Divided We Stand: Battle of the Miraculous

Dad?

Without Marinette by his side, the loneliness returned. The foyer, which had always been daunting, was empty without Adrien's mother. The whole house was barren without her. His mom had been the one to make it feel like home. Now that she was gone...

Adrien sighed.

"Your father wants to speak with you, Adrien." Nathalie held her tablet close to her chest. She led Adrien to his father's office, opening the door for him.

He frowned and then gave a hopeful smile. Work had always kept his father busy, but Gabriel had retreated even more with his wife's disappearance. Sometimes Adrien felt like he'd lost two parents instead of one.

"You wanted to see me, Father?" Maybe Father had changed his mind about letting him get ice cream. Or, maybe they were going to spend the afternoon together.

Either way, Adrien didn't care if it meant that he wouldn't have to spend the rest of the day alone in his room. Well, not exactly alone.

Plagg's warm body pressed up against Adrien's ribs beneath his jacket. The kwami was the only friend he had who knew him. Like really knew him, even better than Adrien's friend Nino.

"Yes." His dad turned away from a portrait of Adrien's mother, Emilie. "Come here."

Adrien walked slowly past his dad's touch screen, where he designed clothes, up the three steps to the second level of the office and stood beside his dad. Adrien had always loved that portrait of his mom.

"Come closer."

It was an odd command, given that his father wasn't touchy feely, but Adrien stepped closer, momentarily happy to be near his father.

Happiness that was soon replaced with confusion and surprise when Gabriel pressed on a portion of the portrait. The floor beneath them opened and Adrien found they were standing on a platform barely big enough for the two of them.

As the lift descended, Adrien naturally wrapped his hands around his father's waist. Gabriel stiffened, but didn't pull away.

"Father?"

"I need to tell you the truth, Adrien," he said. His father sighed. "You deserve to know, no matter how much I wanted to protect you from it."

The platform finally stopped in a secret basement Adrien had never seen before. It was partially a garden. A ramp crossed the plants below, leading to a courtyard in front of a large window.

"Follow me."

Adrien kept pace with his dad as they headed for the indoor patio.

Something was there. Something besides the plants. Adrien shivered. From a distance it looked like a coffin.

As they drew closer, he saw it was a coffin of some sort. Tubing wriggled on the floor, attached to the bottom of the pod. The top part was made of glass, and the whole thing had been tilted so that the person inside was easily visible.

It was his mother.

Adrien yelped, reaching for his father's elbow to keep him from collapsing to the ground. His father didn't move. Didn't speak. He waited as Adrien looked from the coffin to him.

The first two questions that popped into Adrien's mind were "What did you do to her?" and "Why is she like that?" That's not what he said though.

He looked up at his father and said, "So, she didn't leave us."

"Of course not." His dad wrinkled his nose at the insinuation. "Emilie is sick. She's in a coma, Adrien."

"She didn't seem sick." Adrien tried to remember the last time he'd seen his mother, but alarmingly found his memories of her had become slightly fuzzy.

"It isn't a normal sickness," his dad continued. "You know about the miraculous. Well, your mother had the peacock miraculous."

"Peacock?" he echoed. "She's Mayura?"

"Of course not," Gabriel said.

"Nathalie." Obviously. No one had been more devoted to his father than Nathalie. Adrien had even thought his dad might move on and that Nathalie might be his stepmother. Clearly, he had been wrong.

"The peacock is damaged. It caused this illness."

Adrien stared at his mother's face. She was so pretty, even in a coma. All this time, he'd thought she left. Wondered why she would leave him. It wasn't her fault though.

If Nathalie was Mayura, then she worked for Hawkmoth. That meant Hawkmoth was...

"You."

"What's that son?"

"You're Hawkmoth."

"Yes. Now you see why it's important for me to have the ladybug and cat miraculous. With them I could restore your mother's health."

"But I can't help you." Adrien tried to process everything his father had told him. Was it possible that Gabriel knew he was Chat Noir? If he did, he would've just asked Adrien for his miraculous.

"You see," Adrien's dad finally looked at him. "When Chloe was akumatized as Queen Wasp, I finally found out the identities of Ladybug's friends. Most of them were your classmates."

Adrien tried to swallow the lump in his throat and nodded. Nino was Carapace. Alya was Rena Rouge. The list went on.

"Ladybug will need to find new superheroes now. If she comes to you, I want you to bring whatever miraculous she gives you to me."

"Why?" he asked.

"So, you can fight at my side."

"I— yes father," Adrien said. He needed to think.

"Good boy. Run upstairs and practice your piano now."

Upstairs, Adrien did not practice his piano. He threw himself on the bed, letting Plagg fly out from under his jacket.

"Adrien, you aren't really going to help Hawkmoth?" his kwami asked.

"I don't know."

"But it's Hawkmoth," Plagg insisted. He hovered a few inches in front of Adrien's eyes.

"I'm going to talk to Ladybug. She'll understand."

"No! You'll reveal your identity to her."

"I won't, but I'm going to tell her why Hawkmoth needs our miraculous." Adrien sat up.

"Hawkmoth can never have them!" Plagg said. "Even to heal someone. The miraculous are too powerful."

"It's my mom, Plagg!"

Of all people, Adrien had thought that Plagg, his best friend, would understand. Why should his mom suffer? Why should he and his dad be without her when she could be saved?

Adrien jumped off the bed. "I'm going to find her right now."

"If she doesn't listen?"

Adrien swallowed. Would he really be able to abandon Ladybug if she didn't listen?

"Let's hope she does. Plagg, claws out!"

Plagg disappeared into the miraculous before he could say anything else.

Adrien opened his bedroom window and leapt out into the dying sunlight.