Chapter Text
The first time Adrien had discovered everything had been...jarring to say the least. Gabriel had been lost in thought, examining his wife’s still body. Everyday it became less and less of a possibility of seeing her again as those damned children continued to win. In case he never succeeded, he had made sure to memorize every inch of her. Every curve of her body, every detail of her face was compartmentalized inside Gabriel’s brain. A wave of assurance flowed over him to quell his fears. He would never forget her, because he would succeed with his mission. He had to succeed. He’d never forgive himself if he didn’t.
An audible gasp ripped him from his thoughts and he whipped around to see his son standing on the metal bridge, absolutely horrified. Gabriel couldn’t even compute a response. It was so unexpected. Adrien also looked caught off guard, wearing his embarrassing Ladybug pajamas and holding his fencing sabre weakly. The two stared at each other silently for what seemed like hours. This was...uncomfortable and the older man did not enjoy being uncomfortable. He decided to deal with the situation swiftly. Explanations could be provided when he was more prepared.
“Adrien-”
“Wh-what is this?” His son had not moved an inch. His eyes lay glued on their point of focus. Not even Nathalie’s appearance from behind one of the bushes could falter his concentration on the body in the coffin.
“It’s a...long story. Why don’t we go upstairs and discuss....this?” He gestured feebly to the scene behind him. How was he supposed to put his actions into words?
“No.” Adrien gripped his weapon with both hands and stood in a fighting stance “You’re going to explain here and now.”
Gabriel was shocked at the level of authority in his voice. His son very rarely spoke back to him, and every time he did it felt like he was getting stabbed in the eye. “Adrien, please. This is foolishness. I’m not going to fight you. And besides, your technique is all wrong. Be sensible.” Gabriel took a few hesitant steps towards his son. This isn’t how he wanted him to find out. He never should have seen this.
Adrien’s offensive stance morphed into a defensive one as his father drew nearer. His voice lost its power and began to rattle as he spoke. “Don’t take another step until you tell me why mother is here. Tell me why she isn’t moving. Is she dead!?” Gabriel was almost directly in front of him now but there was no comfort in his movements. Like a threatened cat with no other options, Adrien foolishly lashed out towards his father with his sabre and immediately felt nauseous when he hit his target.
The sudden movement caught Gabriel off guard and he didn’t have time to react before the sword whipped his left side of his neck. He winced and his hand instinctively reached up to grab the injury. He heard Nathalie scold his son behind from behind him. Anger flared in his eyes behind his glasses.
Adrien immediately dropped his weapon and began pleading an apology. “Father. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I’m just scared and I don’t understand what’s going on…”. Gabriel had no words to describe his fury. So this is how it was going to be, huh? When had his son learned to be so disrespectful towards his parents? He had no idea all the trouble Gabriel was going through for him. For them.
His hand moved of its own accord and struck Adrien’s cheek hard. The boy, completely unexpecting of the attack, was knocked off balance and fell. A loud echo permeated the open bunker as kneecaps collided with the harsh metal. He looked up with tears welling in his eyes. This was the first time Gabriel had ever raised a hand to his son and it did not feel good. This situation needed to end, now.
Nathalie was suddenly at Adrien’s side, helping him back to his feet. The teenage boy tried to shrug her off but she held fast. Even after he was standing again, the assistant refused to let go. Her face showed mercy but her actions demonstrated control. His father growled in frustration and finally snapped.
“I have shown you patience, Adrien. I have given you everything and you act out like this? I’m doing this for you! For us! I never wanted you to find out this way and now it’s obvious that you can’t handle it!”
Gabriel had to think of a way out of this. He needed a do-over. Briefly glancing at his son’s face, he could feel the anger and betrayal coming off him in waves. He knew their relationship was ruined. It would never survive something like this. Now, even when he brought Emilie back, there would also be a rift between father and son. That wasn’t the perfect family picture Gabriel had worked his ass off to achieve. If only Adrien had never come down here. If only he could forget any of this existed.
An unintentionally cruel smile spread across the designer’s face as a plan unfolded in his mind. It wasn’t ideal, but it would work and be mutually beneficial for both him and Adrien. “Nathalie, please restrain my son.” The assistant stared back with a puzzled expression but her unwavering loyalty won over her love for the child. Strengthening her grip on Adrien’s arm, she all but dragged him to the side of the bridge. Gabriel took off his ascot and rummaged through his coat pocket to find a thick strip of cotton left over from one of his design projects of the day. He handed the fabrics to the woman and she got to work.
