Chapter Text
Chloé stared at the child in the mirror. It had been years since she’d let her hair grow so long. Waking up in her bedroom back at Le Grand Paris was met with many feelings. She first tried to go back to sleep, believing all this to be a twisted nightmare, and that she would wake back up at her York Apartment and continue her free-lance photography.
She suppressed the urge to scream bloody murder when that did not happen.
Her mind reeled as she tried to process the implications of her situation. Somehow, assuming this was not some coma induced dream, she’d wound up back in time to before the first day of Hawk Moth. Before she was driven to her lowest point and vilified for it. After years of therapy and self-reflection, she’d been surprised her actions had not landed her in prison, though she supposed it wasn’t too surprising with how corrupt her Da- André was.
Of course that whole story was a mess regardless.
“Mademoiselle?” She’d not even heard Jean Armand enter the room, a look of worry on his face. How long had he’d been there? How long had Chloé been glaring at her reflection.
“Jean-Armand.” She didn’t miss the beat where his eyebrows went up hearing her correctly say his name, though whether he believed she remembered or this was a fluke only he could answer. “Whoever is driving today, please inform them I will be down in fifteen. We need to make a quick stop before school.” She tried to ignore the brief moment of surprise appearing once again as the word ‘please’ escaped her lips. Chloé sighed realizing this was her life now, everyone being confused by the sudden one-eighty she was about to come at them with. She really wished this inconvenience had placed her a day earlier so she could process it all.
“Shall I prepare breakfast to go then?” Jean asked, bringing Chloé back from diving too deep into her mind again. She nodded and as the butler made to leave, her voice called out again.
“I know I don’t say it…ever…but…thank you, Jean. For being there for me. More than I know you are paid to deal with.” Chloé supposed she really hadn’t said it ever, as the only other time she had was a time that had yet to happen. Perhaps it wouldn’t ever happen now, but that was all the more reason to tell the man who’d been more of a parent to her than her actual parents that she appreciated his efforts. Without wasting time, she’d gathered up her day wear and began preparing herself as Jean-Armand took a moment to reboot from the genuine sincerity thrown his way.
“Chloé?” Adrien seemed caught off guard as Chloé pulled up moments after his escape from the Agreste Manor. She didn’t blame him, not with a similar looking vehicle to hers sitting on the other side of the brick barrier he’d scaled. Thinking back on it, she was amazed he managed to sneak out before without her help. Twice.
“Get in loser, we’re going to school.” There was a hesitation, like he was expecting something bad to happen. Chloé figured it was jitters from his prison break. One quick look behind him and he seemed to get the courage to file into the back seat. “Your paperwork is all set and you shouldn’t have any problems once we get to Dupont.” He merely grunted an affirmation and let the silence seep in as they drove off. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Adrien spoke up.
“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, I’m not, just…why did you come to pick me up?” Chloé had asked herself the same thing when she’d told the driver to head for the Agreste manor. More so about why she hadn’t done that the first time.
“We’re friends. At least, we’re supposed to be.” She paled as that last part left her lips and turned away quickly. There were a million things she wanted to say to Adrien, a million things she would now never get to say with this reset to her life. “Y-yeah so I figured it would be more helpful to actually get you there rather than letting you try and go on foot.” She startled slightly as a hand was placed on her shoulder.
“Thank you Chloé.” She turned to see a melancholic smile on Adrien's face. It felt utterly alien to look at, as though Adrien wasn’t the only one talking to a stranger with a familiar face. The smile she returned didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Sabrina...” Chloé massaged her temples as the redhead in question blew on her whistle the way one would hold a security blanket close. When she arrived, the girl had been waiting dutifully as she’d always done. Guilt bubbled within her as their eyes locked, the girl eager to please. Eager to serve.
She’d told Adrien to go inside without her and that his syllabus could be picked up at Principal Damoclès office on the second floor. Much like when getting in the limo, he seemed to hesitate a bit about leaving the two girls with each other, but ultimately did acquiesce. “Please stop…”
Cyan eyes looked at her, tears barely holding back.
“Please, Chloé, I can still be useful. I can carry Adrien’s bag too if that’s the problem. O-or your homework? I can do your homework too instead of just writing it all out for group projects.” She wanted to scream so badly but enough people were staring as it was, so Chloé settled for clasping her hands around the panicking girl’s cheeks.
“Sabrina, sweetie, I want you to repeat back what I said to you just now.”
“You said we’re not friends anymore…” The kicked puppy look made Chloé want to beat up Roger for instilling this submissive behavior in the girl.
