Agreste Mansion, Dining Hall, December 19th, 2016, 8:37 pm.

Gabriel and Adrien were sat at the huge dining table with Gabriel sitting on an end seat and Adrien sat on a side seat. Nathalie was sat opposite Adrien and Mr. Acier stood by the door. Gabriel spoke to Adrien with his hands on the table in a nervous tone.

"Adrien, I have a lot to explain. It will be best to start with my past life."

"Your past life?" The young model asked.

"Yes. Before I met your mother, I went by the name of George Erickson. I was living in a relatively happy family. Except when the arguments happened. My parents would argue over every single thing. To keep myself out of these arguments, I would take a walk to the nearest shopping center. On one of these walks, I came across a man with a cane and Hawaiian shirt trying to get across some traffic lights. He was walking, but a car was speeding along, and would've hit him."

"Whoa," Adrien said. "Did you push him out of the way?"

"Yes. And got hit in the process. Woke in the hospital a week later with my parents beside me. They never argued again after that. But more interesting was a hexagonal box on the drawers next to me. I left it until my parents were out of the room, then I opened it. A strange purple light emerged and out of nowhere, this purple thing floated in front of me. I was frozen on the outside, but panicking in my head. The creature stated its name. He was called Nooroo and he was a Kwami. He told me that I was to become..."

"Hawk Moth!" Adrien whispered, catching Gabriel's notice.

"Yes. I used to be Hawk Moth. I was recruited into a team of other heroes, which included those adults you saw earlier. We were all over Europe, saving lives, fighting crime and growing closer. One other person on this team caught my eye. She called herself 'Le Paon'. When we started speaking to each other, I saw... She was bringing out the best in me and vice versa."

"You fell in love with her?"

"Yes. To the point where I broke the rule we all had and revealed my identity to her."

"She knew who you were?"

"And I knew who she was. And I think it's time you knew who she was as well." Gabriel got up and went to the painting. "Come here, please, Adrien." Adrien followed his father. Gabriel moved the painting and revealed the vault where he had kept the book Adrien had taken. He entered the code and the vault door opened. Gabriel took out the photo of his wife and presented it to Adrien, who took hold of it and stared into his mother's green eyes. "Adrien, say hello to Le Paon."

Adrien gasped as he held his mother's photograph in his hands, his heart beating fast enough that he could hear it. He stood there in shock and his legs gave in and he fell to his knees. Gabriel quickly rushed to help Adrien up, Nathalie helping as well. They both grabbed each of Adrien's arms and pulled Adrien to his feet. Adrien came back around and put the photo on the dining table, staring at it.

"You and Mom were superheroes?" Adrien spoke with his voice trembling. Gabriel pulled a seat behind Adrien so his son could sit down. Gabriel sat beside him and answered his question.

"Yes. We were superheroes. She was Le Paon, I was... well I called myself Papillon, but Hawk Moth obviously didn't like that name. The stories we used to tell you when you were a child, those were adventures we had."

Adrien's voice kept trembling. "Y-you never told their final story."

Gabriel gulped. "Their final adventure was... Canberra, Australia..."


Flashback: Canberra, Australia. Year: 2000

The Quantic Kids had been summoned to Canberra to save the civilians from a supervillain named Blitzwolf, who had nine highly occupied buildings rigged to blow, which would kill countless civilians.

The team consisted of Bridgette Dupain as Ladybug, Félix Rejeter as Cat Noir, George Erickson as Papillon, Maria Agreste as Le Paon, Joshua Mallet as Kid Mime, Jason Cartwright as Mercury, Paige Turner as Melodie and the two anonymous heroes, Sparrow and Gavroche.

Gavroche wore silver goggles with black lines over the eyes and yellow-green lenses, a green and white hoodie jacket, with the hood over his head and white stripes over his shoulders and around his hood, and white gloves.

Sparrow wore a white hoodie jacket with long sleeves that covered his hands and a center pocket with that included side holes. His sparrow head consisted of a white beak, a brown forehead and the remainder white, red goggles incorporated into his black mask, and a white string within his hood and sticking out on each end of it. The bottom edge of the jacket had a long front and short sides, and a white pouch to hold his dart attached to his left hip. He bore a brown cape that ended at a black-colored point at the bottom, looking like a bird's folded wings. Additionally, he wore dark brown pants and black and grey boots. Sparrow did not have a bow and arrows like his successor, Birdy. Instead, he carried a black dart with a silver pointed tip and a golden flight.

The nine heroes met with the Australian Prime Minister and two guards in The Lodge to discuss how to deal with Blitzwolf.

"We heard you helped Europe whenever they were under attack by super-villains." The Prime Minister said. "We thought you could help us."

"Any ideas on how we could beat him?" Ladybug asked.

"We don't know of any weaknesses. All we know is he's a werewolf that transforms whenever he wants, he can make anything he scratches explode at his will with the blast radius and damage determined by the colour the scratched glow, and an attack in the UK led to his name Blitzwolf. He's scratched and sealed nine buildings and you wouldn't be able to get inside without alerting him. We managed to get images of his marks." The Prime Minister handed each superhero a photograph of each mark Blitzwolf made. They were scratches from right to left and glowing orange.

