He landed through his window and closed it behind him, careful to make sure he wouldn't accidentally set off a notification to be sent to Nathalie. He transformed back into a civilian and looked around his room. His breath caught in his throat as he saw Gabriel and Nathalie standing on the side of his room, awaiting his return.
Gabriel was smiling. Adrien didn't know the last time he'd seen his father smile and it was immediately unsettling. Adrien didn't think he could breathe. Gabriel didn't say anything, nor did Nathalie. The three just stood there, staring at each other and trying to figure out any reactions to the situation.
"The alarm for your window went off," Nathalie finally said after a few minutes of all three standing in silence. "Your father and I wanted to make sure that you were safe. When you weren't here, we were planning to begin an investigation into your whereabouts, in case you were taken from your room."
Gabriel stood next to her, nodding vaguely in agreement. He kept a carefully stoic look on his face that was enough to unsettle Adrien. Both of his hands were behind his back and his right thumb and middle finger grazed over the surface of his wedding band. The cool metal in his hand was enough to make him aware that he now had control over one of his enemies.
"Nathalie," Gabriel spoke after a moment, "you're dismissed."
"Yes, Gabriel," she responded. She took a glance at her tablet and pulled up each of the men's calendars. She cancelled each of their meetings for the remainder of the day as she walked out of the room. Adrien knew that he was breathing, but it was stilted and he was waiting for everything to fall apart.
He was convinced that Gabriel was going to take away his ring, make him give up being a hero, and put him back in social isolation. He was going so far as to think that he was going to get disowned over being one of Paris' heroes and lying to Gabriel for the past several years.
Gabriel walked toward his son and circled around him, like a shark inspecting its prey. He eyed Adrien, able to properly identify the similarities between the teenager in front of him and the teenager he'd seen through the eyes of an akuma every few days.
"Well done," Gabriel said after a few minutes of examination. "Truly, you had me fooled into believing you two were different, but this… this is much more convenient for me. Now, I have an ally who already knows how to wield the power of a Miraculous."
"An ally?" Adrien questioned, sneering at the man who continued to look at him as though he was less than he was.
"Silence," Gabriel reprimanded, holding the ring enough to make Adrien follow the demand. "You will listen to me and you will listen well. I will not be asked to repeat myself, Adrien. I am your father and you will do as I say."
A shiver was sent up Adrien's spine in response to Gabriel's demand. He desperately wanted to argue Gabriel's words, but any arguments he came up with became caught in his throat. He felt ill, like instead of words, the only thing that was going to come out of his mouth was bile.
"Follow me," he added, turning away from his son toward the door to the rest of the house. Adrien tried to stay in place. He was desperately hopeful that if he stayed in his room, he could pretend that Gabriel didn't know his biggest secret, but his feet moved after the man like they had a mind of their own.
The young man followed his 'father' into the atelier, where Gabriel locked the door behind the two of them. Gabriel lifted the painting behind his desk to reveal the safe that Adrien had already known was there. "Nothing I reveal to you may leave this room. Silence your Kwami." Adrien wanted to correct his father, tell him Plagg's name, but his mouth refused to move.
"You heard him, Plagg. Time for you to be quiet until I tell you to speak again." Adrien felt his heart collapse in on itself and he didn't know why he had said that. All he knew was that Plagg was doing his best to yell out in opposition, but nothing came from the frantically moving mouth of the Kwami.
Plagg continued to try to yell, scream, flail, anything to get his kitten's attention. He was desperate to figure out what was happening that would cause Adrien to trust the man that Plagg knew hadn't been his 'dad' for years, if ever.
Gabriel opened the safe behind the painting and took out the Miraculouses. "Tell me what powers you're familiar with, Adrien," Gabriel commanded. Adrien wanted to ask questions, point out the fact that apparently, Gabriel is Monarch, just like Ladybug had suggested a few years in the past.
Adrien didn't want to admit anything, but his mouth moved of its own accord. Adrien explained to Gabriel that he'd had multiple experiences with the snake Miraculous, but that was the only other one he'd used before that they had access to at that point. He mentioned his time as Mister Bug, but Gabriel made him stop because they didn't have that Miraculous.
Adrien was suspicious of the fact that he was telling his father, the apparent supervillain, about his powers, but no matter how off it felt, he didn't have a way to stop. He tried to bite his tongue literally to stop himself from revealing anything to the villain, but that didn't work for very long before Gabriel forced him to be honest about his experiences as a hero.
Gabriel, on the other hand, admitted the bare minimum to his son. He admitted to being Monarch, he admitted that his wish would be mutually beneficial to both of them, and he admitted that Nathalie knew about his life as the villain, but none of that necessarily surprised Adrien.
None of it surprised Adrien until Gabriel pushed some buttons that made the floor open up and an elevator and the two took it down to the lower level. Gabriel led Adrien down a dimly lit corridor to a beautiful garden that contained what Adrien could only describe as a glass coffin.
"You're going to help me bring your mother back."