“No, I said, I haven’t treated you like a friend and want to start over.” The words didn’t seem to do anything for Sabrina hearing them a second time. “Ugh, okay look. Sabrina. Something I learned is that your value as a person is not by what you do, but by just being. We can still be friends. I want to still be friends. Just…I want to do it right and not take advantage of you by dangling gifts in your face so you’ll go along with it.” She let go of the girl who’d seemed to regain herself. “Are we good?”
“I…I think so…” Sabrina’s answer didn’t instill confidence in Chloé but she supposed much like her own personal growth it didn’t happen overnight, despite how it was going to absolutely look that way. Baby steps, she had to remind herself, as she took Sabrina’s hand and went to go inside. At least until she spotted an old man laid out on the ground, struggling to reach his cane. She hadn’t meant to stare, but something about him looked familiar.
“Do you need me to call someone?” She asked as she helped him up, Sabrina retrieving the lost cane for the man. He smiled and shook his head.
“No, thank you though. Just a misstep is all.” He said.
“...If you’re sure…” She hesitated, not entirely comfortable leaving someone who’d just been on the ground by themselves but he was already making his way, slowly, towards wherever he seemed to be heading. His pace picked up to a normal stride as soon as the girls disappeared into the school.
Aside from Adrien actually being there, everything was almost as she remembered. Almost being the operative word. She wasn’t sure why Dupain-Cheng was looking at her, like she expected a fight, nor did she get why the not-yet Ladyblogger was already sitting by her, but she didn’t care. Sliding into their seats at the front, Chloé tried her best to explain to Sabrina about how she was allowed to set boundaries in their relationship. She wasn’t sure how effective the chat was but at least Sabrina wasn’t crying. So that was a win.
Unfortunately the day did have to progress, and with it school. Despite what one might think, Chloé wasn’t dumb. She was much like Adrien actually. Book intelligent, emotionally stupid. It was often the reason she kept finding herself digging a deeper hole when a level head would have been more helpful.
Her reign as Mayor of Paris, an event that lasted not even a whole twenty-four hours, was evidence of how easy it was to get her to play the scapegoat if you whispered a few kind praises her way. It was funny, in a way, how quickly her scapegoat status had turned into possibly the strongest defense ever and gave her a new lease on life.
“Those of you who have P.E., M. D’Argencourt is expecting you at the stadium. The rest of you can head over to the library.” Chloé snapped to attention at Bustier’s words. She realized she’d been zoning out the whole time and the lesson was over. But even more so it meant-
“KIM!” Like clockwork, everything was falling back into place as Ivan shouted in frustration at Kim.
Chloé started loading her school supplies up like her life depended on it, startling Sabrina as she began to do the same for the bespectacled girl.
“Ivan, what is going on?” Chloé couldn’t criticize Mlle. Bustier. She wasn’t a teacher, she didn’t know how you were supposed to de-escalate these situations. Plus she didn’t know Ivan was about five minutes from becoming the first Akuma to put Paris under siege. She briefly caught Adrien’s concerned stare as she bolted out the door with Sabrina in tow.
“Chloé? Chloé, why are we running?” Old instincts kicked in, her frazzled state barely registering Sabrina’s question as she made her way past other students to the school’s front doors. “CHLOÉ!” The girl in question stopped, her eyes wide with fear that knocked the wind out of whatever objections Sabrina had.
“Not safe, not here. We need to go, now!” Sabrina took a step back from what looked like Chloé just losing her mind.
“C-Chloé you’re scaring me.”
“KIMMM!” A voice roared from near the Principal’s office, the building rumbling as Stoneheart made himself known. All hell broke loose at that moment. Sabrina froze in place, unable to properly articulate as Chloé grabbed her hand and dragged her off with none of the former resistance.
“What was that thing?! Where did it come from?! Why does it want Kim?!” Sabrina asked these questions in the lift between whistle blows as the girls made their way to Chloé’s suite.
“All good questions,” All answers Chloé knew but wasn’t sure how to explain, “But let’s just…we’ll stay here, it’ll be fine. I promise, we just have to wait for the Heroes to-” She bit her tongue as it slipped. Paris didn’t have any heroes yet, and while that would be remedied today it still sounded insane and would just raise more questions from Sabrina.
