A/N: Aged up characters. Mature themes (sex, drugs, suicide, etc.). This takes place after season 4 and ignores season 5.

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Anything else: My first Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction, and my first fanfiction in about 10 years. A lot of personal growth, growth in my writing, and just growing up has been done.

This one has already been completed, so no risk of leaving it abandoned.

Chapter 1: Unveiling The Truth

Chat Noir landed in his bedroom, utterly drained, detransformed, and collapsed on his bed. What a day. Shadowmoth had upgraded to Monarch, and now had all the Miraculous, thanks to his cousin. He didn't see that Plagg hid between his pillows, or that his kwami was trying to get his attention.

The weight of the world felt like an anchor on his chest, suffocating him with guilt and fear.

Ladybug... he knew she was broken inside because of it. It was her fault, but also not entirely. Monarch had caused them to take unnecessary risks; her risks just got larger due to her position as not only the holder of the Miraculous of the Ladybug, but also Guardian.

Shadowmoth had become Monarch, and with all the Miraculous in his possession, the city was in greater peril than ever before. All in the pursuit of their Miraculous. It was unnerving, to say the unnerving. What were they supposed to do? They couldn't just stop fighting him, it meant he would only double his efforts. It was ironic that their only defense was the very thing Monarch coveted.

Adrien couldn't shake off the guilt that coursed through him. His cousin had played a pivotal role in enabling Monarch's rise to power, and Adrien couldn't help but feel responsible for not seeing the signs earlier.

Though he had to admit that he thought Master Fu was unfair. Not because he hadn't chosen Adrien, no, but because he had chosen a teenager. Sixteen was too young to handle the responsibility that Ladybug had, and more than once Adrien had been of the opinion that they had been recruited when they were too young. He had been fourteen, and he could only assume that Ladybug had been around the same age. Not that he hated being Chat Noir, but he did resent the responsibilty sometimes.

Still, it had offered him freedom from his oh-so-privileged life as Adrien Agreste, heir to his father's fashion empire and model. He shouldn't complain, there were people worse off than him. But he also felt like he should be allowed to be miserable.

He couldn't help but be hurt that Ladybug had wrongly identified Adrien, but what could he expect? Felix and Adrien were identical.

"Cousin."

Adrien floundered, drawing himself into a defensive stance, and looked at Felix... in purple clothing, the Miraculous of the Peacock proudly displayed on his chest, lounging lazily on his couch.

"I have to say, I was not expecting you to be Chat Noir," Argos mused, looking almost bored. "Not that it should surprise me."

"What are you doing here?" Adrien demanded venomously. Not even two hours ago this idiot had betrayed them, had stolen some of the most powerful magical artifacts in the world, and for what?

"Well, I come bearing gifts," Argos sat up, reaching his hand out to Adrien. He opened his palm, and revealed two silver bands. "I took this off your father when I gave him the other Miraculous."

Wait...

What?

Miraculous?

His father?

But... why did that not surprise him in the slightest?

"I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Adrien, but your father is the villain that's been terrorisising Paris. And we, you and I, are sentibeings." Felix looked hesitant as he said this. "I'm not going to euphemise anything, it feels like a disservice to both of us."

"Why are you..." Adrien started, his voice laced with accusations and doubt.

"Don't believe me?" Argos lifted and eyebrow, teasingly, and slipped the two rings onto his middle finger. "Adrien, sing Mary had a little lamb."

And he did. Very off-key, but the young man did just that. He had no choice, Felix's voice had reverberated through his mind, compulsing him into action. He had no control.

"How did you do that?" Adrien asked. He didn't want to believe what Felix was saying to him. He didn't want to believe that he had been a tool in his father's games – in Monarch's games – in order to... do what? What was the endgame of everything his father did?

"Your amok is in these two rings. Our parents created us using the peacock miraculous. It was broken, which is why my father and your mother died." Felix went on to explain. "And I think that's why your father became... are we settling on Monarch? Let's just say the purple mothman. Because he wants to combine the powers of your Miraculous and that of Ladybug's to get a wish. A wish to bring your mother back."

Adrien stood in aghast. His father was Monarch, Felix, clad in a purple suit, was here with him, and telling him that he is a sentimonster.

And his father did everything... for his mother?

Anger. White, hot anger pulsated through Adrien. He had trouble focusing, had difficulty choosing which part to be the angriest at.

How could he come to terms with the fact that his father was a villain, and that he himself was a sentimonster?

"Why did you betray us?" He asked meekly, finally ridding himself of his defensive stance, and collapsed back onto the bed.

