(PLEASE READ PARTS 1 AND 2 FIRST)

(Mood Music:  Morning Passage - The Hours)

Adrien stood in front of Gabriel's office door. He could feel  goosebumps forming on his arms and the tiny hairs on the back of his  neck rising. He would much prefer to hop on that long-distance train  that Nathalie suggested rather than face his father, but he knew this  confrontation had been a long time coming.

So he knocked.

There  was no answer. A moment later he opened the door and looked inside.  Gabriel was at his desk, but did not react to his presence. Nooroo sat  on a pile of books, but from the looks of it, he wasn't permitted to  speak, as usual. Adrien stepped in and closed the door, but still,  Gabriel would not look up from his papers.

The pit in Adrien's  stomach grew larger. Was he no longer even considered worthy to be  acknowledged? The mounting frustration spurred him on as he walked  further into the room.

Putting on a false confident air, he finally spoke, "Father... it's time we really talk."

Gabriel  ignored him, casually leafing through his paperwork and scribbling in  his notebook on occasion. Nooroo eyed him wearily, then back at Adrien.

Adrien  straightened up to his full height, bristling with rage. "At least look  at me when I talk to you!" Adrien snarled. "It's the least you could do  after everything I've done for you all these years!"

Gabriel  finally lifted his gaze, a lofty look pasted on his face as if Adrien  were nothing more than an annoying fly that entered the room.

"What  is there to say? I'm sure you can predict what comes next," Gabriel  replied, leaning back on his massive chair and steepling his fingers.  "However, since you obviously seem to be having trouble thinking clearly  lately, I'll give you a hint." His eyebrows furrowed in displeasure;  his voice became darker. "Effective immediately, you will surrender your  miraculous, and are hereby forbidden to leave the mansion  indefinitely."

Adrien widened his eyes, not in surprise but in outrage. "No," he stated simply.

"That  wasn't a request." Gabriel eyed him carefully, disapproval evident in  his face. "You knew this would happen when you disobeyed me. Why try to  fight it?"

Adrien inhaled sharply and braced himself for what he was about to say next. "Because what we're doing is wrong."

The older man chuckled with that ever-present condescending air to his voice. "Since when do you   care about right and wrong? This was never about being the  stereotypical 'good guys' and changing the world one good deed at a  time. This was always about gaining power. Power that we need for a perfectly legitimate reason. And now, apparently, you've got morals,   suddenly pretending to care about others." He fixed Adrien with a  steely glare. "Life is not black and white, Adrien. My methods may seem  unconventional and, I'll admit, even controversial. But at least I'm no  hypocrite."

Adrien suppressed a growl, recoiling in vexation and  distress. It was like a sack of hot coals had been dropped into his  stomach, searing him with the guilt that had always been there, but had  now grown tenfold. Gabriel somehow always managed to find a way to make  him feel like a horrible human being.

But... he wasn't wrong.  Chat Noir was just as guilty as Hawkmoth was for putting the city in  danger, even if their motives were slightly different. How could he  possibly argue with him, when he was just as responsible for harming the  innocent? Could his father be right? Was there no escaping the giant  pit he'd dug for himself? His throat felt dry, and he couldn't help but  wilt under his father's judgmental gaze.

It was at that moment  that his mind decided to reflect upon the time he'd spent with Ladybug.  Nowadays, the thought of her brought him hope and courage, for reasons  he'd only recently begun to understand. She was a beautiful light that  shone brighter and brighter the more he got to know her, illuminating  the dark prison he'd been trapped in for so long.

He recalled how  she'd apologized to him for putting him in danger as Adrien. She'd  acknowledged her mistakes, then set forth to rectify them. And as Chat,  who had been her enemy for years, even knowing what he'd done, she was  still willing to try to help him be free. Ladybug was the only person  outside of their family circle that knew about his double life. She  didn't feel that he was unworthy of redemption, and she actually believed   in him. Somehow she had welcomed him as her partner despite their past,  despite his background, despite knowing who his father was, despite everything.

