whenever his father was like this. Gabriel Agreste's moods could be… unpredictable to say the least. Am I in trouble? Adrien wondered. There was no telling whether he was about to be praised or punished.
Helpful as always, Plagg whispered, "Maybe he heard you ate two ice-cream cones in two days, and he wants to cut your diet back to cheese and fruit. Not a real problem if you ask m…"
Adrien smacked his pocket, cutting him off. Then, Adrien made a BIG show of patting himself down as if he was looking for his phone or something. Adrien even pulled it out with a smile and nod like, ah, there it is. Thought I misplaced it for a second there…
The pretense was lost on Gabriel who had yet to look away from his wife.
Adrien sighed (whether from relief or disappointment was anyone's guess) and waited patiently for his father to address him. In that short time, somebody got bored. "He could've set out a cheese tray if he w…"
Adrien muffled the rest with his hand. "Sorry, Father," he said a little too quickly. "I thought I paused that YouTube video." He opened his pocket just long enough to glower at his kwami, but Plagg gave him a shameless grin.
I swear sometimes it's like he WANTS to get caught. Glad to change topics, Adrien asked, "What was it you wanted to tell me?"
Casually, Gabriel told him, "It is about your mother."
Adrien was stunned. Father NEVER wants to talk about mom. He gets upset if I just mention her. "Yes, Father?"
Gabriel took a deep breath. Here goes nothing…
"Adrien, do you ever wonder what happened to her?"
Adrien was taken aback but collected his thoughts in an instant. "Of course. She disappeared, and we never saw her again. I kept waiting to hear the police had a lead, but in all this time, there's been none." Then his eyes lit up. "Wait! Has there been a change? Did they find something?"
"In a manner of speaking," Gabriel admitted. He paused, knowing his well-conditioned son would wait as long as needed to hear the rest.
"The police are as incompetent as ever…" Gabriel continued, secretly recalling how easy it was to keep Emilie's body away from the investigators. The police searched every inch of his home and still found nothing.
"…Rest assured, my son, the whole lot of them are fools." Gabriel threw the police off his scent with a dozen misdirects. Did Emilie run off with another man? Was she mugged and left for dead in the sewer?
The police chased one dead end after another while Gabriel learned how to use the butterfly Miraculous to his advantage.
Ironically, the tabloids covering the story were closer to the truth. They claimed that Gabriel killed his wife and chopped her into pieces to hide in the mansion.
Well, not in pieces, he mused, but I did hide her here. He looked again to his son. But will you understand why?
Gabriel took a steadying breath, silently hoping that Nathalie was right about this. Then, he finally admitted, "The police know nothing, but I know where your mother is…" His son's eyes grew as wide as saucers. "…And I think it is long past time that I took you to see her."
In the Future…
Bunnix wasn't sure she ever gave Gabriel Agreste enough credit. He was an outstanding fighter. He dodged her blows with speed and finesse that'd would make Ladybug look slow and clumsy by comparison. Even with Bunnix and Rena working as a team, they still couldn't get the upper hand. 'Gabriel Blanc' threw them around like ragdolls.
Recognizing that this tactic was not working, Bunnix went back to Plan A: Trying to open her Burrow. While Rena tried to wrestle the Black Cat ring away from Gabriel, Bunnix summoned a new portal.
Gabriel flung the Fox off him and bound for the portal on all fours. The madman set to destroy it with claws outstretched…
But before he could reach his target, Rena cried, "Mirage!" and filled the air with a dozen similar white circles. Disoriented and frustrated, Chat Blanc roared. Bunnix, on the other hand, was glad for the distraction. She let Gabriel throw his temper tantrum while she dove into her burrow.
Safe in the time void, Bunnix could finally breathe a sigh of relief. She opened another portal right next to Rena, and when Chat's back was turned, Bunnix reached out and dragged her friend into the burrow.
Sadly, Bunnix relaxed her guard too soon. Chat spun back to where the fox once lay, and in the split second before Bunnix could close the portal, Chat wailed "CATACLYSM!
A massive wave of destructive energy hit the portal with such force that Rena and Bunnix were knocked on their rears. Spidery, black cracks appeared in the white walls. The cracks branched out from the dead portal crumbling the walls of her burrow.
"How in all sanity did Gabriel get Adrien's Miraculous?" Bunnix asked as she struggled to stand. The floor rumbled, and she lost her footing.
Rena didn't even try getting up. She was focused on the dead portal. In a hush, she answered, "Gabriel was the first Hawkmoth."
Bunnix's train of thought screeched to a halt. "Wait, WHAT?!" And more importantly, "How did NONE of you ever tell me this?"
"It wasn't something Adrien wanted to publicize. In our timeline, it broke his heart."
Bunnix's mind raced, trying to connect how Plagg's death could've saved the world from Hawkmoth – from GABRIEL. "So, what got him through?" She asked, finally getting her feet under her, and offering a hand to pull Alya up. "Without losing a Miraculous, I mean."
