Chat...is that you?

Chapter 2

Mom?

Adrien stared in horror as he beheld the horrible sight.
His mother, trapped in a glass case.
Lying there peacefully, looking just as she did the day she died. Not a hair out of place, her hands neatly folded on her stomach, face devoid of any emotion.
An ugly feeling lurched in Adrien's stomach, as tears started to fall down his face, landing on the clear glass. He almost collapsed onto it, his fingers dragging down its icy surface, as if longing for the touch of his mother again.
She didn't look alive, but she didn't look dead either.
But why? Why? Adrien grimaced as he remembered the funeral, and the sight of her coffin lowering into the ground, never to be seen again.
Yet here she is. Body looking just as it looked the last day time Adrien saw her, before the sickness took it's deathly toll.
He couldn't stop his sobbing. He couldn't pull himself away from her, yet he wanted to run, far far away, somewhere safe. Home
But home isn't here, it never was here. He felt his heart knocking in his chest as his mind grew louder, thoughts growing more and more rapid as he started to lose grasp on his mind.
He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping it was just a dream. But every time he opened them, there she was. His beautiful, perfect, loving mother. Still as a statue, trapped. The last perfect thing he had in this world.
It almost felt like his heart was shattering into pieces.

"Adrien"

He froze, as a voice echoed around the desolate chamber. His eyes widened, but his curiosity tugged at his heart, forcing him to turn around.
His heart stopped.
There, just a few feet away, stood the menace of Paris, who was known for preying on the hearts of the downtrodden.
Hawkmoth.
What was Hawkmoth doing in Adrien's basement??

"I always wondered, when you'd find this place, beautiful isn't it. My sanctuary from it all..."
Hawkmoth's eyes met his, sending a shiver down Adrien's spine.

"Who...why..my mother.."
Adrien could hardly speak. How strange it was to see the man behind all these villains, behind all the events taken place over the past year, here. Right in front of him.
And at that moment, out of all the people in the world, the only one Adrien wanted in that moment was ladybug. She'd know what to do, she always does. And he loves her for it.

"Who are you, tell me now!" Adrien wanted to sound menacing, but it came out as more of a whimper, echoed back at him by the looming walls. He flinched as Hawkmoth started to walk towards him, until he was right next to him. All Adrien's instincts were telling him to run. Right now.

"I wanted to keep her...safe..so I could save her. This place is for her...for you.....for...
us" Hawkmoth smiles through the metallic casing of his mask, and Adrien shivered.
He looked at Hawkmoth, as this was the first time seeing him in the flesh, not behind a wall of villains, or not manifested in a broadcast to Paris, like he had done in the past.

"I'm sorry I had to hide this from you"

And at that moment it all made sense. It all crashed down, leaving Adrien lost for words as the reality sunk in its sharp claws deep into his skin, scarring him.

"Father? Is that you?"
Hawkmoth placed his hand on what Adrien assumed to be his miraculous, revealing Gabriel underneath. His kwami hovered next to him, giving him a look of surprising sympathy, as if he knew already who Adrien was. Maybe he did, Adrien couldn't tell anymore.
Gabriel placed a hand on Adrien's shoulder.

"Son listen, I-"

"Don't. Touch. Me."
Gabriel turned in surprise to Adrien, who was clearly seething with rage, hints of despair lying beneath.

"How could you do this? Why couldn't you let her rest? Is this what you've been ignoring me all this time for? Keeping my deceased mother in a box like some sort of sick exhibit??"
Adrien's face grew red as he screamed in his fathers face, for the first time.
And wow, was it satisfying. He would've felt even better had his mother not been lying in a case right in front of him.
He turned away from his father to look at his mother again, trying to stifle a sob as he rubbed his eyes.