Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It has been a year since the disappearance of French actress, activist and philanthropist Emilie Agreste (Graham de Vanily). The details regarding the incident are foggy, the only thing known for sure being that she disappeared while on her second trip to Tibet. There had been rumors going around that her health had declined since the first trip, but she and her husband had declined to give any comments on this and the media was not completely focusing on them either way, with the mysterious appearance and even more mysterious disappearance of the vigilante known as Plume Bleue, as well as the appearance of another vigilante, this one known as Grand Chat, sharing the spotlight.

The disappearance of Emilie Agreste has nonetheless given way to a large scandal as fashion mogul husband Gabriel Agreste, the last person to see Emilie Agreste before her disappearance, has been accused of orchestrating the incident in the first place. Following this the Chaton brand has reported a major sale’s plummet. Mister Agreste has denied all accusations and has also been found not guilty in his trial. In time he managed to recover from the financial blow caused by this frightening news through diligent work and an inspiration from an unknown source...

Gabriel was standing on the sidewalk with his wife. The whole journey to the airport had been sunny, just like it was supposed to be for an early morning summer day, however the weather had quickly changed, rain starting to pour down. Now Gabriel was looking down at his shoes, noticing with scorn that they were falling victim to the rainwater that slicked the pavement. His gaze was brought up by the musical sound of Em’s giggling, his smile turning into a frown when the happy tune ended with the discordant noise of dry coughing.

“Are you sure about leaving in this condition?” He asked, his concerned voice coming out with a softness reserved for few.

“I’ll be fine Gabe! No amount of coughing and dizziness will stop me from giving a helping wing to the people.” She replied, her voice radiating confidence despite its weakness.

“I know but maybe you could reschedule and go when you’re feeling better.”

“If I start rescheduling then I will never be able to keep on top of my other responsibilities.”

Gabriel made a face, his concerned eyes big as plates, something she jokingly called “baby doll eyes”. Em sighed in what seemed to be defeat, but her smile said otherwise.

”Here.” She said, giving him her peacock brooch, an accessory she never took off, wearing it even when she went to sleep.

“Now you know that I will make it back.”

Gabriel gently took Em’s precious brooch and placed it in his suit jacket’s interior pocket.

“Make sure to phone Adrien and I when you arrive. You know how he gets.”

“I know how you both get, Gabe.” She said, an undercurrent of amusement in her tone as she turned back to gather her suitcase.

Gabriel turned away and made for the car as the rain got louder. Before he could enter his car, however, he heard a frightened shout from his wife. Afraid of what had happened, Gabriel turned and tried to run toward the scream but was unable to as his feet wouldn’t budge. He looked down horrified by the sight of pairs of hands made out of water that were pulling him downward. Gabriel struggled to no avail as he was sinking in a giant puddle, more hands grabbing onto him and pulling until ice cold water swallowed his legs, then his torso, then —

Gabriel sat up in his bed, drenched in cold sweat and gasping for air. He was holding his dizzy head into his hands, trying to calm his breathing.

This is the 4th time this week. he bitterly thought to himself. He turned his head towards the digital alarm clock on his nightstand, the red numbers practically taunting him. Three a.m. on the dot. He sunk his head back into his hands rubbing at his eyes and massaging his temples.

No more sleep tonight.

Gabriel slid out of bed, putting on his slippers, robe and glasses as he made his way towards his bathroom. Once there and in front of the mirror he had a realization: he looked horrible. His mussed light blonde hair had a few white strands, he had dark bags under his eyes and his chin had a lot more stubble than he cared to keep.

No amount of work will get this under control… The experienced fashion designer thought to himself. So he didn’t bother at all. All he did in the middle of the night was splash some water on his face, brush his teeth and have a shower. Gabriel made his way back to his room and, after a bit of looking around in his wardrobe, put on some clothes he liked: a dark blue suit over a black shirt and a silver colored waistcoat with blue buttons. He then put his contacts in and walked out to his atelier. Once there he stopped in front of the portrait of his wife and pressed a few secret buttons on it, the floor under him beginning to move down and down, acting like a lift that arrived at an underground repository under the Agreste Mansion. The place was beautiful, moonlight coming over a small garden, electric light further illuminating the large room. In the middle of the garden green light emanated from a cryogenic pod where the love of his life, Emilie, was held in suspended animation. Gabriel sighed as he placed his hand on the glass of the pod’s lid.

“We’ll be together again… when I learn how to undo what happened to you…”

The blond man turned to the small wooden table next to the pod, on it a small white box with his company’s logo (a geometric design of a featureless black cat’s head) and opened it, a thick black ring with a disk in the middle, a tiny cat’s paw print radiating neon green light. Gabriel grabbed the ring and slid it on his left hand’s ring finger, a bit of neon green light flying out of it as it changed from black to a simple dark blue, matching his suit, the light that flew out taking a more cohesive shape as it dimmed, revealing tiny cat-like creature. The creature yawned before opening his eyes and looking at Gabriel.

“Hey Gabe! Ready for another night of heroing? Are you? Are you?” Asked the small cat excitedly. The experienced fashion designer chuckled.

“Of course, Plagg…!”

“Ok, but first: where’s my Camembert?” Asked the now named Plagg. Gabriel pointed to the table, where, near the small white box, was another cylindrical shaped box. Inside of it was some Camembert cheese, Plagg’s favorite kind and the food that acted as fuel for the magical abilities he granted.

Plagg was a Kwami, a spirit-like being that embodied an ‘abstract’ concept, in his case ‘Destruction'. His existence in this plane was granted by the power of jewel, his being a ring, in exchange of allowing a human being to make use of a fraction of his power. His current master was Gabriel Agreste. Soon after his wife’s disappearance he uncovered the origin of the two jewels she had brought back from her first trip to Tibet, Plagg’s ring and her Duusu’s brooch, and, under Plagg’s guidance (if it could be called that) he made use of the Black Cat Miraculous to try and attract the Order of the Guardians' attention (without success so far)…

“Ok! I’m ready! Let’s go kick some ass Gabe!”

“Plagg... Claws out!” Exclaimed the blond man as he punched the air, the little cat Kwami getting succeed into the ring, energy then flaring forth. Gabriel stomped his foot, a ring of neon green energy coming from the ground up and changing his appearance. Now, he was dressed in a black suit with a standing collar, a bell at the collar, worn under a black buttonless trench coat with the lapel popped up. His face was obscured by a black metallic helmet with unmoving cat ears and white eyes with slit neon green pupils that were animate and functioned to match Gabriel’s expression at the moment. Over his hands he had silver metallic gauntlets with short claws, which matched the toed, metallic, clawed boots he also sported. Finally around his waist, over the suit, was a sash, attached to it a silver staff.

“Show time…!” Said Grand Chat to nobody as he had the repository’s simple large window open for him to jump out of.

Grand Chat took to the streets for patrolling and in no time at all he found some trouble: from the edge of a roof he spotted thieves breaking into a jewelry store and taking pretty much everything they could fit in their bags. The elder cat hero immediately jumped down from his vantage point and landed silently on all fours. He casually sauntered over to the shop and leaned on the door frame, crossing his arms.

“Hurry it up! Police will be here any minute now!” Said one of the thieves to the other two.

“You know, it’s people like you who make me believe in the saying ‘Life imitates art’ more and more.” The thieves suddenly turned at the sound of a new voice, seeing Grand Chat in his position. He waved.

“You picked the wrong people to mess with bub!” Said one of the other two guys, pulling out a gun. With frightening speed Grand Chat moved from his spot, dodging the bullet.

“That’s going to be annoying… For you, obviously: your about to waste an entire magazine!” Said Grand Chat, amused, as he continued to effortlessly dodged the gun shots, each of one missing. Then the click of an empty gun was heard. “Any more of those you want to waste on me? You’d have better luck running at me.” Advised the cat hero.

The third thief ran at him with a crowbar, taking his advice. He first swung overhead, the elder cat hero dodging to the side, he then swung from side to side, making him bow and discreetly grab hold of his collapsed staff. The thief once again tried for an over head swing, but Grand Chat, instead of dodging, pulled himself up and had his one side of his staff extend to block the attack. The two stood in a stalemate for a few seconds, the hero with a bored expression while the thief looked constipated as he pushed on the staff to no avail. Grand Chat yawned before he twisted the crowbar out of the man’s hands, had the other side of his staff extend to hit him full force into his stomach, before he swiped with it, knocking him down. He made short work of the other two, who tried to take him on in hand to hand, earning a couple of scratches for their trouble. Grand Chat tied them all nicely and made his way out of the store, jumping in the air and continuing on with his patrol. This night seemed to be relatively calm, so he soon parkoured his way over to the Seine and— Grand Chat got hit by someone (something?) midair, landing with the thing (it was definitely a person) on the ground1 He opened his eyes after a second to see the ugliest thing in the world: the head of some weird monster with mandibles. The monster chuckled.

“Grand Chat…! I have been looking for you for some time…” said the monster with a deep, guttural voice.

“Have you considered going to a dentist? Your breath reeks!” Said the elder cat hero before knocking the monster off with the help of his extending staff. He assumed a battle ready position.

“I like the candor. Now, try to resist for as long as possible… I want this to be interesting!” Said the monster as he went to attack.

Whatever this thing was, its strength and speed were way above what Grand Chat was used to, the elder cat hero having trouble dodging and blocking attacks, getting launched any which way by this monster. Its defensive capabilities were nothing to sneeze at either, the hero’s attacks doing nearly nothing to hurt it. It was also relatively big which proved a little hard for the hero since the one sweet spot he found, its head, was difficult to hit. From the monster’s perspective, he was severely disappointed, throwing around the elder cat hero like he was a ragdoll. Eventually he got bored of playing with him and became serious, using his massive strength to pin him to wall with his arm to his neck.

“Boring you proved to be! Now, to take your little ring~!”

“In… your dream’s…” replied Grand Chat, activating his destructive power, protecting the ring with it.

“Hm! That won’t save you. You’re only prolonging the inevitable with that trick.”

“I guess you know… how lethal... this is?” He gasped out.

“Yes, and I’m more than capable to wait you out. You won’t use it on me, coward…!”

“…I’m sorry…” Said Grand Chat out of nowhere.

“Sorry…? For what?!”

“For whoever... has to clean up the mess I’m about to make!” Replied the elder cat hero as he slapped the wall he was pinned to, degrading it within seconds. That, combined with the strength of the monster, caused it to break, Grand Chat’s adversary getting tripped up and himself getting free. He repositioned himself in the air last second, landing on his hands and launching himself backwards before taking off quickly, knowing he couldn’t take on that monster. The monster followed him, but he eventually lost track of him, as the hero managed to hide. The monster roared.

“You may have gotten away this time, but be assured I will find you and TAKE YOUR MIRACULOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUS!”

At around 6:00 Gabriel was back in bed, sleep still not coming to him, watching something on TV instead, Plagg by his side.

“So let me get this straight: it knew you had a Miraculous?”

“Yes… I don’t know how, or why, but it knew. It really wanted it as well.”

“Weird! It doesn’t sound like a Guardian to me. I mean the guy straight up attacked you! Guardians would normally approach to explain the situation before fighting.”

“I’m going to lay low for a while. Keep out of sight. It’s not like I’m needed for anything special; all I do is beat up thieves and sometimes drug traffickers.”

"Meh... It'll be boring without you, but fine. I'd rather you and I be safe and bored than me being in danger."

By 7:00 am in the morning Gabriel managed to get a bit of sleep, before his alarm clock woke him up. The only thing he did was shave his stubble, leaving his hair as it was. The experienced fashion designer decided to forgo breakfast and take a walk outside, putting on an outfit that would thankfully keep him anonymous.

Chapter Text

A blue haired girl woke up in early morning, at around 6:00 am. Well, ‘woke up’ is not necessarily the right wording, as she had been awake for a while, unable to sleep due to the pain she felt in her right leg. This was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the intelligent and formerly clumsy daughter of Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain, as well as Paris’ future new top fashion designer. She had, after an incident, been in need of a cane to walk, her right leg hurting so much she was on medication to combat the pain. The first thing she actually did as she shuffled off her bed was taking a pill before she grabbed her adjustable, metallic cane and began limping around her room to get ready. She put on a sleeveless, collared t-shirt with the top button missing, a pair of purple jeans and a double breasted, three button, gray blazer. Finally she transferred the purple brooch she had attached to her pajama’s shirt to the T-shirt, making it act as the top button. The blue haired teen, now ready for the day walked over to a small pin cushion devoid of pins, where a small, cute, fairy looking creature was sleeping peacefully. She patted his head, softly whispering:

“Wakey-wakey my cinnamon roll~! Today’s school day~!”

