Tears of a Wolf

Chapter 4 The Truth

"Plagg! How could you have never told me about Sylvia before?" Adrien asked with enthusiasm in his voice.

It was very late in the evening, just a few minutes away from midnight, and Adrien and Plagg were having somewhat of a heated discussion about what Adrien had learned on the edge of his bed.

"We kwamis have a right to our privacy! What do you expect me to do? List every previous owner I've ever had? You don't have that kind of time." Plagg retorted before throwing a piece of camembert in the air and catching it with his mouth.

"No, but you could have at least told me about your latest one! She died tragically and you never even bothered to mention her once to me?"

Plagg's whiskers drooped at Adrien's words. "It's… not a day I like to remember, kid…"

It wasn't often that Adrien saw Plagg get emotional. He was a bit surprised to see him react that way.

"It must have been hard for you." Adrien said, lowering his voice.

"It was, but it was especially hard on Alex. I tried to console him after it all happened, we were friends back then, but… I was never able to get through to him."

"What was she like? She must have been very special if Alex is threatening the entire city over her. I can't believe that thousands of people are actually evacuating."

Wolf's threat had worked. Minutes after Alya had posted his warning to the ladyblog, it went viral. Many people remembered who he was and took his threat seriously. However after dealing with many akuma since that time, many people decided to stay and take their chances, sure that Ladybug and Cat Noir would stop him. As for Adrien, he was under house arrest courtesy of his father. It was just as well, school had been canceled until further notice. Despite many people deciding to stay in Paris, fear was still thick in the air.

"She was…" Plagg tried to find the words to describe his former owner. "She was like a friend that you never knew you needed. Once she was in your life, she had a way of making you wonder how you ever survived without her. She was generous and kind, always more interested in the well being of her friends than of herself. I sometimes wondered if she ever had even a single selfish thought."

"Plagg… I've never heard you speak so highly of anything before, other than cheese." Adrien said with his eyes wide.

"Well, in a lot of ways she kinda reminds me of you. She used to go on and on about Alex the same way you go on about Ladybug all the time."

Adrien had a brief pause for thought. "You know… I actually feel pretty bad for Alex. If I ever lost my lady, I don't think I'd ever be the same either."

"Yeah…" Plagg said with a small frown. "I wish I could have helped him, but I think Master Fu is right. It's too late now. The Wolf that I knew would have never threatened so many people."

"I know. He has to be stopped. I just wish there were another way."

"You and me both, kid."

Both Adrien and Plagg gave themselves some pause for thought, wishing that things were different. Little did they know that things were about to get very different very quickly.

Shadows swirled around in the dark corners of Adrien's room. They were visible, like little whirlwinds of black smoke, circling ominously and closing the distance towards Adrien's bed. The whirlwinds swirled around faster and grew closer until they met and finally, Wolf had materialized from them. There he stood, just a meter away from them both.

"Plagg, claws o-" Adrien wasn't able to get out his transformation phrase. A shadow tendril covering his mouth entirely prevented him from speaking any further at all.

Wolf pressed his index finger against his lips, indicating Adrien to be quiet.

"Alex, let him go! Leave him alone!" Plagg demanded positioning himself between Adrien and Wolf.

"Nice to see you too Plagg." Wolf said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Alex, listen to me! If you hurt my boy I'll never forgive you! He's innocent in all this!"

Wolf stared Plagg dead in the eyes. Plagg had been around for a long time and had destroyed… a lot of things in his day, but that stare… somehow it was still intimidating.

"Now Plagg, if I wanted to hurt anyone here, I would have done so already." Wolf's voice, his demeanor, his stare, even his very presence, everything about him was frightening. Plagg shivered at his words.

"Adrien, we have some business to take care of." Wolf said, his stare turning towards him.

Adrien's heart sank down to his stomach. The shadow tendril previously covering his mouth had dissipated. Should he try transforming again? Was that wise?

"You don't need to be afraid. You're not going to believe me but I'm actually here to help you." Wolf said, his voice slightly softer than before.

