All or Nothing

Alya and Ladybug's faces grew pale upon hearing the dark man's request, they looked at each other seemingly disgusted that he would wish for such a thing. His reasoning for for wanting to marry the princess before had been because he wanted to be King, but the man was already in power. He was completely mad!

Nino gulped and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well you see dude...I mean sir, I...I can't grant that wish..." The genie was unsure how he could explain that he was incapable of granting his wish in a way that the man would understand, but it was obvious that he was completely past any sort of understanding.

Hawkmoth scowled, but he loosened up and began to chuckle. "Oh I see, one wish means I can only have one girl. Very well then, I'll let you decide who it shall be, which one of these licky girls do you think should be my Queen?"

Both girls look towards Nino who was visibly cringing at the question. He sighed and wiped his face with his hands and tried to explain once again. "Dude...sir...I'm sorry, but I can't grant that wish..."

"Do you dare defy me?" Hawkmoth rose from his chair.

"N...No it's not that it's just...there's certain rules and I can't..."

Hawkmoth grabbed Nino by his vest and pulled him close enoughthat they were eye to eye. "Listen here you wretched being, I'm in control now! I make the rules! When I say for something to be done! It GETS DONE! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

In the corner of her eye Ladybug noticed something moving over at the side of the throne room. Hiding behind one of the pillars, she saw Adrien watching the scene from afar.

She nearly gasped, but quickly covered it so she wouldn't alert Hawkmoth. Adrien smiled at her and placed a finger to his lips signaling for her to make sure Hawkmoth wasn't aware of his presence. He then poimted at his ring finger and then at the villainous man himself. Marinette was confused at what he meant, but then she felt something crawl on her shoulder.

"Plagg?" She whispered to the black kwami. This caught Alya's attention and she shuffled over close enough so that she was within earshot.

"Hey Princess, how's it going?" Plagg gave her his usual Cheshire grin.

"What's going on? Why is all this happening? Where did you and Adrien go?" Her questions began to fly.

"We'll explain later, but first we have a job to do." Plagg said determined. "That ring on Hawkmoth's finger is the key to stopping all this, that's how he's controlling Nino. If we can figure out how to get that ring away from him, he won't be able to command him anymore."

"So...Nino's forced to obey Hawkmoth as long as he has the ring on?" Alya asked curiously.

"Yep that's right." Plagg responded

Alya wasn't sure how to feel. Part of her wanted to be mad at Nino, she trusted him with her secrets, but he had kept such a big one from her. At the same time, she wanted to hug him and comfort him, it didn't seem like he had a choice in any of this and she couldn't imagine a life where your soul purpose was to abide the commands of every person that came along.

"Alright so we just need to get that ring off of him, how do we do that?" Alya questioned.

Ladybug thought for a second and inwardly groaned at the idea she managed to come up with. They wouldn't like it, but it may have been their only shot at getting the ring.

"I have an idea..." She said looking over to her friend. "...and you're not going to like it."

When Ladybug leaned over and whispered her plan Alya made a horrified expression. "Seriously?"

"We don't really have a choice." Ladybug whispered back.

Alya groaned and placed a hand on her forehead. "Fine...but if we make it out of this alive. Just know I'm murdering your boyfriend."

Hawkmoth roughly pushed Nino on to the ground. "I think you need to remember your place."

The ring began to glow and suddenly Nino felt the searing pain through his head once again. It was unbearable, since the person wearing it wanted him to suffer instead of it being a short lived pain whenever he showed an act of defiance towards his master.

Hawkmoth grinned wickedly at the genie's suffering, until he felt a hand on one of his shoulder. He turned to see the princess staring up at him with half lidded eyes and somewhat of a seductive smile on her face.

"You know Hawkmoth, I never realized how undeniably handsome you are." The red princess stated.

Alya took hold of his other arm. "Me neither, who knew a man with this much power would be so attractive."

Hawkmoth's grin grew wider and he stared at the genie on the ground. The ring on his finger began to dim and Nino no longer felt the pain searing through his head. "Good to know that you came to your senses." He turned his attention to both of the girls. "Now ladies, tell me more about my...dashing qualities."

Nino looked at the scene confused, he knew that this wasn't his doing. He was incapable of granting such a wish in the first place. While he tried to make sense of the situation, he heard a whisper over in the corner. When he turned around, he felt pure joy seeing that it was Adrien calling for his attention.

Nino looked back at Hawkmoth who was preoccupied by the girls, that he now realized was an act to distract him. He took the opportunity to sneak over to Adrien's hiding place.

"Dude, you're alive!" Nino said happily.

Adrien quickly covered his friend's mouth and pulled him around the corner so they were further out of site. "Not so loud Nino."

"S..Sorry...I'm just so happy that you're okay. I..I thought when he blasted you away that you were..." Nino looked at the ground. "Dude, I'm so sorry. I wish I could help you, but as long as he has the ring I can't do anything right now."

"Don't apologize, none of this is your fault. You're my friend Nino and as your friend I should have kept my promise and set you free when I had the chance." Adrien said apologetically. "I'm going to make things right, I promise."