The little creature shifted on the small pin cushion that acted as his bed, before yawning and opening his eyes. The little cinnamon roll was Nooroo, a purple Kwami which earned his nickname for the little swirl symbol on his forehead. He was one of Marinette’s oldest friends, the powerful being's mere presence possible only with the power of the magical brooch in the girl’s possession, given to her by her mother as a present on her 4th birthday along with a large tome filled with strange writing and beautiful images, among them one of the brooch itself and a warrior looking man dressed in purple beside it. For some time the girl had been working on deciphering the text and she had been relatively successful, her Kwami pleasantly surprised… Back to the present, Marinette walked down the stairs of her room and arrived at the living room, grabbing a page from the notepad and the adjacent pen, writing down a message to her mom about leaving early. She pinned it to the fridge before opening it and grabbing the box with black berries, placing it in her schoolbag. It was 7:00 am as the young fashion designer left through the front door, saying bye to her dad and limping into her neighborhood, arriving at her wanted destination: ‘Quantum Café’, a place where her best friend outside of school was, as well as the place with some of the best food besides home. Today of all days was a lot more busy than usual (probably because today was the first day of school). Marinette’s gaze scanned over the café’s interior, finding one seat free at one table, another person sitting on it, dressed in a coat, with a silk scarf around his neck and wearing a fedora indoors. She walked over and took a seat, something which caught the man’s attention.

“This is the only empty seat here and, as you can see…” She trailed off, making a show of her cane. “So we’ll both have to pretend we’re alone at the table and get on with our lives. Fun!” She finished, her voice dripping with sarcasm and a little bit of amusement. That made the man shut up and look back down at his menu as the young fashion designer pulled out a notebook and put on a pair of circular glasses, beginning to doodle in it some clothes' design or another. A tall lady with side swept, undercut hair walked over and gave the blue haired teen a cup of fresh lemonade and a slice of meat pie. “Thank you, Miss Melodie.” Spoke Marinette, her hands signing her words as well. The woman silently gave a thumbs up, showing off a thousand watt smile. Marinette let her notebook sit on the table as she took a sip of the lemonade, the man giving his order in the meantime. After he did so, he observed the notebook on the table and the contents of two pages. Marinette immediately noticed him almost staring at it. She was about to say something but all that came out was:

“Huh...” The young fashion designer’s head tilted her head to the side before she took off her glasses and put them away, facing the man’s face: “Ooh~! Now this is interesting…” She said before lowering her voice. “Never knew the great Gabriel Agreste liked this place~”

“…This is my first time here…” He replied in a hushed voice, rolling with it.

“Gotcha! Don’t worry; I won’t say anything.” Marinette went back to her eating as Gabriel looked at the notebook.

“Actually, could I…?” He trailed of, motioning for Marinette’s design sketchbook.

“Sure, go ahead.” Was her reply, her voice managing to remain even.

The experienced fashion designer received his order from the woman and he thanked her with a nod, beginning to drink his coffee as he paged through the girl’s sketchbook. There were many different clothing designs, some in the classic line, while others evoked a Chinese inspiration, but still managed to remain relatively casual. There were even designs for jewelry, such as a ‘Make your own bracelet’ or some animal inspired ones.

“Those are mine by the way. You can’t have any. There’s a date on each page—”

“—and your initials or first name on every design, all discreetly added. Impressive. May I ask who you are?”

“You already did. Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I study at Francoise Dupont High School.” She leaned a bit over the table, her hand held in an expected handshake, the blond man obliging.

“You know who I am.”

“Yes I do.” After that things went quiet for a bit, both finishing their breakfasts. Then Gabriel broke the silence:

“Not to be rude, but what exactly happened to your leg?”

“Hm… Let’s go with medical condition. Does that sound good?”

“…If you don’t wish to speak of your condition—”

“I obviously don’t want to speak of it. Everyone asks and I’ll always answer the same: It’s personal… <Sigh> Sorry about that... I have school to get to school. I assume your son has to do that too. Have a nice day, I guess.” She bid to the man. Her last statement regarding his son reminded him of what he told him this morning and he, without even realizing, said this:

“Tell Adrien I said hello.”

Marinette, after a moment of confusion, realized the implication and nodded, her face a combination of calmness and tiredness. She made a sign to Miss Melodie and paid for her breakfast, before standing up and pulling out a small pill bottle from her blazer’s left pocket, popping one. The young fashion designer decided to leave for school, but not before a blond teen girl with seemingly purple eyes, skin a tinge tanned, her blond hair pulled into a braid, dressed in white and purple, ran after her and hugged her from behind.

“Melodie~” greeted the blue haired teen with a smile and with a softness in her voice reserved for few.

“Mari! How’s your day been?”

“Nice, I guess.”

“ARE YOU READY FOR SCHOOL?”

“Please, not so loud... And I am.”

“Cool. I’m ready too. Have fun at school~!” Melodie hugged Marinette again, giving her a kiss on the cheek, the blue haired teen returning the hug with one arm.

Marinette and Melodie went on their separate ways, the blue haired teen limping to school and arriving 10 minutes early, taking her usual seat at the lowest desk near the window in her class. There were a few others of her classmates, who thankfully were still in the same class, namely Alix, Max, Ivan and Mylene. The others still hadn’t arrived, so she wasn’t sure if her class was going to be functionally the same or if she needed to ignore any newcomers and let her old classmates tell the new ones the situation. A pair of teens arrived after Marinette, namely a smug looking blond and her posse of one: Chloe Bourgeois and Sabrina Reincomprix. The blond had her usual stuck up smile on her face, but it disappeared, her face taking an annoyed expression (which was almost the default one at that), as she walked over to where Marinette was.

“What do you want Bourgeois?” Asked the young fashion designer, bored, not even sparing her a look.

“What I want is for you to leave that seat! My sweet friend Adrikins is coming to school on the first day and he’s going to seat on the desk next over. So move up!”

“Don’t care. Now if you don’t leave I’m going to take this cane and break your leg.”

“Pffft! Oh please, like you’d ever— OW!” Exclaimed the blond in pain, as Marinette hit her right knee with her cane. “Why you— Get out of my seat!”

“Oh it’s your seat now, huh? Does the little miss want to cry about it to her daddy?” Mocked the young fashion designer.

“What was that? Why don’t you get up and…” The blond girl trailed off as Marinette sat up and looked at her menacingly, the blue haired teen taking advantage of the almost two inches of height she had on her. “…never mind; you know what, you can keep your seat.” Finished Chloe with an almost laughing tone, trying to appease the young fashion designer. The arrogant blond heard a giggle from behind her and turned to see Alya was the one giggling.

“What are you laughing about?! I—”

“Move it ponytail! NOW!” Shouted Marinette by the end.

“Of course! Sorry!” Chloe and Sabrina moved up to the desk behind the front one near the class door as Alya sat down next to Marinette, the two chatting a tiny bit.

Adrien Agreste, son of fashion mogul Gabriel Agreste and model for his Chaton clothing brand, was a kind and free spirited teenager that wished for one thing and one thing only: a normal life. He wanted to go to school and, most importantly, to hang out with friends, not spend his days cooped up in his large room with tons of video games, endless piano and fencing lessons and private tutoring via Nathalie, his father’s assistant and de facto mother babysitter. The blond teen’s family life wasn’t that sad in the past, his mother, Emilie, taking the role of nurturing him and giving him what he wanted while his father was usually the one to draw a limit and keep him from becoming an arrogant boy like other pampered rich kids. However, after his mother’s disappearance there no longer was anyone to provide that love and support, nobody to help him negotiate with his stubborn father. This year he had once again asked to be allowed to go to school, hoping that his good behavior was enough to buy himself this privilege. It was not, apparently, as Gabriel had once again refused to allow him to go, giving the tired spiel about the ‘dangers’ of the ‘outside world’ and how Adrien needed to stay at home to be safe… So today, after he woke up bright and early, he had a quick shower, brushed his teeth, put on different clothes than usual (a light blue shirt over a T-shirt with three stripes, colored red, blue and green respectively), sneaked into the kitchen and made himself a sandwich before he silently made his way back into his room to get his schoolbag. After all that, the blond teen silently made his way to the front door and escaped the mansion a quick run through the yard, putting a cap on to hopefully hide himself a little bit so he hopefully won’t get mobbed by fans (which there were many off), leaving through the gate and he was home free, literally! Adrien made a run for it, going to the school he was supposed to study at for this year: Francoise Dupont High School. After a few minutes of running he had arrived at his destination, and if he hurried a little more he was going to be in class on time. His phone began to ring however, and he looked at it, seeing that his father was calling. The fact that his father took the time out of his busy schedule to call him made him curious about what he wanted, but his shock quickly dispelled as Adrien’s shock quickly dispelled as he figured he was going to order him to go back home. The blond teen was going to have none of it:

“Father, I’m sorry, but I’m putting my foot down! I want a normal life and I won’t let you deprive me of it!” Exclaimed the blond, his body trembling from a combination of anger and fear, no longer having the power to say anything else as he waited for his father to say something, most likely shout at him for raising his voice… however:

“You’re right son… I’ve kept you locked away in our mansion for far too long… I’m allowing you to go to school on the condition that you are driven to and from school, understood?” replied Gabriel, his voice steely by the end.

“…Y-Yes. Yes I understand! Thank you father~! I'm sorry for shouting earlier!” Exclaimed Adrien, a happiness present in his soul and expressed through his voice that hadn’t been there since his mother disappeared. The blond teen almost teared up at how happy he was. He was going to have friends and have schoolwork!

“Have a nice day at school and come back safely.” Said Gabriel before closing the call.

Adrien ran into the school and, unfortunately, did not make it on time, the teacher already inside and all the students in their desk. He felt a little awkward, but he pushed the feeling down and sat at the only free sit in the class, next to a teen with glasses, headphones around his neck and a cap on. Everyone was curious about his arrival, which was clearly not planned (his father would probably have to discuss the details with the principal later), their questions answered by the explosive reaction of a certain blonde.

“ADRIKINS!” Shouted Chloe, practically throwing herself onto him.

“Chloe would you like to introduce us to your friend?” Asked Miss Bustier, stunned by the arrogant blond girl’s sudden burst of affection.

“Of course! Everyone this is—”

“Hey, Agreste? Your father says hi!” Cut in a girl seating at the next desk. Adrien looked at her: beautiful, with a bit messy, blue hair tied back in two long and pointy pigtails, dressed in formal yet casual wear, her face a mix of seriousness and tiredness, an amused smile somewhat breaking her solemnity.

“Oh… Thanks?” Said Adrien. The blond boy was unsure of what happened, but he felt that this girl had a hand in his father’s change of mind... and he was all for it!

Gabriel closed the call and pocketed his phone. His decision to let his son attend school felt… good. Despite all the dangers the world posed to someone like Adrien, he’d be a fool thinking that his son of all people would have problems. He didn’t raise some kowtower, as his son’s earlier outburst had demonstrated. That was good! One day Adrien would be all alone and if he couldn’t make decisions on his own then the Agreste name was going down in flames.

“So when do we clear his schedule, you big softy?” Asked Plagg, eating a piece of Camembert. Gabriel was sitting on the edge of a roof, so he was alone and his Kwami could hover out without worry of anyone seeing him.

“Never! When did we get to that?” Asked the experienced fashion designer.

“Just asking. Don’t you think your son needs some free time to hang out with friends?”

“He will have plenty of free time Plagg, believe me. It’s up to him how he’ll spend it… Also I am not a softy…!”

“Course you are! And that’s a good thing!”

“Hm…!”

Chapter Text

The universe was weird. Some people were born into a life of luxury and bliss, either growing up to be some self entitled brat or becoming an upstanding citizen who would charitably give to society, others being on the neutral side and keeping to themselves, trying to live their best life. Then there was the other side, the people born in pour or medium class families, mostly doomed to a life of infamy or, even worse, one where they needed to fight every day just to have food. Lila Rossi was in the aforementioned middle class. She was a simple girl just like most everyone else, lacking in talents, outstanding intelligence or incredible physical ability, her mother but a humble office worker at some international company. A result of her mother’s work she ended up moving a lot, changing schools just as frequently and, in time, she learned to make herself much more ‘interesting’. First, her mother became an European ambassador, working tirelessly day and night for the good of the entire continent. Lila herself became the friend of all celebrities and, due to moving a lot, she picked up a little culture from everywhere, making her travels seem more believable (which they were, just everything else was a lie). In addition Lila’s life became so much more interesting because she had to overcome ‘the odds’: she was plagued with tons of ‘illnesses’, all very rare and very specific in what they did; in addition she had various ‘accidents’ from which she ‘didn’t fully recover’. This was Lila Rossi’s ‘Truth’:

She was 'cultured';

She was 'courageous';

She was a 'genius';

She was 'kind';

She was 'charitable';

She was Adored!