"How did… how did you know I was Cat Noir?" Adrien asked.

"Oh… that. Don't worry about it. I've been in Paris for weeks, secretly surveilling many citizens of Paris. Being able to turn yourself into shadows comes in more handy than you would think."

Weeks? Did he say weeks? He had been in Paris for that long? Spying on him and heaven knows who else? Wait… if he knew that he was Cat Noir, did he also know who Ladybug was?

"Yes I also know Ladybug's secret identity as well." Wolf said as if he was able to read Adrien's thoughts. "Rest assured, I have no plans to reveal your secrets to anyone. Who you guys really are makes little to no difference to me."

"Don't listen to him Adrien!" Plagg intervened. "We have no reason to trust him."

Wolf sighed a frustrated sigh. "You know Plagg, when people lose a loved one, some people will do absolutely anything necessary in order to honor a promise. Other people, or in this case other kwamis, will bury their sadness under disgusting amounts of cheese."

Plagg's mouth hung open and his eyes stared wide. He was shocked, but only for a moment. His surprised expression was quickly replaced with a defeated look and his head hung low.

"Plagg? Is that true?" Adrien asked, now wearing the same surprised expression that his kwami wore just a moment before. Plagg simply turned away and said nothing.

"He never ate like this back when he was with Sylvia." Wolf said out loud.

Suddenly it all made sense. No wonder Plagg was such a bottomless pit. He wasn't hungry, or even obsessed, he was in mourning, and camembert happened to be his coping mechanism of choice.

"Plagg… I'm sorry. I never knew." Adrien said softly. Plagg still remained turned away, silent.

"There are many things that you don't know about Adrien." Wolf spoke. "That's why I'm here. I want to help you, to help change that."

"Why would you want to help me?"

Wolf opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. He closed his mouth again, hung his head, and sighed. He didn't know how to answer the question. He had his reasons, but it wasn't time to reveal them to Adrien. Not yet. "Do you want my help or not?" Wolf asked with a slightly irritated tone.

"Of course not!" Adrien scoffed. "If you want to help me, then hand in your Miraculous to Ladybug, renounce your threat to Paris, and turn yourself in!"

"And why would I do that?"

"Because it's the right thing to do! You were a hero once right? You can't just threaten 2 million people all because something bad happened to you once upon a time!"

"Why not?"

Adrien's face went from angry to shocked. "Why not? Are you serious right now? My father lost his wife not too long ago and sure he's never quite been the same ever since, but you don't see him terrorizing Paris!"

The shadows in Adrien's room seemed to grow darker and Wolf leaned in closer to him to look him in the eyes.

"Are you sure about that?" Wolf asked, his voice low.

"Wh- what? What kind of question is that? Of course I'm sure."

"Adrien, what if I told you that for a long time now your father hasn't been honest with you over one single thing?"

Both Adrien and Plagg now stared at Wolf, unsure of what to say. Was it a trick or was he being honest? Surely it had to be a lie right? There was no way that Gabriel had been lying to Adrien about everything. Maybe one or two lies, sure, that would be understandable, but to be dishonest about everything? That wasn't even possible.

"My father doesn't lie to me!" Adrien protested angrily.

"Nonsense. I can prove to you that he does. All you have to do is come with me. It goes along with what I wanted to help you out with anyway."

"We have no reason to trust you!" Plagg protested as well.

Wolf sighed, trying to come up with some way to convince the two without having to resort to force. He was of course telling the truth, but he couldn't blame them for their hesitation.

"Adrien… your mother is alive."

Adrien gasped and his eyes practically bulged right out of his skull. His mother? But that wasn't possible! Now he knew Wolf was lying. He had to be… right?

"Okay that's enough!" Plagg said, flying just inches away from Wolf's face. "I'm not going to let you mess with my boy anymore! Just get out of here already!"

Adrien was zoned out. He didn't even hear Plagg trying to defend him. His mother… could it be true? Was she really alive? Could he handle the disappointment if Wolf was lying?

"Can you prove it to me?" He finally spoke.

