Chapter Text
Alya stormed out of her room, scaring Nino who was at the computer in their living room. "I can't fucking believe it," she kept mumbled to herself as she walked over to the guest room, "that motherfucker." Nino shot up and grabbed her hand before she had time to break the door down, and he was glad that looks couldn't kill. "Alya, Chat's still sleeping," he said.
Alya barked out a laugh and pulled her phone out, showing a headline from that morning that read, "CHAT NOIR EVIL?" with the front page showing several of Paris' monuments partially destroyed and the Eiffel Tower on it's side. Nino took the phone and read through the article, confused. According to the article, Chat Noir went on a rampage overnight, starting sometime around midnight. Ladybug had yet to show and fix everything, implying that they fought and fought hard. But something wasn't right.
"Alya, Chat Noir couldn't have done any of that," Nino said.
"What do you mean? This damage has Chat Noir written all over it." Flipping through several pictures, scratches could be seen on L'Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and even the entrance to the Louvre. "I've followed both of those heroes for three years; I know Chat Noir damage when I see it."
Suddenly, it clicked. "Alya, the guest room is an interior room, right?"
"Yea, so?"
"There's no window in there. So the only way Chat Noir could've gotten out was by the door."
"So he snuck out; why does that mean he didn't do this?"
"I spent all night working on one of my projects," Nino said, pointing to his computer. From where the computer was seated, Nino could see the entire room, the guest room door included. "No one came out of that door the entire night."
Alya paused in thought. "But if Chat didn't do it, who did?" Her eyes went wide. "There must be some hidden akuma that Hawkmoth created before he was jailed just in case he was figured out! Now it's using the fight between Chat and Ladybug to get the Miraculouses!"
As Alya began searching for more evidence to support her theory, Nino turned the TV on, flipping to the news. On it, a reporter was standing in front of the fallen Eiffel Tower, saying, "I have just received news that Chat Noir is now wanted for the following charges: terrorizing the city of Paris, destruction of property, and the robbery of one Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who came forward to police late last night to report the theft of her wallet after Chat Noir saved her from a mugger, claiming it as compensation for her protection, before disappearing into the night to wreak havoc on the rest of the city."
At the name of their friend, both Alya and Nino dropped the phone and remote in their hands in shock. The guest room door creaked open, Chat Noir stiffly walking out of it before freezing at the sight on the television. Alya turned to him enraged. "'Saved her from a mugger then she ran away,' huh?"
"Alya, isn't it a little suspicious-"
"What did Marinette ever do to you? Or have you been forcing 'compensation' from everyone you save?" Alya said as she jabbed at Chat with her finger.
"Alya, stop!" Nino said. She turned around to face him, her eyes throwing daggers. "Do you really think Chat would rob Marinette? Or anyone for that manner?" he asked.
"What happened to Paris?" Chat's voice could barely be heard, but somehow it calmed Alya down. "An akuma, I think. Some last resort by Hawkmoth, probably," she said, showing him her phone. Chat swiped through the pictures, stopping occasionally to zoom in and focus on some scratches. From the TV, the camera moved off the reporter, showing a loveliness of ladybugs swoop across the Eiffel Tower, picking it back up and fixing it before moving on to other damaged parts of Paris. "It seems like Ladybug is fixing Paris once again; hopefully she can shed some light on the situation."
"How could she?" Chat asked. "Fixing Paris is what Ladybug does best; you should know that better than anyone Chat," Alya said.
Chat just shook his head. "I have to go. She...I have to-" Alya stepped in front of him, blocking off his route out.
"You're not going anywhere until you explain what's going on," she said.
"Alya and Nino, thank you for letting me stay the night here. I'll be back for my things later. And Alya, please don't follow me." Chat walked past her and Nino too, when he tried stopping him. Opening the window and stepping out, he jumped to the roof. The sky was grey and threatened rain, but Adrien needed to be sure.
Jumping from roof to roof as he circled Paris, Chat could hear people scream in terror at the sight of him. The screams of terror soon turned into jeers and insults, nothing new to Adrien. Finally, Chat arrived at the Eiffel Tower, hoping to see Ladybug somewhere nearby. Well, he thought, if I can't find her, I'm sure the people down there make sure she finds me. Looking down, Chat saw dozens of people forming a semi-circle around him, phones out and recording or typing. Jumping down into the space provided by the ring of people, Chat winced at the stitches in his back and scanned the buildings, hoping that being on the ground might show Ladybug that he needed to talk, not fight.
