Chapter Text
Gabriel watched the morning sun filter through his son’s bedroom, and took in a deep breath before entering. His son was sound asleep. They had agreed that both he and Ladybug would stay in that night to rest up for the day.
He sat on the edge, and lightly jostled Adrien’s shoulder. “Adrien.”
His son groaned, and peeked at his father past the covers, groggily asking, “What?”
“There’s been a change in the plan.”
Adrien stared up at him. “What?”
He held up the peacock miraculous. “Let’s switch, as a precaution.” Gabriel said. “It’s not permanent, obviously.”
His son sat up, and took the brooch, turning it over. “Why do you need my ring?”
Gabriel smiled. “Hawkmoth is dangerous. I don’t want you to have to do anything drastic if I don’t succeed today.”
Adrien squeezed his eyes shut for a second, and sounded distressed. “You’re going to kill him?”
“I don’t know,” Gabriel replied. “But I can’t lose today, either. It’s going to be me, him, or the both of us reformed.” He patted the bed.
He looked down. “What if you reform and keep my ring? Did you--What are you going to do?” Adrien let out a breath. “I don’t know if you reforming is the best idea now, what if you’re not the same?”
Gabriel smiled. “I’m going to be different.” He exhaled. “At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if I’m Hawkmoth or Gabriel. I’m just one person. This dichotomy is completely artificial and benefits no one.”
“But you’re my father. He isn’t.” Adrien replied. “We can just...there has to be something--”
He shook his head. “I was still your father when I was Hawkmoth. He’s still your father, too. That doesn’t make me or him a good father, Adrien.”
Adrien stared at him. “I wish you were better, then.”
Gabriel nodded. “I’m going to try. I promise.”
He nodded, and slid the ring off his finger. “I’m going to fight you if something weird happens, though.”
“Good.”
XXX
“Is he with you?” his low voice spoke to her over the phone. “I won’t have you betray me, Nathalie---I know it’s my final hour.”
Nathalie looked at the teenage girl across the building from her, chatting to Adrien and Chat Noir. “He isn’t, Hawkmoth,” she replied. “I just want this to be over, too.”
“That Gabriel is conspiring against me, against Emilie. What do you have for me?”
She took a deep breath. “Ladybug.”
“ What ?”
“And Chat Noir is around, I can--”
“Where are you?” He asked, cutting her off.
A few minutes later, she walked back to the three of them. “All he cares about is getting the earrings. He doesn’t suspect a thing.” She shot a look over to Gabriel. “Was she really that amazing?”
Gabriel glowered. “We can talk about Emilie later. Adrien and I need to hide.”
Nathalie nodded, and the two of them slipped away, under an alcove in the shadows across the street. Ladybug pretended to be tied to a pole.
“If this doesn’t work, I can--”
“It’ll work, Ms. Sancoeur.” Ladybug replied.
Nathalie took in a shaky breath and nodded.
Hawkmoth landed onto the roof within two minutes, and didn’t even look at Nathalie as he walked by her. His eyes were dead set on Ladybug, who glared at him. He looked as he always looked---put together behind a silvery mask, purple suit, and cane.
“Hawkmoth,” she murmured. Nathalie grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop, “are you sure this is what you want?”
“Yes.” He answered.
“It could’ve been us,” she said. “It could still be us, Hawkmoth.”
He exhaled. Hawkmoth wouldn’t even look at her. His eyes were glued to Ladybug, who pretended to struggle against the ropes. “Let go of me, Nathalie. I’m getting my wife back with or without your help.”
When he took another step forward, Nathalie hooked her foot around his ankle and shoved his back. It was an awkward motion, despite the number of times she had practiced it with Gabriel. While Hawkmoth didn’t trip, Nathalie at least managed to get some distance away.
Feet pounded against the gravel roof as Gabriel landed in between Hawkmoth and Ladybug. Clad in shining black, his sword was drawn and his eyes were pointed back.
Nathalie didn’t see the look on Hawkmoth’s face as Adrien picked her up and whisked her away, but she heard him clearly enough, and could see him shaking.
“You gave her miraculous away?” He spat at him, drawing his own sword. “Is that your master plan? To ruin everything Emilie has ever done?”
