Adrien's POV

I know I messed up. I know that I freaked out over something that was my fault. If I could, I would go back in time and do it again, and instead of breaking her heart, I would pull her in for a tight hug and tell her everything. That I love her, not only as Ladybug, but as Marinette. That I'm Chat Noir. That I was suffering with a glass heart, but I didn't mind because I loved her too much.

But I can't. And no amount of crying or feeling bad will do anything. So I will save my princess.

And I won't let her die.

Hawkmoth's POV

"He says he knows a lot more than you think he does, Hawkie," the bluenette informs me through our telepathic communication.

I clench my fist in anger as I stand alone in my dark lair. I've tried so hard to protect him from this mess. The reason I keep him locked up at home in the first place is to protect him from my akumas. How can he possibly know about kwamis, Ladybug's identity, and her powers?

Unless...

"Shadow Princess, I need you to cause a distraction. Walk Adrien home. After that, I'll let you have your fun," I command in a deep voice through the purple butterfly outline.

"With pleasure, Hawkmoth," Shadow Princess replies. "Only on one condition."

I growl. "What?"

"You will let me use my full power after I safely deliver Adrien home."

I frown and curse myself. "Fine. You have five minutes. Get Adrien home."

"Gotcha Hawkie. See ya later~"

I de-transform and a bright purple light fills my dark lair. I curse myself for trusting her, but this seems to be the only way to test my theory. My theory is drastic and dangerous, but I have to do what I have to in order to test my theory.

"Master?" I hear my tiny purple kwami whisper under his breath. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you planning?"

"Silence, Noroo!" I shout, exiting my lair.

Pure white butterflies scatter as I make my way to my platform and leave my secret lair. After a minute, I'm back in my own mansion. I sit at my desk and patiently wait for my son to return. I lean back in my leather office chair. My eyes scan over my desk, but freeze when they see a certain someone in a picture frame. I gently pick up the frame and pull it close to my face. My eyes glaze over her sharp eyes, her blonde hair, her piercing green eyes.

"I'm doing all of this for you, Emilie," I coarsely whisper under my breath. "And soon it will be finished. We will be happy again."

I clutch my heart as a pain sharply stabs my chest. I cry out and double over from the pain. A familiar feeling of stabbing fills my body.

My glass heart has worsened. I've only recently self-diagnosed it myself. After Emilie slipped into her coma, I was brutally heart broken, but tried to accept it and move on. However, no such luck occurred. Everyday I swore to myself that I would wake Emilie up with the wish by Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous. My refusal to move on formed my glass heart.

The only reason I'm not dead yet is because when Emilie slipped into her coma, she still loved me and accepted my love for her. But after her accident, she permanently lost her consciousness. She no longer accepts my love because she isn't feeling anything. It's only a matter of time until my glass heart stabs me one last time and kills me.

I gently place the picture frame down on my desk and look at the picture next to it. A picture of my son, Adrien. I sigh and place the frame face-down, not baring to look at the haunting picture any longer.

"Sir, Adrien has arrived," I hear a mature female voice announce.

I lift my head up to see who it is, and nod. "Thank you, Nathalie."

I slip my coat over my shoulders to keep me warm and walk downstairs. Nathalie opens the main door for me when I reach the bottom floor. Adrien greets me when the doors open, and behind him is Shadow Princess. She looks at me and smirks arrogantly behind Adrien's back. I don't react.

Time for test number one.

"Adrien," I begin. "Is this your friend from school?"

"Yes," he mumbles. "She was nice and wanted to walk me home."

I nod solemnly. "I see. Would she like to help you with your studies?"

"No father, I'm sure she has to get home."

I glare. "Is something wrong?"

"No, father," Adrien replies, looking away from my eyes and turning to Shadow Princess. "See you later, Marinette."

