Chapter Text
Skull watched the news and felt his heart shatter. "And Ladybug and Chat Noir have saved Paris once again!" Why did he come to Paris again?
Reborn had sent him to get something hadn't he?
But he couldn't focus.
He was struggling to even breathe.
That was Ladybug.
Not his Lady.
That was Chat Noir.
Not him.
Not ever again.
Would he ever atone for his sin?
Skull forcefully turned away from the huge screen showing the two heroes and continued on his mission. He was meeting someone right? Or was he retrieving something?
He should call and ask even if that meant getting yelled at and belittled for not remembering something so simple.
'Oh Chat, so forgetful.', laughter like chimes had him flinching as he looked to his left waiting to see those beautiful emerald eyes sparkling with mirth, rose red lips quirked into a half grin half smirk.
His beautiful Lady would never tease him again. Would never grow old.
Would never have her melodious laughter heard.
It was his fault.
His fault.
Always his fault.
"Plagg? What's wrong?" Adrien asked as he stopped his perusal of the Ladyblog when the small kwami didn't tease him for his crush.
The kwami was frowning as he stared at the window.
"It's nothing. Admiring Ladybug again?" Adrien didn't buy it and wasn't willing to go along with the distraction, instead he turned away from the computer and turned his full attention to his friend.
"You don't have to lie. If you don't want to talk about it you can tell me." Plagg looked at him before sighing and floating over to him sitting on Adrien's head.
"You know how there was a previous ladybug? Well, there used to be a previous Chat Noir... There have been many previous users of the miraculous." Plagg hummed to himself as if debating something. Adrien patiently waited not seeing where this was going.
"The Chat Noir before you killed his Ladybug." Adrien let out a horrified gasp as he looked up meeting Plagg's green eyes. Plagg didn't have the look of someone who was betrayed, no, if anything he looked heartbroken.
"Why would he do that?" Adrien whispered as if afraid to hear the answer. Plagg shut his eyes as if to shut away a horrible vision.
"The Chat of that time awakened something that only two of my previous Chats had. It's called the Dying Will."
Plagg could still remember those vibrant red flames his previous wielders had. Both had been a bit temperamental which is why he thought the purple flames his newest wielder had and the attitude of all three lead him to believe there were no difference.
But there had been.
He'd been set off for the first time and his fire and rage consumed as opposed to blowing away as the others had.
'You hurt my Lady, that will never be forgiven. CATACLYSM!!!' He screamed furiously as Ladybug cried out in pain holding her bleeding stomach trying to staunch the flow of blood.
'Chat! No!!' Ladybug's fearful voice as she tried to stop his rage only to realize too late that she hadn't had her weapon to block the attack coming.
The dull wet sound of a clawed hand going through someone's chest. The blood the covered his Chat as he cradled his Ladybug in his arms crying and begging for forgiveness.
The beginnings of am Amber flame covering her before fading as the Cataclysm consumed her very being.
Tikki screaming and crying as Plagg pulled her away from the rotting corpse of her wielder.
His beautiful broken Chat crying as his black hair turned amethyst.
Grey eyes looking up at him begging for help as purple began filling them until he no longer looked the same as the boy in the streets smiling at having a purpose.
"It was the first time that I had seen that color of Dying Will, and through my misunderstanding of it... I cost him everything." Plagg was pulled off Adrien's head and hugged tightly.
"I don't think it was your fault, you were just trying to help." Adrien spoke softly as if any wrong word would break Plagg.
What did he do to deserve these sweet kids that were always so understanding?
Why was it always these kids in bad situations that ended up wielders of his miraculous?
Oh, right, because all their negative experiences powered Cataclysm. Because they were not consumed by their darkness as many other were, their acceptance of it lended them power.
Skull was missing.
He dropped off the face of the Earth after he arrived on Paris.
His phone was destroyed, they couldn't find his pacifier and Mammon couldn't find him using their particular brand of scrying.
Adrien looked down at the purple haired baby sitting across from Plagg with a look of utter devastation. Adrien had sat as far away from them as he could to give them privacy only to get dragged closer to them.
"Still getting into trouble I see." Plagg teased gently and Adrien felt his heart breaking at the watery smile that hesitatently crossed the other boy's face.
"I'm... Bad Luck personified." He could see the instant both of their hearts broke at those words.