“Heroes? What heroes? Chloé you’ve been acting strange all day and if a giant rock monster didn’t just appear out of nowhere I’d think you were having a meltdown!” She curled up on the sofa and started blowing into her whistle with a little more intensity trying to calm down. Chloé’s frantic pacing was not helping this. That’s when the ‘Princess of Paris’ froze, eyes locked onto a black box with a red ornate circle carved into the top of it. A small whimpering laugh escaped her lips as she stumbled forward towards it. This was a joke. This was all an elaborate joke. She didn’t know what else to do, so she opened the box.
A bright light erupted out, causing an unprepared Sabrina to squawk in surprise as she fell onto the ground. Floating before Chloé was a small black creature with the vague shape of a cat, eyes a poisonous green as they zeroed in on her.
“...You’re joking…” It said. Chloé wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. “Where’s my Kid, huh? You swipe me from him? No that doesn’t make sense, you’d have to break into that mausoleum of a home and I don’t think anyone ever figured him out. But that still doesn’t explain how you…” The creature, the Kwami, trailed off as Chloé sank to her knees in bewilderment. A cry drew both their attention back as Sabrina was back on her feet, pointing at the floating cat.
“What is that?!” Chloé felt so bad for Sabrina, a lot was being thrown at her today.
“Uh, duh…I…don’t know how to side step this conversation. So this is a Kwami…” She smiled sheepishly, at least this time it was only one person and not the whole of Paris. A blur of black suddenly was in her face.
“You remember…UUUUGH!” The Kwami floated off, groaning in frustration. “Sass you have a sick sense of humor!” Sighing in defeat, the Kwami returned to Chloé’s side. “Alright listen up cause I’m only gonna say this once. My name is Plagg, Kwami of Destruction. Claws Out to transform, Claws in transform back. Cataclysm, destroy anything, five minute timer, I’m sure you remember how it works Queenie.” Chloé looks between Plagg and the utterly confused Sabrina.
“I…thought you’d just demand I bring you back to Chat Noir.” Plagg’s subsequent laugh was dry and devoid of real mirth.
“Oh believe me, I would love to take that ring and leave. But that’s not how it works unfortunately, so until we beat up,” A green bubble emits from Plagg’s mouth and they scowl. “Can’t even tell you who he is, fantastic, really shaping up. I just love that stupid binding spell.”
“I feel like I shouldn’t be here.” Sabrina spoke up from behind the safety of the sofa.
“Join the club, sister!” Plagg said as they floated over to a shelf and started batting things off of it. Chloé slid the ring onto her finger, the black ring turning into a simple golden band with a hexagonal stud. She hated it. It felt like a mockery of her past. Sad eyes turned to Sabrina.
“Sabrina, I know this is a lot but please…please just wait for me here. I promise I will explain everything when I get back. Even if it’s going to sound absolutely insane.” The red-head, looking close to just exploding, simply nodded. “If you need anything, ring up Jean-Armand, tell him I’m freshening up if he asks.” Chloé took a breath to steady herself. “Plagg, claws out.”
Chloé didn’t waste too much time experimenting, only taking a moment to figure out the staff and looking over her new persona before launching herself across Paris. She was clad in a full body leather suit with Steel toed thigh highs, with the toes resembling claws instead, shoulder length gloves with steel tipped fingers, poison green highlights running down the suit making it appear almost as though you’d cut yourself just touching them, the classic domino mask with a slight feline shape to it, and a wild mane of hair running down her back with two cat ears poking out.
Following the screams and trail of destruction, and the vague recollection of where the Akuma would eventually wind up, Chloé made her way to Parc des Princes where Stoneheart had cornered Kim.
Before she had a chance to do anything, the thwip of a Yo-Yo cut through the air and wrapped around the Akuma and pulled him off balance away from the idiot he was trying to kill. Her feline eyes darted to the source and there in red and black stood Ladybug. Even if Chloé didn’t recall everything that happened with clarity, she was one hundred and ten percent certain that Ladybug’s outfit did not start out looking like that. In fact she was sure it wouldn’t be until Shadow Moth that Ladybug would have this ‘upgrade’ to her look.
“Go, get out of here!” Ladybug cried out to Kim as she restrained Stoneheart. The boy scrambled and bolted past Alya who was blissfully recording the whole thing, heedless of the danger. Chloé was pretty sure the girl was secretly an adrenaline junkie. Stoneheart roared in frustration, making it difficult for the Spotted Heroine to get at the object without setting him free again.
She suppressed that small part of her that enjoyed watching the hero struggle alone, and landed on the field to meet her.