Adrien couldn’t even bring himself to fight. “No...please don’t. Please stop!” he just yelled over and over again while remaining completely compliant. Nathalie forced him in a sitting position and tied his wrists to the railing behind him. There was no way this was happening. Adrien began to crumble into sobs. “Please father, I’m sorry. Please don’t do this”. But his father wasn’t listening.
The man waited until his assistant joined him on the main platform, surrounded by the glowing moths, before he willed his transformation to overtake him. In the blink of an eye, Hawkmoth stood in Gabriel Agreste’s place. Adrien felt like he was having a stroke. This couldn’t be real...this had to be a dream...it had to be a nightmare.
Without even acknowledging his son’s revelation, Hawkmoth snatched a bug out of the air and forced darkness into it. He opened his hand and willed it to fly towards the woman in front of him. Nathalie closed her eyes and allowed the moth to sink into her glasses. Adrien could only watch in horror. “Amnesia,” Hawkmoth - no, his father spoke aloud “I am giving you the power to erase the mistakes of the past. You will ensure secrets are kept and memories are lost.” The man gave a pointed glare at his son as a black cloud of energy enveloped Nathalie.
In her place stood a terrifying akuma. A black dress with neon blue accents dripped off her body onto the floor, giving the illusion she was made of a liquid substance. Her skin had taken on an impossibly pale hue and left behind emotionless facial features. Her eyes had no pupil, iris, nor sclera. Instead they glowed a painfully bright blue, the same as on her dress. She turned on the boy against railing and drifted towards him. The sleeves poured over her arms unevenly and the fabric shifted fluidly as she raised an outstretched hand to his head.
Adrien had come up against countless akumas. But none had scared him the way Amnesia did. Maybe it was because he lacked the confidence of his suit or because he didn’t have his lady by his side to protect him, but he was petrified. He couldn’t bring himself to react. His fight or flight response failed him and his body opted for the third, least helpful option: freeze. Adrien couldn’t move. He was glued in place by fear. And he hated it.
“No, no plea-”
He abruptly stopped speaking as Amnesia gently placed her hand on his forehead, as if she were searching for a fever. At the contact, a blue light passed from her palm into the boy’s face. Bright, neon tendrils flowed under his skin causing his eyes to imitate those of his attacker. Adrien stayed completely still for a moment as the magic worked to make him forget the terrible scene in front of him. The blue began to fade and receded from his eyes, making way for the emerald green color to return. A moment later though, they rolled back into his head altogether and he collapsed on the ground.
Once the deed was done, Hawkmoth willed his akuma to leave his champion and released its dark energy. Nathalie faltered slightly when her transformation dropped and gasped silently at the limp form in front of her. Guilt coursed through her veins but she suppressed it with logic. This was the best way to help him and his father.
A moment later, Gabriel stood next to his assistant, once again donning his signature designer clothes. His voice came out quieter than he expected as he spoke to his assistant. “Please finish up down here. I’ll take my son to his room. We will never speak of this night to anyone, not even each other. As far as I’m concerned none of this happened.”
Gabriel pulled a pocket knife from his jacket and reached around to cut the cloth from his son’s wrists. He then picked up the boy and carried him like a child to the elevator at the end of the bridge. Gabriel glanced down at the unconscious form and felt an overwhelming sense of regret for what he had done. At least it was over and he, nor his son ever had to experience this again.
**************
A few months later, the entire ordeal happened again.
Sooner than last time, Nathalie was reakumatized and took the same course of action. Adrien woke up the next day with a small headache but was none the wiser.
A week and a half later, Gabriel groaned at the sound of small footsteps on the bridge behind him. Nathalie understood what to do without having to be told. Adrien was once again forced to forget.
The next morning, the teen model once again found his way to the hidden bunker. He’d been drawn to the golden painting of his mother for some reason as soon as he had woken up. He felt a painful longing for her image. It made no sense, but he chalked it up to an ongoing grief process. He snuck his way down to his father’s office and found a deep sense of comfort in the painting. He focused on her soft expression and how it stood out from the harsh shapes surrounding her face. Adrien noticed three triangles in particular looked strangely worn out. As if someone had been specifically rubbing those spots. He reached out to the closest one and felt an obvious difference in the texture. The other two reflected the same issue. Were these...buttons? Adrien pushed in the one furthest away from him. Nothing happened. He pushed in the other two, individually. Nothing happened.
