Gabriel
Gabriel's eyes were frozen looking at the akuma in Li- I mean, Eagle Moth's hands. Her cold look was like nothing he ever seen.
"Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize him!" she shouted.
The akuma flew in his direction. He was panicking. What could he do? He had nothing to defend himself and he would need to fight not one but two miraculous wielders.
The butterfly landed in his mask. Suddenly, he felt his body becoming dormant and he started hearing Lila's voice inside his head.
"Vindicator, I'm Eagle Moth. I demand you to explain your past statement. Why do you think we're not leaving this house with the miraculous?" she asked.
Gabriel struggled. He tried to fight the influence. He knew how persuasive that influence could be, but he knew he was aware.
"I-I... I'll never tell you..." he stuttered.
Lila's look got colder. She was obviously angry with the answer. She rose her cane and pointed it to Gabriel.
"I said: why do you think we won't leave this house?" she repeated with a stronger and angrier voice.
And suddenly, his body stopped being dormant. He recovered his senses for a second, before falling in the extreme opposite: pain. More pain than he ever felt in his whole life. It looked like his bones were on fire and his flesh as about to melt. His head was going to explode and his eyes were going to fall from his face. His column was surely about to crack, but he wanted it. At least he wouldn't feel more pain... He would die...
"I'LL NEVER TELL YOU!!!" he screamed in pain.
He didn't see, but Master Peacock stopped Eagle Moth from torturing him. It was his time. He knew exactly what would break him.
He picked up a pen from Gabriel's desk and pulled a feather out of his fan. He then closed the hand holding the feather and an amok, the peacock miraculous' equivalent of a an akuma, appeared. Félix then blew the dark feather and it landed in the pen. In front of him, a woman figure appeared in front of him. She had long blond hair and deep green eyes. The sentimonster, a creature created by the peacock miraculous wielder, looked like Emilie Agreste.
"Gabriel..." it said in Emilie's voice.
Gabriel rose his eyes, trying to catch his breath. The sentimonster knelled to be closer to him, caressing his face.
"Emilie..." he said in a weak voice.
"I need you to trust them... They want what is best for you, for Adrien, and for me." it continued.
Gabriel touched its hand, not thinking straight, the poor man kissed the sentimonster, giving up his fight and succumbing to Eagle Moth's control. Master Peacock released the pen and the amok left , returning to his hand.
"Vindicator, I'm not going to ask again. Why do you think we're not going to leave the house with the miraculous?" asked Eagle Moth again.
"Ladybug is here and I have reasons to believe Chat Noir, Carapace and Rena Rouge might be close too." he answered.
"And how do you know that?" questioned Lila.
Gabriel fought the influence as much as he could, tried to make a lie. It come something like:
"I... I... I-I felt their p-presence..."
Which was enough to make Lila and Félix wonder what to do next.
Marinette and Luka
The conversation with Gabriel made Marinette doubt everything. She had now the possibility to save Adrien's mom. Would she take it? She had to talk to Adrien.
"Marinette, there you are!" said Luka.
"Oh, Luka... I didn't see you there." she replied
"Where were you? I've been trying to find you for some time now." he questioned.
"Oh... I was... doing something..." she answered.
Suddenly, the music changed from a something that remembered a pop song to a slow. Both Marinette and Luka looked to the columns instinctively. Luka then turned his face to look to Marinette. His light blue eyes, the same color of his hair ends, looked to Marinette's.
"So... Do you... Do you want to..." he tried to say.
Marinette froze. What should she say? She was in doubt. Suddenly, she felt like dancing with Luka would be betraying Adrien.
In the corner of her eye she noticed a blond figure looking at her. The green eyed boy looked at her and Marinette looked back. Could she do that to her kitty? To her prince? To Adrien, the only boy she truly loved of soul and heart?
"Listen." she said "I don't want to play around with your feelings. It would be the same thing as lying to you." at this point, Marinette was about to cry. She remembered that she had used that speech before to Chat Noir, telling him that there was someone else she loved. "Luka, you're my friend, and I would never lie to a friend."
"B-But why do you think it would be lying?" he asked.
Marinette breathed in to control herself.
"Because... there's someone..." she tried to say.
"Don't say anything else." he interrupted "I guess... I guess I've been unfair with you too..."
"W-Why do you think that?" she asked.
"I love you, Marinette, and when you agreed to go on a date with me I was so happy." he explained "Then, everything happened and ever since I understand that you've been with me because you need to forget Adrien..."
Marinette kissed Luka in the cheek. It was the least she could do.
"I'm sure there will be someone that loves you just like you do. You just have to keep looking."
Luka wanted to say how unfair that was, that she didn't understand the feeling, that the universe was playing and mocking him... But he didn't. He closed himself in order to Marinette to open. The pain he was feeling was indescribable, but he didn't express it.