"To free us. I am now the holder of the Miraculous of the Peacock, and no one can snap us out of existence." The young man slipped the rings off his finger, stood, and walked over to his cousin. "Take them. You're free from your father. Like you were supposed to be."

"At what cost, Felix? Was it worth it?" Adrien draped a hand over his eyes. He felt the bed sink when Felix sat next to him. "He has so much power now. He is such a big threat now, that I am now sure how we're going to defeat him."

Silence followed.

"You realise the position you just got us into? It's a miracle he doesn't have my Miraculous, or Ladybug's." Adrien sat to face his cousin, a look of pleading on his face. "Do you know what a fucking mess this is?"

"To me it was worth it. I did this to free you and me. And everyone else who has been created with the help of this Miraculous, to keep them alive. And I also did not realise I would be creating such a mess, I didn't know you were Chat Noir."

Adrien slumped down next to his cousin. "Why? Why did you do it? You said to free me, but I... I still feel trapped, Felix."

"Because my father was a monster. And after finding out that yours is Monarch, he isn't much better. You will never be allowed to live, truly live, if he has control of your amok." Argos held his hand out to Adrien again, rings in hand. "Take them, and take control of your destiny."

"Won't my father notice that it's missing?" Adrien asked apprehensively.

Argos smirked. "No, cousin, not if you play your part right. You need to follow his orders, and go on like nothing has changed. I swapped those rings with another amok, so he won't realise the energy that he is feeling is an ant now living in your garden."

Adrien allowed everything to wash over him. He took the rings from Felix, waiting to feel a connection, or a pull, or anything. But nothing came.

"I'm not human." He said thickly, turning the rings in his hands.

"What? Of course you are, you were born, you didn't just randomly start to exist." Felix dismissed him. "Your experience is real. You are conscious. You have emotions and when someone kicks you, it hurts. So of course you're human."

"We're monsters."

"No, cousin, we are sentibeings. Which comes with a few perks." The purple clad teen winked at him. "Listen, Adrien, I know I have been a, for lack of a better word, pain in the arse and downright horrible person. I need you to understand that I have gone through a lot of therapy to attempt to fix what my father has done to me. I am very much aware about the type of person that I have been, and I want you to know that I care about you. You're one of the few people I actually care about, and who I betrayed Ladybug for."

Adrien took that in. His cousin was apologising. He turned his head to look at his cousin, and saw remorse. He knew he couldn't fully trust Felix, but at the same time, he wanted to believe that there was some truth in his words.

Felix sighed heavily.

"Duusu, fall my feathers." Felix said, and he was detransformed, the little kwami floated next to him. A yelp was heard from behind them and then a small ball of energy was tackling Duusu.

"Duusu!" Plagg yelled, the kwami's voice laerting both teenagers to their presence. Adrien felt terrible, he had forgotten about Plagg, too absorbed in his own misery. The two kwami spiralled in the air, their laughter and joy a stark contrast to the two sullen boys.

A few moments later, Plagg and Duusu calmed down, and returned to the boys. Plagg nestled Adrien's neck, and Duusu sat down on Felix's shoulder.

The two identical cousins sat in silence for a moment. Adrien's head was buzzing from all the information that he had just learned. And he had no idea how to feel about anything. He couldn't exactly talk to a therapist about any of this, could he?

"You messed up, kid," Plagg said bluntly, and for a moment Adrien thought that his kwami was talking to him. But no, he was aiming it at Felix.

"I realise that," Felix, at least, had the decency to look shameful. "I still believe I did it for a good cause."

"He did," Duusu piped up, "Monarch had no intention of ever freeing Adrien. He had this whole plan for Adrien to follow in his footsteps when the time was right, and if Adrien refused... well, he could control him."

"Your dad is a real piece of work, kid," Plagg said, "And I'm sorry to do this at such an awkward moment, but I need cheese. Duusu, you hungry? I don't have almonds, but I have cheese."

The blue kwami nodded, and the two flew off to Plagg's cheese cupboard.

"I would do it again, if I had to," Felix said, "This isn't about the Miraculous; it's about us."

"I understand that. But we need to get the other Miraculous back, and you're going to help me and Ladybug do it." Adrien said after a while.

"I had no intention of getting involved in this war, but since it is you, and you turned out to be Chat Noir... I don't suppose I have a choice." Felix lamented.

"Correct." Adrien stated coldly. Felix nodded in response, accepting his fate.

"I can live with that. We have the upper hand. Your father doesn't know that you are Chat Noir, and we need it to stay that way. He also doesn't know that you now have your amok. Does Ladybug know who you are?"

Adrien shook his head in denial.

"Might be time to change that. The stakes just multiplied."