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The first time Ladybug saw Hawkmoth was when Volpina created an illusion of him as bait.
She had wondered, then, why Hawkmoth was running over the rooftops instead of soaring high in the sky—surely the latter was far more tactically advantageous. But there had been more important things to preoccupy herself with, such as the fact Hawkmoth was there instead of hiding behind akumas like a coward, and they finally had a chance to reclaim his miraculous. Then, she had been distracted by the discovery that Volpina was an akuma, once Chat Noir stumbled into her back and made the illusion of her wings vanish. Then, there had been the matter of the Grimoire Lila had stolen from Adrien. By the time Marinette finally had a moment to herself, that seemingly inconsequential question had all but vanished from her mind.
The second time Ladybug saw Hawkmoth—the first time she saw the real Hawkmoth, that innocuous question resurfaced in her mind.
But this time, she had an answer.
He had appeared at the end of a particularly gruesome akuma battle—with Ladybug and Chat Noir both having less than a minute left on their timers. Ladybug had barely noticed the dark spot in the corner of her vision when the purple shadow lunged down, arms outstretched to tear off her miraculous.
Ladybug spun around, her hand going to the yo-yo she had reattached to her hips. Her heart stuttered as she realised she was too late, Hawkmoth’s hands were inches from her ears, she was about to lose—
Silver flashed in her periphery, and Chat Noir’s baton lengthened to crash into Hawkmoth’s ribs. The supervillain flew back with a grunt, sailing into the dark shadows of a nearby alley.
The superheroes and the gathered crowds stared into the alley in tense silence. For a moment, it felt as if the entire city was holding its breath.
Hawkmoth did not re-emerge.
Ladybug’s heart hammered wildly. She drew in a sharp breath. That had been so close, too close—she could nearly feel gloved fingers brushing her earlobes—
Warm arms wrapped around her torso. Ladybug’s shoulders slumped forward as she relaxed into the familiar embrace of her boyfriend. Chat Noir protected her. He’d protect her once more if Hawkmoth suddenly struck again.
Lifting her into a bridal carry, Chat flapped his wings, flying the two of them away from the crowd. He landed on a nearby roof, settling Ladybug on one side of a chimney before vaulting over to hide on the opposite side.
Not a minute too soon, Ladybug’s transformation broke. She took a shuddering breath as she raised her palm for Tikki to settle onto, listening as Chat did the same on the other side.
“M’Lady…” Chat hesitated, “are you okay?”
“I…I’m not hurt.” Ladybug swallowed.
Chat waited silently.
“That—” her voice hitched, “—but that was so close. He’s never—I always thought I am safe once we defeat the akuma—but this time…” Sure, they had plenty of close calls before. But those occasions had always involved an akuma getting the upper hand, not Hawkmoth. This was not only the first time Hawkmoth showed up to battle, it was also the first time Hawkmoth had ever shown up period. She should never have let her guard down even after the battle was over; who knew what other dirty tricks were hidden up that villain’s sleeves?
Ladybug rubbed her face, sighing. And then she paused. “Chaton, isn’t it weird I didn’t see his wings at all?” Aerial manoeuvres were a regular part of their battle strategies, even if not many of the akumas could fly. For Hawkmoth not to have flapped his wings once…either he was trying to flex his non-existent combat abilities, genuinely didn’t have wings, or…
Chat Noir hummed, a sound he made when they couldn’t see each other to show he was deep in thought. Chaton was considerate like that. “I didn’t pay much attention, but now that you mention it…I don’t think I saw anything either. You think he might be…like me? I mean, civilian me?”
Ladybug almost scoffed at the phrasing. Chat Noir was nothing like that purple asshole, and to suggest otherwise was blasphemy. Still, she understood what her boyfriend was implying, and he would certainly not appreciate it if she went off yet another rich person rant.
Was Hawkmoth binding his wings—hence inhibiting his combat capabilities—for some arbitrary trend among the rich? Ladybug certainly wouldn’t put it past him. Only billionaires with nothing better to do would spend their days terrorizing teenagers for jewellery.
“People were recording the battle, right?” She said instead. “Maybe someone recorded the…” she grimaced “…attack. Wait a sec, I’ll search it up.”
With that, she dug her phone from her pocket, opening the search browser to type in the name of today’s akuma—Galvanizer, who could turn anything she touched to a tarnished metal of unidentifiable composition, like a knockoff King Midas.
The Ladyblog cropped up at the top of the search results. Ladybug’s lips twitched; the devil worked fast, but Alya worked faster. Already, her blog’s latest post depicted Hawkmoth’s wings—bound for the world to see just like they suspected—along with a short passage about what this meant for Paris.