Plagg turned back to face Adrien, astonished at what he just heard. "Kid, don't listen to him! This is obviously some sort of a trick!"

"Can you prove it to me?" Adrien repeated himself.

Wolf gave a slight smile and extended his hand toward Adrien. "Only if you're willing to accept the truth once you see it, but I warn you, the truth can be a painful thing.

"Kid no!" Plagg protested strongly. "You know that he can't be trusted!"

"It's my mom Plagg. If he's telling me that she's still alive then I have to at least give him a chance."

Plagg looked down defeated. Why did he have to get paired with the sad lonely teenage boy with daddy issues?

Adrien extended his hand and grabbed onto Wolf's. With the time it took to blink, all three of them were transported out of his room, merging with the shadows and moving like a ghost towards the depths of the mansion.

In only a few moments, Wolf led them to a beautiful garden. It was a huge well lit room with grass and flowers. In the back center of the room there was something resembling a glass coffin with gorgeous green shrubbery surrounding it. After Wolf materialized himself, along with Adrien and Plagg, back into their more solid forms, the three took a moment to drink it all in.

"What in the name of camembert is this place?" Plagg asked, astonished.

"We're directly below the mansion. This is your father's secret garden." Wolf said.

"This place is amazing! I never knew we had a garden!" Adrien said in amazement as he began to look around.

Adrien took in everything, the lights, the plants, the enormous space surrounding them all, and one thing especially, the mysterious capsule in the back of the room. He couldn't see what was inside of it yet, he was too far away for that, but it must have been important. Whatever it was, it definitely stood out from the rest of the scenery.

Slowly, the blonde haired boy walked towards that which beckoned him with Plagg following close behind. With each step he took, a sinking feeling in his chest grew ever more apparent as he started to make out what it was. A coffin? Here in his father's secret garden? Why in the world would such a thing be here?

Adrien stepped closer, the feeling in his chest growing tighter. What exactly was this feeling? Was he just nervous, or was there something else going on?

As he stepped even closer, Adrien could swear he saw what looked like blonde hair, as blonde as his own come to think of it. A few more steps was all it took to expose the feeling in his chest for what it really was. It really was a coffin, and there was a person inside! Wait… it was a woman! It was… no… it couldn't be!

"Mom?" Adrien's voice was shaky and suddenly his head began to pound painfully. His mom was inside the coffin. His mom!

"Mom! MOM!" Adrien began to bang on the glass with his palm, pleading with her to wake up.

"Adrien stop!" said a voice from behind him. It was Wolf stepping up close to him. Adrien couldn't tell if it was a cry of concern or just a simple command.

"What's going on? Why is my mother inside this coffin?" Adrien was practically shouting.

"Calm down! I promise you she's not dead, she's only being kept here… in comatose."

"Comatose!" Adrien shouted again. He began to panic as he peered through the glass, his breath creating a fog on the surface. "How did this even happen? Why would my father keep this from me?"

"Unfortunately, I only know the answer to one of those questions." Wolf responded. "I was actually hoping you could provide an answer to the first one."

Adrien thought back to years before. It was difficult, given that he just now realized that his mother was alive and a huge part of his life turned out to be a lie, but he managed to remember back to time before his mother's death… or rather her thought-to-be death. That was definitely going to take some getting used to.

"She was… very sick for a long time, but I remember her getting better about two years ago. My father and I thought she was cured but… in only a few months after that she was worse than ever."

"She was better for a short time? Two years ago?

"Yeah, we never found out why. She just… got better one day. We thought a miracle occurred and it was all behind us but then…"

Wolf whispered to himself. "She got better two years ago? For no apparent reason?"

Adrien was just barely able to make out what Wolf said. "Wait… it was two years ago when Sylvia died, and Amy…"

Adrein cut himself off mid sentence. He was under orders not to tell Wolf about Amy's wish, but things were starting to make sense now. Was it possible since Amy ended her life, that the Miraculous would restore his mother's life to keep the balance? But then why did she get sick again afterwards? Maybe it was only a coincidence?