"We were there for him," Rena said, clutching her side. "Me, Nino, Marinette, we looked after him. He'd already confided in Nino about his secret identity, and he trusted Marinette with just about everything else. When he found out his Father was Hawkmoth, he came to us and asked us to come help him face his father." Rena shook her head in confusion. "I just can't figure why we weren't there this time…"
The Past…
He's taking me to see Mom?!
"Father, I'll be packed in ten minutes. Are we flying? Will we take the train? Is she still in France? No, of course not, is she still in Europe? Or did she go overseas? Is she in America?" Adrien had so many questions. Should he pack first, and then Father could fill him in on the journey? Or did Father want to explain the whole situation before they left?
Gabriel weighed his words. "We will not need to fly. Emilie is staying quite close. In fact, she is still in Paris."
Adrien was confused. Mom is in Paris? And she hasn't come to see me? Why? Adrien never believed that his mother ran off with another man. Emilie loved her family. She wouldn't just leave them like that…
Would she?
Gabriel could see the pain twist his son's perfect features, so he asked him. "Would you like to see her?"
It wasn't a question. "Yes. Absolutely. Can we go today? Please!"
"We can go this very minute." Gabriel stepped away from his son, but to Adrien's surprise he didn't head for the door. Gabriel stepped up to the magnificent painting… and pressed a series of invisible buttons, causing a platform to appear in the floor.
"Follow me."
A minute later, Adrien had a sinking feeling that had nothing to do with the elevator ride. The platform jerked to a halt in a pitch-black room, and when Gabriel opened the blinds, Adrien's eyes had to adjust to the drastic change in lighting.
They were in an immense greenhouse (of sorts) with plants and butterflies fluttering about…
White butterflies.
Familiar butterflies.
Adrien had no time to process that because at the end of a long walkway, looking like a fairytale princess preserved in her coffin, lay…
"Mom?" He ran up to the stasis chamber and lay his fingers tenderly on the glass. "What happened to her? How did she get in there?"
"I put her there..." Gabriel confessed, and Adrien whirled on him, "to save her life." Before his son could form a coherent question, Gabriel said, "The chamber keeps her body from decaying, but only you can help me to acquire what I need to bring her back."
Adrien turned back to the glass. "What's that? How can I help her?" His eyes drank in the sight of his mother.
"By bringing me the Miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir." Something in Adrien's gut twisted almost painfully as he turned to look over his shoulder in time for Gabriel to say, "Nooroo, Dark Wings Rise."
In a flash of light, Adrien stood before the greatest villain Paris had ever known…
My father.
Adrien didn't think. He let instinct takeover. "Plagg, CLAWS OUT!"
Once Adrien transformed, he was able to see things in terms of Chat Noir.
He wasn't a boy fighting his father. He was a hero fighting a villain.
He launched a series of blows and kicks, which caught Hawkmoth of guard (at first). His son focused all his pain and confusion on being Chat Noir… but Adrien Agreste still bled through. He aimed a kick to Hawkmoth's head, but he was secretly glad when his father blocked it with his cane.
Master Fu gave me the Black Cat Miraculous, Adrien thought threw another punch. Did he know my father was Hawkmoth?
Does Ladybug know?! Is that why she never wanted to date me? Were she and Fu laughing at me for what an IDIOT I've been?
He needed to get away. He crashed thorough the immense glass window suspended over his mother's coffin and leapt to the roof.
From there, he was lost. He spun around trying to pick a direction, but he no idea where to go. Who was left? Who could Adrien go to for help?
Not Master Fu.
Not Ladybug.
Not his father or Nathalie.
He couldn't even talk to Plagg without transforming back.
There was no one. Adrien was alone. Torn with indecision, Adrien paused, hoping for inspiration to strike. To tell him where to go.
Sadly, Hawkmoth struck first. He knocked his son down with a blow to the back. Adrien sprawled forward onto his stomach, as his father reached for his ring…
"Cataclysm!" It was a last-ditch effort, but it stopped Hawkmoth in his tracks.
"Will you cataclysm me, son? Will kill your own mother?" They both knew Adrien could never do either. But while Adrien was distracted, Hawkmoth stepped on his wrist, pressing his hand down to discharge in the roof beneath them. The ceiling turned dark and rusted before collapsing in.
Hawkmoth landed in a graceful crouch, but Chat took longer to recover. In those precious seconds, Hawkmoth strode over and yanked the Miraculous off his hand.
Triumphant, Hawkmoth declared, "One down. One to go."
After Hawkmoth had Chat's Miraculous, stealing Ladybug's was child's play. Gabriel merged Nooroo and Plagg's powers and baited the teen to his lair. The girl walked straight into his trap.
Ladybug was so focused on saving her dear, Adrien who was tied up in the corner, that she didn't see Hawkmoth until he pressed a cataclysm to her chest.
Adrien watched the love of his life turn to stone and crumble before him as silent tears slipped from his eyes.
Adrien was done. Defeated.
Hawkmoth, his father, won.