After all that, Lila was finally satisfied! She mesmerized everyone she met with her ‘Truth’, being showered with praise and attention. Whenever her ‘Truth’ was about to fall apart she would simply come up with a new detail to somehow make herself out to be even better! Then once she became the queen of her class, it was time to bow out and move on, her mother’s work once again requiring them to move. Kisses and hugs and promises of talking again as she said goodbye to her old life and deleted all the phone numbers she accumulated, changing her social platform handle to make sure nobody from her old lives would catch up to her and break down her ‘Truth’. That was the life Lila Rossi lived and, when her mother told her they would be settling down, in Paris no less, one of the capitals of the fashion world, home of great art, culture and good food and drinks (lots of cheese and fine chocolates and wonderful, wonderful cafés), the place where the ‘Language of love’ was spoken, she was delighted. What she was the most delighted of however was the idea of a long con, of dazzling a new group of morons admirers and becoming the queen of the new school she was going to attend, which was Francoise Dupont…

The roster of students she was put into the same class with seemed to be the usual easy to fool material friendly and honest kind that embraced her with open arms, this nature boosted and maintained by the naïve wonderful homeroom teacher, Miss Bustier! However there were three outliers in the mix, teenagers who clearly wouldn’t accept her ‘Truth’: Chloe Bourgeois, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Alya Cesaire. The first and third weren’t people to be worried about… but that second one… Marinette Dupain-Cheng was going to be an interesting opponent to crush… These people were quite rare, and unlike all the sheep admirers, they would see the flaws in her lies, or simply conduct research to see if her claims held up, reject her ‘Truth’ and try to prove to others that she was lying. They were not the kind of people to be fooled by her persona and charm, nor the kind to sit down and allow her to continue spreading her ‘Truth’ and have her way, the fools having some sort of justice complex that made them need to act. All of them up till now had been dealt with, destroyed, crushed, brushed aside and so incredibly ruined socially that they had to move schools in order to get away from her… the blue haired girl was different:

Marinette was bold;

Marinette was knowledgeable;

Marinette was logical;

Marinette was quick-witted;

Marinette was patient;

Marinette understood liars;

Marinette understood how to twist words;

Marinette understood how to manipulate people;

Marinette! Didn’t! Back! Down!

Lila Rossi met, for the first time in her life, someone she could consider a match, someone that knew her game and knew how to play her game. In order to get rid of her she would need more than just a few empty words to destroy her. The first thing the Italian girl did was use ‘coercive tactics’: she first began with putting bleach on Marinette’s chair, hoping her enemy would sit down and have her clothes ruined… the young fashion designer cleaned the chair and made sure to not sit directly on it for good measure; Lila then decided to break into her locker and fill it up with trash… Marinette cleaned it up and then changed the lock combination, adding a second lock (which had a key); later down the line Lila, fed up with the fact that she needed to come up with a new trick, decided to spy on the girl and steal a precious book of hers… the book magically disappeared from her room and was back in the blue haired teen’s possession probably, never brought to school for theft again; Lila trailed the young fashion designer to her home, but this time she couldn’t even do anything: Marinette lived on the second floor of a stupid bakery! She couldn’t even get in and steal that book again even if she wanted to… the Italian teen decided she needed to change tactics, and went forward with full on destruction of her enemy’s image. The plan she came up with was simple: steal and plant an answer sheet to a test in Marinette’s bag, plant an object of hers in Marinette’s locker, determine the teacher to make both girls go to the principal’s office on account of the former allegedly (and falsely proven) cheating on a test, convince the old fool that Marinette pushed her down the stairs and is bullying her on top of being a cheater and, finally, just to finish her off for good, accuse her of stealing the object she put in her locker, destroying her image at the school. The plan was perfect. It couldn’t fail!

Or could it?

Lila’s plan immediately went off the rails when the planted answer sheet was missing from the blue haired teen’s pest. This had required her to do some mental gymnastics to get the both of them to the principal, using a copy of the answer sheet (which she had made on a whim) and making it appear that she found it in Marinette’s schoolbag. Once that was achieved Lila was sure of victory.

“Ready for your reputation to be ruined?” Asked the Italian teen. Marinette's face remained neutral, only rolling her eyes, and watched as Lila walked back down the stairs and pretended to be fallen over, holding her knee and crying out over dramatically, getting the attention of the substitute teacher that was working. Lila was carried all the way to the principal’s office while Marinette had to limp there with her cane, which was the salt on the wound that Lila really enjoyed about her plan. There in the principal’s office she began a long winded spiel about how Marinette had been mistreating her, bullying her, about how she had cheated on a test and about how she… Lila had stopped her speech when she noticed that the principal's wide eyes were looking a little down. Lila herself looked down at her hurt knee, so hurt that even a slight tap would make her ‘cry out in pain’ (her own words) and saw Marinette tapping her fingers on it. She looked at the blue haired teen, seeing her other hand was pointing to her knee, Marinette not even bothering to look her way, instead looking at Mr. Damocles with a smug smile on her face.

“That’s a hurt knee alright! One that would make her scream in pain if tapped lightly, right Mister Damocles?” That made Lila lose it, but she still had one ace up her sleeve: she had planted her necklace in the young fashion designer’s locker.

“You know I wouldn’t have done this if you haven’t stolen my grandmother’s necklace Marinette!” She exclaimed. Her ‘grandmother’s necklace’ was something she had been wearing for a while, inspired by an image she saw in the blue-haired pest’s weird book.

“Your what? Lily-pad, I didn’t steal anything from you~!” replied Marinette with a laugh, adding the nickname since Lila decided to go for her own name.

“YES YOU HAVE! I saw you put it in your locker this morning.”

“Calm down now! The both of you! If you really did see Miss Dupain-Cheng put it in her locker then it must still be there. We’ll just go check and see!”

“Very well. But if we’re doing this then we shall do it professionally.” Conceded Marinette. Lila hadn't the foggiest of ideas what her enemy meant by that, still feeling a little uneasy despite what she knew was going to be an easy victory. Principal Damocles and Lila followed Marinette, who first took a detour at her class and peeked in:

“Reincomprix, your police expertise is needed!” Called out Marinette.

“I-I don’t have police expertise!” Exclaimed Sabrina, surprised. That made Lila mentally laugh. She was about to tell the blue haired pest to stop wasting time when she said:

“Yes you have. Don’t downgrade yourself Reincomprix. You’ll make an excellent cop. Today is the time to prove that to yourself.” Said Marinette. The fact that she had given her a compliment made Lila incredibly frightened, but she couldn’t do anything but watch and wait. The three teenagers and principal walked to the lockers, Marinette putting on a pair of black leather gloves. She opened the locker and her hand was prepared to catch the necklace.

“Aha! I knew you stole it! See Mister Damocles! She had been treating me horribly, not to mention the fact that she is a cheater.”

“Reincomprix, do you have anything to mention about what just happened.”

The principal, knowing Marinette for an entire year to be a dependable person and the one that managed to give him an entire legal explanation on what the Mayor of Paris can and can’t do and what he, as a citizen and school Principal could do to protect himself, waited to see what the young fashion designer had to defend herself with. Sabrina looked a little lost for a second, before her eyes lit up, her mind making a connection.

“You have put a second lock on your locker, which means you’re the only one who can open it.”

”Good! And?” at Marinette’s question Sabrina walked over, the blue haired teen pulling of one of her gloves and giving it to her.

“When you opened the door the necklace fell out, which means you would have had to place it leaning on the door, which is impossible.”

“Go oooooon.”

“If you were to place it there you would have put it somewhere in the back or on top of everything else. However, if someone were to use the grate at the top…” Sabrina trailed off.

“…the necklace would end up leaning on the door and fall out when you would open the locker. Almost as if it was put there~!” completed Marinette.

“Not necessarily!” Said Sabrina, surprising everyone. “If you wanted to make it look like it was planted there you could have pushed it through the grate yourself.”

“Then what do you suggest we do? It’s obviously not me, but I can’t prove it.”

“No, but there is one more thing to verify.” said Sabrina, pulling out a makeup kit. “Part of an investigation is looking for fingerprints!” She took the brush and used it on the locker door… the locker was strangely devoid of fingerprints… “Did you clean your locker door recently?”

“In the time span of today? Fat chance! I was with Alya all day and even you saw that I never went to the locker room at all. Lila had her necklace yesterday, so I couldn’t have stolen it then.”

“How about the necklace itself then?”

“This is ridiculous!” interjected Lila, as she walked over. “Give me my necklace and give up!” she said, her façade breaking a little. Marinette limped to separate Sabrina and Lila, giving the former the necklace.

“Afraid of something? Afraid that your fingerprints are the only ones on there?”

“You could have wiped it clean!”

“Then there would be no fingerprints at all.” Supplied Sabina helpfully, leaning to the side of Marinette before leaning back behind her.

Sabrina did discover finger print fragments on the necklace and both Marinette and Lila had to give their own finger prints for comparison. From her locker the blue haired teen pulled out a magnifying glass, giving it the orange haired teen… The only finger prints that matched the fragments on the necklace were Lila’s.

Just like that, Lila Rossi’s own reputation was ruined… and with it in shambles, the young fashion designer began to cut the wound in deeper and disprove her every lie, turning the whole class against her, her gloating being the cheery on top. In the second year at Francoise Dupont Marinette herself, along with Alya (Lila had a feeling it was the latter’s idea), decided to work on reintegrating her into the class, allowing her to participate in class activities and outings, thinking there had to be something about her that was… likable… Lila however was only thinking about how to get back in the good graces of the class with something mesmerizing… and a trip to the museum was the perfect opportunity to nab something and pretend it was some family heirloom.

Lila gave the old excuse of needing to go to the toilet, but instead managed to stealthily infiltrate the restricted are of the museum, wearing gloves, having learned from last time. She entered a room that had the door open, seeing a man occupied at a table. She quickly looked around, her eyes caught by the sight of a beautiful, brown, beaded pendant necklace, the pendant looking like it was made from amber, a little fossilized scorpion inside. She tip toed over to it and snatched it, however, the second she did, the man sat up in his chair. Lila turner around to leave as the room was bathed in yellow brown light and the man turned around, ran fast enough to beat her to the door, locked it and pulled the little rotating thing that acted as the lock out of the door, breaking it and keeping it close. The Italian teen began screaming as he grabbed her.

“What do you think you are doing, young lady?” Asked the man, who was simultaneously the source of the light, while his body was veiled in darkness, giving the impression of the light coming from behind him at all times, despite the fact it radiated in the entire room as if he wasn’t there.

“NO! LET ME GO! SOMEBODY HELP ME!”

“Shout as much as you wish; this room is soundproofed.” He said as he forcefully pulled the necklace out of her hands and threw her to the floor. The man put the necklace on and began to grow in size and change in shape, the veil of darkness and the light disappearing, making way for a monstrous, scorpionic appearance. Lila really began to scream then, begging not to be killed or eaten or hurt in any way and apologizing profusely for stealing the necklace, the girl feeling like she was in the worst nightmare imaginable. The monster punched the floor near her.

“SHUT UP FLESH BAG!” He shouted. She let out one last scream before she covered her mouth. The monster looked at her and she heard the sound of a deep guttural ‘Hm’. He was clearly humming in thought, perhaps thinking about eating her or not. His monster appearance instead receded, the silhouetted man back and holding a hand for her to grab. She accepted and was pulled up. “Because you clearly do not understand what you are dealing with, here is an explanation: you attempted to steal a Miraculous, a magical jewel protected by a 'guardian' and providing someone with power beyond comprehension… As punishment for your actions…” Lila dry swallowed when she heard the word punishment. “… you will help me find the Miraculouses that happen to have been misplaced after an... incident. May this teach you a lesson on stealing. Meet me back here after dark. If you refuse to show… I will be coming for you.” Said the silhouetted man menacingly.

Lila Rossi had no idea what she was in for when she came back after dark and received a necklace similar to the one her own, the only difference being that the chain was silver and the tail was several light shades of blue, ending in a black tip.

“You have training to do young… uh…”

“L-Lila Rossi...?”

“Young Lila Rossi. From today onward you shall be known as Volpina, and when I consider you ready, you shall find my missing Miraculouses and bring them to me…”

Chapter Text

This year things were going to be different, for Marinette, for Adrien, for Alya, for Lila and for Chloe… Things were going to take place: friendships will be ruined, love will spark, dangerous people will put Paris in peril and heroes will rise up to stop them and keep the peace… But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Things have yet to be put into motion. After Lila’s year long training the scorpion monster, who introduced myself as ‘Master Chai, Guardian of the Miraculous’, considered she was ready to perform her duty and entrusted her with keeping and making use of the Fox Miraculous in order to make the ones who ‘stole them’ come out and attempt to steal hers as well. The Italian teen had no good plan on how to get the thieves’ attention and decided to not bother with it yet. Then Adrien Agreste came to Francoise Dupont; it was as if the universe itself knew what she wanted to do and smiled upon her, giving her the best opportunity to have an amazing intro as the ‘villain’.

