–Disclaimer: I don’t
even go here–
“Chat Noir…can you
promise me something? Please, please let me tell Adrien first. He deserves to
know. This is going to ruin his life once the public knows. Let me tell him
first. Please… Just let me do that for him… It’s all I can do…”
…
Ladybug hadn’t told him yet. Not in the three days that had
passed since their promise. Adrien fell quiet for those three days in school,
as if by speaking he might risk revealing his own terrible secret. Nino
noticed, and Marinette too, but he denied all their fears with a gentle laugh
and a shake of his head. Those days, he went right home after school. He’d
dragged his chair to the window, seated himself there every afternoon with just
enough of a view in case she came through the balcony. He did homework. He
browsed his phone. He waited. And yet Ladybug never appeared to share what she
and…Chat Noir had learned.
Adrien ate his meals alone, and he was thankful for it that
his father didn’t schedule a single meal together in that time. Yes, that was
good. Because Adrien still hadn’t figured out a single thing to say to him.
Three days, Adrien locked himself away with his thoughts. On
the fourth, someone was Akumized.
…
“You can call me The Splitter!” a child, hardly 11 years old
by the looks of it, shouted from the top of a statue in downtown Paris. The boy
was clad in a jumpsuit that consumed him head to foot. The left half was solid blue,
the right half red, split along a perfect symmetrical partition in the center.
A cowlick of curly blond hair eked from under his mask. Round cheeks, freckles,
and chestnut eyes peeked from the hole in the center of his mask. Otherwise the
boy was covered, and he brandished a glimmering wand that may once have
belonged to some magician set. He swung it through the air as if it might hit
some invisible enemy.
Adrien had heard the explosions from his house. It took him
under five minutes to get across town, but Ladybug was faster. Oh, she was
always faster. That usually made his job easier. Ladybug would scope out the
offensive, and he’d only need to lend his destructive services to tie her plan
together.
This was not one of those days. Ladybug stood on the
pavement below, frozen. Her sharp eyes moved across every object on scene as if
appraising them. They were blocked in by trees behind them, and an open road
hugged the periphery of the park ahead of them. Flowers bloomed at the base of
the statue, dipped in a gossamer paint. Whatever power the Akumized child
possessed, it frightened Ladybug enough to keep her from acting.
“Chat! There you are—about time. Help me.”
“Gladly, M’lady.” He pounced to her side, scooping into a
bow. He felt less of his heart go into it. And he almost missed her next words,
her old ones echoing in his head. Let me
tell Adrien first…
“This is bad. I can’t get near him. The ring is keeping me
from getting close to his wand. If I try to snag him with my yoyo, it drags
that glowing ring closer too,” Ladybug muttered, teeth tight together. Her eyes
shifted over the terrain again, futile. “I already summoned my Lucky Charm
hoping it could give me a way to reach him, but I don’t see what I’m supposed
to do with it. I don’t know what it wants from me.” She tapped something in her
right hand against her hip—her Lucky Charm, Adrien guessed—but it was hidden
from his view.
Adrien glanced down, tail flickering. A thick, wavering neon
circle wrapped around the boy. The border of it was perhaps 5 centimeters
thick, the circle’s radius about 10 meters with its center at the Splitter. The
whole thing wrapped like a loose ribbon over the concrete. Eerily, it pulsed,
its colors washing through a litany of reds, pinks, blues…
“What does the circle do?” Adrien asked. He toed away from
it to give it more space, suddenly wary.
The Splitter answered before Ladybug had the chance.
“It activates my special power!” The boy raised the wand
over his head, as though he were rallying troops to fight. “My family is
‘splitting up’. And if they’re going to split up without thinking of me, well,
I figure it’s only fair I split everyone else
up alongside us!” The kid slammed his boot down on the statue’s head.
“Cross my circle, and I’ll beam your family here! Then we’ll get to the
splitting. Are your parents feeling ‘suffocated’ in this family? I’ll send one
to the rim of an active volcano, where they’ll fit right in with all that
suffocating smoke! Are they ‘drowning’ in their relationship? No problem, I’ll
transport the other to the Atlantic Ocean, and they can drown for real.”
“He’s dangerous,” Ladybug ground out with a shiver. “If
either of us crosses that line, our families will be at risk. I know you must
have a family too, Chat. Don’t be reckless.”
“And if we have no volunteers,” the Splitter followed up,
voice louder, booming with projection. “I will simply have to choose some
myself.”
Adrien twisted his head around to survey the park.
Empty—everyone had fled from the swingsets, the benches, the streets. No doubt
Ladybug had made sure they got away safe. That meant he and Ladybug were the
only possible targets, and with Ladybug’s Lucky Charm summoned, it left them
with a ticking clock too…
“M’lady, what did your charm produce?”