Marinette started walking towards Adrien, looking back once to see how was Luka. He was still looking at her and cursing the heaven for his unhappiness. Then he turned and sat down near a black short haired girl.
"Were you also dumped?" she asked.
Luka didn't recognize her at first, but then he had the feeling that he'd seen her somewhere before.
"Do I know you?" he asked
"I'm Kagami. I was Adrien's date." she replied
"Luka. I was Marinette's date." he said back.
They were silent for some time, but then Luka had an idea.
"Do you want to get back at them in the dance floor?" he proposed.
"Ah... S-Sure. Why not?" she replied timidly.
Adrien
"Did you just...?" he asked.
"Shut up." she said with a big smile in her face.
The silence was awkward and it remained for some time.
"Do you... want to dance?" he asked.
"You have the guts to kiss me, yet you take an entire year to ask me to dance with you?" she asked provocatively "Sure, why not?"
She put her hand over his shoulder, he put his hand in her waist, both held hands and merged into one in the dancing floor. They were so close, sharing the air they were breathing. She never imagined that would be how they would end their night, but it was.
The music was romantic and the entire atmosphere was demanding for a kiss in the heat of the moment. Marinette lined in, getting closer to Adrien. Adrien did the same. Their lips were so close they could feel the heat.
Lila
Desperate times require desperate measures.
"Vindicator." she said "I'm giving you the power of pain and the old form of Hawk Moth. You will cover our exit from the other miraculous wielders."
"As you wish, Eagle Moth." replied Gabriel, turning into Vindicator.
"Go, Vindicator, and shield us from Ladybug and Chat Noir!"
Marinette and Adrien
Suddenly, Tikki appeared close to Marinette.
"Tikki!" she screamed silently "What are you doing here?"
"Hawk Moth! Hall! Run!!!" she said tiredly.
Marinette looked at Adrien and he understood it was time. Both ran out of the dining hall to find Hawk Moth in the middle of the hall.
"Ah, Ladybug! It's time for you to give me your miraculous!" he said.
"He knows you are Ladybug?" Adrien whispered.
"Long story." she replied "I promise I'll explain everything. Now run!"
Adrien quickly ran out of the mansion.
"Plagg, claws..." he began.
"Not far enough!" Plagg warned "Go out of the walls and then you can transform!"
Meanwhile Marinette was face to face with Hawk Moth.
"I'm sad my son doesn't have the courage to face this form." he said "I really don't know what you see in him."
"The same you saw in Emilie." she replied "He's sweet, and true, and funny, and charming... He's perfect..."
"I'm sorry you won't have the time to enjoy it, but I lost my love first." he replied.
"What happened to you, Gabriel?" she asked.
"I understood you won't work with me, so I'm going to take your miraculous myself." he explained.
"Not if I have anything to say about it." said a voice.
Adrien was back as Chat Noir. With his staff, he started fighting Hawk Moth that defended himself with his cane.
"Tikki, spots on!" she shouted, activating her Miraculous.
"Good, both are here." he said.
"Chat, we need to take this outside! There are civilians in here." she said.
"Got it." he replied.
Coordinated, Ladybug and Chat Noir pushed the battle to the courtyard where no one was watching them.
Hawk Moth jumped high and launched Chat Noir to the ground so hard the floor was damaged. Chat rose with pain all over his body but with will to continue fighting.
"Cataclysm!" he shouted, reuniting a giant amount of destructive energy in his ring.
He battle continued. Ladybug tried to tie Hawk Moth's feet with his yo-yo but it was useless. He was too fast for her.
"Can you distract him?" asked Chat.
"Sure." answered Ladybug.
The duel between both was intensifying. Marinette was trying to keep Gabriel's pace but it wasn't easy. He was an adult Miraculous wielder, he was much stronger than her.
Meanwhile, Adrien was climbing with one hand the wall of the Agreste Mansion. Even for a superhero it wasn't as simple as you might think. When he reached the top, he used his staff to go as high as he could and then fall hands first towards Hawk Moth.
His hand touched the ground first, making it crumble to dust. They felt in a strange room beneath the mansion. It seemed to be part of some sort of sewer system but it had a butterfly shaped structure in one of the walls.
"Cover me." Adrien said to Marinette while running to behind one of the pipes to feed Plagg and recover his powers.
Ladybug kept trying to resist Hawk Moth's attacks, struggling to make him not see who was Chat Noir behind the mask.
"You don't have to do this." she said.
"Oh, my dear Marinette, I do." he replied.
Chat jumped back into action just to see Marinette behind thrown against a wall of the room. He tried to spar with Hawk Moth but he too wasn't strong enough to hold it for too long.
"MARINE-" screamed Adrien, just before Gabriel hitting him so hard he was also thrown against a wall.
Author's note: To the (many) ones who didn't understand, the ending of this chapter is also the begging of Chapter 14.