“Huh. I wonder why that’s like that.” He wondered aloud. Before he could turn away, something inside stopped him. Without explaining how, he knew he needed to push all three. Adrien closely examined the picture again, positioning his fingers to press each one simultaneously. As soon as it did so, Adrien felt as if he were in a free fall. A sharp yell escaped him as the floor from beneath him was gone and he was falling to his death. Except...he wasn’t falling. Was this an elevator? They didn’t have a basement!
To Adrien’s horror they did, in fact, have a basement. But it was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. A long, metal bridge led to a small, grassy island. Water flowed underneath the bridge calmly, as if nothing were wrong with this scene. But a cold aura radiated all around and Adrien found himself shivering. Be it from the temperature or something else, he didn’t know. The metal bridge echoed uncomfortably loudly with each step he took. For a brief moment, he worried someone was down here and might hear him. But those thoughts melted away when he saw the centerpiece of the room. Drawing closer, he noticed a massive gold... was that a holding chamber of some kind? The design emphasized the clear glass door in the front. A green light blinked happily at the bottom.
When he stepped off the bridge, he half expected it to retreat to the other side of the pool, as if in an action movie. Because there was no way any of this was real. Surprisingly, the metal remained, completely motionless. For now. The gold object unfortunately appeared to resemble a coffin and it looked like someone, or something was inside of it. Orange converse met the golden base as Adrien realized just how correct he was. He froze, staring down at the peaceful face of his mother.
What the hell was this place.
**************
Gabriel knew something was wrong when he heard his son scream from downstairs. The father flew from the room upstairs to his office with little regard to his own safety. Upon entering, he saw nothing and huffed in surprise. Gabriel walked around behind his work station and saw his son’s duffle bag laying on the ground right next to the trap door. He sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose as he did so.
This had just happened last night! There was no way Adrien happened to re-discover everything mere hours after the previous events. Gabriel looked at his watch. It blinked back 6:23am. Adding insult to injury, Nathalie was going to be late this morning. For a moment, Gabriel considered simply leaving the situation alone until his assistant arrived but he quickly pushed the idea out of his head. Leaving his son alone in the bunker gave him a strong feeling of unease He was stuck without options until Nathalie could get there. Seeing no other way out, Gabriel accepted his fate. It was time to be honest with his son regarding his intentions and actions. As he rode the elevator down, he focused on how to make it go as smoothly as possible.
**************
Things got out of hand quickly when Adrien tried to punch his father while he calmly explained the situation. Gabriel was expecting it this time and easily dodged. What he didn’t expect was for his son to sweep his legs from under him and sprint to the exit. The cold metal was considerably unwelcoming to the man’s temple and he heard the floor of the elevator platform click flush with the ceiling tiles above before he was able to fully stand. After regaining his composure, he ran after his son, transforming as he did so. This was not like all the other times.
Adrien made it to his room and locked the door behind him. For a second he debated transforming and fighting. But that would be foolish. Battling a fully matured miraculous holder was hopeless, especially without Ladybug. Ladybug, the name echoed in his head, of course! If he could just message her and tell her to get her ass over here, stat , he could probably distract his father for a couple minutes.
He unconsciously pulled out his phone and began frantically typing a message to her. Halfway through his attempt, Adrien mentally face-palmed himself as he realized he didn’t have a contact number for his partner. The phone fell, forgotten on the bed. “Shit, shit, shit” the curses rolled off his tongue as he hastily looked around for other options. This was not good. The only way to contact her was through his Catphone if they were both transformed, which he assumed she wasn’t given the early time and obvious lack of akuma. Deciding it to be his best option, Adrien was about to call his suit over himself when his fath- no, Hawkmoth burst into the room. The villain practically threw a butterfly in his son’s direction and watched as it was absorbed into the white over shirt his son always wore. Before the teen could even turn to face the door completely, a butterfly symbol floated around his eyes and his motion ceased.