Here I will take a pause and explain how a thing called "mob mentality" works. Humans, as a social species, tend to stick together in groups, which can be based on many commonalities like a close group of friends has or something as simple as a single thought, such as "Chat Noir is evil." These kinds of groups can create an aura of conforming that entices all inside of it to do what everyone else is doing. Studies show that 3 people who have the same thought can affect one person to the same extent that 16 people can, effectively forcing that person to conform and say or do things that they normally would not do, such as surrounding a powered hero who has fought the entire police force before solely by dancing. In large numbers, one can become anonymous and, because one feels like they can't be credited if they do something such as throw a rock at a person who they hated and was injured, they will not be blamed. Instead, the surrounding people will not know who threw the first rock, or the second, third, and fourth rocks. So as the rocks flew at Chat Noir, striking him again and again as he struggled to dodge and block the incoming rocks, the mob surrounding him were encouraged to throw harder as the hero refused to fight back.
It wasn't until a rock struck above his left eye and blood began to blind him that Chat finally decided to flee rather than face the oncoming rocks. Extending his staff to vault over the growing mob, Chat ran to the nearest building, scaling it in moments, his back screaming at him to stop. As he wiped the blood out of his eye, he saw another speck of red coming towards him. The cheers of "Ladybug" coming from the mob below confirmed his thoughts as the speck took shape, Ladybug arriving a moment later, yo-yo already swinging at him. Chat barely had time to react, the yo-yo circling his baton, pulling it out from his hands, and sending it flying. "Ladybug, we need to talk," Chat said as he raised his hands in surrender. Her response was another swing from the yo-yo that wrapped around his center. With a tug, Chat found himself flying through the air and onto a large building bordering the Seine. The roof was flat, thankfully keeping him from rolling off the edge and into the depths below. As Chat stood, he felt the first raindrop fall, hitting him a moment before Ladybug did. He slid across the roof, slamming into the roof access door. A moment later he ducked and dodged another blow from Ladybug's yo-yo. His stitches were once more screaming at him, but he pushed the pain aside as he dodged attack after attack from Ladybug, getting closer and closer.
"Ladybug, what the hell is wrong with you?" he asked, diving forward to dodge the yo-yo, "I need to talk to you right now, not fight!"
Ladybug remained silent, swinging her yo-yo to follow up her last attack. After dodging the next swing, Chat leaped at Ladybug, tackling her to the ground. "LADYBUG! WILL YOU PLEASE STOP FOR JUST A M-" Her balled fist made contact with his lower back, landing right on the stitches. Adrien's pain was excruciating and he cried out in pain, rolling off her. As he stood back up, she attacked. Between the blood in his eye and the pain blinding him, Chat could barely keep up with Ladybug. With each hit, kick, chop, slam, and punch, Adrien could feel his stamina draining. The rain came down harder, and soon Ladybug began to show signs of fading, her punches occasionally missing or sliding, her kicks weakening. Finally, the blows stopped coming all together. Chat took a step back, lightening illuminating Ladybug in front of him. "Ladybug, we need to talk. If you'll just please listen-" She walked over to him and stood inches away from him.
It doesn't matter how hard it can be raining, when two people are as close as Ladybug and Chat Noir had once been, one can always tell when the other has been crying.
And Chat, staring at his former partner, saw the tears that the rain could never hide. He wondered if she could see his in this rain as well.
"I'm sorry," she said. Suddenly, she stepped forward and spun around, her leg coming up and out. Chat Noir could have dodged it any other time, but Ladybug crying had some effect on him that nothing else did. He never moved as the foot came around, completing the roundhouse as it connected with that spot on his back. As she spun around once more, performing another flawless roundhouse into the same spot, he didn't even scream. He wouldn't allow it.
The third time around, he finally let her send him away, sliding across the roof as thunder echoed around them. The ledge stopped him from falling off the roof, but just barely.
As Ladybug approached, Chat waited. As she picked up his hand and reached for his ring, he made his move. With a leap and a surprise left hook, it was Ladybug's turn to hit the roof. As she jumped up, Ladybug's hand shot to her waist to grab her yo-yo but found nothing. Across the roof, Chat swung it around before releasing it, letting it lazily fly over the Seine. Chat slowly made his way over to Ladybug, arm wrapped around his injured side. Ladybug ran to him, swinging her arm overhead as she jumped, bringing it down with her landing to where she swore Chat had just been. She felt a leg sweep her own, then a push on her upper back causing her to flip and land on her back. Before she knew it, he straddled her, his hand poised.
