Chapter Text
The Day of Hawkmoth's Defeat - April 1, 2023
Paris, France - Somewhere around the Eiffel Tower - 6:07 am
The air was thick with the scent of ash and burning infrastructure, and Maestro, as Crimson Beetle, had to cover his nose lest the smoke invade his nostrils.
Looking over to Chat Noir, he could tell that his partner and best friend was in the same spot, coughing his lungs out like there was no tomorrow. Despite the immense difficulty in breathing, both teenage heroes had their eyes on Hawkmoth, the object of their hatred and misery. The object of every Parisian's hatred and misery.
The supervillain had finally decided to take a final stand to seize the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous and with Mayura, used the Peacock Miraculous to create a sentimonster more powerful than anything they'd ever faced. The Sentimonster -- Pyromight -- was a massive humanoid monster completely composed of fire, smoke, and ash. The flaming beast had been setting the surrounding buildings, roads, and plants ablaze and causing wonton destruction with every fiery step it took.
Using Cataclysm was already out of the question, seeing as the monster would spin out of control and Chat Noir would be incinerated upon contact.
It was around midnight when the ginormous amok had begun to rampage around the city, destroying whole city blocks and undoubtably killing many civilians with ash poisoning and even death by flames.
It wasn't until the fourth hour of battle, and the sixth time recharging their powers that he Chat Noir finally gained the upper hand in the fight and broke past the flaming abomination that Hawkmoth was using as a shield (the coward) and charged at him head on without any hesitation. Not with the enemy right in front of them. Not when their last chance at victory was only an arms' reach away. Not when they finally had a golden opportunity to put an end to this nightmare.
And they did.
The hand to hand -- more like staff to cane and yo-yo to fan-- fight was not pretty by any means. Both he and Noir had taken pretty heavy hits while delivering harsh blows on their opponents as well. The orange skies, ash-stained air, and the inferno like battlefield didn't make things any less harsh. Maestro tried to ignore how his feet field stepping on the molten sidewalks or how he could feel the heat from large fires radiating in uncomfortable waves and focused on what was truly important -- bringing the duo down.
All he could think about were the countless lives that Hawkmoth had taken over his three year reign of terror, starting with Stormy Weather all the way up to now. All he could think about was the terror and despair that Mayura and Hawkmoth spread throughout Paris. All he could think about was how everyone was depending on them and putting their hopes and prayers that they'd win.
Those motivators gave him the strength to muscle on even though his body was exhausted. Distantly, he regretted not bringing any of the temporary heroes as reinforcements. But Maestro, had rushed to do damage control the minute he saw Pyromight from beyond the peaks of the houses, that he hadn't been thinking of anything else.
But all of that felt like background noise now that he had the Peacock and Butterfly broaches in his hand and Dusuu and Nooroo were near catatonic.
But what he couldn't believe were the disheveled forms of Gabriel Agreste and his assistant laying prone on the street. Adrien's father was the supervillain they'd been fighting for years and the assistant he'd begun to see as his maternal figure was entirely complicit.
Everything was so raw that Maestro couldn't feel proud of their victory.
Maestro had no idea what time it was and the horrified gasps, shocked murmurs, and shuttering cameras trying to get a good angle of Gabriel fell on deaf ears.
Chat Noir fell to his knees as if the world had come crashing down on him and let out a loud sob.
He couldn't bring himself to ask his feline companion what was wrong, to focused on how utterly devastated Adrien would be when he found out the man that he spent the majority of his life trying to please and accept was the man responsible for ruining the lives of millions of people.
That was when everything that happened during his time as a hero finally caught up to him as reality finally begun to sank in. Maestro promptly doubled over and threw up.