Gabriel swallowed. “I haven’t ruined anything, Hawkmoth. The only way out of this is through. We can’t do this apart. It’s destroying both of us.”
“I am the strongest I have ever been,” he snarled, taking another step forward. “You are dead weight.”
“Nobody’s perfect,” Gabriel managed to say, taking a step back. He could hear Ladybug, scrambling out of the ropes. “No one has to die, Hawkmoth. We can reform and take everything one step at a time. Give up the akuma.”
“I’m not giving up!” He shouted back.
Gabriel withdrew his sword, and deflected Hawkmoth’s sword, striking towards him. Hawkmoth lunged for Gabriel’s hand, for the ring. Gabriel twisted his wrist, trying to turn Hawkmoth’s grip and force the villain to drop his sword, but it was no use. Gabriel couldn’t spin away. He couldn’t let Hawkmoth get to Ladybug, who was still untying herself.
Hawkmoth wouldn’t have believed Nathalie if Ladybug wasn’t at least slightly distressed.
Gabriel’s back slammed against the roof, and he rolled backwards, landing on his feet. He cut the remainder of the ropes around Ladybug’s body, and leapt between Hawkmoth and Ladybug again, forcing himself forward.
He was vaguely aware of Adrien, circling them slowly, watching and waiting for the moment the tide shifted for either Hawkmoth or Gabriel. So far, every maneuver was equally matched. Gabriel’s years of fencing, and Hawkmoth’s years of hero and villain work met together in a passionate match.
Perhaps Gabriel forgot that Hawkmoth didn’t believe in anything honorable. Hawkmoth tripped Gabriel just as he was falling into the lull of their sword fight. In an easy twist, a blade was pressed under the bell on Gabriel’s collar, and Hawkmoth was facing Ladybug and Adrien.
“Give up the ring,” Hawkmoth whispered into Gabriel’s ear, as the man struggled against him. “You can have Nathalie. You can have your son. I’ll have Emilie.”
Adrien took a leap forward. “Let him go, Hawkmoth,” he glared at him, his fans out.
“Shut up,” Hawkmoth replied, looking up at him with a resounding coldness. “Not a step further. I am just talking to your father.”
Adrien’s brows furthered. “Don’t listen to him, Dad.” He said darkly.
Hawkmoth rolled his eyes, and leaned his chin back down to Gabriel. “What’s your answer, Gabriel?”
Gabriel stilled, frozen in place. He took a breath out “That’s a bad idea.”
“Oh, no it isn't,” Hawkmoth said calmly, whispering again, “I can see that your heart is tempted. You’ll have everything you want. I’ll have everything I want. We both win and go our separate ways. Me with my wife. You with your new little family.”
He frowned. “Is that right?”
Hawkmoth chuckled, “Hell, if you help me get Ladybug’s earrings, I’d consider you a brother.”
“We always wanted a brother, growing up,” Gabriel replied carefully, letting his arms drop. “I have one question, assuming I go along with this plan.”
Hawkmoth smiled. “Do not waste my time, Gabriel. I know you want to say yes.”
Gabriel swallowed, and closed his eyes. This was what he wanted. They had always wanted everything. The whole world. Was that wrong? “Okay. You’re right. I’ll help you.”
The blade of Hawkmoth’s sword lightened against Gabriel’s throat, pulling away slightly. As soon as this happened, Gabriel put his forearm against the sword, and twisted around.
He shoved his hand against Hawkmoth’s chest, and murmured, “Cataclysm,” before being cut by Hawkmoth’s sword and feeling a sting of pain.
Hawkmoth stood stiff as a board, and his sword clattered to the ground as he doubled over, breathing hard as he hunched. “N-No. You want this. You want Emilie back. ”
“It seems to be the only thing we have in common,” Gabriel remarked, bending down and picking up the sword. He saw the pain and betrayal on his other half’s “It’s not what I need, Hawkmoth. You knew that.” Gabriel added softly. “I’m sorry.”
Hawkmoth groaned, as he collapsed to the ground, curling up. Gabriel took the hilt from the villain’s hip, and sheathed the sword. The weapon transformed back into the cane.
