At this point, he'd lost track of how long it'd been. When you can't tell if it's day or night, and have no clock, time becomes meaningless. It felt like years, but likely had only been a few months.

Either way, Adrien was starting to loose himself. Total isolation did that to a person, with nothing to stimulate the brain with, it starts to make its own stimulation. It started small, he could swear he'd hear someone call his name, but no one was there. He'd feel something touch his skin, when nothing was there. Adrien knew if no one came to rescue him soon, he'd start full on hallucinating.

Several months ago, he went to bed as usual. Expecting to go to school the next day, hand in his history assignment and go over the next fencing tournament with the team that afternoon. A normal Monday. But that night he'd woken up to his father of all people, telling him that his aunt and cousin needed to be picked up from the airport as she'd come in for an emergency visit. He knew now that was a lie, but at the time he got up and went with him to the car. Adrien didn't question Nathalie not coming with them, as she was sick and resting. And as odd as it was for his father to actually pick them up, rather than just make them catch a taxi, he assumed it was some form of family emergency. That's what he was told, that they 'were in some legal trouble with their house' and would be staying over.

But they didn't turn down the road to the airport, they went past it, which is when Adrien became confused and suspicious.

"You missed the turn off" he'd said.

"Oh I know..." Gabriel replied.

Immediately chills had run down his spine, something was off. Given their very unstable relationship in recent years, the fact it was the middle of the night and just the two of them, and they were driving to... who knows where, Adrien immediately became suspicious and cursed himself for not picking up his phone. He'd thought they'd just be ducking down to the airport and coming back, only 20 or so minutes out.

He was scared to ask, but he did anyway. 

"Where are we going?" He'd said.

Gabriel was silent for a moment, before he glared over at his son with an uncomfortable expression. Adrien didn't know what emotion it was... but it freaked him out.

"Somewhere you won't be sneaking around anymore..."

His heart stopped, a million possibilities running through his mind. Sneaking around as in when he'd sneak out to see his friends? Or did he somehow find out he was Cat Noir? Had he figured out that he'd been lying about when he had fencing and Chinese to stay with his friends after school? And what was he going to do to him...?

Adrien didn't remember anything after that... he'd started feeling drowsy, nodding in and out of slumber, and it only dawned on him what had happened when he was about to reach for the bottle of water he'd been drinking from in the cup holder...

When he woke up, he was... he didn't actually know. The room was empty, save for a locked door and cameras in the corners. His first thought was the fact he could cataclysm his way out... but those cameras were watching everything. He couldn't transform, talk to Plagg, say anything about the miraculous he wore. He was simply frozen in fear. There were five responses to situations like this: fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and flop. Adrien has froze.

He always froze. He'd never been able to fight back against his father, no matter how hard he tried it was like there was an iron grip on him, telling him that if he even tried, he'd face the consequences. So every time, he'd freeze, tell himself 'I just need to get through it' and disassociate from it.

After a while, his father entered the room. And the questions and panic came flying out. What is this place? What are you doing? Why are you doing this? And all he was met with was this... unhinged look. He'd always known his father was a bad person, but he had no idea he was capable of going this far. Not long after the abuse started, Adrien began to wonder just how much his mother had been protecting him from. And now she was gone, he was seeing it all for himself. What had that saint of a woman endured to keep him safe?

He was going to find out though, because whatever was holding Gabriel back? It'd snapped. Maybe it was the miraculous corrupting him with power, maybe it was the spiral of grief and untreated mental issues, but he wasn't even coherent anymore. All Adrien got was this bombardment on incoherent ramblings. Something about his mother, something about him being a 'carbon copy of her', there were some jabs at his 'bad behaviour' for sneaking around and lying in there. None of it made much sense to Adrien. But the general message he got?

You're a constant reminder of your mother, and I can't handle that anymore. So I'm going to make you anything but your mothers son.

Then came the beating. And the insults. And the threats of further violence. By the time he'd worn himself out, Adrien was a bruised and bloody mess covered in tears and shaking in fear. The silence after the door slammed was deafening, and it became clear to Adrien that his father - if you could even call him one, was so desperate for power and control over him, and so sick of seeing the face of his dead wife in his son, that he wanted to completely break the boy down, and mould him into something completely new. A puppet, a mind slave. And how do you do that? You break them. Body and mind, shattered to pieces until they're so deep into a Stockholm syndrome mindset they begin to obey your every command.