Nino smiled, but quickly turned back into a frown. "How are you going to get the ring away from Mothman over there?"

"I have a feeling our girls are working on that as we speak." Adrien looked around the corner and smiled. "Come on, lets get closer."

Nooroo spotted the blonde from above making his way closer to Hawkmoth. Unable to contain it he made an attempt to alert the man of his presence. "M..Master-!" Before he could get his attention, he was tackled by Plagg and forced to keep quiet. The struggle caused a nearby bowl of fruit to tumble over and hit the ground.

Hawkmoth reacted to the sound quickly turning towards it's direction, but in the same second Alya had panicked and did the first thing she could think of to keep him from looking towards Adrien's direction.

Alya grabbed the man's face and planted a kiss right on his lips. Everyone froze, including Hawkmoth who was surprised by the gesture, but continued to enjoy it nonetheless. Adrien cringed at the sight, Marinette's jaw dropped, Plagg felt as if he was about to lose his cheese...and Nino?

He had the most horrified expression of them all.

Once Alya separated from the kiss, she was having an extremely difficult time keeping up with the act. She felt sick, disgusted, and swore that not only did the princess owe her big time, but she was going to give Adrien the sucker punch of his life.

Hawkmoth smiled down at her and chuckled. "Well that was certainly interesting, now I'm curious to have a kiss from you as well princess." Hawkmoth turned around towards Ladybug and frowned at whhat he saw.

Once Marinette had recovered from the shock, she used the distraction to carefully slip the ring from Hawkmoth's finger.

"What do you think you're doing?" He growled and shoved her to the ground. Ladybug tumbled to the floor, but was able to remove the jewel as well. When she landed on the ground the ring slipped from her fingers and rolled across the floor.

Hawkmoth raised his staff prepared to strike the princess. Alya had jumped on his back in an attempt to stop him, but was shoved aside as well. He once again turned to Ladybug and swung his staff at her.

Before the staff made impact, Adrien ran over and grabbed the item, blocking it from the princess. "Get the ring!" He shouted to the blunette.

Marinette nodded and began to run across the room where the ring was rested on the floor. Hawkmoth pushed Adrien to the ground and pointed his staff towards the princess.

"Time's up princess!" beam of light shot from the top hitting the princess directly in the back. She was engulfed in light and once it dimmed she wss trapped inside of a giant hourglass.

She began to punch the glass and shout from the inside, but no one was able to hear her from the outside. She felt something pour on her head and looked up to see sand pouring into the bottom of the glass. She would be buried in a matter of minutes.

"Marinette!" Adrien shouted and began to run towards her, but a blast from Hawkmoth staff knocked him into the nearest wall.

Plagg saw the ring and began to zip towards it, he grabbed it and made his way over to Adrien.

"Not so fast kitty!" Hawkmoth used his magic once again, this time on the kwami. He zapped him and the black cat turned into a tiny stuffed animal falling to the floor.

"Plagg!" Adrien ran over to his kwami, picking him up he desperately tried to get a response out of him, but he remained motionless. Adrien growled and glared daggers at the dark man who simply grinned at the display. "Is this really what you want Hawkmoth? To make people suffer? To cause pain throughout the kingdom?! You take advantage of others emotions and use them for you're own personal gain, how is that not wrong to you?!"

Hawkmoth stared at the blonde in rags, then he smiled. Not his usual smile of mockery or insanity, this one seemed more...genuine, which made it all the more unsettling.

"You know boy, you and I are not that much different." Hawkmoth stated.

"I seriously doubt that." Adrien spat.

"Oh but it's true, we know the things that we want in life and we do want we can to take it. Sacrifices must be made and promises are broken, that's just the kind of world we live in."

Adrien flinched and looked over at Marinette who was now waist deep in the sand, then to Nino. He had lied and broke his promise to them both after telling them how much he cared. How does that make him any better than Hawkmoth?

"I was once like you, and for that I'm goig to be generous enough to give me a chance. Join me, we'll rule this kingdom, you could have everything you want. Almost as if you were my own son."

Adrien glared at the man and stood up from the floor with his fist clenched. "I may have never knew my father, but I know that I would rather die than have you as one."

Hawkmoth frowned at his response. "Then so be it!" He summoned a group of swords a aimed them at the boy.

Everyone gasped in horror as they witnessed the blades heading directly towards Adrien, having nowhere else to run, he braced for what was to come. Suddenly, he was engulfed in a puff of smoke and disappeared, the swords made there impact at the wall that was behind him.

Nino at the last possible second used his magic to teleport Adrien across the room. The ring was currently not in anyone's possession and it gave him enough free will to save his friend, but the act had still resulted the unbearable pain in his wrist and he fell to the floor.

"Nino!" Alya rushed to his side seeing her counterpart in pain.

"You wretched being!" Hawkmoth shouted and used his magic to pin the genie to the nearest wall. He then summoned one of the swords into his hand and walked over to the brunette. "I may not be able to kill you, but I can still make you suffer!"

He aimed the sword at the genie and thrusted the weapon towards his chest.