~L'effet Papillon~
Chapter One: Down the Rabbit Hole
According to modern scientists, matter or energy cannot be created or destroyed, merely changed. Even accounting for magic, this law is essential for the function of the universe. For example, if something is destroyed utterly, something else must be created in its stead. Likewise, for something to be created, something else must first be destroyed. Exchanges such as these are necessary to keep reality functioning. For someone to be brought back to life, someone else must die. This was precisely the exchange Gabriel Agreste made.
So why, then, was he not dead?
After so long of searching, he had finally united the Miraculous of the ladybug and black cat. He had summoned Gimmi, Kwami of Reality. He had made his wish, giving his own life, as he always knew he may have had to do. And although it was not who he thought, the woman he loved was restored to full health. Sacrificing his own life, one would expect he would be dead, correct? And yet, once the glow had faded, he found himself just as flesh-and-blood as he remembered.
Gabriel's first action upon finding himself alive was to remove his glove: his skin was just as healthy as it had been before the Cataclysm, with no sign of necrosis in sight. Had something gone wrong? Had Gimmi misinterpreted his desire, and healed him at Nathalie's expense? He shuddered at the thought–not only because it might have been the truth, but because he may have secretly desired for it to happen.
His concerns were…well, not eased, but lessened, when he noticed that there was no sign of Marinette Dupain-Chang. Surely she would have been here even if the wish went wrong, wouldn't she? Unless the wish had claimed her… He quickly put the thought out of his mind, resolving to get to the bottom of this.
It was only now that he had processed his unexpected survival that he noticed his surroundings were all wrong. The atrium should have been flooded with light and color, but instead, his surroundings were dark and dismal. Light still flowed in from the window above, but everything inside was entirely black and white. It was as if all color had vanished from the room, except for him. The garden still grew around Emilie's coffin, though it looked like a shadow of its former self–literally, as everything green had turned entirely black, even where the sun shone directly.
But even more troubling than that, Emilie was gone.
Although Gabriel was filled with a momentary panic, this soon turned to a growing sense of what could almost be called relief. It was a stretch, but what if Emilie wasn't there because she had been revived as well? He could have sworn he had specified Nathalie, but it was hard to give up on his wife after so many years of longing for her to return. Perhaps Gimmi had read his heart more deeply than even he had. In any case, he had established that there was no reason for him to stay down here. The mystery of where the color went would have to wait for later as he made his way up to the surface.
Thankfully, the elevator still worked. Less thankfully, the world around him was still entirely in black and white. This unexplainable change to reality constantly nagged at the back of his mind, but at the time being, he only had one concern on his mind. Well, two.
"Nathalie?" Gabriel was unsurprised, but still disappointed, by the lack of response. He peered into the room, but saw no sign of the woman who had been bed-bound for the last several weeks. There was no sign she had even gotten up–it was as though she had never been there at all. First Marinette, then Emilie, then Nathalie…
Logic followed that this pattern was connected with the state of the world around him. But worse still, it also followed that those three were not the only ones who had vanished. "No!" With a sudden shout, he sprinted towards his study as fast as his legs could carry him. He hammered against the terminal from which he could monitor Adrien, but it refused to activate. "No, no, no! Adrien!" Unable to determine if his own son was alive or dead, Gabriel brought his fist down on the screen. It cracked, but the sound was dull and distant, as though he was only hearing the echo of it.
There had to be an explanation for all of this. His first thought was that this was a side effect of his wish, but that was looking less and less likely. Nothing in his research of the Miraculous had indicated that anything like this was possible. His mind then drifted to Felix and the peacock Miraculous, and that night he had almost wiped out all of Paris. Was a Sentimonster somehow responsible for this? He considered this unlikely, but didn't discount it entirely. Felix still had plenty of reason to hold a grudge against him. And yet, he also loved Emilie. Would he really have been willing to interfere with his wish, now that he knew the truth?
Gabriel was nothing if not perseverant. Throughout his entire life, he had been described as putting his all into whatever goal he had, refusing to stop until he reached it. Even though right now, he was seemingly trapped in an empty world, devoid of life or color, with no powers or allies at his disposal, he wasn't about to submit himself to this new reality just yet. Whatever was going on, there had to be an answer somewhere. He would not rest until he knew Adrien was safe. He stepped through the front doors and made his way up to the gate.