Marinette had no idea of what was about to happen today, thinking that this was the start of another normal school year and that she would just go about her usual business. That was proven a little wrong as she, in the first day of school, met the famous fashion designer Gabriel Agreste, her idol (and the one she would top), then shortly after met his son! The blond teen was quite nice, something which someone that knew Chloe and saw her reaction when he made his appearance wouldn’t deduce. However Marinette was not ‘someone’ and from what she saw the boy was a boundless ball of energy that had no real social interactions, a given considering his face was as readable as a comic book. The first thing that happened once lunch came over was him walking over to Marinette:

“Hi! I’m—”

“Adrien Agreste. I know.” Marinette cut him off.

“Did you two meet before school started? What’s going on?” Asked Alya, who was walking with Marinette towards the cafeteria.

“I’m actually curious too? Did you meet D-Cheng dude?” Asked Nino, who was walking with the blond boy.

“Met his dad this morning. Also it’s Dupain-Cheng dude!” Explained the blue haired, lightly scolding Nino.

“You really don't wanna go with a shorthand on that? Your name’s long.”

“How about I start calling you 'Lah' instead?”

“Thank you for changing his mind!” Exclaimed Adrien after a second of processing, breaking the little argument.

“Changing his mind about what?”

“Letting me go to school. He didn’t want to initially, but he let me!”

“Good for you I guess.” She said disinterestedly. Adrien was a bit surprised by her lack of enthusiasm, but he could understand since they never met before.

“Don’t worry dude. She’s usually like this.” Whispered Nino.

The four teens sat down at a table together in the cafeteria and began to eat. Marinette was silent while Nino, Alya and Adrien were chatting a little, getting to know each other. The latter noticed that Marinette was keeping to herself and, wanting to become friends with the person that did the impossible and changed his stubborn father’s mind, he decided to include her in the conversation:

“So, uh… Do you like videogames?” Asked Adrien.

“…How’d you know?” Asked Marinette, pulling out a Playerboi from her blazer’s inner pocket.

“Oh! I like games too, so I decided to ask.”

“What genre do you enjoy the most?” Asked Marinette.

“Well… I don’t really have a favorite… Maybe fighting games?”

“I enjoy horror and survival games. RPGs too.”

“Do you play Crafters ‘n’ Miners?”

“Yes actually.”

Nino and Alya watched in disbelief as the two casually talked about videogames, the topic then changing to favorite food and then to fashion a little bit, the blond teen talking about his model experience and the young fashion designer mentioning that she was making many designs, some only on paper (for the future), while others were made presently as projects for herself, her parents or her few friends. This discussion continued for the rest of the day until, in one of the breaks, Ivan and Kim had an altercation, the former being told to go to the principal’s office. Marinette ripped away from her small group of friends and limped over to Miss Bustier, telling her she’ll handle it. The teacher decided to agree to it, knowing Marinette was very likely to intervene anyway. The young fashion designer quickly limped after the large teen, feeling her pain intensify from the effort.

“Slow down, you don’t have to go to the principal anymore.”

“I… don’t?”

“No, but I promised I’ll handle it. So what is it? What did Chien do to piss you off, Bruel?”

“…” Ivan didn’t speak. Marinette went full on analysis mode. She looked down at his hand, seeing that he was a holding a crumpled piece of paper. The fact that he didn’t want to talk about it meant that it was embarrassing or personal, or both. The fact that Kim knew about it meant it wasn’t personal enough to keep a secret and was also something the jock would laugh at him for. Perhaps something he failed at? That was usually a reason for the jock to pick on someone for? What would Ivan fail at though…? Marinette knew that Ivan was, despite his appearance, a bit shy and had issues with the finer details of social interaction… Of course!

“Which girl is it?” Asked Marinette suddenly, making the large teen stare at her, stunned. “Don’t give me that look! It’s the only logical conclusion to come to.”

“It’s… Mylene…”

“Alignment of the shrinking violets. Logical choice…” She murmured.

“If you’re following me to make fun of then leave!” He almost shouted. Marinette sighed.

“Ok, listen Bruel. You’re a though guy, inside and out, but you’re purposefully leaving yourself open for stupid things like Chien making fun of you. What you need to do is learn to use the comments people say to make fun of you to fuel a desire to prove them wrong.”

“So… you think I have a chance to… make Mylene like me back…?” Asked Ivan.

“Obviously. She’s actually the only option for you and you are the only option for her.”

“Thanks... I guess...?”

“No problem. I’m going to get back to Cesaire now.” Said Marinette as she turned round and began limping away, pulling out her medicine bottle and downing a pill.

“Wait! You’re a girl— I mean, uhm…!” The young fashion designer resisted the urge to laugh at the large teen, understanding exactly what he wanted: love advice.

“Do something cheesy; Mylene's too shy for any complicated stuff.” Said the blue haired teen without even turning back.

“Something ‘cheesy’?” asked Ivan.

“Poems, chocolate, flowers, a song. Whichever you’re most comfortable with.” Said Marinette.

The blue haired teen didn’t care much for love advice, but she gave him what was best. She very well knew that Ivan would need to make himself less scary if he wanted to wow Mylene, but she left the how of getting Mylene to like him back in his hands. As if I’m gonna handhold a relationship. Nobody gave me a hand! And I did it with a disability on top of it. She thought, frustrated. Marinette’s wasn’t in the mood for any more niceties that day and remained silent, no longer talking to Adrien, which saddened the blond a bit. The other blond of the class felt betrayed and angry, Chloe not having even the slightest chance to talk to her friend at any point during the day… All she wanted was to yell at him a bit for ignoring her, but, by the time the first day of school ended, she was no longer in the mood.

It was raining… Today seemed like such a sunny day and yet it was raining. And Adrien didn’t even think about bringing an umbrella. Maybe he should have checked the weather forecast before he decided to make a run for school. That way he would have probably brought an umbrella with him. The worst part about it was that the car was right there and his bodyguard was not coming out, meaning he didn’t bring an umbrella either. Time to run for the car I guess… the blond teen thought to himself. Adrien's father would probably be extremely worried (and not show it, like he usually didn't) and make a doctor’s appointment in order to be sure he didn’t get a cold or something. As Adrien psyched himself up to run through the rain he heard the sound of an umbrella opening and looked to the side to see Alya and Marinette.

“That’s your ride, right?” Asked the blue haired teen, pointing to his personal car with her cane.

“Y-Yeah! Yes, it is. I’m about to run for it and—”

“Shut up and get under this umbrella Agreste…” Said Marinette, exasperated. Adrien was completely oblivious to the fact that young fashion designer wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of her heart, but because Alya had seen the blond and told her to do it. The two teens walked over to the car and, in the meantime, Nino came outside.

“It’s still going…? Come on!” He looked over when he heard Alya’s little giggles, seeing the blogger filming Marinette and Adrien together. “Is that…?”

“Yup!”

“Are they...?”

“Not really, but it sure looks like it!” The two teens laughed together, Alya schooling her expression as much as she could and putting her phone in her bag as Marinette came back.

“You’re in an awfully good mood…” Said the blue haired teen, sensing Alya did something.

“You listened to me for once! By the way, what happened with Ivan?”

“Don’t change the subject, Cesaire.” Said Marinette as she leaned close to her friend. “What did you do…?” She slowly asked as she glared at her. Alya, predictably, put on her smug face and crossed her arms, giving the young fashion designer the opportunity to pull the phone out of her bag.

“You’re paranoid girl! Why would I do anything?” Asked Alya. Without even looking down at her phone, the blue haired girl punched in the code and entered the gallery on Alya’s phone. She looked down for one second, clueing the blogger in. “Give me my phone!” She exclaimed with a laugh, Marinette keeping it out of her reach. Nino came to the rescue, taking it from Marinette’s hand and throwing it to Alya. The young fashion designer caught it midair and threw it up.

“Catch!” she said, making Alya catch her cane. Marinette caught the phone and, with swift finger movement, deleted the video.

“Awwwww come on!”

“Absolutely not! Are you insane...? We’re on school grounds!” She said with irony.

“Oh shut up! When did you ever care about rules?”

“When they’re in my advantage, they’re pretty good!”

Adrien was in the car as his bodyguard drove him home. The blond teen was incredibly happy. His day was the best he had ever had in years! He got to go to school and made friends! Friends that weren’t just Chloe! He suddenly remembered that he and Chloe didn’t talk at all today, so he decided to call her, feeling uneasy for some reason… the call went to voicemail. That was odd. She doesn’t usually ignore my calls… He thought to himself. With the sound of rain, the car and with his mind elsewhere, he didn’t hear the sound of something falling top of his car. However he did hear the sound of a chainsaw and saw its blade cut through the car roof before a girl dressed in a skintight cyan and black bodysuit that made her look like a weird fox, with white, elbow length gloves and white, thigh high boots, black on her chest, a sash belt acting as a flowing cyan, black tipped tail, with long fox ears and a cyan and white mask that made her eyes white voids, her hair long, and with cyan lipstick on.

“Hello Adrien~! LET’S GO FOR A RIDE!” The strange girl exclaimed, first seductively before she exploded into crazed shouting. Adrien tried to scurry away, but there wasn’t much room for him to move, and she pulled him out through the hole she made, making him go unconscious with a single punch and jumping away, high into the sky, the car having just stopped and the boy’s bodyguard having just gotten out.

Adrien woke up in pain, feeling coldness, as well as the wetness of his clothes from the rain. He looked around and saw that he was suspended in the air, tied up to the Eiffel Tower, a giant pair of scissors ready to cut the rope and let him fall to his doom. He heard the sound of that girl from before, only amplified by giant speakers.

“Heroes of Paris! I, Volpina, am requesting your presence. COME ON OVER AND GIVE ME YOUR MIRACULOUSES OR ELSE ADRIEN AGRESTE IS GOING SPLAT!” She shouted by the end before erupting into evil, maniacal, laughter…

“That’s not good…” mumbled Marinette. She and Melodie had come down from the living room and saw what was happening on the news after her parents called her over.

“Excuse us Mister Dupain and Miss Cheng! It’s best if we don’t drown this room in negative energy, so me and Mari will go worry upstairs!” Said the energetic blond, pulling the blue haired teen back up the stairs. Nooroo came out of her blazer the moment they were out of ear shot.

“This is terrible! Paris has no heroes to defend itself from a supervillain!... I assume that was a supervillain on the TV… I didn’t actually look.”

“It was. Scary, crazed and violent wolf girl!” Exclaimed Melodie, waving her hands around.

“She’s magic. There’s no way she managed to bring a pair of speakers almost as big the Eiffel Tower and plop them right there in the span of time we arrived back home. Hm…”

Melodie gasped, looking between Nooroo and Marinette with a big smile on her face and stars in her eyes, her body language radiating boundless excitement as she hoped in place.

“You’re gonna do the thing! The magic thing!” The kind blond said excitedly.

“Yes.”/”NO!” Said the Kwami and his master at the same time.

“B-But Mistress Marinette—” Began the little purple Kwami.

“Nooroo, it’s just Marinette…” She cut him off tiredly. They clearly had this discussion before.

“M-Marinette, we all heard what Volpina said! You c-can’t just hand her over the Miraculous!”

“I’m not handing her the Miraculous. I’m going to scare her off with your powers. I'm not running into the fray.” She said, going over to a certain part of her room and tapping her cane on it, pressing a button in the floor that made a circular portion of the ceiling to fall down next to her, the small platform held aloft by rope. Nooroo settled on Marinette’s shoulder as she stepped onto the platform.

“Can I come too?” Asked Melodie.

“Not today! Go sit on my chaise longue or my bed and wait it out or something.” Melodie went over and sat on her bed, making Marinette snicker.

“As fluffy as always…! Good luck Marinette! I hope you choose me as your hero!”

“Sorry, I can’t; I need you here to keep my parents from checking on me.” Said Marinette as she let the platform lift her up in her Garden…

Meanwhile, not even at the Agreste Manor, but rather in the rain, running on roofs, was Grand Chat, going towards the Eiffel Tower, the last words Plagg said before he transformed echoing in his head:

“What in the world are you doing?! Get off your ass and go save your son!”

Chapter Text

Volpina was laying down with her hands under her head, waiting patiently for someone to show up. Chai had informed her that there were 3 Miraculouses that were missing: the Black Cat, the Butterfly and the Bunny. Each could grant a person three different abilities, the first being destruction itself and the third giving the ability to time travel, which were really strong, but not necessarily unbeatable. The second one was the most dangerous however…

“The Butterfly Brooch is the most dangerous of the missing three because of several reasons, the first of which being that the wielder almost never fights directly. The one chosen to use that power can grant anyone else whatever power they choose, which can range from something as simple as enhanced strength, to something as complex as the ability to manipulate grains of sand.”