She didn't need to hear his voice to know he was enraged. His eyes did that for him.
Nor did she need to know what he said that the rain blocked out. The black ball that formed in his hand told her.
Chat Noir and Ladybug stayed in that position for several seconds before Chat closed his hand, canceling out the Cataclysm. As he stood up, the rain began to die down, quiet enough now that she could hear him. "You've done it. I nearly killed you because of what you did. You won."
Chat stood a few feet away from Ladybug, staring out over Paris. As Chat turned around to face Ladybug, lightning crashed. In the light, he saw the door to the roof peeking open, a familiar brown-haired reporter recording everything. Ladybug remained oblivious, back turned as she stood up.
"You know, I'd always wondered how far you and the Guardian would go to get the Miraculous back," Chat said. "But destroying Paris? Forcing Marinette to lie? I never thought you'd sink so low."
"How did you-"
"You forget, Ladybug, how long we've worked together. I've seen what that yo-yo can do when you swing it at max speed. Cutting stone to make it look like claw marks was easy, but destroying monuments? I can't even do that without Cataclysm. But swing that yo-yo as fast as you can and you can cut through the legs of the Eiffel Tower."
"I didn't want to do it, Chat, but you left us no other options."
"And what about Marinette? Did you pay her a visit and force her to lie to police to help turn Paris against me?"
Ladybug remained silent, looking to the ground instead.
"All you had to do was use your Miraculous Ladybug before anyone looked too closely, and boom: Chat Noir evil, Ladybug good, clear as day. And to think, there was a time where I respected you."
She flinched at that comment, her head shooting up to face him. "And what about you? You know the Miraculous needs to be returned in order to keep it safe, and yet you vainly kept it so that you could continue playing Chat Noir."
"I have my reasons for keeping the Chat Miraculous, and they're not for evil like he says."
"Says the one who just nearly killed me."
"YOU PUSHED ME TO THAT POSITION! Tell, me, Ladybug, in the three years that we've known each other, have I ever, EVER done anything that made you question which side I was on? In those three years, was there ever a moment where your trust in me was tested? Where you weren't 100% positive that I was a good guy? What makes you think that would change now?"
"But Master-"
"He may have given us the Miraculouses, but that doesn't mean he knows us as much as we know each other. So why did you doubt me? Why did you take his side when he would have trusted you if you had just said, 'give Chat some extra time, please?'"
Ladybug's mouth opened, then shut. "Alya, can you please come out," he called out. Ladybug whirled around, her eyes finding the curious reporter as the door opened.
Alya's phone was still pointed at the scene, but her eyes were stuck on Ladybug.
"Alya, I want you to please delete that video. As far as Paris is concerned, Chat Noir turned evil and attacked. Ladybug fought him and won."
"Chat, what are you saying?" she asked. "This video proves that you've done nothing wrong. It'll finally prove to all of the world that you're-"
Chat shook his head. "I know you recorded at least the end of the fight. You saw me almost kill Ladybug. How is that not wrong?"
"But you didn't kill her," Alya said, "after all she's done, after all the dirty attacks, you had an opportunity to end it and refused. She's the bad guy here, not you."
"Please, Alya."
Alya stepped back, shaking her head vigorously, and Chat walked over to the ledge, looking out over Paris. "Chat," Ladybug said, "it's time to give me the ring."
She halved the distance between them before stopping and holding out her hand.
"When we captured Hawkmoth, I lost everything. Family, friends, home. Everything. Plagg was the only thing that remained, and with him, Chat Noir. I hoped you would too, Ladybug. And when you turned against me, I at least had Paris to help. But now, you've turned that against me too. Chat Noir was an escape for me, something that let me be me. But now you've turned it into a monster, another akuma to get rid of. I hope you have a good life, Ladybug. I really do." Chat turned around. "And I wish you, Nino, and I could've been better friends, Alya, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen anytime soon."
"Chat, this footage will clear your name; we can be friends!"
Chat just shook his head. "Giving up Plagg means giving everything up. He's the only thing that's kept me going these past few months. But, I guess it's time. Plagg, detransformez-moi." In a bright green flash, Chat Noir disappeared, replaced by a bruised and bleeding Adrien Agreste. Ladybug and Alya remained speechless.