"I can assure you I had nothing to do with your mother's sickness." Wolf said. "If that's what you were thinking."

"It wasn't."

"Wait a minute!" Plagg said. "You still haven't explained why his dad has been keeping this from him! You said you knew didn't you?"

Wolf smiled a sly smile. "Do I detect a hint of trust after all from you Plagg? Yes I do know the answer to that, but it's only fair to warn you… you won't like the answer."

Adrien perked up. "What could possibly be worse than this? I should be grateful that my mother is alive, and I am but… I just can't believe my father would lie to me about her."

"He's lying to you because he believes the end results justify the means. Your father wants to use the Miraculous to revive your mother."

It didn't quite click in Adrien's head what Wolf was saying at first. It just sounded like a random sentence, or like something completely out of place.

"My father knows about the Miraculous?"

Wolf tried his best to break the news gently. It seemed out of character for him to express even an ounce of concern or tenderness for another person considering what he had done just hours before. Yet there he was, giving it an honest attempt.

"Adrien… your father is… Hawk Moth." He said in a gentle voice.

Adrien's entire body trembled at Wolf's words. He began profusely sweating and his breathing became out of control. He wanted to deny it, to insist to himself that it couldn't be true, that his mother was still alive and his father was Paris's number 1 most wanted. How much else of his life was a lie? All the proof he needed lay inside the coffin next to him. Adrien grasped his head in his hands and was on the verge of reaching full panic mode.

"Adrien! Adrien look at me!" Wolf grabbed him by the shoulders and forced his gaze upon him. "Adrien… none of this is your fault."

Adrien finally broke down. The tears in his eyes rolled down his cheeks like rain. All he could do was just stand there helplessly while Wolf held him.

Plagg floated in awe. Of course he felt bad for Adrien, he felt really bad, but he was more surprised than anything. He watched on as Adrien sobbed, noticing Wolf slowly drawing closer to him and eventually even wrapping an arm around him. It was almost like gazing into the past, and for a moment, Plagg saw the Wolf that he used to know. The one who loved his previous owner with all his heart. The one who still had his humanity intact.

A few moments passed before Wolf spoke to Adrien in a soft tone. "Let's go confront your father."

The betrayal and anguish in Adrien's heart was replaced with anger. He was going to make sure that his father paid for all that he had done. Oh yes… Gabriel Agreste was going to pay dearly.

"Plagg, claws out!"

(Meanwhile in Hawk Moth's Lair)

Hawk Moth stood in the center of his lair where he always stood. It was a perfect opportunity. With all the fear and chaos that Gray Wolf's threat had caused, akumatizing some poor troubled soul would be easier than ever. Hundreds of butterflies flew around him as he gazed out onto the moonlit night of Paris.

"Finally, Cat Noir and Ladybug's Miraculous will be mine! There's never been more fear in this city before! My hour has finally come!"

Hawk Moth extended out his hand and waited for a butterfly to land. He cupped the insect in his hands just as he normally would.

"Fly now my akuma! Let reign a new era of fear for all of Paris to witness!"

As Hawk Moth opened his hands, there was no akuma that took flight at his command. Instead there was only a dead butterfly. It appeared to have been ripped to shreds.

Hawk Moth groaned, mildly irritated at just how fragile butterflies can be. He attempted to produce another akuma but alas… the same result. In fact, Hawk Moth noticed that it wasn't just the insects that were dying in his hands, but they were falling right out of the air around him. It was as if some sort of invisible force were ripping all of his butterflies in two!

"What is the meaning of this?" Hawk Moth shouted in frustration.

Looking around to find the cause of so many butterfly deaths, Hawk Moth couldn't help but notice that his lair was getting darker… much darker. Actually, there was beginning to be hardly any light at all.

"What's going on?" Hawk Moth's frustration turned to anger.

Before he knew it, all of the butterflies were dead, ripped apart in the darkness, and now for some reason he found himself unable to move. He felt tight restraints wrapped around his arms and legs. It looked as though darkness itself was reaching out to take him. Hawk Moth knew what was happening now.