“I can’t believe it.” Ladybug muttered. “His suit and feathers are both lavender. And his binder is just a slightly darker shade of purple. It’s hideous. Honestly, has no one taught him about how to coordinate colours?”
Well. She had always known he was a pretentious bastard.
Hawkmoth showed up a few times afterwards, always after battles so intense the two heroes were about to detransform. But ever since that first time, neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir dared to let down their guards even when the akumas were defeated.
When Alya interviewed the two about this new development, Ladybug used it as an opportunity to roast Hawkmoth’s fashion sense. She would’ve used the interview to push her anti-binding agenda, but according to their PR department—consisting of just Chat Noir—that would alienate the part of their support base donating the most money to akuma victims and allowing the heroes free reign over the city. (He didn’t say any names, but they both knew he was talking about Andre Bourgeois.)
(And if the akumas for the next few days after Alya’s interview were even more of a crime against fashion then usual…well, Ladybug thought it had very much been worth it.)
Eventually, they came to the conclusion that those ambushes were likely the only opportunity they had to catch sight of Hawkmoth—and therefore, the only opportunity to catch him.
Which meant…Ladybug and Chat Noir had to ambush the ambusher.
Of course, the preferrable way to go about that was to bring another miraculous into play—the Fox or Bee would be particularly useful in this situation. Unfortunately, after a…small incident in which Ladybug may or may not have…lost the Bee miraculous in the wake of the battle with Style Queen, the Guardian declared he no longer trusted Ladybug and refused to lend her any more miraculous. So. Opps.
With Plan A (give the Fox to Nino, since he was more reliable and hated Hawkmoth more than Alya), Plan B (give the Bee to Nino) and Plan C (give the Fox and Bee to Nino and Alya) struck off the list, Ladybug and Chat Noir were left with Plan D:
To create a situation where Hawkmoth would think they were exhausted and running out of time after a battle, so he would appear to ambush them. Of course, that was when they would ambush him instead.
It was an average day with yet another appearance by Mr Pigeon…and Ladybug and Chat Noir were struggling.
Or at least, they were trying to pretend to.
Mr Pigeon was making it too easy to accidentally defeat him.
Case 1:
Mr Pigeon ordered his feathered underlings to bring him Chat Noir. Either due to a sudden lapse of judgement or the pigeons feeling particularly stupid, the birds decided the best course of action was to grab Chat Noir out of the sky and directly drop him onto Mr Pigeon.
Chat had to extend his baton at the last possible second to avoid divebombing the akuma and hence immobilising Mr Pigeon, leaving Chat with no excuse not to grab that akumatized pigeon whistle.
Case 2:
In the air—with Ladybug flapping her wings and the akuma carried by his pigeons—Ladybug flung her yo-yo towards the flock of birds so she could pretend she was trying to knock Mr Pigeon out of the sky. Of course, she wasn’t actually trying to do that, so she had purposefully flung her yo-yo a bit too far to the right.
Except Mr Pigeon—who, evidently, had a terrible sense of space—tried to dodge the yo-yo flying towards him…by flying to the right, directly into the path of the yo-yo. As the red-spotted sphere hit Mr Pigeon in the face and sent him careening from his platform made of pigeons, it took Ladybug far too much self-restraint not to follow her battle instincts and dive after the immobilised akuma.
Case 3:
For some reason, Mr Pigeon didn’t call his pigeons to save him after Ladybug knocked him from the sky. The wingless man dropped like a rock into a fountain, water splashing everywhere but thankfully not blood—in an ironic twist, being akumatized had protected him.
He laid in the fountain with his face pointed towards the sky, desperately trying not to drown in the water that barely covered his ears. Ladybug and Chat Noir landed next to the fountain soon after, and stared.
“Please, help me!” Mr Pigeon screamed at the superheroes, his hands splashing uselessly in the ankle-deep water. “Please! I’ll do anything!”
Chat glanced around inconspicuously to check for bystanders, and seeing that there were none, he shared a glance with Ladybug before they both turned their backs to Mr Pigeon.
“Oh, Chaton, where could Mr Pigeon have landed?” Ladybug exclaimed. She bit her lips as she tried not to laugh.
“I don’t know, m’Lady.” Chat made a huge show of surveying the empty park in front of him. “I can’t see him anywhere. Can you?”
Their exchange was greeted by silence behind them, as Mr Pigeon struggled to process what he had heard. Then, the screaming returned ten-fold.
