Past
It occurred to Chat Noir that battles had always been a straightforward and simple affair for the most part. The akuma, or sentimonster, appeared, they banter, they figure out a loophole for the villain's power, they break the object, Hawkmoth is indignant, and then the battle ends. That was it, all done and neatly wrapped up.
With the powers of the Ladybug cleaning everything up, their battles tended to be self-contained – they didn't leave loose ends to deal with. They only left a victim that needed to be comforted, never a prisoner they needed to contain, nor a suspect that they could pick the brain of.
All of this was to say that standing over a bound sentimonster, staring down at her amok tightly pressed into his palm, with a wealth of possible information at his fingertips was a new, uncomfortable experience for Chat Noir.
"I don't care if we were never married, do I have a case?"
And it was made all the more painful by Audrey Bourgois' shrieks dominating the background.
For someone who barely seemed to remember she had daughters in the first place, Audrey had been dead set on tagging along with the team the moment they happened to cross paths in the lobby.
On the way up through the hotel, she belted out threats of lawsuits and arrests for turning her daughter purple and kidnapping with the same cadence someone would use to threaten a restaurant with a bad review. Something told Chat that none of her offense came from worry for her daughter.
After Chat had explained, for the fifth time, that Accelerator was a sentimonster and a violent criminal, Audrey had found a new spin on the situation. Now she stood in the corner of the room, with her presence somehow encompassing the entirety of the room, practically growling into her phone at, Chat assumed, her lawyer.
Chat had been trying, and failing, to start his interrogation for the past few minutes. But every time he tried for an opening line, it was cut short by-
"Because I didn't know he was a sentimonster when I slept with him!" Audrey cried out, pacing back-and-forth. She vigorously gestured to the amused-looking Senti-Zoey as if the man on the other side of the call would see it. "Now I have a purple daughter, and probably some sentimonster-related disease! That has to get me something."
There was a pause before Audrey's eyes grew wider, letting out an indignant scoff. "Are you implying this was my fault?"
Chat's words failed him, but Chloe, of all people, picked up the slack. She strode up to her mother and pulled the phone away from her ear. "Mom, that's not how any of this works. This isn't Zoey. Sentimonsters aren't born like that." She hissed through gritted teeth and restrained frustration.
Suddenly, Chat found himself being pulled forward by the hand so Chloe could show off the amok sitting on his palm. "She came from this little thing too, which Zoey only got a couple of weeks back."
Audrey shoo'd her daughter's hand away like it was diseased, her lips twisting in disgust. "Hush now, Claudia, technicalities never stop a Bourgois from collecting her check."
Chloe groaned, slowly nursing her temples as Audrey went right back to squawking into her phone. "Urg."
Chat couldn't help but wonder if Chloe was currently realising that this was how she sounded to everyone else.
He leaned over the Carapace, who refused to take his eyes off their prisoner. "Can we get her out of here?" He whispered.
Carapace laughed, jabbing his thumb up towards Audrey. "Hey, you wanna try convincing her to leave, be my guest, Dude."
Chat stared at Audrey for a moment, and just this act alone made his muscles cry to remind him how tired he was. In that moment, he decided that the aftermath of a rather exhausting battle was not the best time to directly face the force of personality that was Audrey Bourgois.
For a second, he and Chloe's eyes met. She looked as weary as he felt, but there was still some fire left burning in her eyes when she sent a confident nod his way and turned back to Audrey. A nod that silently said 'I'll keep her busy.'
God speed, Chloe. Chat thought to himself before rounding on his prisoner.
"Come on, Lady, help us help you." He started slow and calm, kneeling down slightly to put himself on eye-level with her. He knew full well of what she was capable of, and that she was responsible for a team mate not being with them, that she was connected with Marinette's murder.
Yet he couldn't find it in himself to bring the same fire he'd brought into their fight. She was a sentimonster, rendered helpless by the amok in his hand and now on the run from her mistress; and on some level she was afraid.
He made a stiff gesture to Carapace. "If you hadn't noticed, we're the only thing standing between you and Chrysalis snapping you away."
