Adrien Agreste's Cruelest Timeline Game

Discovery

After a bit of Gabriel demanding to know Adrien's location, what had happened, what he could remember, and if he was in danger, the man went silent. Adrien felt like there was something everyone else knew that he didn't, and that didn't sit well with him.

" You will be picked up as soon as possible." Gabriel said.

" Yes, father." was his equally simple reply.

" Are you sure you don't remember anything?" he asked one more time.

" I don't, father." Adrien told him again. There was another silence, and then Gabriel hung up. No goodbye, as always.

Adrien sighed, opening the blue door up again to see the family of three clustered on the couch, their focus on what was showing on the television. He walked further into the living room, wondering what they were seeing.

Sabine noticed him, tapping on her husband's shoulder, " Play it back for him, Tom. He needs to know." the man nodded, the recording reversing to the beginning of the broadcast.

The camera followed an akuma as it made its way down the street. It turned to zoom in on Ladybug making a silent approach, pointing to its sword. Chat Noir came down from above, his cataclysm activated and ready for destruction. Adrien squinted a bit, it looked like the akuma had Ladybug's yo-yo. The akuma got it around the black cat's ankle, beginning to swing him around as he helplessly cried out. 

Ladybug went over to help him, and time seemed to slow as her hand made contact with Chat Noir's power. The recording of Ladybug freezing up and the footage cutting off as her arm turned to a rusty, metallic clump of dust. 

Adrien went pale. 

The recording was shaky as the akuma stopped, letting go of the yo-yo string. Chat Noir landed on the ground as Ladybug's figure began to crumble into a little pile. The boy in the black suit desperately crawled over to his dead lady, her remains slipping between his fingers like grains of sand. He looked completely broken, just sitting there. And just as if he were a puppet whose strings had snapped, his head hung low and his shoulders slumped. The cat gave up. 

Everything sat still for a moment as it all came crashing down on Adrien. He remembered. He killed her. He killed his precious lady with his own hands. They had been partners, and then there had been only one. 

The camera turned to focus on a little moving spot coming toward Chat Noir. It stayed focused for just long enough for any Parisian to know exactly what it was. The camera swung to the side, as if the person behind it turned to run away as the footage cut out.

An akuma. 

Adrien's nerves and veins were nothing but pure ice. He had killed his lady, and had gotten akumatized. Not as his normal self, but as Chat Noir. His mind went to static as he thought of the kind of evil that had been unleashed upon the world, with emotions that powerful. With his power, what terror could he have rained down upon Paris? What could that evil have possibly wanted? 

And who had stopped him? 

He suddenly noticed that there were a pair of arms around him, and that they had been there for a while now. He looked down to see Marinette hugging him, bringing warmth to his body. Without hesitation or thought, he wrapped his arms around her as well, squeezing her small form as if making sure she was real.

Adrien paused.

If she had gone missing the same day he did, why had she disappeared? Had he killed her as well in the days that he roamed Paris as an akuma? His heart twisted at the thought of her death on his hands as well. His throat locked up, but he still managed to say it, " What happened after that?" 

Sabine paused, looking to Tom, who took his turn to explain things, " Some people say they saw Hawk Moth making his way to the Tower, and that there was someone who looked exactly like Chat Noir, too. But he was entirely white."

Adrien waited for further information, but Tom went silent. But a few things stuck out to him in the stillness, two burning questions. He turned to Marinette, " Do you remember anything from after the akumatization?" he asked. 

She hesitated, but shook her head no. Marinette did not say it, but it wasn't possible to know things that happened after she'd crumbled to dust and died in the street. 

He turned back to Tom and Sabine, " Did anything happen?" 

Neither adult knew how to respond, and all they could do was nod as Adrien's phone buzzed.