“I’m right here, you—you pigeon feed! Turn around and help me!”
Ladybug blinked, tilting her head. “Chaton, can you hear anything?”
Chat Noir grinned. “Nope, m’Lady.”
“Oh well,” Ladybug sighed, “I suppose we should stop standing around and find Mr Pigeon.”
With that, the two strolled out of the park leisurely, as if on a date, leaving the shrieking akuma behind.
Really, this was a bit too fun.
The fight went on for the entire afternoon, dragging what should be a five-minute battle into an hours-long fiasco. Ladybug thanked herself she had chosen to execute Plan D on a Sunday. She’ll cry herself to sleep if she had to miss an entire afternoon of class because of Mr Pigeon.
Finally, as the sun began to set, Ladybug and Chat Noir decided that was enough.
With Mr Pigeon hot on their tails, the heroes landed in the mouth of a dark alley, and began their preparations.
By the time the akuma caught up with them, he was greeted by a lucky charm in the form of a bird net. His eyes widened, and then—
Mr Pigeon crashed into the bird net.
Chat Noir cackled as he grabbed the akuma’s pigeon whistle and crushed it beneath his heels. Ladybug captured the purple butterfly that emerged, and made quick work purifying the akuma and casting her miraculous cure.
Freed from his akumatization, M Ramier strode off with a quick wave of thanks to the superheroes, too used to being akumatized to be phased. And the moment he disappeared from sight, a dark shadow shot out of the alley, reaching for the ring on Chat Noir’s unguarded hand.
Well, the joke was on the shadow. Chat Noir’s ring was in fact not unguarded.
“‘bug, now!” Chat shouted, but it was a bit unnecessary.
Ladybug threw the bird net onto the dark figure—except it was not actually a lucky charm or a bird net; it was a Hawkmoth net she had spent a week slaving on in preparation for this. The net wrapped around the shadow—Hawkmoth, tying him up like the world’s least appetising burrito.
Hawkmoth’s eyes widened as he registered his predicament. He snarled, “La—”
Before he could finish whatever uncreative threat he was about to make, Chat struck his baton against the villain’s head. A loud crack echoed around the alley, and Hawkmoth slumped over, unconscious.
Ladybug shrugged, unconcerned by the strength behind Chat’s strike. Hawkmoth was a miraculous holder; he wouldn’t die from something as flimsy as that. But if he did…that wasn’t of much concern to her, either.
The two heroes stared at the captured villain in front of them, half-expecting him to spring up and attack them again, as good as new.
There was no way this could be that easy…right? Not that Ladybug wanted a drawn-out battle to the death with Paris in flames, the Seine stained red with blood and the sky grey with ash, but…this felt anticlimactic. A large part of Ladybug hadn’t truly believed the Plan would work, especially since they hadn’t made it very believable that they were struggling with Mr Pigeon.
Maybe it was her fault for choosing Mr Pigeon of all akumas to execute this plan. But there was no chance of things spiralling out of control with such a weak akuma, and they needed to control the playing field for a successful ambush.
One second passed.
Two seconds.
Three.
Hawkmoth remained dead to the world…metaphorically. Probably.
Chat Noir squinted. “Did I…did I kill him?”
Ladybug shrugged. She kicked the villain on the ground. Hawkmoth let out a pained whimper, but did not stir. “Guess not.”
She knelt down next to the villain. “Alright, Hawky…” She muttered. “Time to see what the face of villainy looks like.”
Without further ado, Ladybug unceremoniously yanked the brooch from Hawkmoth’s chest.
Purple light receded from his limbs, leaving behind a white-haired man with red velvet pants, a three-piece suit and a red-and-white stripped tie. His hair was stuck to his scalp with a concerning amount of hair gel, and his cream white wings were bound to his back with a velvety red binder. This was not the face of a stranger—like Ladybug had half-expected—but that of a man she utterly loathed.
Ladybug stared. Dimly, she took note of the purple light gathering into a glowing sphere at the periphery of her vision, before the glow receded and left behind a creature that must be the Butterfly kwami. The kwami remained silent, wordlessly taking stock of the situation. Ladybug was grateful for that. Because—
That—that man lying on the ground was Gabriel Agreste.
Hawkmoth was Gabriel Agreste, Adrien’s father. Akumas.
Chat Noir’s breath hitched. A broken mew wrestled its way out of his throat, as Chat whispered, “Father?”
Father…?
But that was…
That was Gabriel Agreste, who was apparently Chat’s father, who was evidently Hawkmoth.
