"He's gone."

Hours had passed and the destruction in the city was restored.

But Felix Graham De Vanily, he was no where to be found.

"We will continue with the trial. The police force will continue investigating his disappearance and he will be allowed to continue his testimony as soon as he is brought back to safety." The judge announced and the trial commenced.

"You have to stop thinking about her Adrien." Marinette's quite voice was harsh as they crouched down low on a rooftop that faced the Agreste mansion.

"I'm not thinking about her."

"What's going on then?"

"My entire world is falling apart dammit!" He snapped as he refused to allow his eyes meet hers, no matter how hard she tried to connect them.

"Adrien." She whispered, placing her hand on his chin and turning his head so he would finally lock his eyes with her own. "We're going to figure it out—we'll protect them all. We always do." She smiled softly.

He was tense, but nodded as he leaped towards the mansion, leaving Marinette behind.

They entered through his bedroom and crept quietly down the stairs.

There was no one around.

"That's really strange." Adrien muttered.

Marinette hissed a shushing noise as she pulled him around the corner and up against the wall. Nathalie appeared around the corner, searching for someone.

She was gone as quickly as she entered.

*

"Who is next now that Felix is gone?" Marinette leaned over and whispered in your ear.

"Shouldn't you be out there, I don't know, super hero-ing?" Luka leaned in and asked.

You smirked.

"Some people don't deserve saving." She leaned back against her seat with a grumble.

"I don't think they said who is up next." You responded in a whisper.

Your eyes trailed towards the front of the room and you saw two prison guards lug Gabriel up towards the spot each witness has been seated.

You gulped, hard. "Well shit."

**

"You executed that perfectly." His voice purred as he entered into the room, rubbing his face with a damp towel.

Nooroo flew around with Duusu at the ceiling of the room anxiously.

"I am perfect."

"I didn't realize we had a sentimonster in this duo." He grinned.

"We have plenty, dear." She grinned as her eyes met with Duusu's.

"It's to early for another attack. We wouldn't want them to have any way to track us down. Let the trial commence for the day, no need to have the testimony finished today. It'll be more beneficial to let them reflect on everything that was said."

"What's your vendetta against the Agreste's anyways?" She scoffed. "I find the son quite handsome, made of money too."

"I didn't realize you were into the father types—I better work on that." He smirked.

"You need to decide who you are preying on. This switching back and forth isn't working for me." She rolled her pretty little eyes.

The man licked his lips. "I can't help but desire."

**

"Where did she go?" Adrien hissed.

"Just stay low." Marinette answered quietly as the two of them nimbly crossed the floor.

They made it to the door of Gabriel's study. Adrien creaked the door open to reveal the same decorated room. The one he was always ignored in, whenever he needed the slightest interaction from his father.

"The painting—it's real." Ladybug whispered as she tip-toed over to it.

"Of course it is."

"Well it reminded me so much of this older painting they have in the museum. The source said there's a code to enter." She pulled out her bug phone to scroll through the messages.

"Something about this doesn't feel right to me." He muttered as he rubbed his hand down his face in a stressed out motion.

Marinette furrowed her brows, her long pony tail falling to her shoulder as she walked. "This should be it." She whispered as she put her fingers on the spots circled on the image, and pressed down.

The two of them fell down into the floor.

**

"Yes, my name is Gabriel Agreste."

"Will you state your relation to Adrien Agreste and you belief in his involvement in this crime." The defendant requested.

"He is my only son, and he was not involved." His voice was as firm as it always was. Nothing noticeable about him had changed. He still held himself high and he moved with poise, even with an officer clinging to his arm the entire time.

The only difference you noticed was the addition of stress lines to his face and his hair only grew grayer from the stress of the past few weeks.

"So you claim to have done this alone?"

"Yes."

You blinked hard.

"I thought Mayura was his employee?" Luka asked and you nodded slowly.

"That's what they said."

"What about Mayura? Is she simply a result of your power?"

"I'm here to speak about my son, that is a completely different trial." Gabriel seethed.

"The information is still relevant-"

"My son was not involved, I would not allowed it. Everything I did was to make a happier life for him and bring my wife back. Please, don't make this about her too. I cannot bear ir."

Adrien's eyes softened as they laid on his father, who refused to look at him.

He cursed the feelings of love and guilt that tried to resurface—he deserved this. He would always deserve this.

**

"Holy-"

"Shit."

The two of them gasped as they rolled over and hopped back onto their feet. The room was wide and filled with little white butterflies. Adrien was in awe as they fluttered around him, occasionally landing on his head or shoulder.

They were breath taking.

"He has to be down here." Adrien whispered, his fist clenched hard, nails threatening to pierce through his suit and into his skin.

"The room, it's completely empty Adrien."

She was right. The only light that peaked through appeared through the cracks of the covered window. The only sound was the faint flap of wings and their steady breathing.

"You finally found me, Adrien."

They completely missed him.

Standing behind them was none other than Gabriel Agreste. Marinette couldn't figure out where he appeared from for the life of her. The platform that shot them down had been incredibly loud once they passed the main floor.

"How could you father?" Adrien's chin quivered though he fought the urge to cry as hard as he could.

"For us Adrien. For her." His face was solem and showed no sign of emotion. It was clear to Adrien that this had shattered every last remnant of humanity he had left after the disappearance of his mother.

"You could've gotten help! This isn't going to help you find her—all you have done is tortured people for almost ten years! Do you really think she would want to come back to us this way?" His voice broke as he spoke.

"Oh Adrien." Gabriel simply shook his head and turned his back towards the pair.

"There's no need to search for her."