“Then how do I stop that wielder?”

“Well, for all the power they may possess, the Butterfly has one key flaw, which is, ironically, their ability itself. You see, In order for powers to be granted to another person, there is a need for a ‘conduit’ and a ‘transmitter’, as I like to call them. The conduit is represented by an object which will stand out in some way, being a tool or a part of the superpowered individual’s appearance that just sort of… pops! The transmitter is a butterfly, which carries the power itself. If you break the conduit, the object, then the transmitter, the butterfly, will fly away and the person will lose their borrowed power. Do you understand?”

“Ok… but how do I find them. The Butterfly wielder. If you’re saying they work from a distance then wouldn’t they just endlessly keep sending people to fight me?”

“Well… depending on the user, they have a range for controlling the superpowered person. Get too far and they lose connection. No more instructions from their master!”

“So the butterfly user may be close by...”

“Sometimes, but not always. Your best chance is breaking the object and running after the butterfly. It should lead you to where the wielder is, unless they have it go somewhere else.” Finished Chai.

When Alya saw the news she immediately put on a hoodie and a leather jacket, ran out of her family’s apartment and got on her bike, going towards the Eiffel Tower, cycling there in the rain with determination. Ever since she learned of the existence of superheroes in other countries, namely America, she was extremely sad since France was completely devoid of any. But now… today… there was a supervillain on the loose. And if there was a supervillain, that meant a superhero (or superheroes) were going to show up and fight her. Alya was not about to waste the opportunity of seeing a hero and villain fight first hand just because of some rain! Her plan for this was to go to the tallest building near the Eiffel Tower and hopefully see the fight from there, recording it on her phone too while she was on it.

“I can’t believe Paris is about to have its first heroes!” She exclaimed to herself as she made her way there. In a relatively short while, she arrived and walked up to the tallest building. All the people who lived near the Eiffel Tower were looking at what was happening. “A fight has already started…? Yes! Gotta hurry and catch at least some of it on film!” Alya hurriedly made her way to, not the tallest building unfortunately, but one she could actually enter without any issues. From there she couldn’t see the fight properly, never mind record it… Maybe she should have stayed home and watched the news, who clearly were better equipped to film what was happening, the helicopter overhead doing so quite nicely…

“So, there’s no chance you’ll actually let me go after you have what you want, right?” Asked Adrien from the precarious position he was in.

“Obviously not, you’re falling to your death! With you out of the way maybe your dear old daddy will like to start another family. Hello richness and fame!” Replied the fox villain, not even looking at the boy. “Speaking of what I want…” Volpina got up and turned on her mic. “HEROES WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?! <Spectacularly fake cough> Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock heroes! Dilly-dally too long and this boy here is going to fall!” To make her point Volpina had the large pair of scissors almost close on the rope. If it got any closer the rope would be cut. Suddenly both the villain and the blond teen heard the aggravating sound of metal scraping.

“Not going to happen Volpina.” Said Grand Chat, sprinting towards her. He swiped at her with his claws, the fox girl hopping a bit off the ground and, as if she weighted a ton, landing right back down within seconds, allowing her to dodge him with ease.

“Which part are you referring to? I have a feeling you’ve been listening for a while.”

“I’ve listened for long enough!”

Volpina retaliated, attacking with her flute. The movement was a lot faster than he was used to, resulting in a couple hits landing, allowing her to kick him into the metal bars that made up the tower. He ran right back in quickly, catching her flute and throwing it away before attempting a few more claw scratches and, when he saw that that wasn’t working, decided to use straight attacks. The sudden change in fighting style took Volpina off-guard leading to her getting sent into the opposite side of the little fight space. She quickly swung around and began to climb down, getting somewhere underneath. Grand Chat followed, but, not used to fighting in this type of environment and fighting against what obviously was a younger and faster opponent, he got kicked off. Volpina managed to get her flute back and played a little song on it, the scissor opening before quickly closing.

“NO!” Shouted Grand Chat before he made use of his staff, blocking the scissors from cutting the rope, getting his staff stuck in the process however, him hanging off it, in the same precarious position as Adrien, the only difference being that he could survive a fall like that.

“Hi~! The view’s nice right...? <Nervous laughter> Maybe you should have caught me instead of blocking that giant pair of scissors?” Asked Adrien.

“Perhaps. Tactical mistake. Even so, there’s no way I’d be sure of her not pushing you off another way.” Replied the elder cat hero.

“You want the little kitty to survive? Give me your Miraculous~! And everything will be fabulous~!” said Volpina in a sing-song voice, doing a little dance, ending with her leaning down towards him, her hand outstretched toward Grand Chat.

“Don’t! She’s lying!” said Adrien.

Grand Chat gave her his hand… before promptly grabbing it and throwing her off. He hoisted himself up while she fell, pulling Adrien up as well and trying to pry the scissors of. A little song from the flute and the two heard the sound of a jet as Volpina flew up wearing a fox themed, technologically advanced, metal armor.

“Bad choice bucko!” She exclaimed before crashing into him. Adrien sat down, still tied up, and with the elder cat hero’s staff stuck to him.

Marinette got up into her Garden, the butterflies inside getting excited since their mistress was here. Nooroo was on her shoulder, feeling very nervous.

“A-Are you sure this is the right course of action?”

“Of course. Now give me the transformation words. It’s time to save Agreste from becoming a pancake.”

“Right, but before that—”

“I know your power Nooroo. You’re the Kwami of Transmission, the power you grant me being that of creating godly beings capable of controlling even nature itself. I’ve read your entry plenty of time my cinnamon roll.” She cut him off, booping his nonexistent nose.

“You translated my entry…?” He asked.

“It was supposed to be a surprise… but yes.” The little butterfly Kwami flew around her happily. “Now the magic words! Come on!”

“To activate the Butterfly Miraculous you must say ‘Nooroo, fairy wings rise’—”

“Nooroo! Fairy wings rise!” Exclaimed Marinette, the Kwami getting sucked into the brooch. The butterflies, at hearing the magical worlds, swirled around her excitedly as they were finally going to fulfill their purpose after so long! Marinette twirled her cane in front of herself, the energy reshaping it while also rolling of off it like the wind from a fan, changing her appearance:

She was taller, due to the short, flat heels of a pair of white, knee high boots with a tiny, lavender, butterfly symbol on each heel. Her svelte frame was covered by a dark purple tuxedo with 3 hidden buttons and with four tails, also sporting large white lapels vaguely imitating the shape of butterfly wings.

On her face was a small, pastel pink mask in the shape of butterfly wings. Under the tuxedo she wore a light pink frilly shirt, a brooch with butterfly wings acting as the top button.

Finally, she wore a pair of white gloves on her hands, with the same, lavender, butterfly symbol on the back of her hands. Her cane, which she was still holding, was different too, with a purple gem at the top of its silver handle, the color purple covering every inch except for the tip, which was white. Not that she needed a cane, as the magical energy flowing through her veins was more than enough to block her pain. The butterflies settled down a little as she did a little dance with her cane, feeling the sensation of being able to walk without help for the first time in 2 years! She then held one of her hands out, a bunch of butterflies landing on her head and her shoulders, only one on the back of her hand. She closed her eyes and felt with an indescribable sensation that allowed her to know the purity of people’s souls, her mind hearing echoes of many people’s thoughts. At this moment, one of the souls was louder than all the others, asking for the appearance of a second hero to show up and save the day.

“Passion, determination and the need to act; The need to see the day conclude on a happy note. What do you say my darlings? Is she worthy!” Her butterflies danced around her excitedly, a tornado of positive energy flying around her. “Of course she is!” Marinette blew a kiss at the butterfly on her hand, releasing a yellow energy that got sucked up by its little, white body, turning it a shinning gold. “Fly away my little Fay! And give that hero enthusiast the chance to live her dream!” Said Marinette, sending the Fay on its way.

Through the rain and a bit of wind it was able to arrive at its mistress target, seeing Alya look at the news on her phone while she was still on the roof of that building. Without much restraint it landed on the phone and entered it, making it glow the same kind of golden light. On Alya’s face appeared the golden outline of a butterfly symbol, as she felt the mind of another connect to her own.

“Greetings, Lady Wifi! My name is Lady Monarch. For a long time you have pined for the presence of a hero in this beautiful city… and I agree wholeheartedly. So what do you say, my darling? Wish to be my Champion, to fulfill the role of a hero, and become WHAT YOU WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO BE?” Asked Lady Monarch with gravitas and excitement clear in her voice. Alya could only give one response:

“YES! I will make you proud My Lady! That villain is going down!” She took of her glasses, placing them in one of her jacket’s pocket.

The golden light enveloped Alya, changing her and making her float a little off the ground, through her veins coursing the borrowed power from Lady Monarch as she changed and became her Champion self. She was now dressed in lavender skin tight body suit with the lower half and her arms, from her elbows down, completely white, the soles of her 'boots' dark purple, a white Wifi symbol on her chest, an anime-esque white visor with headphone covering her face. The thing that made her stand out the most was the flowing white cape with a collar, which made her look heroic.

Back with the fight, Volpina threw the elder cat hero into the helicopter, before she grabbed it by the tail and began to spin it around. Without much difficulty, the fox villain threw the helicopter at the Eiffel Tower, causing everyone down on the ground who was watching the fight to scream in fear. Adrien himself screamed as well, prepared to die, as he couldn’t really get anywhere from where he was. At the last second the helicopter... simply froze... in the air, a yellow pause symbol over it.

“What…?” Volpina was incredibly confused by this sudden turn of events and she didn’t even hear anything being thrown her way but, a lightning symbol was placed on the back of her suit, electrocuting her until the suit blew up in a cloud of cyan smoke. The fox villain fell, seeing someone fly past her.

“Surrender evildoer! Lady Wifi is here to stop you in the name of Lady Monarch!”

“Ugh! You must be the Butterfly wielder’s lapdog…” Said Volpina as she grabbed her flute from her back and began to sing a short song, creating a hoverboard and using it to fly towards the helicopter.

“Rewind the helicopter back to its original spot and then go after the boy darling! Quickly, before that piece of history is ruined!” Ordered Lady Monarch.

“Gotcha!” Lady Wifi did as she was told, the helicopter being quickly rewound back to its original place, hitting Volpina off her hoverboard in the process. The fox villain immediately went for Adrien, Lady Wifi beginning to send lock symbols, placing them all around the Eiffel Tower, Volpina hitting an invisible wall as she tried to get to them.

“NO! Why you little—?!” The fox villain immediately switched her targets, recreating her mechanical suit and beginning to fire lasers at Lady Wifi and dodging the symbols sent her way. The butterfly symbol appeared for the third time as Lady Monarch instructed her to get to a specific place in the sky, and she followed without question, her opponent flying after her… and getting stomped on by Grand Chat.

“You again! GET OFF ME!” Volpina turned in the air and managed to catch the elder cat hero by the arm, his hand ready for the ring to be slid off.

“Cataclysm.” He said, his ring hand flowing with destructive energy. The moment she touched it, her armor blew up into a cloud of cyan smoke, both beginning to fall to their doom. Lady Wifi launched one of her Speedup Hovers, the thing she herself used for flying, at Grand Chat, saving him from falling. He immediately dived off from it, trying to catch Volpina, who prepared her flute, but before she could sing her song she was caught midair by none other than her master. Lady Wifi sent another Speedup Hover to Grand Chat, the elder cat hero this time remaining on it…

The villain was gone and the day was saved by Lady Wifi and the vigilante Grand Chat. However someone needed to make her presence known, that being Lady Monarch. She asked her Champion to use her powers in order to project a screen of hers, and she complied, sending a camera symbol all the way to the Garden, from her phone a giant screen being projected, showing Lady Monarch.

“My darling citizens of Paris… Today you just experienced the first act of magical terrorism carried out by the nefarious villain who calls herself Volpina! I desolately must inform you that this will clearly not stop until she is captured and her powers removed from her. However there is no need to despair, for I AM HERE! On this day I vow to you that I, Lady Monarch, and a worthy Champion chosen from your midst will keep you safe! Just as Lady Wifi had saved the day today so shall all future Champions and, in the end, peace will be restored to this wonderful city we all love and cherish!”

With that declaration, today marked the first day of Lady Monarch’s battle against evil and, in time, she would have more allies to her cause, not just her Champions…

Chapter Text

After the battle was over Gabriel immediately left back for home, transforming back and getting a car to drive to the Eiffel tower. When he arrived he saw that his son was being checked by paramedics, a towel over his shoulders and cup of what he assumed was tea or something else in his hand, steam coming off of it. The vultures were quick to try and block his way to Adrien, but the bodyguard opened the path for him. The same vultures were talking to his son and to the girl next to him, the Champion, Lady Wifi. The experienced fashion designer didn’t much care for that at the moment, his son being his top priority.

