Chapter 43: Volpina

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(Three hundred and four thousand, six hundred and third Quantic Universe Earth, Paris, France, Wednesday, February 17th, 2016, third person POV...)



In the Agreste Mansion, Adrien is walking down the stairs, having been given the signal to prepare for the Volpina and Collector double-team incidents, for the day when Lila Rossi aka Cerise Bianca, Iris Verdi, Daphne Azzurri, Volpina, Chameleon, Hoaxer, Chrysalis/Hawk Moth II, Chrystalis, and Fuzzy Witch showed up and the day when Adrien will meet Master Fu has come. And Adrien remembers that at the same time that the Volpina and Collector double-team incidents have come today, the day to start collecting more evidence of Gabriel Agreste being Hawk Moth has also come. In the form of filming him transforming from Hawk Moth to Gabriel Agreste and then Akumatizing himself into The Collector.


Adrien stops in the middle of the stairs to mentally say, "Well, I guess this is it. Collecting more evidence of my father being Hawk Moth and more evidence of the fact that he can easily Akumatize himself into either The Collector or Nightormentor. Can't say I'm looking forward to it, but I have no choice. If Dad won't stop obsessing over reviving Mom or even willingly joining her in the afterlife while making sure that I don't find out about his crimes like in the original timeline no thanks to the real Thomas Astruc, then I really will have no choice but to disavow him from our family. If I ever get that right, that is."


Adrien knew that he didn't want to admit it, but he had been hoping that his father would change, but when the Birds told him and Marinette about his father's fate in both the canon timelines and the movie continuity which is said to be an Alternate Universe Continuity, that hope was dashed.


And because they saw the Miraculous Ladybug movie the night before the first Stormy Weather incident, Adrien could see clear as day that it'd be deathly impossible for Gabriel Agreste to fully change for the better, if at all, not unlike what Marinette's original future self saw and experienced in the final battle before Gabriel pulled a fast one and got the last laugh.


Adrien looks at the camera in the foyer, giving a mental command to stop recording everything it sees for the next 30 minutes at the signal of his fingers in the sign for two forty-five, and through his telepathic and technological link to the camera in Gabriel's atelier, he gives the same command.


Adrien hides behind a pillar and gives the signal to the two cameras as he hears his father ask on the phone while also spying on him with his night vision, "Yes, I'm busy. I was right in the middle of something very important. What do you want?"


The employee replies to Gabriel that the sample garment doesn't match with the pattern.


Gabriel demands, "What?! This is unacceptable! (Slamming his fist on the open Miraculous grimoire) The sample garment doesn't match with what I told you at all! All you had to do was to simply follow a pattern, you idiots! (Takes the grimoire to the Emilie Agreste painting) What am I supposed to do about it? The show is in three days! (Puts the grimoire in his safe before closing the painting) No, don't use him; he's completely useless. (Walks outside of his atelier) Call my assistant, Lindsay. She'll give you some other names."


Gabriel hangs up before walking away.


Still given the time window and thankful his security access supersedes Nathalie's security access from before she quit and his father's own security access, Adrien waits for Gabriel to vanish from sight as he says, "See, Plagg? I told you he hides his past life secrets and his supervillain secrets behind his painting of my mom, just like you knew in the original timeline without telling me about the spellbook or the Peacock Miraculous."

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