“You are Patience,” Hawkmoth spat angrily. “You will remain perfectly still and silent. For once, you will do exactly as I tell you and wait. ”
A black cloud covered his son’s body but made little alteration to his appearance. The only difference was the teen’s overall color. Both body and clothing appeared very gray, as if he were stuck half way between being a human and being a statue. For hours he stood there, unmoving. Gabriel, not wanting the akumatization to fail, remained Hawkmoth the entire time. He sat on the bed and just watched his son. For four hours.
Around 11am, Nathalie finally arrived. Her disposition was unaffected as she entered the room, save for her eyebrows furrowing slightly. “Sir?” was the only attempt she made at asking a question.
“Nathalie, please restrain my son. Again.” The exasperation in his voice was not subtle.
The assistant walked over to the unmoving teenager and sat him in his desk chair, pinning his arms down behind him for extra precaution. She cringed at the stiffness of the body and the sound of cracking stone as she moved him. Finally, Hawkmoth released the akuma from his son and willed it to return to him. Adrien gasped for breath when he did so. A pang of guilt hit the father’s heart. Maybe the command to keep still had been too literal. He pushed the feelings aside and filled the moth with more negative energy. This was exhausting.
The bug flew towards Nathalie as if it knew the drill. Adrien was still recovering from his stupor and seemed to have little idea as to his situation. Before he was able to realize anything more, Amnesia brushed his forehead and the child once again went limp. Gabriel moved his son and laid him on his bed. Before he released the akuma, however, he needed to take precautions. He beckoned Amnesia into the bathroom with him.
Searching through the cabinets, Gabriel found a few empty travel bottles. One by one, he placed them under Amnesia’s dripping sleeves and caught her excess memory fluid. When he was done, six bottles sat on the counter filled with the brightly glowing liquid. Should the need ever arise again, he would be prepared with or without Nathalie. At last, he called back the akuma and released his transformation. Surprisingly, the bottles stayed despite being cut off from their maker. Typically, Ladybug’s cure would reset things to the way they were. Gabriel wondered if they would disappear the next time she used it.
Nathalie supported her boss as she walked him to the white couch in the middle of the room. The questions began as soon as they both sat down.
“Sir, what exactly happened? How many times are we going to put Adrien through this? And how are you going to explain his absence from his activities today?”
“He found out again somehow.”. Was all Gabriel could offer. Nathalie didn’t respond for a couple minutes, seemingly lost in thought.
“I wonder if it’s muscle memory” She spoke out loud. That was possible. The magic of the miraculous had their limitations. Her power of amnesia was effective, but there easily could’ve been a flaw in its effectiveness. It would certainly explain why Adrien had become so good at discovering the truth. Because deep down, he already knew.
“Maybe. All I know is that this is becoming a major inconvenience.”
**************
Adrien woke up with an outrageous headache.
“Ugh,” he groaned as he blindly searched his bed for his phone. What time was it? Finding it’s target, his thumb pushed the lock screen. “Four thirty!?” he screamed, flailing wildly to get his life together. What the hell had happened?
His father suddenly entered the room, scowling deeply.
“Father! I-I don’t know what happened! I must’ve slept-in way past my alarm! I am so sorry, I’ll make up everything I missed by tomorrow. I-” The older man simply bent down and hugged his son tightly.
“Do you remember what happened last night, Adrien?” Last night? Adrien thought hard about what he was referring to but to his dismay, came up with nothing.
“I...I don’t father. I’m sorry.”
Gabriel pulled away from the hug and looked at his son’s face. “You had an intense allergic reaction to something. I didn’t see a need for the hospital but instead gave you a large dose of medication. We’re still trying to figure out what exactly triggered the reaction. The medicine caused you to sleep for an extended period of time. You’ve been excused from all commitments for today only.”
“Wait, what? What happened?” Adrien had no recollection of that in the slightest. An allergic reaction? To what, sleeping?
“I do not wish to relive the experience, as you can imagine it was quite stressful. Please contact your classmates for makeup work and rest inside your room for the remainder of the day. Your food will be brought up to you. Please notify Nathalie immediately if you feel...unwell again.”
“Yes father, of course. Thank you...for saving my life, I guess.” He smiled sheepishly at the man as he scratched the back of his neck nervously.
Gabriel failed to return the emotion. He turned away and walked towards the door, shooting back “It’s my job,” as he did so. He made sure Adrien didn’t see the brief look of guilt that flashed across his face before his infamous scowl of indifference returned.