“Glad you showed up, Partner. I take it your Kwami has…” Whatever Ladybug was about to say tapered off when her eyes met Chloé’s. She was expecting someone else.
She also remembered the previous future.
Ladybug coughed, as though she could cover up her surprise, unaware that her ‘new partner’ wasn’t new to this either.
“Yeah,” She decided not to show her hand just yet. “They mentioned something about an Akuma?” Motioning a hand towards the restrained victim, Ladybug nodded. “Well, Lady- um, Spots, what’s the plan?” Apparently Stoneheart was tired of being ignored as the Akuma began thrashing again, knocking everyone off their feet, slackening his restraints enough to free himself. Tearing up some seats, Stoneheart hurled them at the heroes as they avoided being crushed by the debris.
“Paris has its own heroes now, and they’re a female duo.” Chloé’s ears twitched in the direction of Alya filming the fight in the bleachers, not even aware of her surroundings. A large chunk of concrete was thrown towards Ladybug, missing, and on an arch that would land it directly on top of the girl. Power surged through Chloé as she went from ‘nought to sixty’, hand raised out to intercept.
“CATACLYSM!” Reduced to ash that harmlessly passed over the wannabe reporter, Chloé turned to look back at the dumb founded girl. “Get a drone permit, you’re going to get hurt like this.” She leapt back into the fight without waiting for a response. Now on a timer, she needed to wrap this up quickly. A burst of light indicated Ladybug called forth her lucky charm, a wetsuit falling into her grasp.
Before she could do anything else, Ladybug wrapped her yo-yo around Chloé and flung the girl into the grasp of the Akuma, followed by her jumping at the Akuma herself.
“Mlle. Reporter! The Tap!” Chloé’s eyes bugged out as she saw Alya was still there and just ran out to turn on the water, no questions asked. She couldn’t blame her for being a stupid teenager, they were all stupid and akumas made it worse, but Ladybug was, as far as she knew, also an adult in a child’s body, and should know better this time around. As the plan worked, much to her annoyance as this would only embolden the recklessness, Ladybug tore the note dropped by the Akuma freeing the Blackened Butterfly within. The hero pulled her yo-yo out and hesitated, looking at the butterfly as it flew off like she wasn’t sure if catching it was the right call.
“Um, it’s getting away?” Chloé didn’t know why she was just standing there, but she wasn’t keen on experiencing Stoneheart part two again. Having the attention drawn to her, Ladybug swiftly caught the Akuma before purifying it and releasing the Miraculous Ladybug. As Ivan turned back to normal, Ladybug seemed nervous, looking around like she expected someone to drop in. Chloé picked up the crumpled paper that had been the catalyst of the incident.
“...Kim you absolute…” She muttered before turning to face Ivan. Bruel was a paradox. He was big and intimidating but housed a gentle soul that was easy to hurt. Like all her classmates, she’d belittled him to make herself feel big. She wished she’d known better then, finding this circumstance a rare opportunity to act on that. “Hey, how are you feeling? Is this what had you worked up?” Chloé held the paper out, the boy crossing his arms and looking away shamefully.
“Kim, he’s a guy in my class always making fun of me.” Ladybug strolled up as Ivan spoke, now seemingly less distracted by whatever it was she expected.
“You shouldn’t get bent out of shape about that. There’s no shame in telling someone you like them.” Chloé side eyed her partner. She didn’t like how rehearsed it sounded.
“Uncanny, amazing, spectacular! Are you gonna be protecting Paris from now on? How did you get your powers? Did you get stung by a radioactive ladybug? Were you bitten by a cat? Oh, I've got a ton of questions to ask both of you, uh…” Of course Alya stuck around, not that she could make her leave with the danger gone and damage reverted.
“Ladybug,” Without missing a beat, the heroine gave her name. “It’s nice to meet you, Mlle. Sorry, we can’t answer too much now, we’re on a timer.” That was when Chloé realized a few things. How quickly Ladybug was trying to move this along, how she didn’t attempt to introduce her as her partner. How neither of them seemed to be on a timer despite what Plagg had thought would be the case…
“Call me Stray,” Stray walked over to Ivan. “Take you back to school?”
“Er, Stray, will you have time before you-” Ladybug stopped talking as Stray leveled a glare at her.
“It will be fine, Ladybug.” She picked up Ivan like he weighed nothing and headed back for Dupont, before heading back to her suite where Sabrina hopefully was still waiting patiently.
