Chapter Text
His name was Adrien Agreste, and before today he was just a normal-ish rich boy with a normal-ish rich life. Now, there’s something about him that nobody knows, because he has a secret.
And that secret came in leather and cat ears.
Wait. No, not that kind of secret.
Whilst a young boy creeping through the Paris streets in the dead of night, peering over his shoulder ever few steps fearful that he would catch the glimpse of judgemental eyes and shady characters, might give you the impression of a more illicit secret hobby; you can be assured that Adrien’s intentions were entirely heroic.
The dawn of this very day had changed Adrien’s entire life, when a floating, talking cat emerged from a mysterious ring and imbued him with the powers of destruction. Before he could even contemplate his new role in life, he was thrown into a life-threatening battle with a classmate turned giant rock monster alongside a bug-themed beauty.
He was Chat Noir, and as much as he wanted to sit back and process all this new information, a chance encounter had told him that the day wasn’t over yet.
Adrien had been power walking back to his home, desperately pondering just how likely it was that no one had noticed he wasn’t in his room anymore, when a glimmer of purple dashed past the corner of his gaze. Plagg had called them akumas, a weapon of Hawkmoth’s forged from negative emotions that empowered people so that they can help Hawkmoth’s plans.
This must have been the one that flew out of Stoneheart after they broke the akumatized object. Which meant that it was either on it’s way to akumatize another person, or it was returning to it’s master. Either way, Adrien saw an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
That is how he found himself to be crouched down by a wall, peering around the corner and muttering to himself. “Come on little butterfly,” He growled with the cadence of the hard boiled detectives he’d seen on TV. “Lead us right back to your daddy.”
A distinctive black blob smelling of the worst kind of cheese hovered over Adrien’s ears. “Kid, I’m a fun, rule-defying sorta cool cat, but are you sure about this?”
He shifted to hang in front of Adrien’s nose, blocking the akuma from view. “Shouldn’t we go get Ladybug or something before we go after the big bad?” He spat out, like the mere implication of being responsible made him sick.
“I swear the old coot said something about ‘stronger together’.” He muttered.
Adrien lightly pushed him out of frame, advancing down the street in a hunched over waddle that, in his mind, Adrien was sure looked super badass and not at all bizarre. “Hey, if you have a way to contact her without a phone number or an identity, you can lay it on me right now.”
Plagg groaned, opting to nestle himself inside Adrien’s front pocket. “Bah, this is exactly why secret identities are bogus.”
Instinctively, Adrien found himself stroking Plagg’s head with his thumb. “Hawkmoth’s gotta recharge himself too.” He mused, moreso for himself than Plagg’s bennefit, “We just sneak into his lair, hide in a corner and then wait.”
“The moment he drops his guard Chat Noir pounces.” He spun around, slamming his fist into the wall for extra emphasis while he cried out “WHAM!”
And then pulled his hand back to cradle it because- Oh god, that fucking hurt.
Ignoring the cheese-eating grin from his kwami, Adrien turned away and massaged his bruised knuckles. Don’t focus on the pain, he told himself, just focus on the positives. “He gets knocked out cold, butterfly miraculous falls back in the right hands, I haul his ass to the cops and then me and Ladybug get ice cream and fall in love.”
Plagg was peering at him through a squint of pure lacking confidence. “You have it all planned out, huh?”
Adrien crossed his arms, scoffing “What’s your plan? Wait until he akumatizes somebody else?”
“I still think this ain’t gonna end how you think it will, Kid.” Plagg floated closer and tapped Adrien on the nose. “The little rich kid who just left his mansion for the first time in years ain’t exactly got a lot of street smarts.”
Another desperate, high-pitched scoff followed. Adrien jumped up, pumping out his arms and flexing his ‘impressive’ biceps. “It’ll be fine! I’m feeling amped.”
“That’s the power high.” Plagg groans, paw smacking his forehead. “Another reason you shouldn’t be trying a stealth mission.”
In a mature and rational move, Adrien took off running down the street, waving over his shoulder. “Can’t hear you over my awesome plan.”