Ladybug’s shoulders fell just a bit. She swung her right arm
around. In her fist she clenched the chain of a set of handcuffs, red with
black dots. “These…I can’t figure out what to do with them.”
“You, Miss Ladybug!” the Splitter cried.
Adrien stiffened. Ladybug’s eyes went wide. The kid had
hopped from his platform, dragging his toes along the pavement as he walked to
the edge of his own circle. As he moved, the neon coloring beveled away from
him. It kept a constant radius, clawing outward as the Splitter moved. Both
Adrien and Ladybug narrowly stumbled away from it.
“Miss Ladybug, you’re always saving this town with a smile.
I don’t like your happiness. I don’t like that you get to be happy when us divorced kids can’t! I volunteer you! Get inside
the ring.”
“No, garcon… I’d
rather not,” Ladybug answered, though her focus remained on her footwork, not
her wit. The warping edge of the Splitter’s circle lashed out at odd intervals,
almost licking Ladybug’s stumbling feet. “Not until we’ve freed you from the
evil that’s possessed you.”
Evil that’s possessed…
Right, it was Hawkmoth’s doing…
“I’m not giving you a choice!” the kid bellowed. With his
words he swatted, wand arcing, extending, lengthening. As the scepter expanded,
so did the circle. Adrien jumped from its path instantaneously, cat-like in his
reflexes. He grasped for a branch in the canopy of trees and hauled himself up,
crouched in waiting. Ladybug didn’t have his reaction time, or his grace.
She only leapt, and stumbled, and let out a pained note of
horror as the magic circle crashed past her toes.
“M’lady!”
A flash, a shout, the harsh muted thmp of falling bodies. Adrien watched the scene unfold. A woman hardly
taller than Ladybug had been wrenched violently into being. Her enormous
husband crashed on top of her, right next to the Splitter. They both gasped
with the summons, yet neither seemed capable of moving. Adrien averted his eyes
on instinct. Ladybug’s parents… If he
looked, it could reveal her identity. He shouldn’t look. He musn’t.
“Mama! Papa!”
Adrien cringed, his eyes cracking open. He didn’t focus on
the dazed adults. He had only eyes for Ladybug, tightness gripping his throat
as he waited for her to do something. Anything.
She…didn’t. Couldn’t. That was
it. She yanked and twisted against her ankle, hands grasped to her shin, but
the neon band of The Splitter’s circle served double as a vice.
“Leave them alone!” she cried, voice cracking like a twig
cracked. And not like the snap of a new branch, pliant and rawly green on the
inside. No, her voice cracked like something dried and dead, hot against the
concrete. Something inside Adrien broke right in tune with it.
“No,” The Splitter answered, chillingly cold. “Now let’s see
where Mama and Papa Ladybug should take their ‘break’ from each other. The
wastelands of the Sahara? The black, black depths of the ocean? Maybe deeper,
beneath the crust, under the mantle, since parents are under so much ‘pressure’
trying to keep their marriage happy anyway!”
“You…can’t…” Ladybug whispered, and she tore at her ankle
with enough force that Adrien feared she’d break it. That motion, desperate
motion… and the clank of the handcuffs at Ladybug’s waist grabbed Adrien’s
attention.
“Ladybug,” he announced, dropping down from his safe spot in
the tree. She turned to him, eyes wet and desperate. He fought down his
reaction to it. He couldn’t crumble, not now. “I’m breaking our promise, I’m
sorry, M’lady.”
“…What, Chat?” she breathed.
He had only a few seconds left to change his mind. He could change his mind, if any part of
him still believed he was wrong… If any part of him doubted what he’d seen… If
he had even an ounce of faith left in his own–
Adrien shook his head, green eyes flickering. Serious. Numb
to his actions. “I promised you could tell Adrien first… I can’t keep that
promise to you.”
Ladybug blinked, too many thoughts racing through her mind
to piece Adrien’s (Chat Noir’s…) words together. She only swung her head back
around to her own parents, to the little boy musing over their fate. When she
faced Adrien again, he was inches from the edge of the ring.
“Stay back! He’ll get your family too, Chat.”
“I’m aware, M’lady.”
“Chat, no!”
And Adrien set one toe over the dancing line.
The Splitter cracked a smile. He turned away from Ladybug’s
parents, staff brandished out in a flourish of delight. His outfit shimmered;
his face twisted in cruel, raw excitement. “Ah, Chat Noir too! How smart to
just cooperate like this! You must get how awful parents are. Now, let’s
dispose of your family, then, too.”
Another crack, another flash of light. Something heavy,
appearing, dark, falling. A new figure hit the ground inside The Splitter’s
circle, and Adrien didn’t dare look. Ladybug did—she must have—judging by her
gasp.