“You weren’t hurt, were you?” Asked Gabriel, placing a hand on Adrien’s shoulder.

“I’m alright father; just a little cold.”

“We should be going home before you catch an actual cold, then.”

“Wait! Can we give Alya a ride too?” Asked the blond teen, pointing to the teen girl next to him. “She’s a friend from school.”

“…Very well…”

“R-Really?”

“Yes.” With that the two teens followed Gabriel and the guard to the car, where Nathalie was waiting as well. The guard started the engine and they were off to Alya’s address.

“Are you alright Adrien?” Asked the woman, forgoing any sort of formality.

“I’m ok. Alya and uh…”

“My Lady.” Supplied the blogger, her fingers moving on the surface of her phone at light speed, sending messages to a bunch of people at once.

“Lady Monarch…” Said Gabriel, deep in thought.

“Lady Monarch and Alya helped save me. There was another hero too, but he didn’t stick around.”

The experienced fashion designer was thinking… Today he was twice proven to be unfit for fighting both that scorpion monster and this new villain, Volpina. What was also proven was that he was not even capable of saving his own son from the clutches of death, needing someone else to come in and help him, namely Lady Wifi in this case. His opponents had so far surpassed him in strength, speed and adaptability, not to mention the fact that his fighting style lacked any form of formal training since he had never needed it. His son on the other hand… Adrien was a trained fencer and had some unarmed combat training as well, Gabriel being absolutely sure Nathalie had imparted him some of her knowledge (Why else would she request an entire hour for P.E. lessons?). As such, the only conclusion that Gabriel could come to was this: Adrien was infinitely more safer with the Black Cat Ring in his hands; If his son were to be Plagg’s master and make use of his Miraculous, then it was possible that this entire show could be ended swiftly, Volpina be thrown in jail and things going back to normal. As a result of this line of thought, the moment Alya left the car and the door was closed, the elder man spoke for the second time since they had gotten in the car:

“I can’t begin to describe to you how relieved I am that you weren’t hurt, Adrien… When we arrive home and after you change I would like to have a talk with you in my atelier.” Adrien's face showed worry as he looked over to Nathalie. The blue and red haired woman shrugged and shook her head. She had no idea what Gabriel wanted either.

After Adrien arrived home he had a hot shower, changed out of his clothes and… stood in his room, pacing. The boy had a vague idea of what his father was probably going to say (he was totally wrong): ‘Adrien, I have told you time and time again that the world is a dangerous place and today you experienced it firsthand. I hope that what happened today will be a lesson to you and that from now on you will stay here, where it’s safe.’ Adrien paced a little more until he heard a knock on the door.

“Yes?” The door opened, Nathalie peaking through.

“Your father has been expecting you in his atelier an hour ago. He wishes to inform you that you both have other activities in your respective schedules.”

“Did he tell you what he wants to talk to me about?” Asked Adrien urgently. Nathalie checked to see if the coast was clear then slinked into his room, closing the door behind her.

“I have no clue! I asked him, repeatedly I might add, but he either ignored me or changed the subject. I told him that maybe you would want to talk if you had an idea of what you were going to talk about, but he told me to give this rehearsed… response. Gabriel is being exceedingly, frustratingly stubborn on the matter for whatever reason!” She explained. The blond teen sighed.

“He’s probably going to tell me I’m not going to school anymore. What’s the point of even going to talk…” He murmured, feeling miserable.

“Adrien that’s not…” Nathalie reluctantly put a hand on his shoulder. “If your father wanted to tell you that he wouldn’t have even considered talking to you personally. He would have told me to tell you.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. I don’t think there is anything you should be worried about.” Adrien smiled before he hugged his caretaker.

“Thanks Nathalie!”

“<Soft giggle> You’re welcome.” She replied, returning the hug.

The blond teen pulled away from the hug and ran out of his room, leaving the door open behind him. Nathalie casually made her way out of his room with a satisfied smile, closing the door behind her, happy that she was able to help. Now all she had to do was hope that Gabriel did not ask Adrien to talk in order to tell him he changed his mind about the arrangement they made today.

Speaking of Gabriel, the man was sitting in his atelier alone, talking to Plagg. He had explained to him his choice about renouncing the Black Cat Miraculous, as well as the intended recipient. The cat Kwami was more than happy to hear that Gabriel was giving his son a chance to shine, as he considered that he was ‘hogging all the glory’.

“Nice to hear you’re giving a slice of that to Adrien. As I always say: the best cheese is one that’s shared!”

“You’ve never said that… And when did you share your cheese anyway?!”

“You never asked for some! You always let me eat it all.”

“That’s because it has the most foul stench my nose has ever smelled…!”

“<Gasp> You take that back right now!”

The two suddenly heard the sound of knocking, followed by Adrien’s voice a bit reluctantly asking if he could come in. Gabriel immediately whispered his renouncing of the Black Cat Ring and closed the box it was in after Plagg was sucked into the ring, placing it a bit further away from him before he took a calm pose, his fingers intertwined and his back leaning on the chair.

“Come in, Adrien.” Gabriel said calmly. The boy did, seeing that his father was wearing the blue blazer. Now that Adrien thought about it, his father had been wearing that since the moment he came to pick him up. Not only was it a nice change of pace from the overpowering black his father came to wear after his mother disappeared, but it also happened to be the same thing he wore when she was with them. The blond teen took a seat in front of his father, noticing the cup in front of him, his nose telling him what it was:

“Coffee? For me?”

“It’s a cappuccino. And yes, it’s for you. Trust me: you’re going to need the energy.” said Gabriel, pulling out the box and placing it in front of his son.

“What’s in the box?” Asked Adrien.

“Do you really want me ruining the surprise?” He asked with a playful expression on his face, going full on Grand Chat for a second, before he faked a chough and schooled his expression back to normal. “Open the box please.” He finished. With a response like that how could Adrien not open the little box with the company logo symbol on it? The blond teen opened it and found a slightly tacky ring inside of it, with a neon green cat paw on the disk. Without any prompt from Gabriel he put it on, a neon green light coming out of it. The light took the shape of a small, floating, black kitty with green eyes.

“Wow! Gabe! Never thought you’d be so upfront with this! Congrats!” Said Plagg, proud of his former master.

“What…?” Adrien was at a complete loss for what was happening.

“Hello! My name is Plagg, Kwami of Destruction and Misfortune at your service!” He presented himself, before blowing up in a bunch of questions as he flew in circles around him: “What’s your favorite color? How do you like spending your free time? Do you have a favorite food? Mine’s Camembert! Do you—”

“Plagg!” Cut in Gabriel. “Let him process!” Ordered Gabriel, pushing a box of Camembert closer to his son’s side of the desk, the Kwami beginning to occupy himself with the smelly cheese. Adrien took this time to recollect himself and sipped from the cappuccino before he smiled and got Plagg’s attention, holding up a finger:

“My favorite color is green.” He held up a second finger. “I usually play videogames in my free time.” He held up a third finger. “And my favorite food is pizza!” Gabriel raised an eye brow at that since he knew that his son didn’t get to eat food too high in calories… When did he eat pizza?

“Nice! Pizza has cheese on it.” Said the little cat as he ate an entire slice of Camembert, before grabbing another.

“Wait…” Adrien thought back to the fight between Volpina and Grand Chat which took place earlier today, the blond teen connecting the dots. “You’re Grand Chat!”

“That is correct.” Confirmed Gabriel.

“Good job kid!” Praised Plagg, before turning to the experienced fashion designer. “You know, most people can’t even assume who the person is under the suit because of its magic! You've got yourself a little Sherlock over here.” He explained.

“That’s a good thing then, right?” Asked Adrien.

“It is.”

“It’s awesome kid! Wanna go for a test drive?” Asked the little god of destruction. Adrien drank the rest of his cappuccino before he replied:

“Do I?!”

“That’s the spirit! Say ‘Claws out’!” Gabriel didn’t like where this was going at all, as his son was about to transform.

“Wait! Not in here!” The blond man promptly ran to the windows and closed the curtains.

“Plagg! Claws out!” Exclaimed Adrien, the cat Kwami getting sucked into the ring, releasing the magical energy that created a black, shiny, skintight suit of modern design, with zippers and lines on it giving it a fresh look, the ears being attached through an unknown method to the blond teen’s head, the helmet replaced with a black domino mask that gave him green, catlike eyes. The only accessories that remained in the suit design were the bell and the belt-tail.

“Are you kidding me?! You’ve barely spent a couple of minutes with Plagg and his recklessness is already rubbing off on you!” Exclaimed Gabriel angry. “What if someone was looking through our windows and saw you transform?” He asked, his tone lowered a bit. Adrien was shocked by his father sudden shift in behavior. His father was never the type to raise his voice, but the presented exasperation in him was palpable. It was clear after a bit of thought that this was how his interactions with Plagg boiled down to.

“Father, relax! I’m only playing.” Gabriel opened his mouth to say something before he closed it. No. He needs discipline, but he also needs the freedom to develop his abilities in his own way.

“Alright then; but if you’re to exercise with your powers…” The blond man trailed off as Adrien, with a single hand, lifted the desk over his head.

“Cool!” One of his cat ears twitched at the sound of a fake chough and he turned to look at his father.

“If you’re to exercise with your powers, I recommend a place equipped with the tools for you to do so.”

Gabriel directed Adrien to a certain spot in his atelier and instructed him to keep his arms and tail close to himself. The experienced fashion designer simultaneously pressed a few hidden buttons on Emilie’s portrait, leading to a portion of the ground under the blond teen to move downwards, somehow ending up moving upwards into another, empty, room with a circular glass window, the company logo on it.

“This is part of the mansion…? It looks almost like the Knight Owl’s base in the comics, only… emptier. Where are the ‘tools’?”

“In the walls.” Suddenly came Gabriel’s voice from a speaker. The teen turned around to see a screen with his father on it. “Welcome to the Training room. This is where I’ve been exercising my skills as Grand Chat, and this is where you can do so as well.” Explained the man.

Adrien didn’t need any more to be communicated to him, asking his father to start the training… Least to say, he felt a little bit overwhelmed, by the rockets and lasers, but nevertheless he powered through, dodging the laser with shows of gymnastic prowess or, if they made a pattern, slinking through them. The rockets were a lot easier to deal with hopefully, all that the boy had to do being to hit them with his staff, which was a lot thicker than Grand Chat’s (much more technological looking as well), making them change course and hit each other, the smoke stalling the targeting system for a few precious seconds. After about 30 minutes of nonstop exercise he asked for a pause.

“Congratulations! New_record_achieved!” Said a robotic feminine voice. “Please_introduce_your_name.” Said the voice.

“Name?” Adrien wasn’t quite sure what he was required to do. Did the voice ask for his actual name, Grand Chat’s name, his father’s name?

“It’s sort of like an arcade game. Every time a I beat a personal best on how long I could keep going, I would put a different name.”

“Oh! Chat Noir!” said Adrien.

“Thank_you, Oh_Chat_Noir.” Said the voice. The Training room went back to its quiet empty state and Chat Noir got back to the atelier through the use of the same strange platform.

Following today, Adrien was happier than ever! Not only did he get to live out his dream, but his father also gave him an opportunity many children only dreamed of: The opportunity to take on evil beings with magical powers on one’s side. The blond slept incredibly comfortably that night, Plagg sleeping on the same pillow as him just as comfortably, if not more so, the mischievous Kwami of Destruction content with his former’s master’s choice of giving the Black Cat Miraculous to another user, this one younger and gleaming with even more potential.

Chapter Text

The instant Marinette had let go of her mental connection with Lady Wifi and asked the Fay to come back home, Nooroo came out of her Miraculous and all the magical energy that made up her suit and flowed through her body dissipated, leaving her there in a worst state than she was before, the sudden feeling of sharp pain in her leg unbearable after having that heavenly reprieve. The blue haired girl fell to the floor of the Garden with a grunt, followed by some cries of pain she was trying to push down… She couldn’t even reach for her medicine bottle to get a pill.

“Mistress!” exclaimed Nooroo as he and a few of the butterflies flew over, the little, white, beautiful insects perching on her. “What can I do?” he asked.

“Get Melodie… Please…!” she spoke through the pain. Nooroo immediately did just that, flying down through a small hole in the Garden’s floor to arrive at his Master’s bedroom, where Melodie was playing a little game to pass the time, having borrowed her Playerboi. She turned to look at him, as if she felt his presence.

“You two are done? What happened? How was it? Tell me, tell me, tell me!” she asked excitedly ,seating on the edge of the bed now.