Adrien had nothing left. He was lost and alone. He didn't notice when his father 'wished Emilie back,' and Adrien didn't care when the scales of Cosmic Justice sentenced him to die in exchange for her.
He didn't care.
His father was a supervillain.
His Miraculous and kwami were gone.
He lost his partner and soulmate (though he was now convinced she never loved him, anyway.)
When death overtook him, Adrien welcomed it.
Across the room, Gabriel was jubilant to see the Miraculouses had worked. They brought back his wife… but only then, did he notice at what cost. And in his grief, Gabriel destroyed the world, killing everyone everywhere.
Could anyone possibly undo such a tragedy?
In Bunnix's Burrow…
Bunnix slid an arm around Rena's waist, helping her limp back to the portal set for ten years ago. All around them portals were blinking into static as the effects of the cataclysm hit them. If they didn't hurry, history might end up trapped in this nightmare. But even in the urgency of the situation, Bunnix was still trying to fit the pieces together.
How did Plagg's dying stop Adrien from losing to his father?
"Hey," She said abruptly, "losing a kwami would've been traumatic, right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So, when Adrien lost Plagg, he reached out to others. He was so depressed that he broke Miraculous Law. You said it yourself, he told Nino his true identity, and he started talking to Marinette before he knew she was Ladybug." They eased around a large pile of rubble as Bunnix went on, "Adrien built the friendships needed to hold him together for when he faced Hawkmoth. Without that support system…"
"The news would've destroyed him," Rena finished as it suddenly made sense.
"It DID destroy him, and not just him," Bunnix corrected, as they reached the portal, "but the rest of the world, too."
In front of them, the white face of the portal flickered.
Rena turned to Bunnix. "Do whatever you have to, just FIX THIS." Bunnix gave her a solemn nod and eased her friend to the ground before crossing the event horizon and stepping ten years into the past.
Rules of time travel prevented her from speaking to her younger self (or even being seen by other versions of herself), but that didn't mean she couldn't send a message. Bunnix took out a handful of buttons and set them on the cement in the ally where Adrien would soon fall.
Then, she returned to her burrow, confident that her younger self would understand and trust her.
Speaking of which…
Inside her burrow, a (slightly) younger version of Bunnix watched the events of the day Plagg died.
She went too far the first time, so she was rewinding back...
…The Miraculous Ladybugs swarmed backwards through the city, leaving damage as they raced back to Ladybug, and then, when Bunnix tapped the portal surface, they halted in mid-air before switching course. As the events played normally, the glowing bugs spirited outward to repair everything they touched. They healed Chat Noir as they flew but left him hanging from a drainage pipe.
As the scene played, Bunnix searched for any colored buttons.
Pink to warn "This wouldn't change what she wanted it to." Yellow to say, "this will make things worse," and red to specifically tell her that 'someone would die.' There might even be a purple one to indicate "Global destruction imminent."
So far, she'd seen none.
Above her, in the alley, Chat let go of the drainage pipe and instantly transformed back. Bunnix was just about to emerge from her burrow when… she saw it.
She saw them.
Buttons appeared out of nowhere on the pavement. Pink, yellow, red and… A purple button popped into existence and rolled to the place where Adrien would fall.
Bunnix paused the playback.
She read the message loud and clear: This wouldn't change what she wanted it to. It would make things worse. Someone would die, AND it'd be the end of the world.
She could scarcely believe it. Changing this moment would lead to total disater? To mass destruction on a planet-wide scale? But how? How would Plagg's sacrifice avert mass extinction? Bunnix couldn't figure it out, but she knew better than to second-guess herself.
There was only one thing to do.
Bunnix took a step back from the portal and turned around. She didn't want to watch her friend die, so with her head hung low, she returned to her own time and de-transformed.
"Alix?" Fluff asked, swirling out of her watch. "Are you ok?" But before his master could answer, a hand touched her shoulder, and Alix started. She turned to see Alya standing there in fully Rena Rouge glory.
"What are you doing…?" Alix tensed. "Wait, were you following me?"
"I was worried." Rena de-transformed. "You left in such a rush that I thought you might do something…" Alya bit her lip as if unwilling to admit it, but "…reckless." Jerking a thumb over her shoulder, she said, "I'm not sure what you were thinking by going back to watch all that but… but I saw how much it hurt you to walk away." Alya put one arm around Alix in a half hug. "Thank you for trusting us to handle this. We'll figure out how to help Emil, I swear."
Alix sighed but didn't respond. If Alya wanted to think it was purely Alix's faith in her friends that stopped her, Alix wouldn't correct her. Frankly, she thought as they walked away, it probably should've been. Then again, Alya probably wouldn't understand the whole button thing anyway.
"Hey," Alya said, "why don't we go back to the house, and see how they're doing. When I left him, I think Emil was drawing a picture for you."
Alix gave her a bittersweet smile but followed along anyway. "Sure, why not?"
And the two women headed back to the Agreste Mansion.
Author Note: One more chapter folks! (Unless I decide to break it into more) Plus some possible bonus content!
See you soon.