"What do you mean?" Marinette insisted. While they went back and forth her mind was lost—she couldn't figure out how Gabriel knew his identity. They had kept the circle small, she swore it.

Gabriel transformed and walked towards the center of the room. The pair of heroes followed hesitantly, and before they knew it they were falling through the floor once more.

**

"Please." Gabriel's voice was more of a whisper, it only dampened the longer they kept him on the stand. "Just let him go. He doesn't deserve any of this. Let him go back to his family. Let him forget about me."

"You brought this all upon him."

"I know that." He snapped.

"I don't like how much he is going at him." You shook your head. "I don't see how attacking him now will help Adrien any."

"I don't know." Marinette whispered. "I mean I would do the same, but this isn't his trial. They shouldn't treat him like it."

"I guess it's hard to wait for the trial to believe in the innocent until proven guilty—when they've admitted to everything." Luka sighed.

"Numerous times." Marinette added.

You sighed, shaking your head. "I just can't shake the feeling that this will only make things worse."

*

"Where are you taking us?" Adrien insisted before turning to his partner. "Why are we just waiting around?! We need to turn him in!" He was on the verge of tears and Marinette simply grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Timing."

Gabriel's mind was racing.

He knew someone leaked his information to Ladybug, but he just wasn't expecting it so soon. After his identity was found out it was only inevitable that the heroes would be warned, he was amazed he had waited so long to share the information. He had his own agenda, and Gabriel was insistent on doing his best to save himself.

"Your mother Adrien—she has been here all along." His cold expression shifted into a deep and evil smirk.

Adrien's heart dropped.

"I never did like it when you kept secrets from me son." He walked closer, his staff waving now that his son's eyes were locked on his mother's comatose form. "You could have saved her. You could have brought her back years ago. Instead you insisted on playing hero like some sort of comic book character. Where did that take you, my dear defiant boy?"

Adrien was never close with his father after his mother went missing. He went distant and spent all his time grieving.

Once he began seeing you, his father began to pay more and more attention to him. He would throw events, parties, club meetings, and insisted that you attended everyone.

You never understood why he took so much interest in you, a lowly baker girl who dreamt of being a flight attendant.

Gabriel couldn't shake the feeling that you were Paris's spotted hero and the guardian of the beloved jewels. He dove deep into his research on you, and once he figured out you had no connection to the powers—he insisted that Adrien broke off your relationship.

Adrien refused to let you go, costing any potential to salvage to his relationship with his father, and it only got worse once you found out you were pregnant.

The two of them were always broken, but now that the truth was revealed, any last remnant of a bond was shattered into minuscule pieces.

**

Your eyes trailed to the left of the room as they shoved your son's grandfather out of the room. The conversation had quickly grown heated and it was necessary to remove him for everyone's safety.

He testified for thirty minutes for Adrien, and the entire time you were so conflicted.

As Adrien stepped onto the podium and took a seat you couldn't help but noticed the similarities between him and the man you despised.

His entire body was held tall and stiff and his eyes had grown dull from being held captive from the world. His lips refused to form a smile.

The one thing you saw between the two of them was the relationship to your son. The blood binds that truly don't matter in the end, but clouded your judgment all the same.

You hated Gabriel Agreste, with every fiber of your being, but you couldn't forget the fact that he brought about so much that you loved in the world.

You hated yourself for seeing some of the positives that man brought into your world—he deserved everything coming for him.

So—why?

"I wanted to thank you for allowing me a chance to speak." Your head shot up as your eyes once more met his dull green ones.

A little bit of life sparked back into them as he connected with you, but you could feel the distance between the two of you—physically and emotionally—from your seat.

"As you probably know, this has been an insane couple of weeks for me. I went from going to see my son to ending up in a police station." He chuckled ever so softly.

Luka stared down at you as Adrien spoke and watched the way your facial expressions changed with every word the blond spoke. At one moment it looked like you wanted to reach out and hold him, but then you would seem so hurt, like you wanted to be anywhere but near him.

What happened between the two of you?

Where did the rift come from?

"I know I have kept many secrets, one my cousin wanted to bring up to make me seem like a liar." He sighed. "Every secret I have kept was to keep my family safe. I have a woman I love with my whole heart who has been on her own, making sure our son is safe. All I ever wanted was to make sure they were okay. I never once knew my father was the man terrorizing our city. I wouldn't have stood for that." His voice was filled with such conviction that you had never heard from him.

Luka tapped his seat anxiously. He had enjoyed these few weeks with you. He wasn't sure if he could call this a friendship brewing between you both, but he knew he wasn't ready to let you go running back to him.

He would think that, but then he would remember your blonde little boy who missed his father more than anything. That little boy who cried as you fought for Paris as his dad did so many times.

He couldn't ask you to hurt him—even if you and Adrien were separated.

He couldn't—right?

Adrien would be released and you would put your apartment back up for lease, and then you would leave the city and move back to your house in the suburbs.

You would have the ideal life—and he, he would have his art, and you guys wouldn't be neighbors anymore.

That would be enough.

So why wasn't it?

Why did he sit there listening to another man profess how much he loved you without leaving? He shouldn't be there he needed to be in his studio, focusing.

He couldn't let you go, not again.

He promised himself, promised you all those years ago that the moment he found you again that he would fight until he had you.

And as your eyes met his, while Adrien continued to speak to the room, speak to you, he knew that you remembered that promise, and the spark in your eyes told him you wouldn't give up fighting either.

Your story would piece back together again—he just had to figure out how.

Though, would it be worth all those who got hurt in the crossfire?

He told himself, that he would just have to wait and find out.