“Mistress is on the floor in pain.” said Nooroo a bit absently from the shock of what was happening. The sunny disposition on Melodie’s face vanished, replaced by seriousness. The girl reached under the bed, pulling out a knob cane from there, getting up and using it to press the button that made the Garden’s platform come down. She hopped on, sending the cane rolling back under Marinette’s bed, then came up into the garden where the blue haired girl actually managed to pull out the medicine bottle and, with trembling hands opened the cap, most of the pills flying out onto the floor.

“Fuck…! no…”

“Marinette it’s ok! I’m here. I’m here…” assured Melodie as she walked over and pulled the young fashion designer in a bridal carry, getting the medicine bottle beforehand. She didn’t say anything else as she got back down in the bedroom and placed Marinette on the bed.

Melodie was an old friend of Marinette’s, the two girls knowing each other from before they started going to different schools. The kind girl was half French, half British, her father having come from England for medical care, meeting her mother there, the two falling in love… and the rest was history. Unfortunately, her father’s state of health declined and he died when she was little. From then on she vowed to become a doctor and help others. Then she met Marinette and learned, by accident, of Nooroo and of magic. At one point in time Marinette translated some of the more recent notes in that book of hers, which detailed the procedure for actual spiritual medicine, and Melodie actually decided to learn it. She was glad she did, as at the moment it was coming in real handy. Her hands were gliding over Marinette’s body, directing the energy necessary to repair the broken flow in her leg. The blue haired girl’s pain eventually dulled, signified by her breathing calming down. The kind girl climbed in next to her.

“You’re going to be ok.” she said. Marinette, who was a little drenched in sweat, slightly turned to look at her.

“Thanks…” began the blue haired teen.

“You’re welcome.” she replied, her sunny disposition back, but not in full force. The kind girl shuffled a little to grab Marinette’s hand, the blue haired teen interlacing their fingers…

The blue haired teen shuffled a bit on the bed, then leaned over to give Melodie a kiss on the cheek, making her blush and give her that small, cute, awkward, crooked smile.

“…I’m feeling better already.” finished the blue haired teen. “Nooroo, how did it go? Was I good?” she asked, turning to the Kwami, who was floating above the two girls.

“Nooroo it’s ok! You can come down.” said Melodie with a giggles.

“Just come down my cinnamon roll. We got the mushy stuff out of the way so it’s all good.” Nooroo complied to his Mistress’ call and floated down, sitting on the pillow in-between their heads.

“I think you did really well Miss— Marinette! You quickly found a Champion and the powers and instructions you issued were good enough to avoid any major damages.”

“Sounds like we’re due a celebration: First victory as Lady Monarch date? My treat!” That made Marinette giggle, Melodie's eyes full of warmth as she heard the musical sound, such a rarity nowadays, coming from her girlfriend.

“You mean your mom’s treat? You vaporized the water out of a cooking pot!”

“That’s not what I meant!” replied the kind blond with a blush before she began giggling as well. “I’m going back home to get it. Stay in bed please. Let your leg rest!” said Melodie a bit more seriously before she got up and left, Marinette hearing her go down the staris quickly. Marinette got as well.

“Didn’t your lover ask you to let your leg rest?” Marinette smiled at the old timey word ‘lover’.

“She did. But by the sound of it she’s either bringing me a gift, which I doubt, since she wants to celebrate, or a music disk or movie. So, I’m going to get us snacks!” explained the young fashion designer. She got off bed and walked down to the living room and kitchen where she decided to do nothing fancy while also pulling off the best prediction she possibly could pull off by putting some corn kernels in the microwave and having them turn into popcorn, putting them in a big bowl.

“Movie night?” asked Sabine, who was in the room and silently watched her daughter for a bit. She knew what was going on, but not exactly.

“Sort of. She’s framing it as a surprise.”

“Oooh… Don’t you think it’s a little mean to prepare popcorn before she comes back?”

“Nope! She already knows I would have figured it out by now. I’m smart and that’s what works for me.”

“I suppose… As long as you two are happy dear!”

Ivan Bruel was a single son in his family, but had a lot of relatives on his father’s side… and he was the black sheep of that half. His father and that side of the family was all stern and ‘focused on the future’ and thinking about what’s important. His mother’s side was the one he liked since they weren’t as stuck up at all, accepting him and his love of metal rock and his tendency to keep to himself. When he looked back on his younger years, he was always told that his way of handling things was wrong: hitting people was not the way to do it. Why was his fault that they picked on him?! At least nobody made him the butt of jokes, never picked on him nor insult his music and choice of clothing anymore! Nowadays he mostly kept to himself, ignored any comments thrown his way and listened to his music to keep himself calm.

Recently however he almost got into another fight and was then sent to the principal’s office. Marinette (or Dupain-Cheng, as she insisted on being called) saved him from having this reach his parents thankfully, and she even gave him some advice on how to win Mylene’s heart over: he chose to write her a song, but as he attempted to come up with good lyrics he realized he had a major block, which aggravated him to no end since he could write anything anytime. Now was the time he drew black? Really? He decided to pause in his attempts of writing a good song, leaving a piece of paper with some lyrics on his desk instead of balling it up and throwing it in the already overflowed trash can. He exited his room to go grab a bite to eat, none the wiser to the cyan colored vixen who entered his room through the unlocked window. She laughed to herself as she tiptoed over to the desk and looked at the piece of paper.

“Is this what you’ve put him up to? Like that stupid scaredy-cat would ever love this brute!” Volpina laughed at the wish for love symbolized by the piece of paper. ”... I’ve got an idea… If it worked on that jock idiot it should work on this other idiot too.” she said to herself before she put the paper down and climbed back out the window. The vixen villain found a nice spot to transform back.

“Time to rest.” she spoke the magic words, removing the villain suit. Lila now ran over to the nearby Bruel home and knocked on the door, a woman with black hair opening it.

“Oh, hello there! Are you one of Ivan’s friends?” asked the woman, Ivan’s mother most likely.

“Yes, I’m—” Lila didn’t even get to finish as the woman pilled her in excitedly.

“That’s so wonderful to hear! You know, between you and me, Ivan doesn’t really bring friends over.” the secretly-a-villain girl decided to roll with it.

“He didn’t really invite me. I’m actually here to surprise him.” Ivan’s mom was even more ecstatic than before.

“Down the corridor, second door on the right. He’s in his room. I’m going to prepare snacks for you two!” Lila didn’t like that. She wasn’t here to socialize with the big teen.

“Actually miss, I’m only here to pass on a message from the class rep.” lied the Italian teen.

“But you just said—”

“I said I’m here to pass on a message from the class rep.” she pushed. Ivan’s mom’s face suddenly went blank, her eyes growing big before she went back to normal.

“Of course. Well, I already told you where he is.” replied the woman, getting back to whatever she was doing.

Lila walked down the corridor and arrived at Ivan’s room’s door, ignoring the keep out sign that was hanged on it by a nail (Where are we? In a cartoon?) and opening the door. Ivan just started up his music before he saw her come in and close the door behind her. He just opened his mouth to say something when the Italian teen quickly cut him off:

“Hello my friend!” she said. The same thing that happened to his mother happened to him, Ivan’s face going blank for a second before he suddenly became very docile. Lila smirked evilly. “You don’t have a chance with your girl and you know it. Also if Kim has anything else to say then you’ll show him what for!”

“I’ll show him what for!” replied Ivan.

“Class rep wants to talk to you tomorrow.”

“Class rep wants to talk to me tomorrow.” repeated Ivan.

“Finally, if Marinette gets anywhere near and tries to ‘help’, make sure she knows she’s not wanted! That bitch is nothing more than a lonely, conniving monster.” Ivan nodded in response. “Good! Don’t tell your mom my name is Lila Rossi.”

Chapter Text

The second day of school came and when Marinette arrived she made her way towards class through the courtyard, which was filled with teenagers talking about Monarch and yesterday’s events. Marinette reached her classroom and noticed that her classmates were, inevitably, talking about the same thing. The fact that not even a day in she was regarded as highly as some celebrity made her laugh. People so easily clung to who looked good and sided with them. It was the way society evolved: the ones with good standing always had their way, the same as the ones related to them in some way. They also had enemies, and the young fashion designer had a feeling that weird vixen villain was not acting alone judging by the thing that saved her yesterday. She decided to let her subconscious figure that out when she had more information. Marinette sat down at her desk next to Alya, who wasted no time in telling her about an interesting new project:

“…It’s called MonarChat: Hero Watch.”

“Cesaire… you know you can just start and Omina group right? You don’t need a whole new app dedicated to talking about Monarch and Grand Chat. Hell, you could even make a blog.”

“No-no; it’s not what you think… Well it is basically going to be a social app where people can post photos and videos in regards to the heroes, but the main idea is that it’ll be an ‘alarm’. If someone sees the villain somewhere they can send the location and photo or video to make sure people avoid that part of Paris while the heroes know where to go, you know?”

“That would imply the heroes have the app.”

“Well me and Max are going to be pitching the idea to the mayor…”

“Need my help, right?” asked Marinette, already knowing what Alya was going to ask of her.

“If you could? The only other person is you know who and I doubt her heart grew three times its size since the last school year.”

“Noted. I’ll go today. Get it out of the way early.”

“Thank you so much Dupain-Cheng.”

“<Yawn> Don’t mention it.” The blue haired teen placed her head on her crossed arms on the table, closing her eyes as well. She must have stayed up again… thought Alya. Marinette tended to stay up all night with her projects, the girl saying she did so because of the leg pain not letting her sleep, but the blogger thinking she just didn’t want to sleep. After all, Marinette popped pills daily so couldn’t she use one to relieve the pain enough to fall asleep? She surely must have thought of that one…

Adrien got up bright and early (not as early as yesterday however), had his shower pot on some clothes and prepared to eat breakfast. Were it not for the fact he had a magical ring in his possession, as well as a small cat spirit in his shirt’s inner pocket, he would not have believed what happened yesterday between him and his father, because today he ate breakfast alone, like he had been doing since his mom disappeared. That really saddened the blond teen a lot… then, as he was leaving with the bodyguard:

“Make sure he comes back safe.” said Gabriel from atop the stairs, his voice soft and cold yet still loud enough to be clearly heard all the way down. The bodyguard nodded, grunting in acknowledgement, before turning around. Adrien smiled at his father and he swore he saw a ghost of a shadow of a smile in response.

The way to school was pretty uneventful, no more crazy vixen villain to cut off the roof and pull him out on an insane joy ride (the car was replaced with another one since it was cut open like a tuna can). Plagg got a bit restless in his pocket so the green eyed boy, while making sure to not be seen by the Gorilla, allowed him to go into his bag, where he had a little more space. He arrived at the school building proper with a few minutes to spare and, to his shock, Chloe just so happened to be waiting. When the car stopped she opened the door for him and pulled him out.

“You. Me. Talk. Now!” she said in an extremely bossy tone. He bid goodbye to the bodyguard, who didn’t really bat an eye at the interaction. He knew very well Chloe Bourgeois was full of attitude, even as a kid. The rich blond girl dragged her rich blond friend to a recluse location: a closet.

“What’s up? This isn’t about yesterday, right? I’m really sorry that—”

“Are you dating Dupain-Cheng?” Cue record needle scratch. Adrien’s face became red.

“W-What? Where is this coming from?” he asked, completely confused. Why is my heart beating so fast after she said that…?

“You barely left her side yesterday and she doesn’t give you the cold treatment, not to mention that she said something about your dad so she knows him. I thought, maybe, since she was France’s top fencer—”

“She WHAT?!” asked the green eyed teen. The more he heard about Marinette the more amazed he was. His mind didn’t even comprehend the idea of her being France’s top fencer. When did that happen?

“Does Bluebell sound familiar?” asked Chloe.

“That’s… Marinette has bluebell eyes…” reasoned Adrien. Chloe laughed little.

“You better call her by her family name or she’ll find a way to make your name sound awful.” she warned. After their talk, the blond duo rushed to class to not be late, the tardy bell just sounding after they arrived.

“Had a nice talk Agreste?” asked Marinette as he walked in.

“Uh…” for some reason Adrien felt like testing out Chloe’s words the ‘awful name’ thing, so he replied with: “Yes. Thanks for asking Marinette.”

“You’re welcome Adrikins.” The blue haired teen replied without even an ounce of hesitation. The whole class laughed softly and Adrien himself slammed his own head on the desk in embarrassment.

“Hey! Find your own nickname!” said Chloe angrily.

“Yours is just too good Bourgeois.” Chloe grumbled something after hearing that, but on the inside she smiled. She’s still herself I guess…

Ever since the end of the previous school year, Lila was placed in the back of the class, nobody paying attention to her in the least, only to glare at her maybe. She used to hate it, but in this particular moment she liked it, as she was able to watch everything happening from up top. The day began with the usual idiotic compliment exercise that the teacher insisted on and, in a funny and ironic twist, Mylene and Ivan had to give each other compliments. The Italian teen watched with glee as Ivan stood quiet and Mylene, too shy to speak up, stood there as well.