And a new voice entered the ring: “Splitter, what have you
done!?”
Oh yes… That was his
voice, rawer though. More…vile. Contemptuous. Primal in a way Adrien never
heard it. Adrien kept his eyes closed, but he felt like he could see what
he fought so hard to ignore.
“Ah, so Chat has only a father? No matter! Where shall we
send you, Mr. Father of Chat?”
“Cease this at once,
Splitter.” Desperate now, venomous, spitting and… stunned. It was lost
surprise in the man’s voice, because he must have never considered that his own
son, Adrien–
“—Chat Noir! Would you like to weigh in? How’s your
relationship with your daddy? Are you ‘suffocated’? ‘Smothered’? ‘Drowning’? Oh
use your words, Chat! That’s what the
therapist says—use your words.”
The man’s voice crescendoed back to power. “Your powers have
malfunctioned, Splitter! Stop! Stop now!”
Adrien—finally—let his eyes drift open. Somehow, he still
hoped he might see his father there, silver hair, designer glasses,
half-windsor knot holding the tie at his neck. He indulged in the idea that
maybe, cruelly, he’d just gotten his innocent father caught up in the realm of
superpowers. That is was a misunderstanding.
No. In the center of the ring, crumpled beside the Splitter,
it was Ladybug’s parents,
And it was Hawkmoth.
And he, the son of Hawkmoth, had been trapped by the spell
of the Splitter’s circle. It sent tiny, electric spasms into his heel,
completely overriding any attempt he made on his own to pull his foot from the
radius of the Splitter’s influence.
“No, I see it now, this one is easy!” the Splitter’s high
voice answered.
“Stop!” Dad, Hawkmoth,
Gabriel Agreste…
“It’s cold. All
you’ve ever been to Chat is cold… Chilling,
distant, hardly a father at all! Antarctica—that’s where I’ll drop you. That’s
where you’ll learn. Freezing…. Freezing… Frozen…”
“Adrien!”
And Adrien snapped to attention, like he’d been conditioned
to at that voice. He watched Hawkmoth, frozen under the circle’s influence like
everyone else. Hawkmoth was crumpled against the pavement, only his head
raised, only his eyes shining wide through his silver mask. And it was hatred
at that moment he saw, deep in his father’s eyes, as they both understood what
exactly Adrien had done.
“To that icy hell with you, Mr. Chat’s Father!” The Splitter
announced. He raised his wand, and it glowed. A spark coughed along the staff,
which he lowered, inches away, ready to touch, and banish, and maybe even kill…
“Adrien!”
Adrien steeled himself against the words. He balled his
fist, returned his father’s glare. Adrien didn’t speak, he only shook his head
slowly, silently, as the Splitter’s wand dropped…
Hawkmoth wrenched his hand free from beneath his body. He
twisted just enough to seize the wand by the handle. His glove tightened,
strained, and as if drawn by a magnetic force, the Akuma inside bubbled to the
surface. It was a mottled black butterfly, torn from its host by the very man
who’d created it. Hawkmoth unclamped his hand, ran it up the body of the staff
just far enough to trap the butterfly beneath his hand. He closed his fingers,
and crushed it.
A collective gasp rang out—Hawkmoth, Adrien, Ladybug, her
parents—as the shimmering circle vanished in a gust of wind, swept away like
sand. The electric vice around Adrien’s foot loosened. The material of the
Splitter’s costume dissolved into the air, like sugar vanishing in a hot cup of
tea.
Adrien flexed his foot, felt the freedom of movement that
had returned. He didn’t budge though. He only observed, and watched Ladybug
race in. She was purely instinct at the moment, her Lucky Charm handcuffs
unslung from her hip. She tore them open, moved in, stamped her heel into
Hawkmoth’s back while her hands took his wrists. That was the plan all along,
wasn’t it? Ever since they found out Hawkmoth’s identity? To arrest Gabriel
Agreste…
Crying broke the silence—the Splitter kid had been washed of
his uniform. He sat like a puddle on the concrete, balled fists to his eyes,
sobbing that he wanted his parents. Ladybug’s parents stirred too. There was a
deliberate tension around Ladybug’s face that kept her from running to them.
They didn’t know about the Splitter’s powers, and it meant Ladybug hadn’t
revealed her identity to her parents.
Her dad, faster than his size suggested, grabbed his wife in
his arms and lifted her. Neither of them stayed to thank Ladybug or Chat—they
simply ran, and Adrien couldn’t blame them. Not after what they’d been through.
All the while he watched them only from the corner of his eye to ensure he
never recognized them. If he did, it would no doubt out Ladybug like he’d–
–well, outted himself.
