Hide And Seek

Chapter 20

"You selfish whore."

Ladybug stood calmly as they waited for the police, one hand clutching onto a ziplock bag with Gabriel's...missing piece. Nightwing had already called them, and the paramedics and they were due to arrive any minute now. The miraculous team had ducked out to recharge their kwamis briefly, knowing the three criminals were in good hands. Tikki had not been disappointed as she had expected, only reminding Marie that she had a temple. Offerings were common then, and there had been a few people who had sacrificed criminals to her.

The goddess of creation was not squeamish.

"He's suffering, heal him!"

Of course, that did not stop Ladybug's stomach from churning if she looked at Gabriel. His hands were zip-tied in front of him, and he'd been given a sanitized rag to press to his face. But Adrien was only enraged by this further, demanding that she cast the cure. But Ladybug couldn't because she needed his eye, and nothing of importance had been damaged in the fight anyways.

"Can you shut him up?" Robin hissed from his perch by the large window that spanned the room. Nightwing had relieved him from his duty of holding Adrien once Adrien had first started talking.

"We don't kill," Frelon reminded him calmly, sitting cross-legged next to Shellix. "It'll only be another minut-"

"WHY WON'T YOU HEAL HIM YOU SADISTIC BI-"

"Adrien, silence," Gabriel finally spoke up. Adrien immediately quieted, voice temporarily out of use as per his father's command. Gabriel only sighed, looking up at Ladybug with a strange expression. "I can recognize when I have lost, even if the injustice of the situation makes me sick. But the children are not doing this of their own free will. You must let them go-"

"We know," Ladybug interrupted him. "We know of the magic you used on them, but that does not mean they can go free."

Gabriel gaped at her in surprise before frowning at her sternly. "And what authority do you have to keep them here?"

"You traumatized, manipulated, and incriminated them, Agreste," Robin spat. "They will be sent to an asylum to recover, with a slim chance of ever rejoining normal civilization."

"Ladybug can heal them, can she not?"

"I cannot," Ladybug said coldly. "The Akuma's which tainted them were never purified, their magic cannot return to them in order to make the effects of your carelessness reversible. There is a way I can give them a chance at possibly beginning the road to healing, which is why I needed your eye."

Gabriel was silent, the results of his actions finally becoming real to him. He had lost himself to regain his wife, only to destroy the last of his son's free will, and that of another girl. He had bestowed a similar fate that had befallen them to another woman, Ms. Rossi might never forgive herself for losing her daughter.

"My mercy towards you is allowing the court to damn you rather than exacting revenge myself," Ladybug continued, ignoring the looks from the vigilantes. At that moment they saw the police arrive through the window, and Nightwing went to greet them with Filou and King Monkey as assurance.

"Can you not heal my wife?"

Ladybug looked down at him, finding pity in her heart despite her hatred for the man. "No, I cannot. Even if you had made a wish with the miraculous, you might have only brought her back as a zombie, or you might have reunited with her only in death. Wishes do not exist without consequences, Agreste. There was never any hope to save her."

Gabriel Agreste met her gaze for a moment before bowing his head closer to the ground. The once-mighty man finally defeated. Lila had remained silent the entire time, but now she let out a small cackle of delight. Every head turned to stare at her as she grinned. "That's what you get for crossing me, for daring to-"