"Gray Wolf…" he groaned.

Wolf stepped out of the darkness, slowly creeping up on his restrained victim and finally revealing himself.

"You don't know how long I've waited for this Gabriel! You have a lot to answer for!" Wolf said, his voice was piercing and firm.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hawk Moth responded. "How did you even know it was me?"

Wolf extended a shadow tendril and wrapped it around Hawk Moth's throat. It shot out of the darkness like a bullet from a gun.

"I… will be asking the questions here!" Wolf said, meeting Hawk Moth at eye level. "You akumatized Sylvia! I lost EVERYTHING because of you!"

Hawk Moth began to slightly gasp for air, unable to even try and release the tendril from his throat.

"But it turns out I'm not the only person who has experienced a great deal of loss thanks to you." A pair of green cat eyes stepped out of the darkness and revealed Cat Noir was also here to punish Gabriel.

Cat Noir stepped towards his father. He had never felt more anger towards any other person in his life. How could he not have seen it before? His own father… becoming a monster?

"Do you know who I am?" Cat Noir said with an angry scowl.

Hawk Moth detested, but was able to choke out an answer. "Of… course… not…"

Cat Noir looked down for a moment. He realized that revealing himself to Hawk Moth was probably not wise, but he didn't care. He needed his father to understand just what exactly he had done to him.

"When were you going to tell me that mom was still alive?"

Hawk Moth's eyes widened. "Adrien?" He managed to say. He looked over at Wolf, realizing that somehow he was responsible for all of this. That this was his revenge for what happened to Feline Black. "You… What have you done to my family?"

"Shut up!" Wolf said aggressively. "It's nothing compared to what you've done to Sylvia! To all of Paris!"

"You've akumatized your last victim!" Cat Noir said as he extended his arm in the air. "Cataclysm!"

This was it. Cat Noir finally had the opportunity to bring down Hawk Moth… his father, once and for all. He deserved this. After all that he put Paris through, what he put Wolf through, what he put his own son through, he didn't even deserve the air he breathed. So why couldn't he do it? Why couldn't he just end it?

Cat Noir's eyes filled with water as he looked his father in the eye. "Why? Why have you done all of this?" Cat finally let the tears fall.

"Adrien… everything I did… I did it for us! For you! We can make… everything better! Back to the way it was… before your mother… got sick. I just need… the Miraculous." It was difficult for Hawk Moth to speak thanks to Wolf, but Cat didn't care about his suffering.

"You akumatized my friends! You terrorized all of Paris! You've tried to kill people! You even tried to kill me!"

"No… Adrien… I didn't know…"

Cat Noir had heard enough. He plunged his cataclysm forward and stopped just before he reached his father's chest. He couldn't do it. Even after all he had done, he couldn't kill his father. Cat screamed in anger. Anger at his father, anger at the world, anger at himself. He brought his cataclysm down to the floor with a mighty force.

The cataclysm caused the entire mansion to shake, as if Paris was experiencing an earthquake. The floor began to cave in and the room began to crumble around them. The entire lair was beginning to disintegrate.

Wolf grabbed Cat Noir and transported them with his powers, making their hasty escape out the skylight, leaving a large portion of them mansion to cave in on itself. Hawk Moth, under the protection of his Miraculous would surely survive the collapse, and Nathalie and The Gorilla would probably be fine too. It was a huge mansion and they were nowhere near the site of the destruction.

Wolf led them through the darkness of night onto a rooftop several blocks away from the mansion. As they landed, Cat simply walked over to the edge and sat. The same way he and Ladybug would after a night of patrol sometimes. He didn't bother to say anything to Wolf. What was there to be said? Did anything even matter in his life anymore?

Cat Noir detransformed back into Adrien Agreste and wept. Oh how he wept! He didn't care if Wolf was watching him. He didn't even care if anyone heard him. He just wanted to sit in the dark of the night and cry.

"Umm, kid?" Plagg said gently, putting his paw on Adrien's shoulder. He didn't even want cheese. He just wanted his best friend to be okay.