That left only two people who really mattered inside the
circle—and that was Ladybug, and his father. Adrien let his feet move this
time, stepping cautiously. He looked to Ladybug until the last second, when he
crouched face to face with the villain he’d feared like no other. Ladybug had
bound his hands with the cuffs, and gave just enough pressure to Hawkmoth’s
back to keep his face pressed into the pavement. Hawkmoth’s cheek took the
brunt of the force. The rest of his face was angled upward, seething eyes set
only to Adrien.
To…Chat Noir.
“You can’t…be
him,” Hawkmoth ground out. He lashed out, body twisting against Ladybug’s hold,
and it stunned Adrien to see his father dare to break composure.
“I could say the same… Ladybug and I figured it out a few
days ago when we found your lair… I didn’t want it to be you.” Adrien returned
his father’s stare. “I wanted to believe…you couldn’t be him.”
Ladybug’s eyes were on him now, different. Piteous, though
she didn’t dare speak. Sirens welled behind them.
“You treacherous, vile creature. What would your mother
think of you?” Hawkmoth spat, neck straining.
Chat stood, and he breathed in deep to hide how badly the
words lashed. He looked only to Ladybug, and offered his hand to her. “You’re
going to detransform soon. I can hold him down, M’lady.”
“Adrien!” Hawkmoth’s
words were sharp, anger cutting deeper. Adrien had spent so many years learning
to cower at that voice, and Hawkmoth (his father)
knew it.
“Don’t call me Adrien, Hawkmoth,” he whispered. Ladybug
flinched at the words, but her expression didn’t change. Adrien appraised her
silently, realizing for certain that Ladybug had put enough of it together to
know who he was.
“I…named you that!
I gave you that name! I gave you this life! You ungrateful, spoiled, rotten excuse for a child! You will
untie me and you will come with me,
Adrien!”
Adrien drew closer, letting one hand fall on Ladybug’s
shoulder. It had meant to be comforting, he imagined, until he realized how
badly his own hand shook. “Ladybug, you can go. And Hawkmoth—“ Adrien kept
himself at full height, staring down, drowning out any emotion that dared to
force its way to the surface, “—it’s Chat
Noir to you.”
Ladybug took him by the shoulders. She motioned her head
behind him, to the semi-circle of police cars that had gathered. The two
officers who’d been hovering on the periphery took it as their cue to move in. “Come
on, Chat… You shouldn’t be here.”
Ladybug led Adrien away, as the officers lifted Hawkmoth
from the sidewalk, gravel plastered to his right cheek where his mask had torn.
His eyes followed Adrien all the way back to the car, closing only for the
moment that the closest officer pulled back the mask. Disheveled, silver hair
fell out, eyes naked without their signature glasses. It was Gabriel Agreste then
who stared death into his son for the rest of the slow march to the police
officer’s car.
Is that—this is
Gabriel Agreste, isn’t it!
The model kid’s
father?
The fashion tycoon
guy–that Gabriel Agreste? No way
I don’t believe it…
Who would have thought…? This is huge!
Then sirens, pulling away, fading off with the police
back-up’s excited chatter. It left hollowness in the air, the statue beside
them, the concrete cold beneath them. A chilled wind picked up and swept the
hair from Adrien’s eyes. Ladybug’s hands remained on his shoulders, but only
now did he realize how badly he’d begun to shake. No, not just shake—cry. He shuddered, rocked with the
gasping breaths that rattled his body. A numb reality crashed in on him, and he
suffocated under it.
Ladybug pulled him tight against her body. She didn’t dare
move when her earrings timed out, and the magic fabric of her uniform stripped
away. Maybe this was her way of making it fair to him. Hawkmoth’s identity, and
then his, and then hers… It was fair.
On any other day, he’d have been thrilled to learn Ladybug’s
identity. Not today. Adrien kept his eyes shut. He gripped her closer, crying
harder, imagining her as Ladybug and only Ladybug, because then maybe he could
believe nothing’d changed.
His own harried beeping followed, and he didn’t bother
wondering why he’d timed out so soon as his own costume stripped away. He only kept
his eyes screwed tight, so that he could believe he was still dressed as Chat
Noir.
Ladybug rocked with him, a soothing motion against the
rampant trembling of his own body. He moved with it, like ocean waves, and
found stars behind his eyelids. He fought out the reality clawing against his
body, his eyes, watching only the dizzying stars in his vision—
His own, racking
breath. Something comforting from Ladybug’s lips. Sirens, receding.
–because maybe then he could pretend no one had been
unmasked–
Voices, clamoring
closer, happening upon the scene now that the battle had ended.
–not him, not Ladybug—
The Splitter, crying
quietly by their side. His face raw and red, wet where his balled hands trailed. Just a lost, scared little kid now without his mask
–and not Gabriel Agreste.