Hawkmoth: The Final Battle: Part 2 (Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir)

Chapter 2

Marinette saw the bright butterfly flying toward her and focused on the strongest emotion she could: love. She thought of her friends, especially Alya. She thought of her parents. She thought of Adrien.

The butterfly phased into her purse. It was much different being under the influence of the butterfly miraculous this time. Instead of being fueled by fear and rage, she was fueled solely by the love she had for others, and Marinette was one of the most loving people there were.

"Lovebug," A white butterfly outline appeared in front of Marinette. "I am giving you the power to—" Chat was cut off by the sentimonster forcefully pinning him to the floor and knocking the wind out of him.

Without the transformation complete, the butterfly was released.

"Nice try." Paon sarcastically applauded. "Too bad Chat Violet is a little out of breath right now. In fact, if you want him to breathe again, you should hand over your earrings, they aren't going to do you any good right now anyway."

"Never." Marinette said severely, but she watched as the moth creature wouldn't budge.

Marinette could tell Chat was not going to last much longer. He shook his head as if to say "don't do it," but she couldn't watch anymore. She took out her earrings and saw Tikki disappear. She walked the earrings over to Paon and placed them in his outstretched hand before running over to try to get the moth off of Chat.

"I'm a man of my word." Paon declared. The sentimonster released Chat, but he could barely move, let alone fight.

Chat started gasping for breath as Marinette hugged him gently. "I thought I was going to lose you, I'm so sorry, Kitty. I had to give him my miraculous."

"Get the ring, Ms. Dupain-Cheng." Marinette wasn't sure why he was bothering with formalities now.

Looking up at the giant creature above them, with her powerless, she didn't see another choice. They had lost. They had failed. She had failed. She could only hope that the consequences wouldn't be too terrible.

Marinette's face of despair said it all. Chat took off the ring. His cat ears melted away and he was wearing a purple suit now. "Now I'm Chaterpillar." He mused dejectedly. His power was useless with the charged butterfly fluttering somewhere. The sentimonster brought the ring to Paon and then was released from existence.

"Finally!" Paon de-transformed into Gabriel, even he knew wearing too many miraculous was dangerous. "I have finally achieved my goal of obtaining the ladybug and black cat miraculous. I can finally make my wish." He put on both miraculous feeling the surge of power they provided. No wonder they always beat him before, their miraculous were more powerful. "Tikki, kwami of creation, and Plagg, kwami of destruction, unify!"

Marinette had gotten Chat up, but they were both pushed up against the wall. "Mr. Agreste, stop! There will be a price to pay for your wish, it's not worth it." She tried to stop him.

"I am now Mr. Miraculous and nothing is more important than my wish." Mr. Miraculous replied as a bright light radiated from him, filling the room and covering up the sneaky entrance of one more guest. "I wish to fix my past mistake and bring back my wife."

As soon as he began to utter his wish, Emilie's pinkie twitched and Chat collapsed into Marinette's arms. "Chat? Chat!" Marinette couldn't get him to respond. "Chat, what's wrong?" It was like he had dropped into a coma.

"Gabriel, stop."

"Nathalie, what are you doing here?" Mr. Miraculous growled.

"Gabriel, you can't finish the wish." She glanced over to where Marinette was crying over Chat.

"And why not? So, the cat gets traded for Emilie, he stood in my way long enough." It was as if any of the humanity he might have had was gone.

"You would trade your own son?" Nathalie questioned.

"My own son?" He wasn't quite grasping it. "You mean..." He turned to the two defeated heroes. "Adrien?"

Marinette met the villain's gaze and nodded tearfully. She unpinned the butterfly miraculous and Adrien appeared in her lap.

"Why?" He looked between his not quite condemned son and his not quite arisen wife.

"Did you think the price wouldn't be personal?" Marinette asked. "It has to be an even trade to keep the balance. Someone you love for someone you love." Love might have seemed like a strong word, but Marinette had to talk him down.

Mr. Miraculous looked agonized. "How can I choose between my wife and my son?"

"Choose Adrien, please!" Marinette begged.

Nathalie took in the whole scene, saw the way her former employer was being faced with an impossible decision. She stepped forward, ready to offer a long-shot. "Give me up instead."

Both conscious heads snapped up to Nathalie. "Nathalie?" Mr. Miraculous gave her an odd look.

"Maybe..." She began. "Maybe instead of trading someone you love for someone else you love, you can trade someone who loves you" she gestured to Emilie "for someone who loves you." She gestured to herself.

"You love me, Nathalie?"

"Why do you think I stood by you completely loyal for all of these years, helping you with whatever you needed?" Nathalie scoffed. "No mere employee is that dedicated."

"I never realized..."

"Of course you didn't. I understood, you were desperate to get Emilie back. But then you became obsessed, hurting innocent people, fighting children, what would Emilie think?" She shook her head. "I just want it all to be over. If that means I can make your family whole again, make you happy again, then so be it."

"Nathalie, I can't ask that of you."

"You've asked for everything else, why not this too?" She had a point.

Mr. Miraculous was rooted to the spot thinking. He would not lose his only son, that was certain. He longed to hold his wife again, he had wanted it for so long. They had been careless and power-hungry and she had paid the price, it wasn't fair to her, but it was the way things had gone. He also couldn't ask more of Nathalie who had already done so much for him, who has stuck by his side, done everything he'd ever asked of her, and loved him regardless. But Adrien needed a mother, someone to love him and support him in a way that he himself never had. Seeing the way that Marinette held him and Nathalie's grave concern, he thought that maybe Adrien did have that after all.

He slowly spun around the room and something inside of him snapped. The influence of using the miraculous for evil purposes was broken as he decided not to use the two most powerful for personal gain. "What have I done?" He whispered. He should not have the right to play God and choose who should come back. He reached up to his ears and removed the ladybug earrings and then he slid the black cat ring from his finger.