"Save your breath, Cat." She spat, her amusement melting away to be replaced with a glare so intense that Chat could imagine himself catching fire. "I was dead the moment you captured me, and I'm not going to give you tips so you might as well snap that hairpin right now."
"I don't want to hurt you at all." He admitted, "We just want our friend, and anyone else your mistress took, to be safe."
Carapace lightly slapped his shoulder, staring at Chat incredulously. "Dude, just use the amok already. We don't need to waste our time talking to a brick wall."
Chat knew that Carapace was right. They were in an emergency and the amok would guarantee them all the answers they needed, leaving the sentimonster with no choice but to comply. So why did the idea of wielding the amok, of making those simple commands and forcing her to submit to their questions, make him feel so nauseous? It was clean, it was risk free, and he certainly didn't have any such reservations about the far worse physical damage he left on her face during the fight.
Though it wasn't Chat Noir who had his reservations, it was Adrien. Adrien recalled flashes of his father in the years after his mother's death, of the control his father exerted over him with ease and the pressure it left on his heart.
"I… It just doesn't feel right." He said simply. "It feels too… Controlling."
"It's a sentimonster, Dude." Carapace moved closer to Accelerator, drawing his fingers over her inhuman features and purple colour scheme. "Just because it has Zoey's face doesn't make it human."
It hurt; Adrien realized. It hurt to hear those words and he didn't know why. Most of all, it hurt to hear those words from his best friend, from Nino in such a casual and matter-of-fact tone. His mind took him back to Mayura's sentimonster duplicate of Ladybug, how easily the sentimonster had fooled him, how easily Senti-Bug had been convinced to help them, and how easily Mayura had snapped her out of existence.
She was just a sentimonster, the magical equivalent of a robot following a program. She wasn't real, it wasn't a person getting murdered, it was a toy being broken. So why did it stick with him? Why did it gnaw at his stomach? Why did he wonder how scared the sentimonster must have been when she realized Mayura was going to erase her? Why was he being so stupid?
Chat shook his head. "You're right."
He still hesitated to use the amok, his hands shaking as he held it up to his chest. But thankfully, Chloe once again swooped in to save him the trouble.
Whether she saw his hesitation or not didn't matter, she just turned up, snatching the hair pin from him and holding it over Senti-Zoe menacingly. "Where are you keeping my sister!?"
Senti-Zoe's features tightened for a moment, a struggle of consciousness rearing in pain before being devoured by the power of the amok. She huffed, "…I don't know where Chrysalis keeps the people she kidnaps."
Carapace perks up, hope in his voice. "So, they're all alive?"
All except for Marinette. Chat thought bitterly, unable to find enough hope to dare think otherwise.
"I think so." She nodded slowly, "I don't know what she needs them for, but I know she keeps them contained. Like coma patients."
Chat crossed his arms, fighting to keep his face passive in the face of these little tidbits. The one thing he'd noted about Accelerator was how eager she was for a reaction, and how loose her lips became when she wasn't getting what she wanted. "What was your part on all of this?" He asked.
She grinned through the swelling of her cheek, a flash of mischief in her eyes. "It's obvious, isn't it? Infiltrate your little team, wait to stir up some drama" A giggle punctuated her words as she cocked her head back, smirking directly at Chloe. "And annoy Chloe."
Satisfied with Chloe's barely restrained glare, she kicked back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other as she shrugged. "I snagged Zoey while Defect was wailing on your little lady." Her eyes fell to her fingers, absorbed entirely by the mundane act of checking her nails, and her voice became so disgustingly casual; as if it were simple gossip slipping from her putrid lips. "She put up a good fight, but in the end it wasn't enough. She was only human, after all."
Her grin widened just enough to bring her fangs to the forefront. "If you're curious, she lost the will to fight after I snapped her leg like a twig. Watching her hobble around," Dark eyes twinkled with delight, much to Chat's shame, when she spotted the tension straining his fists. "Oh, it was so pathetic."