As he had expected, the rest of Paris was just as dismal as the interior. There was no chatter of pedestrians, no rumbling of cars along the streets, not even the flutter of pigeons flying overhead. The only sound was the howling of the wind, the only sign that he had not been trapped in a horribly depressing and minimalist painting. Clouds, now merely black smudges, raced across a sky that was an endless expanse of white.
As he wandered down the street, Gabriel wondered if he really was dead. Maybe this was just what the afterlife was: a horribly dull mirror of the living world, where souls wandered for all time. This thought then evolved into wondering if this was perhaps a limbo where those who altered the world through the twin Miraculous were banished. Being dead, they would have been unable to leave warnings, wouldn't they? This train of thought then reached its logical conclusion–that being that he was in a hell of his own making.
"If this is hell, it leaves a lot to be desired," said Gabriel, growing sick of the silence. Though he had never truly given it much thought, the idea of a fire-and-brimstone hell always struck him as absurd, or at least exaggerated. He much preferred the idea that hell was catered to the sinner, reflecting the evils they did in life. But then, maybe this was the perfect hell for Hawkmoth? Completely empty, with nobody to manipulate, no pawns to command. And he had no way of knowing if anyone was alive or dead, least of all Adrien. On second thought, this being hell seemed likely.
But Gabriel was nothing if not perseverant. If this was hell, then the devil must be around here somewhere. If it meant escaping, he vowed to hunt the miscreant down and give him a piece of his mind. At the very least, he had to be sure Nathalie and Adrien were safe. Unfortunately, he didn't know where to start. This false reality included all of Paris, and likely the whole world. Finding the devil, if he even was here, would take years.
Then again, he wasn't short on time. He was already dead, after all.
It was only after absently running his thumb along the ring that he realized he was still wearing his Alliance. "Alliance, call Nathalie!" he declared, acting on this sliver of hope before it could be dashed. The device did not respond in the slightest. "Alliance, call Adrien! Call Tomoe! Call anybody…" But no holographic image of Emilie appeared, not even to ask him to rephrase his request. In frustration, he threw the ring against the ground, and continued walking.
Gabriel briefly considered, based on the logic that he could still feel pain, that he wasn't actually dead. This notion was quickly dropped, however, as he soon realized that hell wouldn't work as a concept if the dead were numb as a rule. So that ruled out the possibility of leaping off of the Eiffel Tower to test his theory. Even if he actually was dead, he would rather not have to deal with a shattered spine.
So there he stood, overlooking the entire city from atop the tower. This was where so many of his Akumas had very nearly vanquished Ladybug and Cat Noir. This was where Scarlet Moth came so close to victory, only to have it snatched away. How many times had that happened? How many times had he come so close, but was thwarted at the last second? It was almost fitting that he was only able to finally achieve his goal when Ladybug was alone, with no Cat Noir in sight. Had he become one of the Miraculized? If so, it was quick thinking on his part to entrust his Miraculous to his partner.
Ladybug. She had been the object of his ire for so long, all because of what she possessed. It had been easy to hate her. She, if indirectly and unknowingly, was keeping his wife from him. She was always there, just out of reach, showing up at the most inopportune moments. But she had become much harder to hate her now that he had seen the face behind her mask. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was a girl of renown among adults and her peers alike, not to mention she was the girl Adrien loved.
He still hated her, but still. All that said, however, it was ultimately her who had convinced him to do what was best for Adrien. All this time trying to revive Emilie, he had told himself it was for Adrien's own good. She had always been a better parent than he could ever hope to be. But in the end, he had never been trying to bring Adrien's mother back–he had been trying to bring his wife back. With an ache in his heart, he realized that this had always been about him, at some level.
He leaned against the railing, staring out at an empty Paris. All that time of terrorizing this city, and what did he have to show for it? He didn't know. For all he knew, the wish hadn't worked. Maybe all of those Akumas, locking Adrien away, traumatizing and manipulating all those innocent people, maybe it had all been for nothing. Adrien could very well still be locked away right now, motherless and fatherless.
"No wonder I'm in hell…"
It was no surprise that the elevator didn't work. The longer he stayed here, the more things seemed to decay, with machinery going first. Traversing down the stairs, he wondered if he was a coward for not telling anything to Adrien. For keeping it all from him–Emilie, the butterfly Miraculous, his wish, everything. For turning to such drastic measures to rebuild his family. For taking the long way down.