He didn’t have to go far to catch back up with the akuma. Despite having the ability to fly, the butterfly conveniently decided to stick low to the ground, following the sidewalk like any other passer by. It’s trail of purple, evil energy followed it at a slow pace, leading Adrien through alleyways, across unfamiliar streets and under bridges until the city he knew was replaced with run down buildings and cracked foundations.
He had to stop for a moment and admire the new location, one that was almost literally like stepping into another world. Not just because of the gloomier atmosphere, but, strangely enough, Adrien could literally see the threshold where everything changed. Like a line through the city, where on one side the streets were happy, well paved and bustling under a clear night sky; and the other had green skies, fierce rain and a sickly colour to it all as if God had put on a filter.
It was strange, but then again, Adrien hadn’t exactly been to this side of Paris before.
Still, he soldiered on, pulling his jacket tighter over his shoulders to shield himself from the abrupt shift in weather. His journey soon enough brought him down a particularly foreboding street, slick with grime and overrun by rats. He stood before a large domed building, some sort of observatory that towered over most of the dilapidated buildings that surrounded it.
Plagg zipped up high to get a good look at the building, whistling as he did so. “Whoa, that’s… Well, that’s definitely a villain lair.” His brow creased, looking down at Adrien. “Why is there a spooky old observatory in the middle of Paris?”
Adrien clapped his hands together, feeling a jolt of excitement at actually knowing something for a change. “Oh, I read about this. Apparently, this entire district is just creepy abandoned locations that nobody ever visits.”
Plagg blinked, stunned. “Really?”
Adrien shrugged, “Yeah, Paris has really gone to the dogs.”
The kwami shook his head, floating over to the boarded up windows that flanked the entrance door and sticking his tiny body through them. “Okay, but how do you know this is Hawkmoth’s lair? The akuma could have just been flying p-”
When he popped back out, he found Adrien simply pointing skyway. Fluttering back over to Adrien and following his finger, Plagg’s gaze settled on the top of the dome, where the observatory’s roof opened up, framed by a giant butterfly symbol. “Oh.”
“So, what are you thinking?” Adrien leaned in, his voice low even though nobody else could hear him. “Did he build that himself, or was the symbol already there?”
Plagg tapped his paw against the closest thing the tiny cat creature had to a chin, pondering. “Maybe there’s a like a Super Villain real estate agent that scouts out thematically fitting locations?”
Adrien smirked and, in his head, he sounded very cool as he pounded his fist into his palm. “I guess we’re just gonna have to ask him ourselves.”
Plagg gagged, “We really need to work on your witty banter, Kid.”
Naturally, Adrien ignored the mistaken heckler and brought his arms to his side, crouching down into his hero pose. “Plagg, claws out!”
With a flash of light and a little help from his every expanding baton, which Chat was struggling not to call the power pole, Chat Noir easily launched himself up onto the roof of the building. It had only been a day since this power had been bestowed upon him, but gliding through the air and landing in a perfect perch on the edge of the opening with a deadly drop at his back was already second nature to him.
His gaze followed the akuma’s decent into the building, finding a wide open room below with little decoration or furniture, only a swarm of bright white butterflies acting as the sole light source in the room. And at the centre of it all, the man of the hour stood, no longer the wizard of oz floating head, towering over all.
Chat Noir gulped. He hadn’t expected Hawkmoth to be so… Tall.
In this lighting, where Hawkmoth was half in shadows and half in the spotlight of the moon, the villain’s eyes were sheltered by shadow leaving only the pearly whites of his inhuman smile go shine on through.
Hawkmoth swayed back and forth as he observed his akuma’s approach, carefully extending his hand to the creature, coaxing it closer. “Ah, there you are my little akuma.” He said softly as the akuma perched itself on his palm. Despite the lack of magical projection, his voice still boomed like it was through a speaker. “I was fearful that you got lost; I’m still adjusting to these powers.”
Gently, Hawkmoth raised the akuma up to his nose. His brow furrowed. “You’re hurt.” The click of his tongue echo’d across the observatory.