Leaning forward, Senti-Zoe opened her mouth wide, as if preparing to sink her teeth into Chat's flesh, but closing it again she revealed that her true teeth were easily found in her words. "Ladybug really should have been more careful with who she trusted with miraculous." Her voice dropped to a low, mocking whisper. "I can only imagine how disappointed she'd be, seeing how you bozos keep fumbling the bag."
"We caught you, didn't we?" Carapace spat.
Senti-Zoe threw her head back and laughed. "Fighting you wasn't my purpose. Your victory is worthless." She spat with more venom than the Bee Miraculous itself, "Nothing you've done is more than a drop in the ocean in the face of their grand design."
Chat narrowed his eyes, "Their?" He'd assumed that Chrysalis was the undisputed head honcho of this operation, with Defect as her muscle. But Senti-Zoe spoke like it was a joint effort, and it sounded like this plan went beyond simply wanting Chat and Ladybug's miraculous for a wish. Once more, Chat reminded himself of how easily Disruptor passed up an opportunity to steal the cat miraculous.
"Chrysalis. Defect." She dragged out every syllable, stabbing at Chat ever decreasing patience and ever increasing interest. The 'ct' ending to 'Defect' came out with so much echoing force, leaving her loudly slapping her tongue against the roof of her mouth, pretending to find the final word she wanted to deliver. Until finally, she relented. "And the one above them."
Carapace and Chat shared wide-eyed looks, unable to contain their surprise. There was a third conspirator, and they were the true mastermind to boot.
"Who?"
An unsureness overtook Senti-Zoe's face, a memory casting a dark shade over her eyes. A simple trigger unintentionally dragging out a fresh nightmare. "…The one who holds their chains." She said hesitantly, struggling with the words like they burned her to speak.
Chat had to admit, a small twinge of sympathy bloomed in the face of her features flushed with fear. This wasn't her being cheeky or trying to resist the amok's command, this was something, whether another command or a dark force from her own mind, interrupting her thoughts and hindering her ability to speak whatever forbidden knowledge she held.
Whoever this mysterious third player was, they clearly held sway over the sentimonster that was beyond the bindings of the peacock user. And they were far more protective of their existence being known than their partners in crime.
Chat moved away from that line of questioning, trying to assume a calmer stance balancing on the ball of his feet. He sighed, "You mentioned a 'grand design'. Why don't you tell us all about it?"
"She wants a world without lies." Her eyes hardened, glaring not at him, but at his chest. "And so, she'll expose the biggest farce the world has ever known; superheroes."
"A farce, huh?" Chloe scoffed, "What does she know?"
"Everything." That simple word bellows out of her soft-spoken voice like it was projected from a speaker. It brought a mysterious, unknowable weight to the air around them, squeezing Chat until he could barely breathe.
"She knows everything." She continued; her voice devolved of anything that indicated life. No spite, no condescension, no fear; just the truth. "What you've done, what you are, what you're not, what you'll become – she knows everything. And that's all she needs to destroy you."
It was only after Chat became stock still, drawing his eyes to himself to process what could be meant by this, assuming it wasn't a simple bluff, that Senti-Zoe found her voice again. She laughed. "Oh, don't look so pouty, Cat."
Chat glared back at her for a moment, the urge to yell, the urge to throw everything back in her face, rising. But as quick as it appeared, the quicker it was overtaken by a tide of calm washing over him in response to Carapace grasping his shoulder.
He sighed. "We're going to find a secure facility to send you to, somewhere Chrysalis won't be able to get to you."
Senti-Zoe laughed again, but this one just sounded painful, as if she were gargling razor blades. "If you really want to be merciful, you'd break that amok."
He knew everyone around him was tempted to do just that. End the threat, disable Chrysalis' little toy, make her pay for her role in hurting their teammate, and be done with this. But Chat couldn't find that fire anymore, he could only find his acceptance.
Chat snatched the amok out of Chloe's hand, 90% sure she was the biggest flight risk when it came to the woman who kidnapped her sister. He gestured for Carapace and Chloe to give him the room, leaving him alone with the prisoner.
"I… I don't want to do that." Chat said softly, "I want to help you."
After a long enough moment of silence for it to make the world seem muffled, Chat noticed Senti-Zoe's eyes, how they burrowed into him, never leaving him for even a moment. Somehow, he suddenly got the sense that she hadn't looked away from him once since he sat her down.
