What We Fight For

Chapter Four: Masterpiece Pt.2

Gabriel had been hiding up in his observatory for months.

How could he have let everything escape his grasp...

Nathalie, the chance to save his wife, all the miraculous, even his son escaped him.

He was back to square one. No help, no miracle box, no Nathalie...

He felt guilty he had developed feelings for her, and guiltier he had let her go. He found himself missing her, but he hadn't seen her in months.

However, he had a plan.

It took him weeks to get his courage back, and weeks longer to find some semblance of a plan. He got Ladybug to make one mistake, he could do it again.

He'd have to go about it another way though. Trapping them, forcing them to reveal themselves. Somehow, some way, he would catch her and the cat slipping. Especially now that he gave them ample time to get rusty. He withheld the temptation to make a sentimonster,  the temptation to tune in and find his next pawn in this long lasting chess game. Just for this moment.

He had focused on their miraculous, simply wanting to use them to bring back his beloved Emilie. During his isolation, he thought mostly about.. her. Her smile, her laugh, her beauty.

Her struggle to bring Adrien into the world...

He thought about just how much he missed her.

He also thought about how he needed to use a different angle to win this war he was fighting. He was so focused on their jewels when he should have been focusing on exposing them. He should have been making them vulnerable without them knowing they were being led into a trap. He had to be quick, smart, clandestine. He needed to buy time. He couldn't afford to lose any before they got strong enough to get to him.

If they figured him out it was all over.

He had been underestimating them. They weren't little kids anymore.

He had also spent his time mastering his miraculous. He wanted to be stronger than ever, he didn't need the others.

Just the cat and the bug.

He called Nooroo to his side, aching to get back to his work.

"Nooroo, your new abilities are finally going to come to use today. It is time I make my biggest attempt yet at getting what I deserve."

Nooroo's face dropped as he nodded, forced to obey his twisted holder.

"Nooroo..." he prepared to say for the first time in a while,

"Dark wings, RISE!" his voiced carried with ease, echoing as Nooroo transformed him.

He honed his senses, looking for any signs of despair...

Ah, yes.

He heard an older man crying. He seemed betrayed, angry, sad.

He was mourning something.

"It just isn't fair! Kids need access to art education and self expression! The city renovated the football stadium but couldn't continue my art program? Its a travesty!"

He cried as he sat outside Francoise Dupont high school. The school that had employed him for decades, sent him packing with the last box he had to pack full of his classroom supplies in his arms. And they didn't even bother to tell him until the day class started.

It all came out of his pocket and it still wasn't enough.

He loved being an educator and loved his kids. Losing his job was one of the biggest losses in his life...