Adrien looked around his old classroom nervously. Everyone was frozen in place, doing some kind of activity. The world around him was in a grey hue while Adrien was the only one in color. Not even his teammates were in color.
Just what was going on?
"Plagg? Are you here?" He called for his kwami. But nothing. No request for camembert cheese. No sassy comment. No whining.
Just...nothing.
Adrien started to move toward the door. Maybe he could just leave. Nothing is stopping him. His hand hovered over the doorknob when he heard someone calling his name. He turned around to see who said his name but everyone was still in the same spot. This slightly freaked him so he grabbed the doorknob. He was about to twist it when his voice was called again.
"Adrien," A stern but worried voice called out. It sounded like his dad. But it couldn't be. His dad was nowhere in the room so it couldn't be him talking. So who was it? "Adrien! What are you doing here?"
Adrien rattled the doorknob but he couldn't open it. The voice kept calling him and it got closer. Its presence grew bigger and Adrien was kicking the door, hoping to break it open. The voice called out one more time, this time clearer and demanding. Adrien turned around and his heart drop, his eyes widen in fear.
Standing right behind him was the villain Hawk Moth. His silver mask and costume was the only thing to pop in the grey world. Adrien was terrified and started to bang on the door, screaming in fear.
"Someone help me! Help! Help me!" Hawk Moth noticed his distress and tried to calm down him down.
"Adrien! Calm down! Why are you freaking out?"
"Stay away from me!"
"Adrien! It's me!"
"Someone help me! Hawk Moth is here! Help!" Hawk Moth stopped calming Adrien and looked down on himself. He raised his gloved hands to his face and was...horrified. Like he wasn't expecting to look like this.
"No. Not now. Adrien please." Hawk Moth tried to reach Adrien's head. "Just listen to me."
"Someone! Please!" Adrien cowered in fear, afraid of what Hawk Moth would do to him. Just before Hawk Moth could do anything, the door swung open and Adrien fell into someone else. Hawk Moth's cries faded as Adrien was being hugged by the same person he fell into.
"Hey. Hey! It's okay! I got you!" The new voice said as it kept hugging him. Adrien looked at the new person and was surprised to see someone he never would have expected. The new person was a short black-haired kid. He must have not been any older than twelve years old and had the brightest red shirt Adrien had ever seen.
"Who are you?" Adrien asked when the kid looked up. His pitch-black eyes were filled with confusion. Didn't he understand him? "Do you understand me? At all?"
Before the kid can say anything, he started to fade away. Adrien tried to reach the kid but each time he tried, Adrien was pulled away by an invisible rope. He tried to fight back but the kid was already gone.
"Wait! Come back! Who are you?!"
Adrien jumped up, tangled with his bedsheets, and fell out of bed face first. This woke Plagg up and he hovered above the boy. Adrien untangled himself and calm the kwami down.
"Adrien, are you okay? Did you have a bad dream? Can camembert fix it?"
"Sorry about that Plagg. I think I had a bad dream but it felt so much like a vision. I saw Hawk Moth." Plagg's eyes widen and started to shake in fear.
"Are you sure it wasn't a vision? Because if it was, then that means Hawk Moth could have learned about, you know, your identity!"
"I'm sure. Besides, he acted as if he personally knew me." Plagg tilted his head. Adrien rubbed his hand anxiously. The scene replayed over and over in his head. The big bad villain he and Ladybug had been trying to stop for a year had tried to approach him like a friend. It felt...off. "He was calling me by my name. Not Chat's name. My name. And I think he was trying to calm me down to get close to me."
"Did he get close to you?"
Adrien shook his head and gripped his hand. "Just when he was about to do something, I bumped into someone new. A kid around my age I think. I never got his name."
Plagg rested on Adrien's shoulder and nuzzled his cheek. Adrien just smiled and nuzzled back. Even if Plagg didn't take things seriously, he was great at comforting. Plagg flew off and slightly pulled on Adrien's ear. This just caused Adrien to laugh.
Looking around, Adrien couldn't find Vlad anywhere in Gravity class. It had only been two days since he and his team talked with Vlad. Adrien wanted to talk to Vlad yesterday but Marinette had said that it would be too soon, as both sides would be riled up. This didn't sit well with him but in the end, Adrien backed down. And speaking of Marinette, she did go out to search for Vlad only to be stopped by faculty and sent right back inside.
"Where is he?" Adrien whispered to himself, looking between the door and the classroom. Vlad was always here first so where was he?
"Is everything okay Adrien? You seem tense." Adrien turned his focus on Iris, her face filled with worry.
"I'm fine. Just wondering where Vlad is. I haven't seen him since Saturday. There were some...issues."
Iris nodded and replied, "To be honest, I haven't seen Vlad since Saturday either. If fact, he was supposed to help me and my friends with finding a book in the library yesterday."