"What does orange mean?" Le Paon questioned.

"They buildings blow up instantly and a blast radius will only affect the building itself."

"Has he made any demands?" Cat Noir asked.

"None." At that point, a screen came on through Gavroche's goggles, which he projected onto the wall of the room they were. Blitzwolf was making his demand.

"Quantic Kids. You should change that name. You're clearly adults."

"We'll change it soon enough, son." Gavroche responded in his subtle Cockney accent. "Now, what do you want?"

"The one thing people love more than a hero winning is a hero losing."

"Us, lose? Yer havin' a laugh, mate!"

"The fact is, that I've got the Lodge rigged to blow. Don't believe me?" The video of Blitzwolf changed to security footage of red claw marks all around the Lodge.

"Red means the whole city becomes a crater." The Prime Minister said.

"You can stop this, but to do so, you'll have to kill me. I can come to the lodge right now and you will become killers." The video cut off and the doors blew open to reveal Blitzwolf. Mercury pushed him to the floor and tied his hands together.

"Too easy," Mercury said. "Are you suicidal? Guilty conscience?"

"Just want to see you heroes become villains. These bonds won't hold me forever. You probably have five minutes." Cat Noir took his staff and bashed Blitzwolf's head with it, knocking him out.

"Now we have longer. But seriously, what do we do?"

"We figure out how we can stop the explosions." Ladybug answered.

"Cut his hands off," Sparrow suggested.

"Only you would suggest so Barbaric." Le Paon answered.

"We know nothing about this villain," Papillon stated. "For all we know, we kill him and he has minions that detonate the explosives anyway."

"Heroes don't kill!" Melodie retaliated.

"Right, okay." The Prime Minister interrupted. "Here's what I propose. I kill him. Knocking him out didn't do anything. If it succeeds, you get the glory, if it fails, I'll take the fall. You save people all the time, you shouldn't be ridiculed for one mistake." The Prime Minister walked to one of his guards, bald, similar height to Papillon and sweat running down him like a waterfall. "Give me your gun." The guard pulled his gun out and handed it to his boss. The Prime Minister turned to the heroes. "Are you all in agreement?"

"Majority." Ladybug answered. "Do we really have to kill him?"

"I'M killing him. The story goes that you were all too late to stop me." The Prime Minister aimed the gun at Blitzwolf and pulled the trigger, shooting him. Blitzwolf screamed in pain and uttered his finals words.

"I said the Lodge would be safe if you killed me..." The sound of explosions was heard. "I never said anything about the nine buildings." The heroes stared in horror as the commotion from outside the doors was increased. Everyone's breath accelerated, heart rates increasing and all of them dropping their weapons. Papillon spoke, barely getting words out.

"What have we done?" Everyone looked at Papillon, who could not bring himself to say anything else...


"We were never the same after that." Gabriel finished the story for Adrien. "There weren't any bad guys to fight, except ourselves. I remember the last words I spoke to them. If we are all okay with covering up a murder and killing countless innocents, then us superheroes have become... Villains. I will not be a part of this anymore. I quit! Your mother followed suit and gave up being a hero as well."

Adrien was shaking his head in horror, tears streaming and voice trembling. "You caused all those deaths?"

Gabriel hung his head. "Yes. The trauma of knowing those deaths were caused by us. It was eating away at us. There were nights where she would scream in terror and shoot out of bed and I would comfort her and vice versa. We began to feel that we couldn't go on. We started to see counselors and we began to cope better. And then one thing happened that let us know: we were going to be happy again. One big ray of hope."

"What?"

Gabriel stood up, placed his hand under Adrien's chin and stared him right in the eyes. "You."

Adrien gasped and looked down at the table. "You were both feeling that low and... I saved you?"

"Yes. That is why I am doing everything I can to make up for what I did in Canberra, to honour your mother and who we once were and most of all, to make you proud to be my son, just as I am proud to be your father."

Adrien tilted his head up. "You are... One of the best people who could ever walk the earth. You had all this weight on your shoulders and anyone else would crack under all that. But you... You kept going. Facing your demons and making up for what you've done." Adrien stood up and wrapped his hands around his father, making Gabriel freeze in place. "I love you, dad."

Gabriel placed his hand on Adrien's shoulder. "I love you too, son." The two of them embraced each other before they let go. "You are an incredible young man, Adrien. I've told you all of these shocking facts and you are taking it really well. You will tell me if you're feeling troubled by any of this, won't you?"

Adrien nodded. "Of course. Dad, it's been a long day. I'm gonna go to bed."

"Okay, Adrien. Good night."

"Good night." Adrien walked out of the dining hall and to his bedroom. When his bedroom door could be heard closing, Nathalie spoke to Gabriel.

"You didn't question him about the ring."

"Don't need to. The shape, the colour, the stench of Camembert... It's the cat miraculous. I just want him to tell me that himself." Gabriel stopped for a second. "It's has been a long day. I'm going to get some sleep as well. The two of you can do what you want."

"Understood. Good night, sir." Gabriel walked out of the room. Mr. Acier and Nathalie looked at each other, then at the door, wondering what was in store for the father and son...