Gabriel was growing increasingly frustrated with each passing day. He had been trying to akumatize Marinette Dupain-Cheng for some time now. He was sure she would be his most powerful akuma. All that pent up anger and stress would make a wonderful akuma, if he could only cause Marinette to release those pent up emotions. But each of his plans failed. Every time he sent Lila a plan to upset Marinette, somehow Marinette kept herself calm enough he couldn’t akumatize her. He was starting to think it was impossible.
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Then Adrien broke into Gabriel’s safe. It was the first time Gabriel had felt scared of being discovered. Once the book that Adrien had taken was recovered, Gabriel decided to move the more sensitive items from the safe. Most were brought up into his liar, but he had a plan for the peacock miraculous. If he couldn’t akumatize Marinette through normal means, he would do it a different way.
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The next night Gabriel took the miraculous and dropped it on Marinette’s balcony with a note. The note said that Ladybug and Chat Noir had chosen her to be a new hero and that she wasn’t to tell anyone. The note also told her to go to a warehouse late the next night to meet Ladybug and Chat Noir. Gabriel planned to reveal himself when she arrived. He was sure the fear of being faced with Hawkmoth, and the feeling being tricked will be enough for him to akumatize Marinette.
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Marinette woke up the next morning to Tikki speaking in a quick and excited tone. When Marinette saw what was on the balcony, she understood why Tikki was excited. The peacock miraculous was sitting on her chair! There was also a note, claiming to be from Ladybug about how she had been chosen as a new hero and to meet in a warehouse tonight. Obviously, Marinette knew it was a fake and something was up. By now, team miraculous had revealed their identities to each other, so that they could more easily communicate and plan Hawkmoth’s defeat.
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Marinette knew that Hawkmoth had to be behind this. He is the only other person in the city that has access to the miraculous and doesn’t know Ladybug’s identity. Marinette grabbed her phone and texted the group chat she had with the rest of team miraculous.
Marinette: Everyone, we should meet up today to discuss our group project. Meet at Chloe’s in an hour?
Marinette quickly got messages from everyone saying they would be there. They didn’t ask any questions, knowing not to ask over text. Any time the team needed to meet, they would go to the hotel and use Chloe’s roof. No one could bother them or listen in when they were up there. And to anyone else, this just looked like classmates meeting to discuss a school project. Marinette got ready and rushed to the hotel, the newly recovered miraculous burning a hole in her pocket.
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When she arrived at the hotel, Marinette saw that everyone else had already arrived. Adrien, Chloe, Alya, and Nino all sat at a table, waiting for Marinette to arrive. They perked up as they heard the door open, turning to face Marinette as she ran to the table. “Why the sudden meeting milady? Did something happen?” Marinette caught her breath, and pulled the peacock miraculous out of her pocket, along with the note. “This was left on my balcony last night. The missing peacock miraculous. The group stared in shock at the recovered miraculous. Chloe was the first to speak. “It was just sitting on your balcony?” Marinette nodded and held out the note. “This note was next to it.” The group passes around the note, reading it several times. Adrien looks up at Marinette. “This has Hawkmoth written all over it. This is definitely a trap.” Marinette nods. “I agree, it is obviously a trap. But we are going to use it to our advantage and trap Hawkmoth.”
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They spent the next several hours going over the plan. “Hawkmoth thinks that I don’t have any connection to the heroes, so he won’t be expecting all of us to be there. His guard will be down, and he will be in a public place. It is the perfect chance to take him down. Alya, I’ll need you to create an illusion of me coming into the warehouse. That will distract Hawkmoth long enough for us to come in. Nino, you stay with Alya and use shelter to defend her if necessary, since she will have to stay focused on the illusion. Me and Adrien will go in and keep his attention on us in a fight. Then Chloe, I need you to use venom on him. Hide up in the rafters until you can hit him. This could be it, we could defeat Hawkmoth tonight. Everyone be ready.”
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It was almost time for the meeting and team miraculous was in position. They had arrived an hour earlier, and after confirming that Hawkmoth had yet to arrive, they got into place for their plan. Alya and Nino were outside of the warehouse, hidden from view behind some crates. Chloe had climbed up into the rafters of the warehouse and was hiding in the shadows, out of site. Finally, Marinette and Adrien had just outside the warehouse, ready to make their entrance. Soon, Hawkmoth arrived and entered the warehouse. Alya, being far enough away that Hawkmoth couldn’t hear her flute, created the illusion of Marinette and sent her into the warehouse.
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Marinette watched as the illusion went inside. She could hear Hawkmoth chuckle and start monologuing about how could she be so stupid to fall for such a trick. Illusion Marinette yelled and sounded scared, just as they had planned. Marinette saw a flash of light and knew Hawkmoth had released an akuma butterfly. This was the moment. Hawkmoth’s voice grew angry as he shouted, “Why aren’t you akumatized? This should be working!” Marinette and Adrien jumped into the warehouse and confronted Hawkmoth.
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It’s not working Hawkmoth, because that is not really Marinette. Marinette flagged me down earlier today and told me about the note. She thought it was odd, and knew she needed to tell me. That was just an illusion.” Hawkmoth grew visibly angry at having been tricked. “How dare you make a fool of me. This ends today! Give me your miraculous before I have to hurt you.” Adrien rolled his eyes. “That is never going to happen grandpa.” Hawkmoth lunged, and attacked them viciously. Adrien and Marinette fought, keeping him distracted and slowly maneuvering him under the beam that Chloe sat on. Once he was in the right spot, Chloe jumped down and stung Hawkmoth in the back. He froze instantly, a shocked look on his face. Marinette reached down and took the butterfly miraculous to reveal Gabriel Agreste staring back at her.
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Team miraculous was shocked by Hawkmoth’s identity, especially Adrien. They called the police and had them come pick up Mr. Agreste. Gabriel was taken away and placed in prison for his crimes. He spent the next several decades in his cell, wondering how he could have been so stupid, and messed up his plans so badly. He had thought Marinette would be the key to his victory. But she was the cause of his defeat. If only he hadn’t given her that miraculous.