As Chat leaned forward curiously, Hawkmoth placed his other hand over the akuma, trapping it. However, just when Chat thought Hawkmoth was about to squash his insect compatriot, a crackle of dark energy extended from Hawkmoth’s chest, around his heart, and travelled down into his hands. There was a sharp hissing noise, like steam escaping a kettle, a process Adrien could only assume was painful with how much Hawkmoth’s limited facial features twisted in response. “There there, all better. Let my spite and despair numb your pain. Those meddlesome brats treated you so harshly.”
It was quite the tonal whip lash, watching a man – who’d lorded over Paris as a giant dark figure threatening the apocalypse if his demands are not met mere hours ago, stroke the akuma’s wings like it was a pet.
The akuma made a distorted buzzing noise in response, prompting Hawkmoth to hold the akuma up to his.
“What?” He paused to let the akuma’s buzzing continue, nodding diligently like he was actually holding a full on conversation with the butterfly. Hawkmoth’s head snapped back, shocked as he continued to pet his akuma.
“No! You did wonderfully, Stoneheart.” He gasped, “It was our first day, after all.”
He hit his stride, crossing the width of the room to gentle set his akuma down in a special cage. Once more, the image of the intimidating, merciless villain was challenged by Hawkmoth letting out quiet coo-ing noises over his little friend.
“I would have undergone a more low-key test drive of my powers.” He admitted, turning his head away as if ashamed of the explanation. “But when you’re preying on volatile emotions to turn people into powerful champions of evil, you can’t exactly do it without making some noise.”
This buzz was loud, quick and enough to get Hawkmoth to jump. “Hey now,” He chided, leaning over to wag his finger over them. “There’s no need for that kind of language.”
Suddenly, the buzzing continued at a higher frequency, a distorted arrangement of scratchy, borderline static droning noises. Chat could practically hear it’s emotions, it was crying out, in pain and confusion. It’s flaps became only more desperate, cracks starting to form along it’s body while the body trembled before whatever power was being injected into it.
And then one akuma split into three akumas. Hawkmoth stumbled back, his expression stretching out into a sheepish frown – slightly scared.
“…Okay, I didn’t know you could do that.” He rubbed the back of his neck, uneasily observing the various copies of his and Ivan’s rage. “It’s a little scary, b-b-but good scary. Just… Uh… Let me put you in a jar for now.”
Hawkmoth ducked out of view for a moment, returning with a pickle jar in hand and sweeping the akuma triplets up into it. As he did so, Chat noticed how the man took more laboured breath with every step, awkwardly grabbing at his miraculous like he was fiddling with a neck tie that had been drawn too tight.
“Hm, this form is growing taxing.” He mused, tapping the end of his cane against his forehead. With one last glance at his akumas he sighed, waved away his butterflies and cried out into the ether. “Dark Wings Fall!”
A bright flash tore throughout the room, ripping the form of Hawkmoth apart and leaving only a mere man, sporting a scrawnier build, in his stead. A smaller shape, which Chat assumed to be the kwami Plagg spoke about, materialized over the man’s shoulder, slouched and limp in dismay. Unfortunately, with the low lighting dimming even further with the dismissal of the bright butterflies, Hawkmoth’s true form was kept to a sinister silhouette wrapped in a designer suit.
If only Plagg hadn’t forgotten to tell Chat Noir about his night vision feature.
The most Chat Noir could make out was some dumb tie that looked like a candy cane. Either way, Hawkmoth’s power was on cooldown and Chat Noir’s wasn’t. Hawkmoth was vulnerable.
“Now’s my chance.” Chat wasted no time making his big entrance. Subtlety was not an option in his mind, with a mighty roar of ‘CATACLYSM’ he crashed through the ceiling (intentionally ignoring the big opening he had been viewing this all from) with a war cry ripping through his throat.
His landing was no less loud, the impact of his feet hitting the ground and dropping into a crouch echoed as a powerful shockwave. It swept over the room with a brief, but violent, wind pushing both butterflies and butterfly villains up against the wall.
“What the-” Was all Hawkmoth managed to gargle out before his back hit the wall and his body crumpled to the floor.
