Lovebug

Part 23

Mayura and ladybug watch as Gabriel and Adrien come to terms with the fact they have been fighting each other for four years. There is a long wait of silence until finally, Adrien speaks.

"So this is what you were doing father? All those business meetings, all the time you spent alone in your office, all the things you prioritised over me?" Adrien was deeply hurt. "I had thought about it being you, but always dismissed it because I believed that deep down my father was a good man. But no more. You are not my father."

"Son, please, let me explain why it came to this...." Gabriel begins

"NO!" Adrien roars "I don't want to hear your excuses! You have done so much evil in this world, all for these?!" he guestures with the Butterfly miraculous that he is still holding. "Enough excuses! You deserve to go to jail for the rest of your life, and when you die, you can watch from hell how you dissapointed the only family you have left! I'm just glad that my mother isn't alive to see what a monster you have become."

"I did this... for you... and for her." Gabriel suddenly says

"Don't you dare try to manipulate me anymore! Don't pull some excuse out of  your hat about how this is what she wanted before she died because I knew her, she was better than that." 

"But that 's the thing," Gabriel says, approaching a door on the other side of the room. "Your mother is not dead." With those words, he pushes the door open and guestures for everyone to follow him in.

Ladybug goes to follow Gabriel and Mayura but Adrien grabs her arm. "Do you really think we can trust that he's not going to trap us in there?" he says firmly

"We know who he is, he doesn't have his miraculous, we should be fine." she replies

"Yeah, but he has mine!" Adrien protests

"Don't you think if he wanted to use it he would have already?" Ladybug refutes "Besides, he is still your father, and if what he is saying about your mother is true, maybe he does have reasons."

They hesitently enter the room. The floor is grassy, plants and bushes sprout from the ground and flower, gently releasing a burst of colour into the room. White moths flutter around this garden of a room, setting an almost biblical scene. In the middle of this all is a glass coffin, pristine and shiny with an equally well-kept woman lying inside: Emelie Agreste.

Adrien runs up to the coffin and presses his hands against the glass. Tears fill his eyes as he watches his mother sleeping peacefully as she has been for the last five years. Adrien turns to his father with just as much resentment as before.

"What did you do to her?" he asks through gritted teeth

"It wasn't me... It was the peacock miraculous." Gabriel told him. 

Adrien immediately turned to Mayura. "So it was you, you did this to my mother?!" he shouts at her.

"No... I mean... not exaclty" Mayura says sheepishly. She then looks to Gabriel who nods. "Duusu, fall my feathers" she says and immediately transforms back into Nathalie. 

"The peacock miraculous was broken when your mother was wearing it... and she's been in a coma ever since." Nathalie says

"So my mother has been alive, not only alive but in a coma under my house for the last five years and you two decided to tell me she was dead?!" Adrien shouts

"We couldn't tell you the actual reason, and until reccently, we did not think she would ever wake up." Gabriel tells him

"Reccently? What do you mean reccently? Is there a way to bring her back?!" Adrien exclaims

"Miraculous unification" Ladybug says under her breath. Everyone hears her an turns to her. "That's the reason you wanted the Ladybug and Cat Noir Miraculous, because when you unify them, the user gets godlike power. they can do anything, even reverse events that happened in the past."

"Yes... it may not have seemed worth ruining all those people who were already unhappy, but I would do anything to have my Emelie back" Gabriel says, looking longingly to the glass coffin where his wife lay.

"So if we give over the ladybug miraculous, and you combine them, then... mom can come back?" Adrien asks hopeful that he may finally be able to see his mother again.

"Yes." Gabriel tells him firmly.

Adrien turns to Ladybug, unsure of what to say to her to convince her that this is the right thing. Truthfully, he is still unsure. If his father lied to him once, he could very much do it again. But the thought of seeing his mother again was  a very tempting reward.

"I know how much you miss your mother. If this is a chance to bring her back, I say take it." Marinette says. "We may loose our miraculous', but Paris will be safe anyway. Hawkmoth is gone."

"Please son, I need her back" Gabriel says "She is the love of my life. Five years without her has been painful for the both of us."

"We will do it. Not for you, but for her." Adrien says to his father. 

Gabriel looks genuinely suprised but it is quickly overwashed with happiness. A smile creeps across his face, not a mischevious one, but the first genuine one that both Adrien and Marinette had ever seen. "Thank you both, you have no idea how much this means to me"

"I have one condition" Adrien suddenly says "Once she's back, you give us back all the miraculous' and never speak of this to anyone again. No one outside this room learns who we are and no one inside this room ever uses a miraculous again."

"That is a fair condition son. I accept" Gabriel tells him

"Spots off" Marinette says as she de-transforms back into herself, for the last time. Tikki appears beside her and smiles. Marinette takes her earrings out and Tikki takes them to Gabriel, a little apprehensively.

"Marinette, I should have known it was you." Gabriel laughs "Sorry about... everything"

"Water under the bridge Mr Agreste" she smiles "I'm just happy to see you both happy again"

Adrien puts his arm around Marinette and they hold each other. "Thank you" he whispers before kissing her on the side of the head"

"We had a good run. And we done what we set out to do, defeat Hawkmoth, I'm just glad we could actually help him, not just pointlessly fight for years on end." she tells him. The pair and Nathalie watch as Gabriel combines the two pieces of jewelry with shaky hands. He has waited for this day for five years and now it is finally here.

 The two now combined objects let off a bright white glow in Gabriel's hands. He holds it close to his face and says, "I wish for the power to bring my wife back to life!"

The object stops glowing and automatically separates, Gabriel looks to the coffin for any sign of life in Emelie. For a while there is nothing, but just as they are about to give up hope, Emelie lets out a deep gasp from inside the coffin.

With Adrien's help, Gabriel pry's it open and Emelie stps out, holding her head in disorientation and held up by both her husband and son.

"What... What happened?" Emelie asks