He recognized that wallowing in self-pity wasn't going to accomplish anything. His eyebrows furrowed, deep in thought. Admitting that you're wrong is not a weakness. It's a strength.

Adrien straightened up subconsciously, drawing courage and determination from the faith and confidence that Ladybug had in him.

"People change," he finally replied, stepping forward. "We can both   change. Father, just listen! We've been terrorizing the city, putting  its entire population in peril for so long, and for nothing! We can't  keep doing this," he stated, almost pleadingly.

"Oh, it's not for  nothing," Gabriel raised his eyebrows, carefully eyeing Adrien. "Think  about what happened today. About how you failed me. We would have  succeeded were it not for your complete and utter ineptitude," he  continued with unconcealed irritation and disdain, his voice sounding  colder and more severe now that they were talking face to face instead  of through a communicator.

Adrien clenched his fists so tightly that his fingernails dug into his palms. He had to convince him. "You're going to kill people," he stated, fighting to keep his voice from quavering.

Gabriel tsked and waved dismissively. "Don't be so callow. Sacrifices must be made; you and I both agreed on that long ago."

"I was a child!!"   Adrien shouted, an unbearable heat forming at the base of his neck, the  tension in the room almost suffocating. "I was a scared kid who had  just lost his mother and was desperate to bring her back, and you were  my father! I trusted you, believed that you would know what to do!" He lowered his voice, struggling to calm down. "You failed ME, Father. Not the other way around. And if you don't stop you'll end up losing your whole family."

Gabriel inhaled sharply. "When I succeed and you get your mother back, as undeserving as you are, you'll see the error of your ways and beg for my forgiveness!"

"Mom will never forgive you when she finds out what you've done!" Adrien countered emphatically. "What WE'VE done! Father, we've been wrong.   All these years, we've done something unforgivable, caused pain to so  many people! But we can put a stop to this now. We can end this and  together we can find another way to help mom. Ladybug can help us!"

"Do NOT bring up that insect!! You know   that's completely out of the question!" Gabriel snarled. "I will  continue on my mission and so will you, if you know what's good for  you."

"I can't," Adrien said, resolute. "I won't," he declared, stronger now. "And I won't let you do it either. I'm not going to let you hurt innocent people anymore. It's not what Mom would want, and we both know it."

Gabriel replied, enraged, "How would you know what she would want?! I'm   the one who knew her best! Whether I have to force you to help me, or  take your power back and use it for myself; one way or another, I WILL  bring my Emilie back to life!"

Adrien felt as if he'd been  physically struck. "Back... back to life?" He searched his father's eyes  in confusion. "What do you mean 'back to life'? M-mom isn't— she's in a  coma, she's not... You said—"

"Your mother's dead, Adrien," Gabriel spat, shooting him a venomous look.

Adrien  gaped at him in disbelief, struggling to keep his legs from buckling.  He wanted to call his father a liar. He wanted to curse at him and yell  at him at the top of his lungs that he was mistaken. But he couldn't.  Somewhere inside he knew it was true.

"You... you lied to me?"

Gabriel ignored his question. "This is why we need the miraculous of creation," he explained, exasperated. "Your mother doesn't need healing. She needs to be revived."   He shifted in his chair, crossing his arms, as if the whole  conversation was all too irritating to have to endure. "Do you  understand now? Why it's so important to acquire those earrings?"

Adrien  stood there, incredulous, in the middle of the spacious yet  overwhelmingly stifling hall. Was this really happening? This was  literally the subject of so many of his nightmares, where he would  awaken sobbing and hyperventilating.

So why wasn't he crying? Why wasn't he screaming? He felt numb. He couldn't speak. He couldn't breathe.

His mother.

His  kind, beautiful mother, who had loved him, held him, protected him. His  biggest source of comfort as a child, the best example of pure,  unconditional love. The thought of her being gone permanently had been  so devastating and overpowering that he'd desperately fought to make  sure it would never come to pass, and had fiercely held onto even the  tiniest sliver of hope his father had offered.