Adrien was confused. Even if he kept secrets, Vlad wouldn't have broken a promise like that. There had to be a reason why. So what was it?
"Vlad ghosted you too?" Peter's voice called out from behind. The two turned their attention to Peter as he walks up to them. "Vlad had promised to help me with training yesterday. He was the one to notice my attention span before anyone else."
"You guys don't know where Vlad is either?" Mable chimed in. "He promised to help me with a sweater project."
"He also promised to help us with a potion experiment," Diana said as the other eight witches confirmed.
"He didn't only promise to help. We wanted to hang out with him after he did all that," Wendy said while Robbie just stood behind her. Adrien couldn't believe what he was hearing. When did Vlad make so many promises? And why didn't he brought it up earlier?
Wait. Did any of them know about Vlad's-
"Settle down class!" Clank called out, pretty much scaring half the class. "I know you all are wondering where Vlad is. But rest assured, he is fine. He is currently back in his home dimension."
"Did something happened back home?" Dipper asked skeptically. Ratchet shook his head and took the lead.
"There was just some disagreement between Vlad and some faculty members. So they sent him home while they think about his punishment."
"Is there a way we can-"
"No one is allowed to communicate to Vlad during his time away. We wouldn't want to send you home as well." Clank interrupted, killing off any further questions. "We'll continue where we left off."
As soon as the class was over, Adrien rushed out. Ignoring his teammates, he headed straight to the headmaster's office. Headmaster Max had to tell him something. However, the moment he touched the doors, a voice called out to him.
"Young man! What are you doing? Unless you have an appointment with Mr. Tennyson, you are not allowed to disturb him during this time." Dr. Wakeman yelled at him, pushing him away from the door. Adrien tried to go around her but the short doctor was quiet fast on her feet.
"Please Dr. Wakeman! I need to know why Vlad is back in his home dimension!" The short doctor raised an eyebrow before studying Adrien's face. Her eyes narrowed in a second.
"I see. You're part of the Rookie class. Should have known his absences would have sparked some interest. But as Ratchet and Clank told all of you, Vlad is waiting for his punishment to be determined."
"For what? Sneaking into the prison section?" Dr. Wakeman's eyes widened in shock. Might as well tell her. "My team and I learned about Vlad's plan and how he was told by his president not to tell anyone about it. But in his defense, he couldn't afford to wait."
"I know," Dr. Wakeman said, straightening her lab coat. "But Mr. Tod has a history of not listening to authorities and getting into trouble that could have been avoided if he listens. Not to mention, he has shown that he doesn't trust anyone here. Especially considering that the majority of us know nothing about him. Other than Headmaster Tennyson, Mr. Tod has shown no need to communicate or cooperate with others. He is lucky that he is only at home for a short period."
Adrien started to get nervous. With Hawk Moth allied with more villains, there was a chance he could get to Vlad and akumatize him. And with his history and knowledge of the school, there was no guarantee something horrible would happen.
"Please. Let me talk to Headmaster Max or let me go find Vlad. I have a bad feeling-"
"Young man. Even if you were able to talk Headmaster Tennyson, you will not convince him to allow permission to see Mr. Tod. Now please. Go back to your dorm. You have night classes to prepare." Adrien tried to speak up but the short doctor was able to push him away from the headmaster door. His cries of protest did nothing to convince Dr. Wakeman and only got the attention of two security guards. They escorted Adrien back to his dorm. Well, more like drag him back as he tried to get out of their grips.
However, one person saw the entire scene. She was concern about the screaming and heard Vlad's name somewhere in there. She looked at Adrien and noticed the fear in his eyes. From her years of working in a mask taught her anything, is if anyone had that look that means something was going to happen.
Nothing good.
Adrien paced back and forth in his room. After being dropped off by security, he went straight up to his room, ignoring his teammates' concerned looks. They weren't concerned about Vlad being back in his home dimension and they didn't seem to want to find him. Maybe he can try again with Headmaster Max again when Dr. Wakeman wasn't there. But what if Headmaster Max said the same thing and make Vlad's punishment even worse? Vlad would never forgive Adrien after that. He could even deflect to the villain's side and lead them into the school. Then Vlad would hurt everyone, starting with-
"Adrien?" A knock surprised Adrien. He turned around to see Marinette, Nino, Alya, and Chloé standing in the doorway. How long has he been in his room? Was it time for the night class?
"Dude. Is everything okay? You've been locked inside your room for an hour." Nino said, walking up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Adrien shook his head and told his team everything he learned. They were shocked when Adrien brought up his concerned on Hawk Moth finding Vlad and akumatizing him.
"There's no way Hawk Moth could find Vlad," Chloé said. Adrien noticed her fixing her hair, even if there was not a single hair out of place. "From what I've observed, Hawk Moth never made an Akuma minion outside of Paris. Which means he can only use his powers in a small area. If he wanted to akumatized anyone outside of Paris, he would have done that already."