I frown and watch as Adrien walks inside and up to his room. Nathalie closes the door behind me, and I start to walk back to my lair. As I open my office door, I slam it into its frame. I violently shove all of my items on my desk to the floor. Papers fly everywhere and books slam into the ground. I hit a chair and it falls to the floor with a loud bang.

He failed. Adrien failed my first test. He lied. First, he referred to her as Marinette, even though he knows she's akumatized, proving to me that he lies to me. Next, he avoided all of my questions and refused to tell me anything.

Fine. Onto the second test.

I press a pattern of buttons into Emilie's portrait, and step onto a platform, descending into my secret lair. Butterflies scatter as I enter the dark dome-shaped room.

"Nooroo, dark wings rise!" I shout furiously.

A bright purple light fills the room as I transform, and I open my telepathic communication with Shadow Princess.

"Now." I command. "Do as you want. Cause destruction. Get Chat Noir on the scene as quick as you can."

She smirks and crosses her arms. "Whatever you say, Hawkie."

The girl pumps her fist and a black flame engulfs it. She shoots the black fire beam at an unsuspecting civilian and they disappear, presumably into the shadow realm. I nod from approval. She forms a large black fire this time, then throws the fire on the ground. A chunk of the sidewalk disappears. People vanish in mid air. Trees and bushes are gone. Soon, the whole city will be in the shadow realm and Chat Noir will be forced to give up his miraculous.

"Do you have it under control right now, Shadow Princess?" I ask the arrogant blunette.

She smirks and puts her hands on her hips. "You have no idea, old man."

"I'll be gone for a moment," I inform her, then de-transform.

I exit my lair and run back to Adrien's room. I knock on it once, twice, then a third time.

"Adrien?" I ask, eyes slowly widening as I realize the inevitable.

Knowing it's useless to ask a second time, I open the door and barge into his room. I stay frozen from shock as if my feet were rooted to the ground. The window is open and Adrien is nowhere to be found.

I slam the door as I exit, exploding with rage. My glass heart may prevent me from feeling some emotions, but I still feel anger. Anger is my most powerful emotion. Many think it's a weakness, but I think it's a strength.

"Update on plan two, sir?" I hear Nathalie ask emotionlessly from the hallway with her arms crossed behind her back.

"He's not there," I growl. "Check the security cameras."

"On it, sir," Nathalie solemnly replies, then excuses herself and heads to the first floor.

I feel the rage burning in my heart as I make my way back to my lair. It's impossible. It couldn't be. There's one test left that I must partake in to confirm my theory.

Could my own son be Chat Noir?

Chat Noir's POV

"MARINETTE!" I scream, running toward the girl floating in front of the Effiel Tower.

She cackles and elegantly covers her mouth with her fingers sprawled out. She then pumps her fist once and a black fire appears, surrounding her hand. She then aims for me, cocks her arms, and the black flames shoot towards me.

I jump and roll, barely dodging the attack. The flames hit a sign behind me, and it disappears into the shadow realm. I scrape my cheek as I collapse onto the ground. I quickly push off the ground and scramble back up to my feet.

"Give me your miraculous, Chat Noir! This could all be over with! We would win!" She shouts as I run towards her.

I extend my baton and slam it into her rib cage. She screams from the pain and collapses onto the ground, coughing. I sprint towards her and grab her wrists and pin her to the ground, using my body weight. I catch my breath as I rest on top of her. Our noses are only inches apart.

"Any future where you're not my lady is not a future I want to be in!" I reply, my voice laced with concern.

She tilts her head and smiles, gently placing her hand on my cheek.

She giggles. "That's an awful nice shadow you have. Mind if I borrow it?"

Before I can even react, she travels through my shadow like a portal. She seeps through the ground and appears right behind me in a building's shadow and cackles. I whip my head around just in time and start spinning my baton like a shield just as she tries to hit me with a black flame.

"Marinette!" I scream, terrified. "Please, listen to me!"

She scoffs. "Why, kitty?! You were the one who broke my heart. Out of all the people on earth, you want to talk to me?"