And yet, in reality, the possibility of bringing her back was so much smaller than he'd ever imagined, and it had always   been that small. Had all his hopes of seeing her again been based  solely on Gabriel's shaky conjecture and ambiguous knowledge of magic?  What else had his father been hiding from him?

Finally  regaining control of his voice, Adrien whispered, "That means... she's  gone. She's really gone..." He fought a sudden wave of lightheadedness and  nausea, his heart beating a violent rhythm inside his chest. 

"NO!! She isn't!! " Gabriel roared, his voice steadily rising in pitch. "She's well within reach and I will save her. I will never surrender her. She is my wife, my soul, my everything! You don't have the capability to even begin to comprehend the depths of my love for her."

Adrien  seethed at the insinuation that he didn't love his own mother as much  as Gabriel did, but decided to continue to try to reason with him  instead of rising to the bait. "But she IS gone, Father! It's just the  two of us now! We need to accept this. We need to come to terms with the  fact that she won't be coming back so we can begin to heal! And, if we  stick together and help each other, then I think... I think we can even be  a family again."

Gabriel threw his head back and laughed, a dark, throaty rumble that echoed throughout the spacious room.

"Adrien," he said finally, looking down his nose at him. "I honestly don't give a damn what you think."

He  abruptly rose from his chair and walked towards the large portrait of  Emilie, activating the hidden lift to his lair, with Nooroo trailing  behind.

Adrien raised his eyebrows, unable to do anything but  stand stupefied for several seconds. Snapping out of it, he stomped  angrily towards the small elevator as Gabriel ascended.

"What the hell?! You are not walking away from me! We're not done here!!" But his father didn't even turn around.

Enraged,  Adrien summoned the elevator impatiently, clearly not satisfied with  his father's sudden termination of their discussion.

Upon arrival  to the dark chamber, Adrien spotted him immediately; a tall, thin figure  standing by the immense window, silhouetted in the darkening early  evening sky. However, the man looking out the glass was no longer  Gabriel, but Hawkmoth.

Why did he transform? Adrien frowned in confusion.

The  silence in the dark and cavernous room was deafening. The space had  always seemed chillier than the rest of the mansion, despite the  carefully temperature-controlled interiors. Hawkmoth's form radiated  hostility, and a trickle of ice slowly crept down Adrien's spine.

"Father...?"  Adrien slowly approached him, heart rate speeding up, hackles raised in  sudden alarm, his gut screaming at him to run.

Hawkmoth's head  turned slightly towards him, thin lips curled into a sneer and he gave a  small chuckle. The very air in the room felt oppressive, almost to the  point of being suffocating.

"You worthless child," Hawkmoth said  with unveiled disgust. "I gave you the privilege of wielding the cat  miraculous and it's thanks to me that you have it to begin with. I could  have taken it away permanently after I found it in your belongings  years ago. I see now that letting you keep it was a mistake. You have  more freedom and power than you deserve. But you forget that I'm the one with the power to destroy you."

Hawkmoth turned around, arms resting behind his back, appearing almost unnaturally tall and imposing. He walked towards him.

"I will repeat what I said earlier. You are dismissed from your duties, Adrien. Hand over the ring, or I will take it from you," he glowered menacingly.

Adrien took a fearful step back.

It was a trap. Hawkmoth had counted on his hotheaded and impulsive nature, and knew that he would follow him up here, where escape was most difficult.

Panic rose to his chest, but despite his heart pounding, he planted his feet and said, "P-Plagg, claws—"

Momentary  blackness and a sharp pain interrupted him. His head swam and he  realized he couldn't breathe. His body twisted and squirmed, trying to  escape the grip around his throat, clawing at Hawkmoth's arms and  gasping for air as he was slowly raised off the ground, upwards along  the wall.

Hawkmoth yanked him away from the wall and slammed him  again, disorienting him even further and weakening his grip. The edges  of his vision started to blacken. He knew he didn't have long before he  passed out.