"Yeah, but since he's in another dimension, he might have a stronger and bigger range. And let's not forget, Vlad is the Pravus. The being that can control anyone. Adrien has a point. We need to find Vlad first!" Marinette fearfully said. Adrien was thankful that his lady was on his side and knew what to do.
"But how are we going to get to Vlad? We don't know what dimension he's from. Also shouldn't we tell the others about Vlad's past? We don't want things to be worse as it is now." Nino said. Marinette nodded and told Chloé and Alya to go gather the rest of the Rookie class for a meeting. While both girls were hesitant about this plan, Marinette just gave them a glare and repeated what she said. They nodded their heads and left to find the rest of the class. Marinette turned her attention back onto Adrien.
"Do any of you two know about Vlad's home dimension number? We can work off of that."
Being back home was not as great as Vlad had thought. Max had told his uncle everything and let's just say Otis was not happy about it. There was no way Vlad was going to deal with his uncle angry at him, so he went back home at Bathory while Otis talks with Max.
Vlad could have gone straight to his childhood home or his uncle's home but instead, the old church bell tower at his old high school sounded more appealing. No human could get into the closed-off bell tower and no vampire can enter without permission. The perfect place to hide.
Looking around, Vlad slowly started to remember his life before the academy. Playing video games with his best friend Henry. Training with Henry's cousin Joss. A Halloween date with his first girlfriend Meredith. Baking cookies with his second girlfriend Snow. Helping around the house with his Aunt Nelly. Meeting his uncle Otis in middle school. Seeing his parents dancing in the backyard. The house fire that shallowed his mom and supposedly his dad.
His dad coming back.
His dad admitted his true relationship with his mom.
His dad killing his aunt.
Vlad placed his arms above his eyes, trying to stop the tears threatening to fall. Even after a year, the wound was still fresh and he still cries over it. He should hate his father for what he did. But he's completely dead.
Vlad lowered one arm and pulled out a necklace no one would see him wearing. He grabbed the ring being held by the necklace. Just holding it seemed to make his anger cease but the tears started to fall against his will.
Even if the ring belonged to his dad, even if his dad only saw him as a weapon, even after all he put Vlad through. Vlad still misses him.
"I don't want to feel this anymore. I don't want to worry about anything else. Not about Max. Not about my classmates. Not about my life. I just..." Vlad's tears grew and his anger came back. After all he has done, why was he being punished for following orders for the first time? It wasn't fair!
He failed to notice a purple butterfly fluttering very close to him. The hand holding on the ring finally drops as Vlad whispers the last few words.
"...want to destroy."
Within twenty minutes, the Miraculous Quintet's living room was filled with everyone from the Rookie class. While they did each ask what was going on, Adrien just said that they will tell everyone as soon as they were all together. And now that they were all together, they can get down to business.
"What is going on? Why did you want us all here?" Talia asked. Adrien took a breath and thought about what he should say to them. He could have just lied about the situation but he knew it would make it worse when Vlad came back. So he told the truth. Adrien explains to the whole group about everything. Vlad's background. Vlad's mission. Vlad's title.
The room went silent and Adrien thought they were trying hard not to get angry. After all, Vlad practically took care of all of them. Maybe this was not a great idea. Just when Adrien was about to doubt everything, Wendy stood up.
"That jerk. Why didn't he tell us?" she started. Adrien was afraid of what Wendy was about to say next. But what she said next threw everyone off. "He could have helped us with awesome pranks!"
Everyone looked at her as if she grew a second head. Did she really just say that? Was she not fazed by the news. Wendy looked around the room and scoffed. "Oh come on guys. If he wanted to hurt anyone, he would have done it by now."
"But he lied to us about who he is." Talia angerly said.
"It's not like any of us never lied before. His lie was just a bit bigger."
"But why didn't he think we wouldn't be okay with it?" Peter rubbed his arm as he said that.
"He was told by his president, his uncle, not to do anything reckless. And it could also be because of what happened last semester." Marinette chimed in.
"That should explain why he's so nervous about telling us anything about himself. He doesn't know any of our experiences with vampires."
"Even with that, why should we worry about Vlad's well being?" Gideon asked. Adrien wanted to yell at the small whited boy when Marinette placed her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her and relaxed. There was no way he could afford getting mad now.
"With our villain Hawk Moth on the loose, he could turn Vlad's emotions into a weapon. And the only way to stop it is for us to find him so I can purify the Akuma before it affects him. Plus he practically took care of us during our first week. He made sure we knew the ins and outs of this school. Don't we own him that?"
The whole room went silent. Nobody wanted to say anything bad in front of this girl. And she was right too. Vlad did so much for them that it was only fair they helped him back.
