Vanished (Lukadrien) • Miraculous Ladybug

Chapter 25 | the grand plan

As if the man want enough of a shut in, Gabriel was spending his current days down in the basement his missing son never knew about. Staring at the body of his late wife in that glass coffin perfectly preserved, he tired to devise a plan so fool proof he'd get the miraculous he needed.

He needed to lure Cat Noir out of hiding and trick him and ladybug into getting those miraculous for him. But how? It'd been a year and he'd failed every single time. He'd been close yes, but he'd still failed. And it seemed ladybug was one step ahead of him with those charms that prevented re-akumatizing.

It was clear that he needed to do something so devastating to Paris that they'd be forced to hand the miraculous over. But who had that much pent up emotion he could use?

Well... that Lila girl was back in town. He had recruited her to keep and eye on Adrien but now he was gone, there were other things she could be useful for. But there still needed to be an event that lead to her being able to get akumatized powerful enough to cause devastating effects on Paris.

He had the outline of his plan, use Lila, cause a catastrophic event that can only be reversed if he gets the miraculous, that will lure Cat Noir out of hiding and provoke him and ladybug forward. Obviously they'd be getting their whole team involved, but it was the cat and ladybug ones he needed most.

All to revive Emilie. Once she was back, they could finish what they started 15 years ago.

Emilie would probably be rather displeased with the rings being missing, along with Adiren. But with her alive again getting them back wouldn't be hard.

He just needed one big event he could use to get Lila... he'd have to watch her for a while...

Nathalie, whose condition wasn't getting any better was spending a lot of time alone too. Pondering, starting to come to her senses. She'd been loyal to the Agrestes for years, all because of a one sided love. But ever since she witnessed Gabriel beat his own son, she began to wonder what the hell she was doing here.

Gabriel seemed to be spiralling further and further into insanity, become less and less recognisable as the man she once loved. And now... she had the ring. Felix was off god knows where with the other one, but Nathalie had this one. She'd taken it fearing Gabriel would make a rash decision with it, and was keeping it hidden on her at all times.

She found herself staring up at the roof on the sixth month anniversary of Adriens disappearance, questioning everything. She'd done some things she could never take back for Gabriel. She was permanently sick from using the broken miraculous, helped him with all his plans, stood by and let him abuse his son, kept all his secrets. And now she couldn't help but wonder.

Why?

Why was she doing this? For a love he didn't even return?

She let him hurt his own son to the point he ran away and went missing? She really stopped that low?

She acted as Mayura all this time and her health fell into ruin just for this man?

Why was she doing this..?

When she took the job as assistant to the Agrestes, Emilie was still alive. Married to Gabriel, and Gabriel still loved her, getting the miraculous was all to revive her. So why did she even think she could stand a chance with this stupid little crush? After Emilie died, which she later found out was because of the broken miraculous, she watched Adrien only 13 at the time break down crying in the middle of the hospital room. It must have been so confusing and upsetting for a child. She watched Gabriel isolate for months, not even helping his own son through the trauma of it all.

She was there at the funeral, watching 13 year old Adrien sob as he had to watch his own mothers casket lowered into the ground. She witnessed Gabriel so devoid of emotion, broken behind the eyes almost like a shell of a human having to let his wife go.

And it was a year after that she was approached by that same man and everything was revealed to her. The miraculous, hawkmoth, the rings, everything. And she kept it secret, she went along with it. At the time she was honoured to be trusted with such a mission and big secret.

But now... with a new lens and retrospective, she wondered why.

She was siding with an abuser, a super villain, a manipulator and a power hungry god complex having man. Was she really that bad? Has she really stooped that low?

She sat up in her dark room, reaching for her glasses and putting them on and she weakly got out of bed to leave her room. The dead of midnight meant the house was quiet, dark and asleep. But she couldn't sleep with all these racing thoughts. Walking aimlessly around the mansion trying to at least clear her mind, she auto-piloted her route and ended up in the hall leading to Adriens room.

Crime scene tape still stuck too the door from the investigation.

When she entered, everything was still in its place aside from the computer and phone the police has ceased. It'd been empty for 6 months, half a year left to collect dust. Gabriel hadn't even been in there since the initial investigation.

The bed sheets were still tossed back from when Adrien got out of bed the day the fight happened. The framed picture of him and Emilie still sat on the bedside table. Un-finished homework was on the desk, along with an empty glass that once held water. A basketball left on the floor by his fencing gear, on-top of his piano was sheet music he was learning 6 months ago.

On the floor of the bathroom was bandaid wrappers and bloodied tissues from the fight, next to his pyjamas he'd changed out of before he left.

Everything was the same. Like a time capsule of the moment he left, even the window was still open a crack.

There was only one thing different about his room. That starry blanket given to him by his mother he slept with every night was gone. He'd taken it with him probably.

Something about standing in the freeze frame room of the day Adrien Agreste ran away from home made something click in Nathalie...

"What am I doing..." she mumbled to herself.

Eyes landing on the bloodied tissues and his Agreste branded three striped shirt left on the floor, she asked herself again.

"What am- why am I..? He's missing. A 15 year old is missing, traumatised by his father and out on the streets somewhere alone? And... I'm just letting it happen?"

At last, she'd had a moment of horrid realisation that by standing by and letting everything in this household slide, blindly chasing a man who didn't love her, bowing to his every command even being a villain with him... she'd actively hurt a child.

In fact, she'd hurt many. In her time as mayura, letting Adrien be abused by his dad, and having all his friends worried sick after he runs away. She'd complied in everything.

She suddenly felt sick, not because of the miraculous damage this time. But because she'd come to the horrid realisation that she let her one sided love for Gabriel manipulate her into being a monster.

She hurt Adrien, almost as much as Gabriel did.

And she was disgusted with herself. She promised to look after him and she stood by and let all this happen.

Maybe this assistant job wasn't so neat after all, maybe she was just as guilty as hawkmoth. But one things for sure, she was ten times more racked with guilt and regret than Gabriel would ever be.

Maybe... maybe she shouldn't be doing any of this. Maybe she should re-think he life choices and rebel against the man she thought she loved.