Such thoughts were put on hold, however, when he noticed something strange in the air. It looked like the air itself was rippling, almost like a mirage, but it had no apparent source. Normally, he would have been wary about touching such a thing, but seeing as his situation could hardly get any worse, this strange rippling phenomenon was his only lead. With some hesitation, he approached the disturbance, lightly tapping the border with his finger. Another ripple traveled from the spot he had touched, but otherwise, nothing else happened. Rounding the strange, rippling object, he found it to be a sphere, though its exact shape and dimensions were constantly changing.
Fittingly, what with it resembling a mirage, its surface looked like water, always moving and rippling ang changing. It was almost hypnotic, and Gabriel might have found it relaxing to look at had it been under any other circumstance. He touched it again, this time swiping along its surface, causing it to ripple more violently. But it quickly went back to normal, apparently kept stable by some sort of unseen equilibrium. For a time, Gabriel considered reaching his arm inside, curious as to what sort of effects this might have. Despite this curiosity, his sense of self-preservation remained strong, so he didn't go through with it. Instead, he looked around for some sort of object to insert instead, noticing a fallen tree branch nearby.
No sooner had he turned his back on the ripple than it began to pulse. He glanced over his shoulder as it started emitting strange rhythmic noises, growing faster and faster as its surface quivered more violently. As it shook, it slowly turned from transparent to black, like water being filled with ink. Its surface grew more and more chaotic, until the sphere suddenly dropped to the ground, having apparently become a solid object. It was still viscous, however, as it oozed outward upon landing.
All of this took place in less than five seconds. While Gabriel was still trying to process what was going on, he was greeted by yet more movement from the pile of black ooze. It rose up to his height, taking on a roughly humanoid shape. He was almost as surprised to see colors flashing along its body: the tar-like substance it was made of flickered with reflections of magenta, most notably in two glowing pinpricks likely serving as eyes. It stared at him, and he stared back, unsure of how to proceed. Surely, if this…thing was sentient, it would try and communicate somehow?
If lunging at him with harmful intent counted as communication, then it certainly would. Years of being Hawkmoth had honed Gabriel's reflexes, meaning he was able to sidestep its attack with no difficulty. The being whipped around to try again, but Gabriel moved first, striking the being with a fallen tree branch. Despite passing through it, the object did its job, knocking the being aside and giving him time to create some distance between him and it.
Once again, Gabriel was left with no time to wonder just what was going on. He was completely lost in that regard, being chased through an empty, monochrome Paris by a person made of tar. Was this what it felt like when his Akumas chased after their victims? For that matter, that thing did look like the shadow that consumed a person as they were akumatized… Could there be a connection there? He added it as another bullet point to his 'trapped in hell' theory as the black creature gave chase.
The mass was shaped like a person, but its movements weren't quite there. Its body twitched and spasmed as it ran, like it was trying and failing to mimic a human–which, to be fair, it probably was. Despite its clumsy gait, it could easily keep pace with Gabriel. Knowing he wouldn't be able to outrun it, he decided to stand and fight, at least for now. He stopped on a dime, swinging his makeshift weapon right as the entity reached him. The creature was knocked onto its back, but the branch broke in half. Worse still, it soon got back to its feet, with Gabriel rendered defenseless.
Based on the increasingly violent pulsing of the substance it was made of, Gabriel reasoned that all he had done was made it mad. Still, he readied the remaining half of the branch, hoping to use it as a spear. The creature didn't even try to dodge as he drove the stick into its chest–or rather, the stick passed harmlessly through its chest. He released the makeshift weapon as there was a sudden stinging where his hand touched the creature's body. Whatever it was made of had eaten away at his glove, leaving what looked like a burn on his skin.
Rather than attack immediately, the being took a moment to look him over, as though it knew he had no way to fight back. Gabriel knew it too, even if he refused to show it. Arrogance flashed in the being's eyes, moments before it pounced one last time. Given what happened to his hand, Gabriel surmised that being fully enveloped by this thing wouldn't end well for him. In other words, if he wasn't dead already, he would be soon. He held up his arms to try and hold it back, reasoning that some minor burns were a small price to pay for survival.
But he wouldn't have to find out, as he felt himself suddenly pushed out of the way. In less than a second, a blue portal had appeared in a flash behind him, releasing the figure that saved him. Just before the person ran headlong into the humanoid construct, they manifested some sort of shield that pushed the creature back.