"Okay," Iris said as she stood up. Everyone's eyes were on her and she wasn't fazed by it. Just like Ladybug. "What's the plan? How do we get to Vlad?"
"More importantly, how do we make sure no one notices any of us missing?" Talia chimed in.
"Woah! Who said we all agreed to this?!" Robbie said. Too bad everyone was giving him the death glare. He muttered whatever and everyone went back to the topic in hand.
"We have enough time between classes to get to Vlad. But if we are late, we can use the sick excuse."
"Okay. That solves that problem. But what about getting to Vlad's dimension? I'm sure none of us have that information on hand." Dipper said.
"Someone has to know!"
"Adrien. If what Marinette said about Hawk Moth turning Vlad's emotions like a weapon is true, we won't have time to ask around for Vlad's dimension number. The best thing we can do is look it up on the portal machine." Talia said.
"But-"
"That might be the best thing we can do," Alya said. Adrien noticed her rubbing her arms nervously. "But we have to make sure no one is near the machine. And we have to decide who is going."
"Well, Ladybug has to go if she's the only one to purify this Akuma and maybe Chat Noir can go too. As a way to calm Vlad down." Iris said.
"What about-" Marinette was about to say something but was cut off.
"We might need to stay here to make sure the sick excuse works if we have to," Nino said. "Besides, too many of us could tip the teachers off."
"Right. But we may need two more teammates." Adrien looked around the room and so did everyone else. Who else could join them? There were so many possibilities but who would be the best option?
"Let me come," A voice filled the room. Adrien looked up to see Peter standing up, his hand raised. "I'm somewhat as strong as Vlad. I can keep up with him and maybe distract him long enough for you to do what you need to do."
"I'll come too!" Akko jumped up, nearly making others around her slip out of their seat. "I can use my magic to disorient him!"
"Thank you, Peter and Akko. We shouldn't take long once we get there." Marinette said. "But the biggest issue we have is getting to that dimension."
Iris was about to say something when there was a knock on the door. Everybody turned quiet and looked at the door. They weren't expecting anyone else and it wasn't time for night classes. Adrien slowly walked up to the door and grabbed the doorknob. He opened the door but...no one was there. There was no sign of anyone knocking at the door. The only thing that caught his eye was a piece of folded paper taped on the door.
"Adrien? Who's there?"
"There's no one Chloé. But there is a piece of paper." Adrien pulled off the paper and walked back to the group. He unfolded and started to read it out loud. "I overheard what you were saying to little old Dr. Wakey."
"Dr. Wakeman?"
"There's more. I have a bad feeling that Vladdie might be in trouble. I don't think Headmaster Maxie would change his mind that easily so I was hoping you and a few classmates can just hop right over to see him. And I know finding the dimension number might not be easy since it's blocked. But lucky for you, I saw it while he was leaving. Just type 667 and you should be able to get there with no problem. Yours truly, H.Q."
Adrien couldn't believe what he just read. Did someone really just helped them find Vlad's dimension? What was this? A fanfic?
"With that out of the way," Iris said. "let's get our plan started."
"Oh, young man. I'm sure your troubles would easily disappear if you let go."
"No! I won't listen to you!" Vlad held his hand in pain. He wasn't sure if this was Hawk Moth or not but he could feel him trying to gain control. He tried to push the villain out but it doesn't seem to work. Hawk Moth was somewhat stronger than him. It didn't look like Vlad might be able to get him out. "Go away!"
"Oh come now, Mind Slayer. Don't you want to be free from all your troubles? Complete your mission and be able to do anything you want? Gain respect from those who have treated you as a child? Well, I'm giving you the power to do that. I will amplify your powers and allow to control everyone! All I ask in return is the Miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir."
"No! I won't do it! I won't lead you to them!"
"Lead me? So you've met them? Which means they know." Vlad slapped his mouth shut. Did he really just tell this person about the Miraculous Quintet was looking for him? "Where are they right now?"
"I won't tell you! They trust me!"
"Do you think they would really trust you after what you have done?"
Did they still trust him? Or turned their back onto him?
"Help me with this favor and I promise you will have a better position in life. After all, you didn't have a purpose before. The heroes won't guarantee you a perfect life."
"Of course Hawk Moth." That was the last thing Vlad said before he was engulfed by Hawk Moth's power.
Oh my god!
I'm SO sorry this took so long! College became more demanding than I thought and my new project took up my time! But here you go!
After a couple of new readers found this story, I knew I had to come back at some point. And I did decide to work only on this story and my new project, The American Dream, for a little while. Mostly until one of these projects is complete.
I've also thought about rewriting HATT for some time but I want to save that until after I finish the first version. Which I have no idea when it'll end.
Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this LONG chapter and I'll see you next time!
-Rainy