Chat’s baton extended with the momentum of a speeding bullet, pinning Hawkmoth to the wall and catching the broach glinting from Hawkmoth’s chest in one decisive blow. Knocking the wind out of the man before the transformation phrase could escape his lips.
“Sorry, Hawkmoth. But it looks like your villainous career is going to be cut short!” Chat grinned, slowly advancing upon the villain. “I hope you’re feeling sensible, otherwise I’m gonna have to knock some sense into you.”
The purple kwami zipped across the room as a blur, coming to a stop just over Chat to peer down at him with a mix of relief and innocent befuddlement. Chat glanced his way, shooting the kwami a small smile. “You’re Nooroo, right?”
“The Black Cat holder is here already?” Nooroo circled around Chat, buzzing with excitable energy. “I feared that you two wouldn’t find me until disaster had already hit.”
Nooroo’s eyes narrowed curiously, looking past Chat. “Uh… Where’s Ladybug?”
Chat grinned sheepishly. “I’m sort of doing this solo.”
“You didn’t bring her with you?!” Nooroo gasped, “But the akuma needs to be purified by the Ladybug, otherwise it’ll run amok!”
Plagg didn’t say anything about purifying akumas! Adrien snapped internally, briefly wondering if Plagg could hear Adrien’s thoughts while they were merged. “I don’t even know who Ladybug is, I don’t have a way of contacting her.”
“You don’t know her ide-” Nooroo scowled, “Plagg, what the hell!?”
On pure instinct, words were put into Chat’s mouth to answer “Hey, the guardian made the rules, not me- Uh, us?” Chat slapped his free hand over his mouth. “Wait, what’s a guardian?”
Okay, so apparently Plagg did still have a presence when they were merged.
Nooroo looked dumbfounded. “Did Plagg and Tikki not tell you two anything!?”
A stifled sneer snapped Chat’s attention back to his prisoner, inching closer and closer to Hawkmoth. While Chat was letting his adrenaline rush lead him into battle, he still had enough of his faculties to recognise that Hawkmoth could turn this around in an instance if he had room to transform again.
“Curses! How did you find my-” Hawkmoth’s eyes widened, to the point Chat could swear they were bulging out of their sockets.
He brought the jar up to his nose, scowling down at the trio of akumas huddling in the corner and desperately trying to look at anything other than their master. “Oooooh, you three are in so much trouble when we get out of this!”
Chat jumped on the opportunity, dropping his baton and, with the sudden weight lifting from Hawkmoth’s chest, causing the prisoner to stumble forward int Chat’s arms. Instantly, Chat’s hand shot forward, snatching the butterfly miraculous and pulling it from harm’s way before using his other hand to catch Hawkmoth by the scruff of his neck.
“Unless you have some emergency food on hand, there isn’t any way out of this.” Adrien could help but bask in his own power, easily lifting the taller man up into the air with one hand before casually tossing him over his shoulder. “Now, why don’t you stop being so shy and show your-”
Chat Noir’s bravado vanished in an instance, the miraculous transformation suddenly becoming nothing more than a mask to hide the boy under it. Hawkmoth tumbled into the light, his form shed, and the truth laid bare for all to see. And in the process, Chat Noir’s face stared on with Adrien’s eyes, staring in in disbelief into the eyes of his father.
“G-G-Gabriel Agreste?!” Adrien’s voice struggled to carry the words, already feeling his strength fading.
Gabriel, the super villain, the bastard, had the nerve to look disgusted. “Oh god, not another fanboy.” He grumbled, sitting back on his knees clutching his bruised side. “I don’t care if you have me at your mercy, I’m not signing your abs.”
Adrien’s fingers tightened around the butterfly miraculous, squeezing until they cut off the blood flow, until his fingers felt numb. Was he sad? Was he angry? He couldn’t describe it, he just was. “It can’t be you.”
Gabriel’s grin was a sinister and self satisfied one, so naturally villainous that suddenly being Hawkmoth made too much sense. “Oh, but it i-”
And then, almost immediately, that grin, as well as the obvious gruff evil villain voice he was putting on dropped. Instead, it was hastily replaced with a mockery of weariness, forcing out words with a breathless, snide edge. “I mean, of course it isn’t. Who’s to say that I’m Gabriel Agreste?”