Adrien pulled Plagg close and hugged him, holding him tight. After a moment, Adrien took the ring off and Plagg vanished. "Today, Chat Noir died," he said.
Instead of giving Ladybug the ring though, Adrien pulled out a string on his neck, quickly fastening the ring to it. Looking directly at Ladybug, he pleaded, "please don't blame yourself."
Raising his arms to form a cross, he let himself fall backwards off the building. Ladybug rushed to the edge in time to see him hit the Seine, disappearing beneath the water. She jumped over the ledge, landing in the water a moment later. For hours, Ladybug swam through the Seine, diving deep to find Adrien to no avail. Adrien was gone, and with him, Chat Noir.
Against Chat's wishes, Alya posted the full, uncut video on the Ladyblog, the last post that she would ever make to it. Titled simply, "The Death of Chat Noir," it was viewed worldwide. Ladybug suffered a terrible backlash as her confessions proved her as the culprit in destroying Paris in order to frame Chat Noir, but Ladybug was never seen again after the video: Marinette returned her Miraculouses to Master Fu without a word, leaving his parlor for the last time immediately after.
The revelation that Chat Noir was Adrien Agreste, the son of the villain he helped put away, also left Paris in shock. The cursed child that everyone avoided was the hero that saved them all, and Paris mourned. The police searched for days for a body, but the Seine had claimed people before, never to be seen again. Adrien Agreste joined that list.
Marinette never told anyone about her secret identity, so when she locked herself away for a week in mourning, everyone thought it was because of her crush on him. When Alya and Nino finally asked her about her claim against Chat Noir and Ladybug, she used Ladybug as a scapegoat, saying Ladybug threatened to hurt her if she didn't do what she said. Across Paris, similar stories popped up where people had claimed to see Ladybug destroying the city but were either threatened or bribed to keep quiet. Soon, the statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir was torn down, replaced by a statue solely of Chat Noir. The inscription read:
Adrien "Chat Noir" Agreste
A true hero who will live forever in our hearts
Shortly after the statue's unveiling, a new charity opened, inspired by Chat Noir: Everyday Heroes, a charity who helped anyone in need, providing shelter for the homeless, aid for the poor, and protection for the everyday person. Although he had died, his memory would live forever in Paris.
It took two years for Marinette to forgive herself for driving Chat to suicide, but she knew her nightmares would never go away. She threw herself into her work, focusing on designing and fashion, ignoring any references to the Gabriel line or anything related to the Agreste name. Everyone knew she had been close friends with Adrien, so they avoided mentioning anything. And when the anniversary of his death came around, one of her teachers suggested getting out of the city for a day or two, but Marinette was stubborn. So the teacher suggested an upcoming study-abroad program: for a semester, she could study in an American fashion school. She agreed it would be for the best and signed up for it.
The American college Marinette attended was small, and she found herself surrounded by Chloé's and their Sabrina's, so she spent the majority of her free time alone and studying. One day, she heard about a tiny diner located just off-campus where some of the students went to study. Deciding to check it out herself, she was pleased to see that it was styled after a French café and even claimed to have some French food. When she arrived, a man appeared, saying "bonjour, madamoiselle, and welcome to Le Café," in a terribly fake French accent. "Just you today?"
"Yes, I've heard good things about this place, so I thought I'd try it out," Marinette said with a giggle, smiling when the man realized she was actually French. Dropping the accent, he said, "I'm so sorry for that terrible accent, ma'am. Please, follow me." He led her to a seat and handed her a menu, promising her server would be out shortly.
A few moments later, while she was still checking out the menu, she heard the server walk over. The server spoke English, his French accent much more realistic. "Hello, ma'am, my name is Javert, and I will be your-" She heard the sound of a pen drop. Looking up, she saw bright green eyes, wide with shock, a large scar from a rock above the left one. Above the eyes was blonde hair styled by an undercut. The realization hit her immediately, and her eyes went to his hand: where a ring once sat now was empty; a pale strip at the base of the finger was all that remained. He returned it; he found his happiness... Feeling the tears sting at her eyes, she looked back at her server's face.
"Chat," she whispered, "Adrien, I'm so sorry." She stood up, holding him as she cried, letting the two years of regret come out in her tears as Adrien held her back.