Chapter Text
"D-did you love me?" Adrien croaked out.
Gabriel Agreste's cool gray eyes fell onto him. "And what sort of question is that?"
"Did you ever love me?" He whispered, and he couldn't bring himself to look up. His eyes stung, hands shaking, but he had to know. "The- the years I... I was here... did you love me?"
He was too afraid to acknowledge his use of past tense, as if nothing could be fixed. As if the before was all a charade, and now it was only this horrible reality that had settled in. His pulse hammered through his whole body, curling about him as the horror settled into his gut. A nightmare he knew he wouldn't wake up from.
"...You're not him," Gabriel finally said.
That fear crashed over him, the unsaid meaning of the words piercing him straight into the heart, and it felt like his throat was closing up.
"But–" he whispered. "But I'm–"
I'm your son.
But he wasn't.
No, the boy known as Adrien Agreste had died years ago, right along side Emilie Agreste. He... he didn't even know who he was, because he couldn't be Adrien Agreste. No, he was a substitute, an impostor, a senti created to hide the magic that had gone wrong. To make Emilie's disappearance look like that until she could be brought back.
Until Emilie and the original Adrien could be brought back.
And he... and he... If the true Adrien was meant to be restored, that meant that his existence was never meant to be for long. His fate had been decided since before he had even been created.
"I don't wanna die!" Adrien cried out, tears falling from his face. Tears he had thought had ran dry when this news had been forced upon him. His fear was more potent than ever, desperation choking him. "You- you wouldn't– please– you– you wouldn't–!"
But he had watched Hawk Moth discard dozens of sentibeings before. Sent them out to fight a battle where he knew they would be destroyed and slaughtered.
Gabriel sighed, twisting the ring on his finger. "You weren't meant to find out about the Miraculouses and magic, you were meant to be something more... natural. Unfortunately I cannot just make another of you, not with all of Adrien's memories again, so I will have to make do."
What was happening what was happening what was happening–?
"Senti-Adrien, I order you not to discuss anything you learned tonight with anyone outside of this room. Oh, Nathalie can know, since she already knows," he said, and Adrien could feel the magic curling around him. "You will continue on as if nothing had happened for the outside world, and you will not make a nuisance of yourself."
"I don't want to die," Adrien whispered.
Gabriel twitched in annoyance. "Leave. I order you not to enter any of my lairs again."
The orders compelled him to stand, to move towards the elevator– but he did not need its prompting in order to run. He needed to get out of here, away from his father, away from his mother's coffin.
But she's not really your mother. You never have even truly met her. All the memories you have of her aren't yours. You never have been near her. She never loved you.
The elevator began to rise, and he collapsed to the ground, shaking sobs coming from him. Plagg zipped out of his pocket, but he couldn't bring himself to look at his kwami. He didn't want to see the expression on his face, now that the Black Cat knew what he truly was.
"Kitten?" Plagg whispered. "Kitten, say something."
"I'm– I'm not him," Adrien whispered, voice fearful.
"I don't care about 'him'," Plagg snapped. "Guardians, I would have Cataclsyed him if I could but that would have hit you too, and if he saw me he could have ordered you to hand over the ring and–"
...