Chat Noir returned just to gape at the utter desperation. “I do.”
Gabriel crossed his arms. “But you don’t know that.”
“…Yes I do?”
“See? I’ve already deceived you.”
Chat massaged his aching temple, grappling with the reality of the Gabriel Agreste coming up with such a ‘Dog ate my homework’ tier excuse. “You are so obviously Gabriel Agreste.”
Gabriel jumped to his feet, really kneading into this defence like it was his hail mary. “Or an identical, vengeful twin out to ruin his reputation.”
Somehow this managed to hurt Adrien’s image of his father more than finding out that his father was a supervillain.
Without thought, Chat cried out in an instinctive, feral roar. “I know my own father when I see him!”
Chat clamped his hand over his own big dumb mouth too late, trading flabbergasted, wide-eyed stares with his father.
“…Adrien!?”
Adrien paused.
Adrien looked both ways.
Adrien gulped.
Adrien cleared his throat, put forth all the confidence he didn’t have, and very obviously stepped back into the shadows to hide his face.
“…Or am I?”
Like father, like son.
Fortunately, Gabriel was too busy grappling with the revelation to bother engaging with Adrien’s denial, lunging forward to grab at the fabric of Chat’s costume. “What in god’s name are you wearing?!”
Suddenly, Adrien felt very sheepish. “It’s my superhero suit.” He said quietly.
A choking noise escaped Gabriel, throwing his head back to wail. “I let you out of my sight for one day and suddenly you galivanting through the night in bondage gear?”
Dismayed, Gabriel pushed off of Chat to pace around the room, stressed fingers carelessly ripping through the gelled spikes of his hair. “I told Nathalie that public schools were no good. I told her that they never do background checks on their staff, it’s just a breeding ground for thugs and perverts!”
Adrien crossed his arms, embarrassed but indignant. “It’s a cat costume!”
“Oh god.” Gabriel stiffened in horror. “My son’s a furry?”
“I’m not a-” Adrien cut himself off with an increased growl, in utter disbelief that this was what they were focusing on. “We are not having this conversation right now. You are a literal terrorist!”
“Oh please, I have no political aspirations.” Gabriel responded as simply as he would to someone getting directions wrong, dismissing Adrien’s accusation with a wave. “I’m more of a very dramatic bank robber.”
It was all disorientating. Adrien was lost in a sea of questions, of how’s and why’s with no idea where to start. All he could do was wipe the fresh layer of sweat off his brow and pick out the first question he thought of. “How did you even get here so quickly? You were back home on the other side of the city before all this started.”
“I took the elevator, of course.”
“The elevator?” Adrien stared at him, dumbfounded. “From our house to the observatory on the opposite end of town?”
For a moment, Gabriel was at a loss for words on how to explain it. He paused, a thoughtful expression overtaking him as he tapped his chin. Eventually, with an cautious pace that didn’t speak with much confidence, he answered. “You remember Willy Wonka's elevator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?”
This isn’t happening.
“Is that why we had to take a loan from the bank months ago?” Adrien cried out.
Gabriel dropped down to sit beside his son, not even thinking about it. “Do you know how much it costs to get a builder who won’t ask any questions and disregard safety regulations?”
“Is this why you finally let me have some freedom? Why you listened to me for once?” Adrien’s lip trembled as he asked, pulling his knees up to his chest for just some manner of support. “Just so you could get me out of the house while you…”
Gabriel frowned. Something deep within his cold, black, egotistical heart, looked upon the curled up, shivering form of his son. It saw his son in pain, because of him. That something made Gabriel’s eyes soften.
“Adrien, listen to me.” He reached for Adrien’s shoulder, not prepared for how much it hurt to Adrien’s to instinctively jerk awa from his touch. “Despite appearances, there is more to this than simple sadism.”
Adrien was silent for a moment. Then, he sighed. “Is this one of those mid-life crisis things? ‘Cus we can just get you a tacky sports car or something.”