Adrien kicked wildly and scratched at Hawkmoth's arms. He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't let Hawkmoth succeed. He couldn't.   But as his body became more and more numb and his struggling slowly  decreased, he was quickly losing hope. Unwelcomed tears pricked at his  eyes as he looked into the eyes of the man who had raised him.

His father.

Despite all of his neglect and emotional abuse, Gabriel had never laid a finger on him.

But,  Adrien now realized, this was not Gabriel. Not anymore. Only Hawkmoth  remained. Gabriel was gone. His entire family had been torn away from  him within the span of mere minutes.

Would anyone miss him if he was gone too?

A wave of emotion flitted across his face. Nathalie, Nino, Alya, Marinette. Ladybug. Would she   miss him? Would she know what happened to him? Would the next time she  encountered Chat Noir be through a different wielder? The thought of  Gabriel being in possession of the power of destruction terrified him,  and made him fear for Ladybug's life. Adrien had sworn that he would  protect her. If his father got ahold of his miraculous, she would be in  more danger than he could have ever fathomed. He had to escape... he had  to... he...

The veil of blackness grew and Adrien ceased his  struggling altogether, having no strength remaining. But before his eyes  rolled back, a black flash zoomed directly at Gabriel's face, knocking  him back in surprise.

Adrien crumpled to the ground, panting and  coughing, while Plagg whizzed around Hawkmoth, the latter growling in  outrage. Adrien looked up at them, clutching at his aching throat, his  vision slowly returning to normal.

Hawkmoth finally succeeded in swatting Plagg away, and his tiny body was thrown towards the far wall.

Adrien attempted to call out to him, but only succeeded in releasing a strangled wheezing sound.

To  his surprise, Plagg performed a graceful twist and landed on all fours.  He pushed himself off the wall and puffed up his tiny chest.

"Is that all you've got, you pansy??"   he taunted, accompanied with a rude gesture at Hawkmoth that suggested  he perform an action of dubious anatomical probability to himself. Then  he zipped back towards Hawkmoth, lashing his tail against the villain's  face with audible slaps, hissing and snarling like the cat he was.

Adrien  couldn't help but smirk. Seeing Plagg's courage fueled his willpower  and, despite his painful, labored breathing and a metallic taste in his  mouth, he rose to his feet with a slight sway. He became woozy from the  change in altitude, but nevertheless, a fiery determination blazed in  his eyes.

With a renewed vigor, Adrien managed to croak out, "Plagg, claws out." A bright flash of green illuminated the room.

Roaring ferociously, Hawkmoth unsheathed his sword and charged at Chat, who barely had enough time to block with his staff.

The  two clashed in vicious combat, their strikes quick and merciless. Chat  bounced around, dodging and parrying, taking full advantage of his  catlike agility to avoid incoming attacks. Hawkmoth was relentless in  his pursuit, always surging forward, never hesitating or taking a step  back.

Hawkmoth's masterful swordsmanship was unrelenting and  intense. It had been years since they sparred and practiced together.  The difference between his fighting style now, compared to how it was  long ago, was stark. It was as if he were fighting a completely  different person, one who focused solely on offense; one that aimed to  kill, not incapacitate.

With a grunt, Hawkmoth swung his sword in  a wide slash, and Chat was unable to block the full blow. A trickle of  blood traveled down his arm, and Chat couldn't help but stare at it.

He hurt   him. Actually hurt him. It wasn't a trick, an attempt to get the ring. A  ploy he'd apologize for and claim 'Adrien, you made me do it'. His  father was trying to actively injure him. The reality that this wasn't  some bad dream came crashing down on him, in the most physical sense. He  looked up at disbelief at his father–or whoever he was at this point.

Chat  continued to parry Hawkmoth's brutal jabs and slashes, but occasionally  one would penetrate his defenses. Before he knew it, he was riddled  with cuts and scratches.