The moment he noticed it was the moment her grin set in, frozen on her face as if chiselled from stone. It was the type of predatory look that made him feel exposed, a body laid out on a table with a knife cutting through every layer of his identity until a naked, raw thought was revealed to the world.
"It hurts when Carapace says things like that, doesn't it?"
Her statement should be confusing, yet his heart knew exactly what she was referring to. It's just a sentimonster, Nino had said as he pushed Chat to squeeze her amok, the closest thing she had to a heart, and make her squeal. Just because it has Zoe's face, doesn't make it human.
He didn't catch her lips moving, and she spoke so quietly, her voice suffocated by an oppressive silence. He almost thought he was imagining it, his mind puppeteering her in some random bout of delusion. "You don't know why, but it hurts."
"Because you know enough." She hissed, half disgusted by him, and half spitefully amused at his expression.
Chat's breath hitched into rapid, low wheezes. His mind interfered with his vision, ripping him out of his body, letting him see through her eyes. She saw a collar around his throat, she saw empty, vacant eyes being filled with the illusion of humanity.
She saw through the layers of his miraculous garb, through the shell of Adrien, she saw into his heart. If he were untransformed, he realized, she'd be staring into the rings that hung over his chest.
He was trembling as he spoke, and he still couldn't figure out why. He was standing over a bound prisoner, her greatest weakness in hand and a miraculous protecting him; and somehow he'd found his fear. "Know what?"
The sentimonster's head tilted back, letting the light hit her at just the right angel to wrap her in a dismal glow. In her eyes, framed by a fanged smile, Adrien could only see himself reflected in them. "That he'll be saying the same thing when he puts you in the cell right next to mine. When he finds out what you really are."
He didn't know when or how her hands got free until he suddenly felt her finger nails digging into the base of his throat. She pulled herself closer, leering across from him with that demented edge to her stare, perfectly positioned to rip him apart there and then. And he just let her.
"You can't trust anyone, Cat. They'll all turn on you eventually." She whispered in his ear for only him to hear, "Poor little kitty's going to be all on his own soon enough."
Present
She was sinking into the sofa cushions as the mid-day sun bore down on her through the windows, treating her to the early days of summer. An annoying ache travelled up her leg like sandpaper rubbing over her skin, along with a heated flush that pinned her down by her stomach.
The allure of freshly baked croissants filled her mind like a delicious warm haze, wafting in from a door she couldn't see from her position, but could easily picture. It alleviated the aching, its mere touch acting as a wet cloth pressed against her mind, scraping away the mental anguish and frustration.
It was in this nostalgic hold that her body learned to relax, letting that door open and usher in the tiny form of her mother. Her mother looked so much younger now, as young as Marinette remembered her mother back when she was still a little girl – no wrinkles, no sagging worries, just quiet enjoyment.
"Are you feeling any better dear?" Sabine asked, plopping herself down on the edge of the sofa.
"I am now." Marinette said softly. The aching rested in the pit of her stomach as a daunting weight, pushing down on her insides just to make sure she still knew it was there. It made her heart groan, prompting her fingers, slick with sweat and tears, to reach out and desperately cling to her mother's hand.
"You always say that." Sabine's eyes beamed back down at Marinette, brushing her thumb over Marinette's forehead. "Though you are looking better."
Marientte was better, so long as her mother was here. But if Sabine let go, if she left, Marinette feared the gnawing in her stomach, the longing, the guilt, would grow. "I missed you, Mom."
Sabine chuckled, "You don't need me, Sweetheart."
She was wrong. Marinette needed her, she needed her so much that Marinette couldn't imagine life without her mother or father there. She couldn't survive without them. On her own she was nothing, couldn't be anything but nothing. "I do."
"You're lying." Sabine froze, her eyes fell, and disappointment weighed on her face. "You need to stop lying to us." Marinette could swear that her heart stopped.
"Mom, please…" Marinette moaned.
"Do you not trust us?"
