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Cat realizes how long it’s been now.
A week since… No, steel yourself, he tells himself. Don’t let your emotions show. Just do the job. It’s been a week since he’s learned the truth, a week since he’s learned what’s really at stake. A week since the war truly began.
Sparks caught, bursting into a roaring flame. It had been threatening to burst free, turn all to ash and dust. He very quickly wills his power back under control, saying to himself that in time, he’d be able to use it. Rot and destruction and death dance at his fingertips, crackling under his skin. The power of chaos.
He was the harbinger of destruction, dark magic given shape and form. It coursed through his very body, threatening to take everything. To reshape the world into something truly horrifying. Leave only dust and echoes in its wake.
For several years now, he’d fought to keep it under control. It would be so easy to just let loose, cause an entire wave of decay that held no mercy. All were equals to it.
“It’s almost time,” Cat said, looking up at his master. “Soon, we’ll have her.”
Hawk Moth chuckled. “I can only imagine, at least for the moment, what her face will be like. What will she think, I wonder, when she sees you? Shame in herself, for not believing in you? Horror, for realizing you were never her ally? Heartbreak, even?”
Cat said nothing, rot once again threatening to break free. Despite all this, he still loved his Lady.
“Don’t worry, son. I know you still feel for her. There’s no shame in it. She’s been a truly marvelous foe, hasn’t she?” his father chuckled. “Honestly, anyone else might have been too easy to defeat. But not her. She’s kept me at bay for three years now.”
Three years too long, Cat thinks.
“But now the game is over. The pieces have been moved into position. The King is ready to take the Queen. I’ve played chess before, I know how to recruit pawns. Sacrifice them as necessary,” his father goes on. “Has Ladybug, I wonder?”
Sometimes, Cat wonders, what his role on the board is. Is he just another one of his father’s pawns? Or something else entirely. A knight loyally standing by his King.
“No matter, I suppose. In the end, the result will be the same. Soon the earrings will be mine. I have to thank you, son, for coming to me. I must admit, I was surprised when you turned out to be Cat Noir but…” here his father ran a hand through his hair, an affectionate gesture. “I suppose in hindsight, there were clues I should have seen. I was blind, or perhaps, ignorant. I simply didn’t consider the possibility.”
Part of Adrien loved his father finally paying attention to him, but the other part knew he had to betray his Lady’s trust just to get it. His stomach churned, and though he smiled inside he was crying.
If this was what victory felt like… why didn’t he feel so triumphant?
“You can do it, can’t you?” his father said. “Take down your former partner. All to bring back your mother. Rest assured, it will all soon be over. Soon, our family will be whole again and this entire affair will be naught but a bad memory.”
Adrien hoped that was the case.
“Ah, you can hear it. The end, rushing up to greet us!” his father twirled his cane up in the air, over his head before slamming it back down with a crash. “Paris roars in approval. It’s tired, exhausted, and just wants to see this entire thing end. Now go, my son. Your mother’s waiting.”
His heart pounded, and he was a blur of motion. The battle was over quicker than anyone could have imagined, and soon the end had arrived.
“How does it feel, Ladybug? To be betrayed by your own partner?” his father laughed, a mad glint in his eyes. “For victory to be snatched from your grasp by the claws of your best friend?”
“You’re right,” Ladybug said, in defiance. “Cat is my partner. He’s the one who I trust to have my back at all times, to be there when I call for him. He’s the only one I trust to walk through the fires with me. He’s my best friend, someone who lets me cry on his shoulder when times get tough. Who I laugh with, who I-”
“Who you what?” Hawk Moth said. “He’s your best friend, and you trusted him. Look at how he’s repaid you. He’s my son, so his loyalty has always been to me first, before anyone else. Before even you.”
There was a strange look in her eyes, something Cat knew his father had mistaken as heartbreak.
“Are those tears I see?” Hawk Moth laughed, Ladybug’s shoulders shaking. “I can’t say I blame you for crying. It’s over, I see acceptance of your fate has set in.”
Then he realized. She wasn’t shaking with sobs, it was straight-up laughter.
“Like I said, Cat’s my partner. The only one I trust to do the things I can’t, to walk into the fires of hell and stare it directly in the eye. To spit in its face. To embark on a secret mission.”
Too late, his father had realized even as Cat whirled around and ripped off his brooch. Gabriel Agreste was exposed to the world.
“How…” he wheezed out weakly, accepting his fate. “Why didn’t I see it?”
“You accepted only what you wanted to see, father,” Cat finally spoke again, his voice even as he struggled to keep his emotions clear. “I’m sorry it had to come to this. But we had to do something. We knew you’d never give up your Miraculous easily. That the only time we’d get it was when you dropped your guard. So we hatched a plan, made me get close to you.”
“We’d suspected, of course, but we never imagined…” Ladybug whispered, horrified. “You’re a real son of a bitch, you know that right?”
Her fist shot out before Cat could stop her, assuming he even wanted to. Gabriel crumpled to the floor, holding his broken and bloody nose.
“I’m sorry kitty…” his partner whispered, holding him close as Adrien cried.