"Not now, Plagg." Adrien cried.

Wolf silently stepped beside Adrien, crossing his arms and bowing his head. He understood Adrien's pain, at least to some degree. He knew what it was like to lose everything.

"Adrien… I'm… proud of what you did. I'm not sure I would have spared his life."

"I don't know that I should have." Adrien confessed.

"I think that… Sylvia would approve… if that is of some comfort to you."

Adrien looked up at Wolf. His face soaking wet from tears, allowing the moonlight to bounce off like a reflection. "I'm sorry about what my father did to her." He finally said, realizing that Wolf had been dealing with that great pain for a long time.

"Thank you." Wolf said back.

Adrien ran through the events of tonight in his mind. There was one thing that he still didn't understand.

"Wolf? Why did you do this for me? I'm supposed to be your enemy. The one that's supposed to try and stop you from eclipsing the city. Why help me like this?"

Wolf stood in silence. He still wasn't quite sure how to answer that question. He knew he had his reasons but if truth be told, he didn't really understand why he had decided to help Adrien either. He couldn't decipher what his reasons were.

"Adrien… you have trusted me with two truths tonight. Would you indulge me with one more? One that may offer you some form of solace?"

Adrien wasn't sure what Wolf meant, but he decided that after tonight, he probably owed Wolf at least one small favor.

"What is it?" He asked.

"You may think that you have lost everything, but you still have your friends. They are your family now and you should be with them."

Adrien looked up again, his eyes still red and wet. "My friends?"

"Yes. Some of your friends are particularly influenced by you, including Marinette."

"You know about Marinette too?" Adrien was very surprised to hear that. Why would he bother to spy on Marinette? And just how many people had he spied on anyway? For a moment he must have forgotten that Wolf was a villain.

"Go to her."

"Huh?" Adrien's eyes widened.

"Trust me. Go to her."

Without another word, Wolf vanished into the night, transporting himself to who knows where across the city. Marinette? He should go to Marinette? Adrien thought of her. He thought of the warmth of her home and smell of fresh baked bread. He thought of her gentleness, her friendly touch. Yeah… Marinette… that sounds… nice.

(At the Eiffel Tower)

Wolf sat at the edge of the tower. The same place where he had made his promise to Sylvia. The promise to protect Paris if anything had ever happened to her. The promise that haunted his every waking moment.

"Luupus, new moon."

Wolf detransformed back into Alex and out came his kwami. Luupus was a gray kwami with a bushy tail and a pointed snout. His canine teeth were more refined like Plagg's were and his ears were pointed with black tufts of fur at the tips.

"Well, that was certainly uncharacteristic of you." He said, giving Alex a friendly smile.

"And what do you mean by that?" Alex asked.

"You helping out Adrien! I haven't seen you be that compassionate towards another person in a long time."

Alex took out a piece of dried jerky and offered it to Luupus, who accepted it graciously.

"Don't be ridiculous Luupus. Hawk Moth needed to be taken down and so I took him down. Nothing more."

"Yeah, yeah sure, but that's not exactly the whole story is it? You could have taken down Hawk Moth by yourself, but you chose to help Adrien in the process even though it profits you nothing."

"Shut up and eat your jerky." Alex said with a straight face.

"Oh don't take it the wrong way. I'm not criticizing. I think it was awfully nice what you did. Sure the kid may be in pain for a while, but it will be worth it in the long run."

"Yeah…" Alex said softly.

"Heeeeey… you care about Adrien don't you?" Luupus slightly teased.

Alex thought about why he did what he did. He was sure he had an answer, but what was it? For some reason, he just wanted to help Adrien. He wanted him to be at his best despite the fact that he was technically a probable enemy. On top of that, having more akuma active in the city would have just incentivized Amy to come sooner if anything. It was almost as if he was sabotaging himself. Why on earth would he do that? What compelled him?

"Too shy to answer?" Luupus finally asked.

Alex perked up, awoken from his thoughts.

"I just… wanted to help him."