Partners by Chance

Chapter 14 - How did we get here?

Marinette

Marinette was thrown against a column of the respiratory under Agreste's Mansion. In front of her, Gabriel Agreste as Hawk Moth was sparing with Adrien as Chat Noir. For a moment, Marinette blacked out.

"MARINE-" screamed Adrien, just before Gabriel hitting him so hard he was also thrown against a wall.

As Marinette recovered the senses, she saw Adrien knocked out at her side. The anger grew in her she needed to think in something fast.

"It's over Marinette. Give me your Miraculous and Chat Noir's." he threatened.

Marinette swung her yo-yo and jump with all her strengths against Gabriel. She tied her yo-yo's string around his cane. As much strength the Ladybug Miraculous gave her, she couldn't defeat a adult holder. He pulled his cane with the yo-yo and threw both away. Now it was a weaponless fight.

Behind her he heard someone running. It was Adrien charging against his father, without knowing who lied behind the mask.

"CATACLYSM!" he screamed, gathering a giant amount of destructive energy in his ring.

Marinette understood in the fraction of a second what his plan was. He would turn his father into dust with his power.

"ADRIEN! NO!!!" she screamed.

Hawk Moth's strength failed for a second, and Marinette used it to throw him at the ground and run to get her yo-yo. Gabriel was yet in shock and didn't get up immediately.

Adrien, approached Gabriel. The Cataclysm yet in his hand was threatening, and Adrien wasn't showing a happy face.

"You made a terrible mistake, Hawk Moth." he said "You messed with the girl I love. And I'm going to kill you."

"Would you be able to kill your own father?" he asked.

It was now time for Adrien's strength to fail, he started walking back, retreating slowly.

"Yes, Adrien Agreste. I am your father." said Gabriel with an evil voice.

"No. No! NO!!!" he screamed "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"

"You know why am I doing this?" asked Gabriel "It's not for me, Adrien. It's for her."

As he said "her" he pointed to a cryogenic coffin in the center of the respiratory. In it, the long lost body of Emily Agreste lay, so small, so vulnerable.

Adrien was crying. All his strength have left his body now. Even Marinette stopped his attack. She already knew Hawk Moth's identity, but seeing him from this point... Marinette never thought about that... He was doing what he was doing for love...

Above them, the party continued. Music, footsteps, laughs and parts conversations would sometimes get to the lower levels of the mansion. Nobody was aware of the war that was being fought under their feet. In the mansion, at least other six miraculous wielders were unaware that the biggest fight ever was happening just a few meters below their feet.

"Together, we can save her." Gabriel continued "We can bring your mom back to life."

Adrien was knelled, completely sobbing. Bring the most perfect and innocent human being back to life or save the universe from unknown consequences of doing so? How could Adrien choose?

"You just need to hand me your miraculous and Marinette's, and then everything will be alright." he said.

Marinette didn't want to take part of this. She was divided. The oath she made to keep the miraculous safe or help the boy she loved since the dawn of time, even before both were born? Her duty or her soul?

"If she truly loves you, she will understand that her duty is not as important as her love." he said, as if he read Marinette's mind.

Wait a second, but he did. His power is to read emotions.  He knew Marinette was divided. It was all a plan.

Marinette understood it and thrown his yo-yo, tying Gabriel's legs together. He was defeated. As she aproached him, Hawk Moth's cane opened and an akuma flew directly to Adrien's bell.

"Chat Blanc, I give you the power of unlimited destruction!" he screamed, trying to control Adrien's mind "Bring me Marinette's miraculous and give me your's afterwards!" 

Adrien squirmed, fighting Hawk Moth's influence. He was trying to fight the akuma, but something was off. Marinette didn't see the purple masks in neither of their faces. They weren't communicating telepathically. And Adrien, he wasn't squirming of struggle. He was squirming of pain. But that wasn't Hawk Moth's power.

Marinette ran, and pulled the butterfly brooch in Gabriel's neck, his miraculous. But strangely, his powers didn't go away. He kept his form. And she heard something in her head. It was Tikki.

"That's not a miraculous!" she said "I feel a dark energy, that can only be an akumatized object! Destroy it!"

Marinette closed her hand strongly, shattering the brooch in a million parts. A miraculous wouldn't be so fragile.

Adrien stopped squirming and Gabriel returned to it's original form. But no akuma flew out of the dust. What the...

Gabriel stared screaming in pain. A terrible show, like if his own flesh was melting out of his bones. Eventually, he stopped screaming, and stood up.

"We don't have much time... The butterfly miraculous... she took it away..." he said.

"Dad, who is she?" asked Adrien, yet in Chat Noir's form.

"I... I shouldn't... I shouldn't have... trusted her..." he said, before blacking out.

Marinette succumbed to weakness and sat down on the spot. Adrien was still crying over his father, now completely knocked out, but not dead yet.

"Plagg, claws in." he said, deactivating his miraculous.

"Tikki, spots off." she said, deactivating her miraculous.

Adrien sat at Marinette's side and hugged her. Both were thinking in the same thing.

The day had started so well... Everything seemed to go right. But then she returned... Why did she return? Why... why... why... They barely made it... It was that moment that doomed Marinette and Adrien, that was that moment that ended everything...

Why her? Out of every person in Paris, why had to be her the one who was akumatized... They have fought before, but today it was different... Today, one way or another, she won the battle... Could she be the one who they needed to be aware of? Maybe... Maybe... Oh, no one could ever have predicted what happened. No one, not even the most skilled of the mages...

How did we get here?