Warning: death, reference of sexual assault, suicidal thoughts, depression, and self harm. If you don't feel comfortable with any of this stuff, you can skip the chapter. I'll summarize it at the end. And for anyone struggling like this, we may not know each other personally, but my inbox is always open. Lots of love, Lemon♡♡♡ National Suicide Hotline: 800-273-8285
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Nathalie Sinclair was hardly a timid person.
She commanded fear, respect .
So why was she hiding in the attic of the Agreste Mansion?
Simple, because she was being hunted down.
A three day vacation was all it took for her boss's son to go crazy and kill his father, steal the Butterfly Miraculous and kill an Akuma.
Three days without her and the world falls apart. Honestly, Nathalie should just quit.
That had been her plan, of course, falling into a damning situation with her two bosses had been exhausting and hardly professional. But the world had shifted for her to stay, forcing Nathalie to stay behind for the little boy who needed a friend.
The same little boy who called out her name in a sickly sweet voice, begging her to show herself.
"Miss Nathalie? We need to go now!" Duusuu whispered, voice wobbling with fear.
Nathalie smiled warmly at her Kwami, rubbing her fingers on his blue head. "It's alright, Duusuu, you're going to get out safely."
Nathalie knew she was a true Holder. She knew it from the moment she saw Duusuu's Miraculous. But that didn't change the fact that she had treated him so horribly.
Even as a true Holder of the Peacock Miraculous, Nathalie still used to broach to bring harm upon others, she was still a villain.
"But what about--"
"Nathalie! You can't hide for long! I'll find you!"
Duusuu flinched backwards, tears forming in his wide eyes. "Miss Nathalie, what will happen to you?"
Nathalie's smile was tight and watery. What was she supposed to tell her Kwami? Her friend?
How was she supposed to tell him that she was to face a fate worse than death?
The little blue Kwami flew to her face and reached out a paw. "Please stay with me, Miss Nathalie. We can find a way out!"
Nathalie smiled at her companion, "Duusuu, I renounce you to the Guardian of the Miraculous."
Duusuu's eyes widened for a moment before his body turned to mist, taking the Miraculous with him.
Natalie closed her eyes, letting a few stray tears slip free. Her body shook with fear as the sound of heavy stomps neared her hiding spot.
She leaned against the icy wall of Gabriel's office, allowing the cold to seep into her neck.
"Nathalie!" Adrien cooed wickedly, his heavy footsteps getting closer and closer.
The woman smiled, eyes closed and heart thumping painfully.
All the years she spent with the Agrestes, all the years dealing with Gabriel's attitude, and Emilie's possessiveness, every moment helping Adrien along with his day, it all led to this moment.
Nathalie let a small laugh pass her lips.
She could remember her first day as the Agreste's assistant.
After a terrible interview where she spilled water all over Emilie and tripped on her way out, Nathalie hardly expected to get the job.
She expected a lawsuit more than anything else.
But then she got the call saying they wanted her to work for them, even after all those disasters, she couldn't help but feel overjoyed.
Weeks had gone by where she took care of Adrien and became friends with the man known as Gorilla. Weeks of rewarding work and sweet praise.
It was two months before Emilie made her first move, kissing Nathalie firmly in the mouth.
At first, Nathalie had been shocked and terrified, she didn't come into work the next day for fear of it being a joke.
She had barely been nineteen at the time, fresh out of lycee and scared of the world, so how else could she have reacted?
When she finally returned, Emilie simply smiled and acted like nothing had happened.
It had confused Nathalie, who had never been touched like that before, who barely realized the way her heart clenched and her eyes burned when she saw Emilie in the halls of the manor.
It was almost a month before her next encounter.
This time with Gabriel.
Nathalie had been taking her break when her boss came into the room, eyes blank as usual.
She had asked him what he was doing as he sat down beside her.
She had asked him what he was doing as he moved closer and wrapped an arm around her.
She had asked him what he was doing as her leaned in and kissed her neck.
She had been frozen, scared. What was she supposed to do? She desperately needed the money from this job, for her sister and herself.
She couldn't say no.
So Nathalie let it happen, let the Agrestes touch her and use her as their toy.
She couldn't fight back.
She was brave, strong. She was a fighter at heart. And she didn't regret her past choices. The money from the Agrestes helped her sister get away from her abusive ex, and her niece get into a nice school.
She didn't fight back, not because she couldn't, but because she needed to endure it for the sake of those she loved.
But she could fight back this time.
She could stand up and face Adrien. She could grab a lamp and use it like a sword. She could scream and claw her way out.
So why wasn't she fighting back?
Nathalie took a shuddering breath. She was so, so tired. Her limbs felt weak and her eyes felt heavy.
She was so tired.
Still, Nathalie rolled up her sleeves and blinked tears out of her eyes. On each of her wrists was a series of thin scars.
She traced her fingers lightly over each raised line, mouth wobbling and tears falling freely.
It had been a while since she cut, a while since she could even look at the scars.
But each wound felt fresh in her mind.