"Please, listen!"

She rolls her eyes and shoots another black flame at me. I extend my baton and use it to fling me into the air. I front flip in the air and land on top of Marinette, this time making sure I'm not leaning over her too much to where I create a shadow.

"Listen to me," I whisper, tears forming. "Please."

She kicks me in the gut and flings me upwards into the sky. Only a second later, I come crashing down, slamming face-first into the sidewalk. I cough and shut my eyes tight. The magic of the miraculous is the only reason I'm alone

"That didn't answer the question, kitty," she snaps.

I look at her with one eye shut, still huddling on the ground. "Marinette, I love you! Why can't you see that?!"

"Now you wanna be supportive?! YOU caused this whole thing! You fucking deserve that glass heart!" She screams, her voice cracking at the end, showing her real pain. "YOU'RE A FUCKING BITCH!"

I quietly gasp to myself and my eyes open up as wide as saucers.

"M-Marinette..." I stutter.

She scrunches up her face and glares at me, looking down on me as I slowly try to stand up. She harshly kicks my face and I collapse to the ground again. She crosses her arms again and hatefully scowls.

"It's funny how you think I'm bothered by your confessions of love," she sneers. "You think you can just say you love me and everything will go back to normal?!"

"You told me once that you would be with me forever!" I call out, tears starting to fall. "So I'm returning the favor. I'm not going anywhere!"

She walks towards me and grabs my neck, yanking me off the ground. My feet dangle inches above the ground.

"You broke me and you expect me to forgive you just like that?" She scoffs.

"Please..." I beg.

She growls and slams a punch right into my jaw. I'm thrown backwards and stumble back several steps. When she realizes that I didn't fall, she screams and socks me in the nose. An awful crunch could be heard when she slammed her fist at me. I collapse to the ground and my rib cage crashes into the sidewalk, making my nerves scream from pain. She then grabs my bell and yanks it towards her face.

"I like you begging," she arrogantly smirks. "Do it again." 

I struggle out of her grasp and feel my feet touch the ground. I hold her wrists so she can't use her powers on me. For the first time in a while, I can look around the landscape.

Chunks of the world are missing and have disappeared into the shadow realm. No one is walking around. The birds and squirrels ran away to hide. Cars are left abandoned on the street. The lingering smell of smoke drifts through the street and burns my nose. The taste of salty sweat fills my mouth. My cat ears are pressed tightly flat to my head. My hands are shaking and my irises frantically dart every which way.

She swiftly kicks my feet and I fall forward, slamming my chin into the concrete. I scream from pain. She simply giggles in reply.

"How's it like for you to be the one getting rejected, kitten~ ?" She giggles, aggressively kicking me in the side.

I struggle to stand up and push off the floor. I grab her chin, facing it towards me and forcing her to look at me.

"Marinette, I know you're there..." I whisper.

She frowns. "I'm not Marinette."

I don't say anything. I'm exhausted.

"I wish I never met you," she scowls, glaring at me and scrunching up her face in pure disgust and hatred as soon as my limp body hits the ground.

I struggle up and move forward, taking a shaky step towards her.

"You... you don't mean that..." I mutter, clenching my rib cage with one eye swollen shut.

She looks down on me and smiles slightly.

"Oh, but I do."

I freeze in place, and drop my arms.

"I hate you," she repeats.

My eyes open wide.

"I hate you, Adrien Agreste."

And not one petal fell out of her mouth after she said that.

Hey!! I really liked this chapter. I wanted to make it a bit more violent because I didn't want this to be seen as just another akuma battle.

I used many of your comments on the last chapter to make this chapter! Some user's comments I included are @_purrincess_ , @Maycie789 , @miraculous_addicted2 , @noreenahmed10 , and @Mylady_Chat . If you don't see your name but you feel like you saw your comment in my story, you probably did!! I just listed the most important comments that stood out to me!

And as usual, upvote !! The !! Chapter !! ⭐️