He panted heavily, lungs burning, heart  pounding, and muscles aching. He looked up at his enemy, who wasn't even  breathing hard; not a single bead of sweat dotted his brow.

Chat  made a desperate lunge at him, hoping to momentarily stun him so he  could catch his breath. But in his exhaustion, he was careless, his  movements sloppy.

The next thing he registered was simply pain. An excruciating, stabbing pain on his torso.

Chat  let out a ragged scream, sagging against a wall and crumpling to the  ground, clutching at the throbbing slash on his side. Breathing became  excruciating.

And yet, he forced himself to his feet. He took a  step. Then another. He reached for his staff and got back into a  defensive stance.

Hawkmoth's lips twitched upwards, amusement  dancing in his eyes. Chat could have even sworn it almost looked like  pride, but surely that was impossible.

Chat leaped towards him  with a downwards strike of his staff, which was easily blocked, and they  resumed their skirmish. Hawkmoth advanced on him, drawing out the  combat comfortably, and yet Chat became more and more winded by the  second. He looked around, searching in vain for any object that could be  used to his advantage.

Rivulets of sweat traveled down his face and neck and it was then that his eyes widened in realization.

   He's toying with me. He just wants to tire me out.

Sensing his hesitation, Hawkmoth slashed at Chat's leg with a  long horizontal swipe. Chat howled in pain, collapsing onto the cold,  hard tile once again.

Hawkmoth roughly lifted him by the right  arm and yanked him towards the small table in the center of the room. He  threw him down with a loud thunk and held him down by the wrist. Chat  was too weak to wrest himself out of the ironclad grasp, not even able  to put up the slightest hint of resistance.

Hawkmoth lifted his  sword, readying himself to strike downwards. Chat looked up, eyes hazy  and disoriented. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to shake off the fog  in his brain.

"Surrender, or lose your ring the hard way," Hawkmoth hissed, his face half concealed in shadow.

Chat  looked up at him in confusion. Why not just take the ring from his  finger, since he clearly wasn't in any condition to fight anymore?

"Father..." Chat croaked out. "Why are you doing this?"

The  corner of Hawkmoth's mouth quirked upwards into a cruel sneer. "I'm  teaching you a lesson. After all, disobedient children must be  disciplined."

Chat's eyes grew wide in terror. He's really going to do it. Is... Is this how it ends for me? In my own home, broken, and alone?

On the verge of despairing, a soft, loving voice spoke from the corner of his mind:

   "You're not alone anymore, Chat."

Ladybug's kind words washed over him like a gentle, cooling  breeze, easing his fear and filling his heart with hope. Whatever  happened, Hawkmoth must never get ahold of the ring.

A small flicker of an idea crossed his mind.

Chat  scoffed and remarked sarcastically, "You picked an odd time to finally  decide to start parenting." He looked up at him, raising his free hand.  "But you're not the only one who's got a few tricks up their sleeve."

Hawkmoth paused, eyeing him curiously.

Chat gave him a final smirk and said calmly, "Cataclysm."

Hawkmoth's face contorted in surprise, and he let out an infuriated shout as Chat's left palm touched the floor.

Unbeknownst  to him, Chat had gained the ability to summon Cataclysm through both  hands, and not just through the one that wore the ring. Hawkmoth had  been counting on him not being able to use his power without uselessly  destroying the table his right (ring) hand was resting on.

Long,  spidery veins stretched across the entire floor, slowly spreading their  sickly, rusted blackness. Losing his balance as the ground crumbled  beneath them, Hawkmoth let go of Chat's wrist and leaped backwards, away  from the epicenter of destruction.

Moments later, Hawkmoth rose  from the rubble, pushing some debris off of himself in irritation. The  dust had cleared somewhat, and the dim light of the sunset entering  through the window illuminated the room once again.

Finally  coming back to his senses, Hawkmoth's head whipped back and forth,  searching across the chasm. But it was too late. Chat was already gone.

Consumed with both disbelief and rage, he let out a loud scream; raw, savage, and haunting.

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(CONTINUED IN PART 4)