Ladybug was getting closer and Gabriel leaned down as Hawkmoth began to cough. “You’re dying, Hawkmoth. I won’t force you to merge back, if that’s not what you want.”
“I would never merge back with you,” Hawkmoth replied.
“I know,” Gabriel said, “but we have to take the good with the bad. I can’t leave part of me dead on a roof without trying. We can be a whole person, again. Don’t you feel hollow? Do you really want to die?”
Hawkmoth groaned, closing his eyes. “Okay, stop talking. I’ll do it. There’s a chance you’ll still want to get Emilie back when this is all over, anyway.”
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take,” Gabriel replied quietly, turning and meeting Ladybug. He wasn’t afraid to turn his back on a man who couldn’t breathe without significant effort. He broke open the ball of the scepter. The black butterfly flew out, and Ladybug caught it.
“I want your butterfly miraculously first,” Ladybug said, the butterfly resting delicately in her hand as if it belonged there. “And Chat’s ring.”
Gabriel nodded, understanding. Adrien had dropped his transformation and was standing near them. He handed his ring back to his son, and leaned back down, taking the brooch from Hawkmoth’s collar as the villain sweated bullets and took in short, pained breaths and let out breathy coughs.
He shoved that imagery out of his mind and handed the brooch to his son, as well. Adrien scrambled away and Ladybug also leapt away.
There’s a chance you’ll still want to get Emilie back when this is all over, anyway. Gabriel turned back behind him to the dying, starved version of himself on the roof, full of terror.
There was no one left except him and the man he feared he would become.
In the distance he heard Ladybug do the spell, and watch the sky flood with pink, but could not feel any difference. Gabriel saw Hawkmoth disappear, but looked down to see him disappear in a flash of pink magic as well. He closed his eyes as he felt his enter body go. It felt like nothing at all.
He opened his eyes again and was alone, on the roof. He felt like...himself. Normal. No longer hollow.
Gabriel was, of course, stuck on top of a roof with no obvious way to get down. He took a deep breath, and began to scale his way down to an alley.
He headed home.
XXX
Gabriel tentatively entered his mansion, glancing around the empty foyer. He was starving for something, and went for the kitchen, remembering the snacks he had stashed in there.
He was opening cabinets, searching for something when someone knocked against the doorframe. Nathalie stood in the doorway. He had no idea how she felt, without Nooroo he was blind to her emotions, but she seemed happy, if not hesitant.
“I put out a spread in the library, if you’d like to join me.”
“Alright,” he forced himself to say.
They walked together in silence for a few moments, before Nathalie spoke. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay,” he answered. “Where’s Adrien?”
“In the guest room at my apartment, for now. Ladybug and I figured that we’d need time to, ah,” she hesitated, and shot him a small smile. “You understand?”
Gabriel stared at her, stopping on the steps to look at her. “I wouldn’t hurt my son, Nathalie.”
She took his hand and squeezed it. “I’ve seen a lot of sides of you at this point in my life, Gabriel. We have to err on the safe side of things.” Nathalie looked back up at him, “Adrien is so proud of you, for what it’s worth.”
He softened and looked down. “Okay.”
“We can call him together, later,” she promised.
“That sounds good,” he replied, clearing his throat. “After I’ve eaten.”
Nathalie nodded.
They sat together, drinking wine and nibbling on cheese. Gabriel felt awkward, watching her wait for him to say something. He couldn’t think of anything to say.
Gabriel finally asked her, “Can I hire you back on?”
She snorted, looking at him. “Is that what you want?”
“I’d prefer something different,” he admitted. “I don’t know how you feel. I told Hawkmoth that I want Emilie back, or he told me, either way, I replied that it wasn’t what I needed.”
Nathalie glanced down. “It is a bit confusing.”
“Even so, what I want and what I need are two very different things,” he told her. “I want Emilie back, I do. I miss her. But I need Adrien, and I need you. I need you two in my life right now. I’ll take that in any capacity I can get.”
Nathalie nodded, “I don’t know what that means for us, but I’ll be here. At least for Adrien. I’ll be here for you in time, too, I suspect.”
Gabriel sighed, though he was content with her answer. They didn’t need a timeline. “That sounds perfect.”