“Your timer didn’t start…” Plagg said, floating idle beside Chloé when they returned. “...Interesting…” With the first day of school experiencing a super villain attack, everyone was a bit frazzled and needed some time to collect themselves leading to a half day.
“Pollen liked honey,” Chloé said, getting ready to dial room service, “What do you like eating?” The Kwami stared at the blonde for a bit.
“Cheese, Camembert in particular. The stench is what makes it.” All the fight from before had left them, though Chloé wasn’t sure if this was from needing to recharge or not.
“Are you going to be okay Chloé?” Sabrina knew the girl had a sensitive nose to certain smells and being around Camembert was not going to be easy if it was as Plagg requested.
“I’ll live…Hi, yes, please send up a wheel of Camembert. …Yes I know I said please, don’t focus on that. …I could just yell and demand instead but I’d rather not. …Okay thank you.” She hung up leaving Sabrina and Plagg to witness the strangest one sided conversation they’d seen. Chloé seemed to notice their staring and just made her way to the sofa. “Okay, answers I guess…any specific questions first?”
“Well, I guess how did you know there were going to be heroes? And that whole thing with Ivan?” Chloé leaned back, mulling over what she wanted to say.
“I think…I somehow went back in time.”
“When Sass does his thing without a holder, some people will have their memories and experience up to that point shunted back to an earlier time. ‘Oracles’ as some humans have called them.” Plagg plopped between the two girls, adding their own two cents to the mix.
“Wait wait, does this mean you can see the future?” Sabrina went wide eyed with excitement. “What’s it like? Did you get with Adrien? Do we go to the same Lycée?” The excitement starts to dim as Chloé just looks distant and empty.
“I don’t know how it’s going to play out exactly now, but what happened today is going to happen again and again, over and over because of some lunatic calling himself Hawk Moth. He’s a monster, who gives you power in exchange for obedience. He tells you all the things you want to hear in your moments of vulnerability.” She looked away slightly in shame. “He called me exceptional, and I believed him. But I was a means to an end that he knew how to prey upon, not even needing to try that hard to guide me down a self destructive spiral.”
Plagg had said nothing, but seemed to stew in their own thoughts as Chloé spoke.
“While I can admit there are things I did that are my fault alone, I was failed by so many people who should have been there for me. We all were. It took being disowned by André and replaced by my half-sister, who isn’t even blood related to him and M. Lee was well and alive, and being exiled from Paris after a brief stint of enforcing martial law, a plan that wasn’t even mine to begin with, before I was able to be put in a position to get the help I needed.”
Sabrina looked like a fish, gaping for water as she tried to process the sudden bomb shells that just came out of nowhere.
“Mlle, Your cheese.” Jean-Armand knocked as he entered with a silver platter, Plagg sinking out of view as the man approached.
“You have a sister?!” The red-head finally broke out of her stupor, shocking the butler as he nearly dropped the plate when setting it down.
“Half-Sister. She’s Audrey’s, surprise surprise. Thank you Jean-Armand, you heard nothing.” A tired smile was plastered to her face as she shuffled the man out the door before she needed to explain anything else. Plagg took a moment to check for any more intrusions before reducing the cheese wheel to a mere memory.
“How are you so calm about this?!” Chloé felt a bittersweet chuckle build up at the question.
“I’ve had over a decade to process and learn, I already had my meltdown years ago.” She sighed. “Besides, if I fall apart now I don’t think I could pull myself back together.” Chloé melted into the sudden hug Sabrina put her in. Neither noticed Plagg as they slipped out into Paris.
Tikki watched their chosen pace back and forth. They had hoped to remedy the mistakes made during this time, only to be met with a fully grown mind. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, Marinette was clever and with her timer nullified taking care of Hawk Moth would be a walk in the park.
Except compounded trauma and an atlas complex not helped by everything that happened, along with Tikki’s own ignorance on modern humanity, left their chosen with an unfettered control complex. Tikki hadn’t fully grasped the issues brewing beneath the surface, not allowing a literal child soldier to develop properly into a healthy adult. Sass activating their powers untethered was a shock, one that had made an Oracle of their chosen at least.
And possibly an Oracle of whomever ‘Stray’ was.
Tikki wasn’t sure what would come of this, but they did know these changes were going to throw Marinette into a defensive state if not outright hostilities eventually.
“I can’t believe this…this Stray! Doesn’t she know what’s at stake here?” The girl fumed at the audacity of the holder that somehow replaced Chat Noir. She knew what she was doing, with everything playing out the same if not with more efficiency. But she just needed people to listen to her. Now that was all in jeopardy because the timeline had diverged so suddenly.