"I-I do!" Her throat was as dry as a dessert, making every word feel like a knife scraping against her throat. "I did it to protect you."
"Did it protect us?" Sabine's voice sounded so distant, so cold and worn away. Marinette hated it with a passion. "Like it 'protected' Adrien?"
"I never meant for anyone to get hurt." Marinette cried out. "You have to believe me, Mom."
"It doesn't matter what I believe, Marinette. You still lied. You still caused so much pain." Sabine moved away and her absence felt like a hole in Marinette's heart. She wanted to get up, to chase after her mother, but no matter how much she willed herself to move her body refused to listen.
Sabine took to the window, gazing out into the city, watching the sun peak beyond the horizon. Only the sun began to darken, to wither until it flushed with a putrid shade of purple, until it's light tainted the world and consumed the city. "Maybe Lila was right about you…"
"Mom, please… Don't leave me."
"What else aren't you telling us?" Sabine's voice was forceful, booming, almost thick enough to land physical blows on Marinette's wheezing lungs. "How much of you is a lie, Marinette? How much of Ladybug is just a mask? Am I even your mother anymore?"
"D-Don't talk like that. Please!" She heard the door open, followed by the thunderous footsteps of her father. "Dad, it's Mom. She's acting weird. You have to tell her… You have to help her see… That I'm still her little girl."
But it wasn't her father that met her gaze. No, the dark, empty pools that made up Monarch's cursed eyes stared right back at her. He held a tray of her father's delights in his arms along with her father's apron, stealing her father's place, tainting his memory. "Your mother's just in shock, Marinette. She doesn't know you as well as I do, after all."
He placed the tray down, wearing that sinister, inhuman grin that never seemed to waver an inch. "Don't you worry though; I know exactly what you are." He takes the spot Sabine had been occupying, reaching for Marinette's chin.
"You're such a talented, loyal girl." Marinette suddenly found herself unable to form any words, just light, uncomfortable gurgles crying out for help as Monarch's fingers dug into her. "No one else could understand why I did what I did. All the lies and the pain, all just to keep the people we love safe, even if they'll brand us villains for doing so."
He leaned forward, his lips against her forehead in a fatherly gesture feeling like acid burning through her skin. "We are so much alike, aren't we? My perfect partner in crime."
He drew back, making room for Sabine to inch closer, for Sabine to reach out and wrap her fingers around Marinette's throat. "We'll make sure that Adrien's safe, no matter what we must do. Because we love him, because… We're family, aren't we?"
She couldn't cry, she couldn't look away, she couldn't even scream. Marinette was powerless to do anything but watch her own demise reflected in her mother's eyes.
"It's us against the world, Ladybug. It always has been."
Marinette returned to the land of the living kicking, screaming and shattering Monarch's nose with an unintentional headbutt.
"Was that really necessary?" Gabriel groaned as he stumbled back, landing on his ass with his fingers massaging his nose.
The bakery, and all the comforts it brought with it, was gone. She was back in the underground lair, propped up against a storage crate off to the side of the room, the carnage of her fight laid out around her and fresh pain swelling across her body.
"I…" She pulled her hand up to nurse a killer headache, only to freeze when she spotted bandage wrappings around her left forearm. "I blacked out?"
Gabriel righted himself, taking his own seat on some boxes strategically moved out of headbutting range. "You hit your head pretty hard. Then you got cut up a little when our scaley friend accidentally turned the cable into a whip."
Marinette softly gripped her wound, as if unable to believe a word coming out of his mouth until she felt the sharp sting herself.
"I bandaged you up the best I could. I think you'll be fine." She silently observed him clasping his hands together, his thumb making circles in his palm. A nervous tick, perhaps? "Then again, I'm afraid that my medical knowledge doesn't get much more advanced than keeping the wound clean and bandaged."
She must have been out for a while then. She traced her fingers up the rest of her body, feeling out all the new kinks and quirks she'd failed to recognize through the adrenaline rush. Swelling had started just above her right eye, probably the point of impact for her landing.
"The sentimonster took off soon after you blinded him. Just like I predicted." Even through the low, breathless humming the followed his every word, Marinette could hear that smug condescension loud and clear.