Memories of her sobbing in the shower, trying to scrub any feeling of the older couple. Her skin had turned red and raw under the boiling water and her scrubbing. The color of her abused skin almost matched the color of the blood that dripped down her arm after every sharp cut.
Nathalie flinched when Adrien's voice rang out again.
"Nathalie! Listen here you bitch! Come out now and I'll end you quickly!"
Nathalie was afraid.
She had been that way all her life.
Afraid of her own abusive parents.
Afraid of Emilie.
Afraid of Gabriel.
Afraid of every little thing in her sorry excuse for a life.
Nathalie stood, breathing heavily. Tears streamed down her face, ruining her makeup and blurring her vision.
She walked to the locked office door, heels clicking over the bits of broken glass from one of Adrien's tantrums.
She grabbed the biggest piece she could find and unlocked the door.
She didn't care that she didn't have a Miraculous.
She didn't care that Adrien was a murderous psycho.
She was done being afraid.
And if she was going to die, it was going to be by her own hand, curled up and alone.
It was going to be on her feet, swinging a chunk of glass like a sword.
And she wouldn't be alone.
She was going to take that monster with her.
"There you are." Adrien's voice, somehow deep and sharper, whispered. The boy dropped down from the staircase in front of Nathalie and landed with a thump.
He didn't look like Adrien, not the Adrien she had helped raise.
His normally coiffed hair was messy and full of ash. One of his eyes was all green and the other was a dull violet, like he put in one contact but forgot the other. He had on the butterfly brooch, transformed into a distorted version of his father's.
One side of his suit was poisonous violet and seeping into the other, pitch black, side, like the violet was trying to consume the black. On one side, his hand was tipped with sharp silver claws, but the other didn't even have a glove. On top of his head were two broken looking cat ears, where they sat his blonde hair looked burned and broken.
Black, vein-like lines crawled out of his broken eyes, making it seem like poison filled his body instead of blood.
Nathalie wanted to scream, how could such a sweet boy become this ?
"Adrien," Nathalie said, voice wobbly. "What happened to you?"
Adrien-- No , this monster wasn't Adrien--laughed sharply, spitting out blood.
Nausea wove through Nathalie's body, telling her to run .
She had half a mind to listen.
"What happened to me? What happened was power , Nathalie, power ."
Power imbalance wasn't anything new in her life. Neither were super villains.
Living with her alcoholic mom and deadbeat dad, working, for a sexist pervert at her old job, and then working for the Agrestes.
All her life, Nathalie never had power. She was the weaker, smaller prey.
But she was done being prey. It was time for her to become the predator, the hunter.
"Really? Nathalie whispered, planting her feet. "Because to me it looks like you lost a lot of yourself to get it."
Adrien bared his teeth in what was a warped mirror of his model smile. Nathalie sighed.
"You're stalling."
She was. But for a good reason, as she and Adrien faced off in the destroyed foyer, Nathalie slowly inched to the side, towards a pile of glass almost identical to the one in the office.
As Adrien took a step forward, finally realizing what she was aiming for, Nathalie shot forward and snatched the biggest chunk of glass she saw.
The shard bit into her palm as she gripped it tightly, little beads of blood dripped down her hand.
She didn't care that she didn't have a Miraculous.
She didn't care that Adrien was a murderous psycho.
She was done being afraid.
And if she was going to die, it was going to be by her own hand, curled up and alone.
It was going to be on her feet, swinging a chunk of glass like a sword.
And she wouldn't be alone.
She was going to take that monster with her.
The look on Adrien's face was enough to make Nathalie laugh sharply. He looked confused and aghast, but the expression was warped on his broken face.
"Glass? You think you can kill me with glass ?"
Nathalie tightened her grip of her weapon and planted her feet in a fighting stance.
"Nathalie," Adrien chided, looking down on her like he wasn't half her age. "That won't stop me. I have become everything. I am anger, sadness, grief, but most of all, I am fear . And I can feel yours."
Adrien smiled cruelly, taking a short step forward to try and loom over Nathalie.
Even at 17, he was half a foot taller than her. And whatever thing he had become, it wanted her afraid.
Nathalie didn't respond, she grit her teeth and lunged forward.
Adrien didn't even flinch as she tackled him to the ground.
Bit of debris and dust flew up as their bodies hit the ground.
Nathalie smashed her glass into something warm, Adrien's leg.
She had missed his heart.
No, no, no.
"You missed!" Adrien sang, shoving her off and laughing with delight.
Nathalie flinched, scurrying backwards, she glanced around desperately for something else, anything else .
Adrien's grin was too wide for his face, but it wasn't reassuring in the slightest.
"Now, now, little Nathalie. You had your chance." Adrien said happily.
Nathalie's skin crawled, the hair on the back of her neck rose.
"Now it's my turn."
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Someone needs to stop me
Summary: Adrien is all sorts of fucked up, he hunts down Nathalie, and she renounces Duusuu to the Guardian, Nathalie remembers her horrible time with Emilie and Gabriel and how they would sexually abuse her, she fights Adrien and then dies.