After kick-starting her friendship with Alya, she expected Chloé to once again make a stink about the seats, only now with Alya by her side they wouldn’t be playing musical chairs. Except Chloé didn’t say anything to her, in fact barely a glance. She thought it had to do with Adrien being there but that hadn’t stopped her from making a scene before. On that topic, Adrien shouldn’t have been there today. She was thrilled he was, but she didn’t understand how this happened.
“I’m sure if you explained it to them-” The Kwami of Creation was cut off.
“I can’t! If I tell them what I know they’ll try and rush in delivering one of the Miraculous straight to Gabriel or worse, expose this information which will undermine the trust I need to fix all this! I need her to trust me or else I won’t be able to stop the wish, save Nooroo and Duusu, and keep Adrien’s only family from dying.” Tikki wasn’t sure when they’d heard the phrase ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’, but watching Marinette was like watching a highway construction.
Tikki’s antennae shot up, sensing their other half nearby. While Marinette was oblivious, the Kwami drifted towards the window and spotted a certain feline waving in. Normally Tikki would have chastised Plagg for doing this, but there was a lot to talk about. To those who listened closely, there were no words spoken. None that humans could understand at least.
“So, Stray did well.” Tikki started off avoiding the topic, not sure how to approach it.
“She has experience,” Plagg flew into the shadows with their opposite. “I’m guessing Pigtails is an Oracle too?” Tikki nodded. “Great. Look I know it goes without saying, but I really need to say it, your kid cannot find out Stray’s identity. She’s not perfect, no one is, but after this first battle…” Plagg looked like they were trying to chuck up a hairball. “I think we forgot these were all children. I mean REALLY forgot.”
“We did. Especially me. I built up expectations and it was crushing her. She demands trust without giving any because she doesn’t want to burden anyone else but it’s not healthy. And I encouraged it.” Tikki lay their head in their hands, Plagg trying to comfort them.
Adrien was absolutely disgusted looking at the silver band in his possession. It was him, his life, his soul, his being, his essence.
His Amok.
When Gabriel died, he was given the twin rings and told to keep them on him. The last request of his Father as he so valiantly sacrificed himself to stop Monarch. He was never told why they were so important or why he needed to protect them. A lie of omission is still a lie, and he was getting very tired of people not telling him things that he should know about his own life.
He was a sentimonster, like his cousin Felix. Unlike Felix, though, he didn’t hold secret information over his head while mocking him for being unable to resist things he knew he couldn’t possibly fight. But this time he had the knowledge to make informed decisions, a gamble that had paid off when having Sass ‘reset’ time. He’d managed to reclaim one half of his life from his Mother, her body kept in some perverse crypt below the mansion.
Before the truth slipped, he thought the man was just grieving, that he needed time. But he had no intention of moving on. Why would he, he’s Gabriel Agreste. The world should bend to his will. His career as Paris’ first Magical Terrorist proved that. Yet Ladybug told Adrien, to his face, that the man died a hero. His abuser, which he’d finally come to terms with, was being sold to the world as the ‘Man who defeated Monarch’ by the partner he admired deeply.
He wondered what lies she’d told Marinette, his poor girlfriend being used as well to keep Adrien in the dark. Or worse, was she also told the truth and kept it from him. It took years of therapy to fully understand just how emotionally stunted he’d been, not allowed to learn how to process things in a healthy way. Several bouts of property damage as Chat certainly showed that.
When he saw Stray leaping across the skyline, he wanted to be upset with her. But if anything he was terrified for her. A complete stranger was going in to fight side by side with Ladybug, a girl who claimed to hate liars and yet did so with every breath, for her benefit or others didn’t really matter, the theft of autonomy was something that he couldn’t abide, and he couldn’t warn her. But with how differently things played out, maybe he wouldn’t need to…
Speaking of playing out differently, a part of him relished the sheer fury that danced across Gabriel’s face when he couldn’t command his ‘perfect son’ to ‘cease this nonsense’ about going to school and was forced to let him attend. His other option was calling Adrien’s bluff about ‘making a scene’ at the next photo-op, and considering how having half of his soul in his back pocket, unknown to the man, allowed him to resist commands, it seemed M. Agreste couldn’t be sure he’d remain in control.
As he slipped the ring onto his finger, Adrien went over his goals once more. Acquire the second ring and secure his complete freedom, rescue the Kwami, and make sure Gabriel wouldn’t avoid the consequences of his actions a second time.