Senti-Sentry was nowhere in sight. That could have gone better, but it also could have gone so much worse. After that nightmare, she'd rather focus on the fact that they survived at all for the moment.
"Can't believe that actually worked." She sighed softly, slumping down to a more comfortable sitting position. "Do you think he'll be back?"
Gabriel turned his head to gaze into the uncertain expanse of complex, brows furrowing under the sound of a distant moan. "I'd suggest we not stick around and find out."
With their immediate concerns out of the way, a cold silence fell over them. Marinette found it hard to look at him, his face, even in civilian form, looked too much like the Monarch from her nightmares.
But the longer she gazed out into the lair, where somewhere lurked a wounded and blinded sentimonster, the more her thoughts brought her back to the fact that she was only here right now because of this man. A bitter pill to swallow, but one she couldn't spit out.
He might have still been Hawkmoth, but perhaps there was a little less Monarch than she thought.
"Thanks." She manged to say, heaving herself to her feet. Her gaze turned bashful, looking down at her shoes with a quiet voice. "For the, uh, table smash. And the bandage job."
He didn't respond. Didn't so much as look at her. She would have assumed he didn't hear her if she couldn't see an uncomfortable sneer flash across his face mid-twitch, the mental battle between a Hawkmoth who wanted to gloat about her needing him, and a Gabriel who didn't want to admit he'd ever do anything for her.
That was fine with her. Confusing, but fine. All that mattered was that she acknowledged it, what he did with her gratitude was none of her business.
Still, her curiosity flourished at the man's lighter, both physically and emotionally, features in that moment. It was different from the hollow husk rotting away upstairs just an hour ago.
"What's with that look?" He grumbled, his stare boring into her like she just tripped him up.
She blinked away her surprise for a moment, not realizing that her curiosity leaked into her expression. "You were dead set on kicking back and wasting away last I checked. What changed?" She said, a teasing, sarcastic twinkle in her eye. "Were the pancakes not up to snuff?"
He scoffed, cocking his head up to stare at the stone ceiling. He did it to be dramatic, as Hawkmoth loved to be, but Marinette could also spot the stalling tactic from far away.
It took a good minute of silence, showing that Marinette wasn't going to drop the subject, before Gabriel found his response. His voice dropped to the deeper, familiar bass that Hawkmoth used. "Spite is such a powerful thing."
His head snapped downwards, pinning Marinette down with burning fury focused through narrowed eyes. He leered over her, his tall, dark figure taking up the majority of her vision. His voice a low, hissing whisper. "I loathe you, Ladybug."
A while ago, such a position would have scared Marinette. Now, she met his glare with her own steeled gaze. "Feelings' mutual."
That regal, villainous laughter exploded out of him, looking more like a coughing fit with how it made his body rattle. "With every fibre of my being, I hate you." He said it in the same vein as taking a deep breath, expending an unpronounced pressure from his body with every syllable.
The flickering red of emergency lights at his back seemed to burn even brighter, drowning the rest of the room in a sickly, hellish glow that left only his dark silhouette as her sanctuary from the light. As if the world itself was blurring its surroundings just to give Hawkmoth his spotlight.
Backing away, Hawkmoth threw his arms out in one grand sweeping gesture. "I've imagined the countless ways I'd destroy you, the speeches spoken over you broken, pathetic body, and the expression you'd make when you finally admit my superiority."
The right arm snapped into place, piercing the air between them to jab a finger between Marinette's eyes. "To that end I will not permit a second-rate pretender to claim your demise." His fingers curled into a fist, capturing an imaginary throat in his grip.
He focused any and all tension, any and all hate, any and all desire into a fine point that flowed into his palm, strangling his imagined foe. "Miss Rossi has taken my mission, my powers, my life, even my revenge. I intend to make her pay for that disrespect ten-fold."
He ended his speech with that sinister grin she knew all too well, dropping his arms to his waist and plunging his head downwards in a regal bow. At his lowest point, his knees bent in a low, predatory crouch, he twisted his head to keep her gaze. "I will save Paris, if only to have an audience to your final humiliation."