“No-”
Once more, Gabriel tried to inch closer to his son, and once more his son instinctively saw it as a threat. “D-Don’t come near me.” He spat out, scrambling out of reach. “You may be my father, but you’re still a villain!”
Gabriel sat there with his arm stretched out, his face strained. “Yes, I am.” He answered quietly, but confidently. “Because that is what I must be.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s… There’s more to this than you think. I’m working on something that will fix our family.” Gabriel looked away, sighing. He couldn’t bring himself to explain the entire truth to Adrien, to invite all the tragic questions he couldn’t bare answering. “I can’t tell you what you it is. You’re already too involved in this.”
The two had been so entrenched in their own revelations that neither had noticed that, at some point during the conversation, Chat Noir’s energy had ran to zero and his transformation had been lost. Rather than informing the two of this, Plagg instead decided to distance himself from them – as a being that had been around since before time itself, Plagg had enough experience with family drama for a good couple of lifetimes.
Him and Nooroo met in the middle. Nooroo was the one to initiate the hug, of course, because Plagg, despite having not seen his friend in over two centuries, was a cool cat who didn’t do all that mushy, icky, emotional junk. He was the God of Destruction, damn it!
“Hey, Nooroo.” He said, trying way too hard to sound like he didn’t care. “How have you been?”
For the kwami of emotion, Nooroo was the master of giving the most deadpan expressions. “Every morning I’ve had to watch this man monologue to a corpse and listen to his assistant pine over him.” He sighed, “It’s uh… Not great.”
Plagg looked back over to the humans, wondering how much of their emotional states were hitting Nooroo raw. “How did you end up with him anyway?”
“Some kid dropped me and Dusuu into a volcano.” Nooroo grumbled.
“Oh right, I remember now.” Plagg laughed, “Yeah, guess what? That kid grew up to be the guardian of the miracle box.”
Nooroo’s jaw dropped, “Seriously? How!?”
Plagg shrugged, “Well, he got all the other candidates killed.”
A strangling noise that curiously matched Gabriel’s earlier reaction escaped Nooroo, “…Everything’s starting to make so much sense.”
Adrien and Gabriel were back on their feet, Gabriel finally managing to take hold of Adrien’s arm. “Please, Adrien. Just forget this ever happened.” He pleaded, his gaze falling to the ring on Adrien’s finger, one half to the puzzle that could put an end to this journey of damnation. “Leave this ring with me and go home.”
As long as Adrien had the ring, he was in danger. As long as Adrien had the ring, Gabriel was the danger. Even in the midst of his arrogance and obsession, Gabriel could see this. He needed to keep Adrien as far away from this as possible, keep Adrien safe, keep him innocent of the sins Gabriel was willing to commit.
But Adrien, glaring back at Gabriel with an all-too-familiar fire that made the grieving husband’s heart ache, snatched his arm away defiantly. “I’m not giving up Plagg.”
Gabriel stood at his full height, his back to the light of the moon, trapping his face in shadows and hiding his eyes, his humanity. “I don’t want to fight you, Son.”
“I don’t want to fight me either.”
A beat of silence passed between the two.
Gabriel’s face came back into the light, wide, unblinking eyes frozen in surprise. “What?”
Adrien rapped his knuckles against his forehead, groaning. “Crap, that sounded better in my head.”
“And you’re swearing too!?” Gabriel gasped. He threw out his hand once more, his voice as forceful as his gesture. “This is ridiculous, Adrien. Give me your miraculous, now!”
“N-No! I won’t.” Adrien shouted back, his hand curling into a fist and brandishing his ring. “I’m Chat Noir, and I’m going to stop you.”
His lady, and all of Paris, were counting on him. Nothing his father said would change that, nor could it get in the way of his duty and loyalty. Hawkmoth, his mission and his madness. It all ended here and now, by Chat Noir’s hand.
"If mother were here-"
Suddenly, Gabriel blurted out “She's not. I'm still keeping her in the basement.”
Adrien’s jaw dropped.
Nooroo face palmed.
Plagg’s stomach grumbled.
Gabriel’s two brain cells took their sweet time catching up to his mouth.
“Okay, I know that sounds bad-”