Which meant…
“Holy akumas.” Ladybug breathed. What were the odds?
Gabriel Agreste was Chat’s father was Hawkmoth. The three men she hated more than anything in the world were the exact same person.
Chat Noir blanched, drawing Ladybug’s focus back to the situation at hand.
Sliding her yo-yo open, Ladybug dumped the Butterfly miraculous into her pocket dimension. The newly-materialised kwami vanished along with the miraculous. Sorry, Butterfly kwami, but her partner came first.
Gently, she placed a hand on Chat’s bicep. He stilled, but didn’t flinch. Ladybug took that as invitation to draw him into a hug, draping her wings over his own.
“It’s okay, Chaton.” She murmured, drawing circles into his wings even as Chat Noir struggle to process the sight in front of her. “It’s okay...” She lowered her voice. “…Adrien.”
Chat’s shoulders tensed. For a moment, Ladybug feared she had made a grave error, but then, the tension bled out of him once more.
“I…I never knew…I mean…I’ve been realising he’s a terrible father…and maybe a bad person…but this? A…a terrorist?” Chat Noir hissed. “He—I—was this why he never let me into his office? Oh, kwamis, that book about the miraculous in his office…” He shook his head and laughed, a furious sound that sent chills down Ladybug’s spine.
“Chaton…?” She hesitated. “Are you…okay?”
Chat Noir turned to her with his teeth bared. He shook off her wings, and let his own flare into the air as a sign of aggression. “Oh, m’Lady, I’m okay. I’m more than okay. My father is a terrorist. I’m free to hate him now. There’s—there’s no pressure now. I don’t…I don’t have to love him because he’s my father…I don’t have to justify this.” He laughed again. “My father is Hawkmoth. He hurt you, and Nino, and Marinette and Alya and Chloe and everyone else at school…and…and…” he swallowed, “he hurt me. My father hurt me, m’Lady. But now I’m free.” Unbidden, Chat’s dark wings sank down. A tear rolled down his cheek. “I…why am I crying?”
“Chaton…” Ladybug’s heart broke into pieces. “Can I hug you?”
Chat Noir nodded numbly, now sniffling.
Ladybug wrapped her wings around her boyfriend’s torso, freeing her hands to pet his ruffled plume. Chat Noir leant into her warmth. “It’s—you can cry, Chaton. You might not love your father anymore, but…you still loved him. It’s okay to mourn. Let it all out.”
Chat Noir sobbed.
There was no vindication in discovering Hawkmoth and Gabriel Agreste and Chat’s father were the same person, Ladybug discovered. Maybe there would be, sometime in the distant future, when all this hurt had faded into a distant throb.
But for now…Gabrie—Hawkmo—Chat’s fa—that man had inflicted pain on her Chaton thrice. The thought would’ve made Ladybug snarl, if she didn’t have Chat Noir cradled against her chest. She would leave this man alive and whole, to be delivered to the authorities so he could suffer in prison, not only due to her artful self-control but also for Chaton. This man would live to see another day—albeit behind bars…for now. If her Chaton so desired, Ladybug wouldn’t be opposed to breaking into prison just to beat this man to a bloody pulp.
Gradually, Chat’s sniffles drew to a stop. Reluctantly pulling a hand from Chat’s wings, Ladybug dug a packet of tissues from her yo-yo’s pocket dimension.
Chat gratefully accepted the tissues. He watched that man consideringly as he cleaned up his face, and when he turned back to her, it was with newfound determination.
“I’m ready now.” Chat declared, “Let’s turn Hawkmoth in.”
Ladybug frowned. She opened her mouth to suggest she could handle it alone, but Chat Noir found her hand to give it a determined squeeze before she could do so.
“I’m sure, m’Lady.” Kneeling down next to the man who used to be his father, Chat threw the man over his shoulder like a sack of photos. He turned to Ladybug with a shaky smile—not quite genuine, but not his artificial model smile either. “Come on, ‘bug. Let’s go. D’you think Officer Roger will lose his mind when he sees this guy?”
Shaking her head slightly, Ladybug moved to follow Chat, opening her mouth in reply. She didn’t buy that Chaton was okay, but he was stronger than most gave him credit for—even if he wasn’t okay now, he would be, eventually.
And wasn’t that all Ladybug could ask for?
(Officer Roger did indeed lose his mind when they marched into the police station with Hawkmoth slung over Chat Noir’s back. He also tried to lecture them about proper criminal procedure, until another officer rescued them by distracting Roger a shiny new case of parking violation.)