Gabriel had recovered from his fall in mere moments, and proceeded to take everything in. First of all, what he thought was a shield was actually an umbrella, which the figure was using to fight off the creature. This 'weapon' seemed to be much more effective than his stick. And second, he recognized this person. Aside from the ones he knew firsthand, most of Ladybug's newer allies blended together after a while. But Bunnyx, Alix Kubdel, who had snatched the Miraculous of the rabbit right out of his hands, he knew all too well. The questions he had were numerous, but more than not, he was just glad to see another human being. Even if it was someone he hated.
The heroine clad in white and blue swung her umbrella like a sword, easily overwhelming the creature. "Are you just gonna stand there, or are you gonna get somewhere safe?" It took Gabriel a moment to realize she was talking to him. Part of him was too proud to simply run away, especially because one of Ladybug's friends told him to, while another part knew he could do little to help in his current state, nor did he want to. He met in the middle by retreating to a safe distance, with the fight still in full view.
Something about Bunnyx's weapon made it fully capable of harming the creature. She made short work of it, easily running circles around it with her speed, before impaling it from behind with her umbrella. The canopy snapped open, splattering the tar it was made of all over the street. The black substance soon evaporated, leaving no sign the creature had ever existed, save for the wound on Gabriel's hand.
Bunnyx sheathed her weapon upon vanquishing her foe, making her way over to Gabriel. Now that she wasn't moving around so much, he saw that she wasn't the Alyx from his time. This was the future Alyx, who had interfered when Timetagger came to him, and when he first became Monarch. And she didn't look happy to see him. "I imagine you've got a lot of questions. Tough." She opened another portal, standing to the side as though she expected him to simply walk through.
As relieved as Gabriel was to see that he wasn't alone, he wasn't exactly happy with this particular rescuer. "Miss Kubdel," he said, trying to sound cordial, but giving her an icy stare. "Has the crisis been averted? Have you come to return your Miraculous, now that Monarch has been defeated?"
She looked like she wanted to snap back, but held her tongue. "Funny you should mention that," she responded with a forced smile. "Normally, this would be around when I should have had my younger self return. But, and I don't know if you've noticed, there's been something of a crisis." She gestured to their surroundings, just as black and white as ever. "Paris is kinda broken."
"And I take it you think that's my fault?" he asked accusingly.
"And I wonder why?" she shot back. "Look, all I know is that this whole thing started right when you made your wish. You brought Tikki and Plagg together, did your whole thing, and poof! Everyone's gone!"
So then it was confirmed. He was alive, but everyone else… "Adrien…" he said quietly. "What happened? How did I survive?"
"I don't know!" she shouted, with an exasperation that suggested she had asked herself that question many times before. "People have made wishes without breaking the universe before, I don't know what's so different about this time! You should've been the only one dead. You should've died, but you didn't, and now the whole universe is screwed up worse than I ever imagined." She pointed her umbrella at him threateningly. "Like it or not, you broke the universe. So you're gonna help me fix it."
Working alongside this pompous brat was the last thing he wanted to do. But if what she said was true, and he had no reason to believe it wasn't… After all, why would one of Ladybug's allies work with him, unless they had no other choice? And considering everyone else on earth had vanished, he didn't have one either. "What do you need from me?"
She nodded towards the portal. "I'll fill you in on the way." Reluctantly, he made his way through the portal into her burrow. "Trust me, the only reason I'm doing this is because I've got no other options," she said with a glare.
"As am I," he responded. Before he passed through completely, he glanced over at where the strange being had been defeated. He still had plenty of questions, and based on the way things were going, he would only have more going forward. But right now, he had to set things right. He passed through the portal, with Bunnyx following behind. The gateway closed, leaving the broken reality empty once more.
Gabriel wondered if this really was all his fault. He was certain he hadn't wished for any of this, but had something gone wrong? Had this been one last act of spite from Gimmi, as revenge on behalf of its components' wielders? Either way, he was going to fix this. He could give a damn about the rest of the world, but this had affected Adrien and Nathalie, and he was prepared to move hell and back to save them.
After all, Gabriel was nothing if not perseverant.
AN: So, I recently binged Miraculous Ladybug on a whim, and long story short, I became obsessed. As I tend to do, I came up with a number of fics for it, of which this is the first. And yeah, that's pretty much it. I hope you enjoy!