A/N: All dialogue is to be interpreted as a translation from French.

Words in italics are used either for emphasis or, such as the case of 'Chat Noir' (which is literally translated from French as Cat Black), imply that they are meant to remain in their original French.

Ladybug's appearance is similar to that of the series, though her hair is darker and worn down in later years. Marinette's appearance is ultimately unchanged.

Chat Noir's appearance is similar to that of the series, though his hair is longer than Adrien's, and his uniform comes to a V-shape at his upper chest in later years. Adrien's appearance is ultimately unchanged.

The Wicked

Prologue: A Life Left Unspoken

Locked in the cold, sterile room that had once been the office he shared with his beloved wife, Gabriel Agreste avoided what few scattered rays of sunlight slipped through the thick, dark curtains over each window. White tiles made up the innermost floor, leading to purple-carpeted steps ascending to the man's most sacred of paintings and the black-furnished, elevated outermost surface. Painstakingly designed, meticulously painted, and flawlessly glossed, the portrait of a naturally beautiful, mild, and loving blond-haired woman with green eyes as pure and gentle as the grass of a plain, smiling in graceful harmony, seemed to illuminate the entire room. Having been based on Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, the flawless rendering of Gabriel's long-lost wife and most precious lover provided the man's only source of solace in a world that blatantly refused to slow or halt itself. His expression cold but laced with sorrow, the fading man's warmed, tear-laced eyes remained fixed on his beloved's face for countless hours without so much as blinking.

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt," Nathalie, a woman entirely too young to be as mature and silently sorrowful as she had become, gently spoke up upon entering her employer's office and closing the door behind her. "But it's time for you to go."

"…I understand," the withered man gravely declared as he adjusted his glasses. "Thank you, Nathalie."

"Please know that I share your pain, sir," the dark-haired woman declared as she fought off the tears that threatened to break her voice. "…I loved her too."

No longer able to remain strong, Gabriel clasped his eyes with his hand, not daring to look his assistant in the face. "What I wouldn't give…" he choked out. "For it to have been me instead."

Nathalie tightly closed her eyes to force back the tears welling up inside, biting her red-stained lip, the woman imagined wrapping her arms around the one she adored, promising to take all of his pain into her body, as long as it would soothe him. However, she remained strong. "Don't say that, sir," she forced herself to say without breaking down in tears. "Everything will be alright."

For years, Nathalie watched her beloved friend and employer suffer under the weight of a terrible sorrow he chose to bear alone. Every day seemed to age him more mercilessly than the last, and her along with him. The Agreste household had become a host of pain and loneliness since Adrien's mother's eternal departure. Though Nathalie had adopted the role of caregiver to Adrien, there could be no replacement for the boy's long-lost mother. Gabriel, whether in his darkest or brightest of days, dreaded nothing more than his beloved son, who reminded him so terribly of the one he had lost. However, the resemblance was the least of the man's pains.

Following her scheduled meeting with her employer, Nathalie excused herself from her duties for a brief time, locked herself in her bedroom, a sound-proof room she had called her own for years, leaned against its door, and began to openly sob. Her hot tears streaming like a torrent, the woman soon lost the ability to see through her soaked glasses. Day after day, her pain and emptiness plagued her, though no one knew or thought to ask. After expressing her sorrow for roughly ten minutes, the purple-haired woman dried her eyes, took a drink of water, washed her face, fixed her hair, and redid her makeup before returning to her work.

As the Agreste family struggled through another day, a group of individuals draped in silent shadows gazed out at Paris in anger and jealousy. The city had rejected and forgotten them long ago, though their voices would make themselves heard once again. Five in number, the darkened souls readied themselves for the beginning of the lives they had dreamed of for so long. One more terrible deed, and peace, love, admiration, and solace would finally be theirs.