All spoiler material has been blacked out, and thank you for the feedback!

The management highly recommends that "Wings of a Butterfly" by him be played over reading this chapter, when the moment seems appropriate. Thank you.

This... was not going to work.

Not the current villain, that wasn't going to work either. A Lucky Charm had been summoned, a Cataclysm brought to bear. It was only a matter of time before the Akuma was captured, "de-evilised," as Ladybug loved to put it, and his plans were set back another day. Another week. Another month. They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.

Gabriel Agreste was many things, but he was not insane. That's why he became Hawk Moth.

He had seen the results of heroism, and it cost him the only woman he ever loved. According to the Great Guardian, heroism could not bring her back. Gabriel was an intelligent man, it didn't take him long to realize that villainy could. So he twisted and corrupted his Miraculous, and began the long game.

One by one, he would seek out a lost soul. Good people at their lowest point and drag them deeper down. Turning rage into hate with a flap of the wings of a butterfly...

And... It wasn't working. It simply wasn't working. Over thirty villains thrown at Ladybug and Cat Noir, all with different powers and abilities, all had failed to capture their Miraculouses. It was time to change up the strategy.

He could only Akumatize one soul at a time. This was unfortunate. Strength in numbers would be the easiest solution to this problem. The issue was the only way he could reliably create an army was if Ladybug ignored an Akuma. And she wouldn't. She made that mistake once, she wouldn't make it again.

No, this was about choosing the right candidate...

Thus far he had taken the desperate. The angry. Without his influence they were perfectly good people. They had one other thing in common, they were either young, or very dim. So what was he looking for? What kind of man did he need?

The answer struck him almost immediately. He didn't need a man.

He needed a monster.

He needed someone to whom rage, and hate were the natural state. Someone he barely needed to push into supervillainy. The only addition would be the superpowers... There was a problem. That kind of man was abundant, but very hard to control. Evil was like driving. You don't need an instructor if you've been doing it all your life.

But he had to try... The other way simply wasn't working.

He had someone in mind. A gambler with a record so long, and a history so violent that for the first time in forty years France had called for his head. Politicians had used this madman to argue for the re institution of capital punishment. The media circus surrounding this case had finally come to a conclusion a week ago. He would be spending the rest of his life in prison. Of that, he wasn't happy.

"Don't I deserve better?" he kept screaming.

He was angry... Emotional... Desperate, and truly evil. He would do nicely. It was a risk, but it would yield a high reward.

"Natalie" he called to his unwitting personal assistant. "Fit of morbid curiosity. Bring me any information you can find on Jacques Bousquet."