So Adrien was left in there, with nothing but himself and Plagg who he couldn't even talk to without revealing himself as Cat Noir. He was much too scared of what would happen if anyone, especially his father, found that out. Plagg had run off to try and find some way out, but came back with nothing. At seemingly random times, Gabriel would come back. Only feed him enough to keep him alive, and the violence would start all over again.

Eventually survival instinct kicked in, and Adrien was dissociated out of his mind almost 24/7. If he couldn't remember it... then it'd hurt less. He couldn't remember how many times this had happened, or exactly what had been done to him at this point.

But whatever day it was now, and however long it'd been, he was starting to loose his grip on reality. Tired, malnourished and in the same now blood stained pyjamas as the day he was left here, he simply lay on the ground, disassociated. Plagg had been tying his best to keep Adrien as sane as possible, talking to him even if he couldn't talk back. Making sure he was feeling touch by hugging his fingers and sleeping snuggled up in his shirt. Plagg didn't want to leave him alone at this point. If he took the ring and went to ladybug asking for help, that'd mean Adrien would be completely alone.

And he was not about to leave him alone.

But finally after all these weeks, Adrien spoke up. Careful not to make it too obvious he was talking to someone, more like he was talking to himself. But Plagg knew that this was meant for him.

"I want Luka" he muttered.

"I know kid..." Plagg replied.

"I miss how the boat would rock with the waves, and sitting on his couch had this relaxing sway to it"

If Gabriel was watching him over the cameras, it'd look like Adrien was starting to talk to himself with how delirious he'd gotten. And in truth he was kind of talking to himself, he couldn't address Plagg directly. He needed to hear the sound of his own voice to keep some semblance of sanity.

"He's warm... I miss warm..." Adrien muttered.

"Kid you're going to make me cry-"

"I never told him I loved him, if I die in here... he's never going to know how I truly felt"

"You're not dying in here Adrien. He's looking for you, so is Nathalie, so are all your classmates. I know they are. Don't... don't say you're going to die, you're not. If it comes down to it, I'll kill that bastard before he can kill you" Plagg assured.

As much as Adrien appreciated the sentiment, he just felt so hopeless and defeated. He couldn't even remember what he'd been fed last, or what his father had struck him with last time he was here. Everything was blurring together, he had gaps in his memory, he felt like death, probably looked like it too. He hadn't cut or brushed his hair in months, changed his clothes or bathed beyond the occasional time Gabriel would make him wipe up is own blood with wet wipes.

He was past the point of disbelief Gabriel would do this to him. He just wanted it all to stop. But his body refused to give out, and he had no means to end himself with. So he lay there, loosing his grip on reality and suffering in the pain of old cuts and the cold ground.

He was even starting to miss the runway he hated so much, because at least he was outside of this... prison cell. No... torture chamber.

Adrien had long stopped reacting to sounds he thought he was hearing, because each time he looked for the source, there was nothing there. So when he heard something make a banging noise in the near distance, he didn't react. But Plagg did...

And if Plagg could hear it... then he wasn't hallucinating.

He picked up his head, fear immediately filling him. Was his father back?

Wait... was that talking?

"Oh my gods- Adrien-" Plagg muttered, quickly diving down his shirt to hide from the people he could hear.

That was definitely talking, but Adrien couldn't make out what anyone was saying.

BANG! Something hit the door.

He jumped, scrambling away from it, back to the wall.

BANG! Another hit against the door, this time it shook with the impact.

Adrien wasn't sure what to think. Was this freedom? Or was this someone his father had on his side come to make his life even worse?

BANG! The door dented. All he could do was cower into himself and watch in fear.

And with one more loud clang, the door fell off its hinges, and he was blinded by light.

"Victim located! Basement door, medical care needed!"

He squinted through the light, it was a flashlight. Several of them. Men in tactical gear stood in the doorway, and everything just happened so fast. The relief of be realising it was the police, the pain he felt when he tried to stand only to need officers to hold him up. The flashing lights of police cars and ambulances as he was taken out of the building he'd never actually seen the outside of until now. Being given water, proper food, hooked up to heart monitors and pain medication in the back of an ambulance.

He was free, they'd found him alive. Severely hurt and traumatised but alive. And even though those moments should be full of relief and joy, he was still dissociated out of his mind and pumping with adrenaline.

Of course he was overjoyed he was freed, that the nightmare was finally over. Even if he didn't have the energy to express it. But he just couldn't help but wonder... how the hell did they find him?

Who cracked the case? Who lead them here? Who knew this was a kidnapping at the hand of his own father? Because whoever it was, Adrien was willing to give his entire life to them.