It was pride above all else for Hawkmoth, it always had been. Marinette knew that. But she didn't entirely buy the show he put on. Despite holding his stare to meet hers, she could see something being held back, something darkening his gaze in a shallow attempt to hide the activity inside. Something was exposed, and he was desperate to avoid the shame, the utter humiliation of letting her glimpse it.
Marinette shook her head, scoffing to herself. It didn't matter. Hawkmoth's petty little insecurities meant nothing to her, not anymore, not ever again.
As long as he was motivated to fight Lila, even if begrudgingly, he could keep his vile truths to himself. She needed all the help she could get, to save Paris, to save everybody she let down; that was what mattered.
She shrugged, trying and failing to feign surprise. "Glad to see you're not even going to try and pretend there's a remorseful bone in your body."
It was a hard concept to wrap her head around, went against every bit of optimism she held. She was so used to knowing her allies as fellow heroes and fearless friends, but now she had to accept that being her ally didn't strictly mean the person helping her was a hero, or ever capable of being one.
"Any remorse I possess is reserved for my family, and my family alone." Gabriel snapped as if it were the most obvious response in the world. He strolled past her, picking up her fallen weapon and leaning the sharp, bladed end towards her shoulder with a sneer. If he wanted to, all it would take was an inch more to cut her. "I wouldn't want you forgetting that we're mortal enemies, Ladybug."
She rolled her eyes, snatching the weapon from his hands – which honestly felt too casual an interaction for her liking. Turning her back on him was a risky move considering how dangerous Gabriel could be even without his powers, but she was pretty sure that any extended amount of time looking at him would prove to cause far more damage in the long run.
"God, you are such a-" Just as she reached the apex of her insult she found the words knocked right out of her the moment she finished her turn, staring gobsmacked at the figure standing behind her. Or, more accurately, floating behind her.
The big, glowing, purple butterfly man floating behind her.
"What the hell is that?" She barely managed to whisper.
Gabriel followed her gaze and, with the dry and unphased delivery of a man watching someone mistakenly pour salt instead of sugar into their coffee, just shrugged. "Pancake hallucination."
Marientte opened her mouth to speak, but no words could survive the onslaught of confusion that spewed from such stupidity. "What?" She managed to half-heartedly hiss.
Suddenly, Gabriel froze. His eye grew wide and lips left gaping, like he was on the verge of choking. He let out a strangled, gurgling noise as his head darted between her and the figure. Attempt after attempt was made to vocalize his distress until he was reduced to silently pointing at the figure.
After about a minute of strangled silence, he suddenly blurted out. "…You can see him too?!"
Next Time - Phantoms:
Gabriel inclined his head to meet Marinette's gaze, the same thought passing between them. Another victim of Lila and her new partner. It still didn't mean the phantom was an ally. "How long are we talking?"
"Your wish."
Gritting his teeth, Gabriel let his mind wonder. It seemed that everything about this situation began on that dreadful day. What he didn't understand was the timing. The same day Monarch had enthralled the world to attack Ladybug, Lila stumbled upon and captured this spirit? And still made time to venture to his mansion and retrieve the butterfly miraculous.
Unless she managed to kill two birds with one stone and the phantom was already at the Agreste Mansion. It would certainly explain how he was already here to greet Gabriel upon his revival. But then Marinette would have witnessed it, would she not? No matter what insults he'd fling at the girl, he was sure she'd have spotted this purple glowing monstrosity near the site of their battle. No, the only thing Lila took from the mansion was the butter-
Gabriel froze, his eyes darting back over to the figure, suddenly noting to himself how the humanoid shape with almost alien features struck a familiar chord. It bore a striking resemblance to how Tikki and Plagg had looked in their true forms, albeit much smaller and more than a little bit 'off brand', but the familiarity was there.
For a moment, a shameful hope bloomed in his chest. He reached out to the phantom.
"Nooroo, is that you?" He asked weakly. Nooroo knew his past. Nooroo was stolen from the mansion. Nooroo had a connection to him even in loss.
"No." The Phantom answered sharply, "With Chrysalis. She binds many kwamis. Dark magic.