“Come on… I know you can do it.” said Miss Bustier, trying to encourage them. Marinette, who was zoning out until it came her turn, almost like sleeping, her head resting on her arms, raised it and eyed Ivan suspiciously before clearing her throat, getting the big teen’s attention. The young fashion designer then pointed to her head before pointing at Mylene. Ivan, which up to that point felt nothing, suddenly became a little embarrassed and realized he had been sitting there for a while.

“Your bandana is cool…” he said finally.

“I… like your shirt…” Ivan was wearing a different shirt today, one with a rock band logo on it, less discreet than usual for himself. The class approved, all knowing what was going on except for Mylene herself. Even Kim was impressed a little.

If Lila could’ve screamed at that moment, she would’ve. She had used her newfound ‘charm’ on that stupid boy, but one gesture from that pesky dream ruiner was enough to snap him out of her control. The secret vixen villain glared at Marinette and then down at the little paper that had her name on it.

“Alright! The last ones are Marinette and Lila.” called out the teacher. The blue haired girl stood up, limped to the front of the class and popped a pill in the time it took for Lila to make her way down… she hated the compliment exercise.

“Your brooch is shinier than usual. Did you polish it?” she said, her voice deadpan. Nobody said she had to speak with sweetness in her voice.

“Yes, I did. And I’m happy you finally chose clothes that are better suited to the real you.” said Marinette. The Italian teen wore a baggy, white T-shirt tucked into blue, skintight jeans and a jean jacket of the same color over it, the sleeves rolled up halfway. Near the neckline Marinette spotted the thin silver chain of a necklace. She didn’t mention it though, filing that for later, along with the fact that Lila paid specific attention to the brooch (despite the fact Nooroo assured its magic made people not pay too much attention to it).

Following this everything seemed to be normal until after lunch… that’s when Volpina turned up! As Marinette walked back to school with Alya and Chloe with Sabrina of all people (the rich blond and young fashion designer didn’t talk at all, but the atmosphere was incredibly calm, Sabrina and Alya only sharing a few words). When the blue haired girl arrived back at school she had this extrasensory perception, this feeling of dark emotional energy resonate through the air, like the vibrations from a low pitched source. She didn’t waste any time pushing Alya and Chloe out of the way as a giant safe was hurled at her from above. In a black blur, Marinette was picked up by someone, the girl dropping her cane in the process.

“Are you ok princess?” asked a teenager dressed in a skintight suit that looked like it was made from leather, the theme clearly that of a cat, his eyes green and slitted.

“Put me down and then I’ll be peachy.” replied Marinette. “Who even are you? Where’s the big cat?” she asked, figuring this was the only time she’ll get some good info outside of being Lady Monarch.

“Just your friendly neighborhood Chat Noir! Here to keep Paris safe from pesky foxes. Now go hide. There’s gonna be another hero coming soon. Who knows, maybe it’ll be you.” said the cat hero before running out into the open again.

When Adrien arrived back at school he had had very little time to go find a spot to transform, risking getting spotted by being near where Marinette and the other girls were attacked. Transformed into Chat Noir, he ran in as fast as he could, catching the blue haired teen and running away from the safe before it hit the ground. After an awkward conversation (she didn’t seem to like him) he ran back into the fray to keep Volpina at bay.

“Hey foxy, how’s it been?” he asked as he destroyed some realistic illusions of projectiles (a lot of heavy junk apparently).

“What in the world? Did you shrink or something?” asked Volpina before she created a realistic illusion of that armor from before.

“Yeah I came out the dried this morning shell head!” he replied as he easy maneuvered around the laser fire that left burn marks into the school. God I hope they don’t close the school down… he thought to himself, getting up on top of the school’s walls and throwing his collapsed staff at the vixen villain, hitting her in the head before coming back. She retaliated by sending out a single rocket and he tried to bat it away. But unlike the rockets in his training, this one exploded on contact, sending him off the wall, his quick reflexes combined with magical defenses given to him by the costume allowing him to catch the edge with one hand before fully falling off.

Under the armor’s face-plate Volpina smiled as she saw that Mylene girl. Without an ounce of hesitation she aimed and launched a rocket at her.

“No!” exclaimed Chat as he just got up. He didn’t have anything he could do, even if he were to run down he wouldn’t out-speed the rocket. So he threw his collapsed staff and hoped it would intercept the rocket… but he didn’t have to hope as Ivan ran in, saving both himself and Mylene from the rocket, the staff spinning right back to Chat. Volpina shrieked in anger and aimed again, this time a whole swarm of white butterflies coming out of nowhere and hitting her from behind, flying towards the side of the school.

“What in the— She’s here?! This is perfect! All I have to do is find her!” she exclaimed before trying to fly off after the butterflies, the cat hero lading on top of her after using his staff to hurl himself at her.

“Find who? Lady Monarch? Meow why do you need to do that?” asked Chat.

“Get off me YOU PEST!” shouted Volpina by the end, spinning around her own axis, making Chat feel incredibly lightheaded but not enough to let go. Since that didn’t work she ran into the school’s wall and grinded him on them, causing him to let go that time, the blond hero landing in a heap on the ground.

“Owwww… I’m definitely feeling that tomorrow…” he mumbled to himself.

The vixen villain turned her attention back to finding Lady Monarch, but instead she saw a golden glow she would soon associate with all Champions, this one being not one she liked: a giant silver golem, with rounded shoulder-pads, a muscular body, light blue eyes, a large rounded jaw and what looked like a roman helmet crest on his head, this one the only piece of gold on him. At his feet was the comparatively tiny frame belonging to Mylene, who ran after the Champion noticed her presence.

“VOLPINA!” roared the hulking Champion as he began making his way over to the villain, the sound making her wince a little. She simply flew out of reach at one of his hop swipes, beginning to laugh.

“What’s wrong shorty? Can’t catch me?” The Champion roared as he prepared to jump again, this time a golden glow enveloping him. Volpina simply flew higher, but, against all odds, she was caught, the magitek armor she made for herself dissipating due to his strong grip.

“MY NAME IS NOT SHORTY! I’M IRONHEART! AND I’M HERE TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE STOPPED!” replied the Champion.

“Grand Chat did say I’d be getting a new sidekick every now and again.” mentioned the cat hero as he landed on the Champion’s shoulder.

“SIDEKICK?!” he asked, the golden glow emanating again. The hulking golem became a little larger, and Volpina felt her body a little bit more free. Oh, so that’s how you work… the vixen villain thought to herself as an idea came to mind.

“YEAH! You’re nothing but a sidekick! A second fiddle! You’re the dumbest idiot I’ve ever seen, you chrome domed, Mohawk wearing LOSER!” the vixen’s verbal lashing did exactly what she hoped it would do: the Champion grew incredibly big within seconds, his hand becoming too big to grip her. As a result she slinked out and began running away.

“Follow that off colored vixen my darling Champion!” ordered Lady Monarch, the yellow butterfly symbol present there for a few seconds. Chat shifted his position a little bit and held on, riding the Champion as he jumped over the school walls, but not without breaking it a little.

“That school’s seen better days! I betcha you’ll all be going online probably.” joked Chat, feeling a little sad himself. Volpina who was still ahead, played a few notes on her flute, making creating a bunch of illusions of herself. The Champion stopped as the illusions began to taunt him, making him grow as he growled angrily. “Hey, no fair! Since when is shadow clone jutsu allowed?”

“Is witty banter all you can contribute my fair kitten?” asked the Champion in a leveled out and finer tone than his earlier roaring and shouting, making the cat hero turn to look at him, seeing the golden butterfly symbol. His head tilted a little to the side as he asked:

“Lady Monarch?”

“That is I, yes! Wonderful to make you acquaintance darling. Now onto the paramount issue at hand! Volpina is trying to escape and we need to catch her.”

“How are we supposed to do that? The clones all look the same.”

“Perhaps, but would they act the same, is the question on my mind. Ironheart shall launch you in the air. Once up there I want you to look for a clone who’s moving faster or slower.”

“Ok gotcha!” the Champion threw the blond hero in the air, and he saw the Volpina he was looking for heading for the stadium. “She’s going to the stadium! We’ll catch her there!” the Champion nodded in response and the two took off, continuing the chase. Ironheart was incredibly slow however, only managing to keep up because of his immense size. Chat decided it would be best if he ran ahead and so he did just that. Volpina took note of this, realizing her little trick didn’t work at all, and she decided to slow him down while also speeding her up. A couple of short songs played on her flute and she created a couple of monstrous dogs as well as her flying armor, using that to arrive at the stadium safely. She snickered to herself as she saw a couple of her classmates there and she decided to terrify them with by making them run for their lives. That was the plan at least, but, out of nowhere, Ironheart landed in-between her and the teens, her laser bouncing off the Champion’s metallic skin. Then to make matters worse, Chat Noir managed to sneak up on her for a second time today, the vixen villain feeling a surprise overhead blow from his staff again. The cat hero kept pretty busy as the metal golem picked up the, ironically, slowest student to leave the now battle field, Kim, and deposited him a safe distance away while saying:

“WHO’S THE WUSS NOW HUH?!”

“Ivan?!” he asked, confused. The Champion nodded.

“IRONHEART!” he shouted as he put his left fist to his chest. “NOW GET OUTTA HERE!”

Ironheart turned back to the fight, seeing that Chat was faring pretty well: with incredible speed he was able to dodge Volpina, in spite of her being in that magitek suit of hers. As he watched the fight unfold, looking for an opening where he could step in, he got curious:

“My lady, where is her power coming from?” he asked in as low of a voice as he could muster in this state.

“That is a wonderful question my darling Champion, and simply put, I regrettably have no idea. The only magic I know of is the one belonging to me and my feline associate. I am unsure what dark forces are fueling this trickster’s machinations… although her wish to acquire our Miraculouses is quite odd to say the least… What use would she have for them if she has so much power already...” Lady Monarch decided to take the wheel on this one and, seeing Volpina with her back momentarily turned, she made Ironheart lunge, using his free hand to catch the vixen villain and push her down to the ground. Upon hitting the ground a blue cloud exploded out of her armor, followed by a short melody from her flute… then she was gone…

Chapter Text

Following the events with Ironheart things took a turn for the worse in some cases (Francoise Dupont turned to online schooling due to the school building needing to undergo repairs) while others things got better (Ivan and Mylene started dating). Marinette was not necessarily happy with the whole Champion debacle, especially since right after it her most used cane (her metallic one) was broken. Her parents came to pick her up and she secluded herself in her room for the time being. The vixen villain continued terrorizing Paris and, as Lady Monarch, she sent Lady Wifi and occasionally Ironheart to fight her, Chat being there to help as well. But then, Volpina seemed to be taking a break for a bit, and that’s when Melodie decided that she and Marinette should relax as well. It all started with inviting the blue haired girl over, the two playing the violin and flute together, filling the Quantum café with wonderful music the customers enjoyed. As they played however the young fashion designer noticed Melodie was not feeling well emotionally, the kind blond messing up a single note, something which simply didn’t happen. So, after a bit more music playing, Melodie was pulled away for a private conversation:

“What’s bothering you?”

“What do you mean…? I’m fine Mari.” she tried to lie.

“Melodie you’re a terrible liar... You’ve got the notes from ‘Flower duet’ imprinted in your soul. So what’s wrong?” asked the young fashion designer again. The blond teen sighed as she looked down at her flute.

“Everyone thinks I’m maybe Volpina… I was kicked out of the school band and nobody wants to talk to me anymore…” as Melodie finished, her voice getting really high pitched as she hugged her flute close, tears spilling from her shut eyes. Marinette immediately had her sit down and rest her head on her lap (not her left leg, just the right one, on Melodie’s insistence), and caressed her hair gently.

“Every day my theory is proven more and more correct: I’m surrounded by idiots. I assume they used the flimsy connection of your flute with Volpina’s to rationalize their choice?” Melodie nodded. “Of course they did. They didn’t even bother to think about how you look nothing like her to begin with.” finished Marinette before letting her girlfriend cry in silence… The original plan Melodie had was to hang out with Marinette, but she should have figured her incredibly smart girlfriend would notice something was off… now she ruined it. Good thing the blue haired teen thought of a way to salvage the day:

“So… since my favorite cane was bent under Ironheart’s foot, how about we go and look for another one? This knobby one is nice and all but it hurts my palm after a while.”

“…I guess we could go… It would do me some good to move around.” said Melodie as she cleaned her face up a bit, smiling.

“That’s the spirit!” Marinette got up, popped pill, then lead the charge, the two girls going out to buy Marinette a new cane. But where would they buy it? Marinette had a place, one Melodie never actually knew about (but she would now). The two girls entered a shop that looked like a cross between antique, disco style and a tourist trap: it had vinyl records, clothes on racks, other antiques as well as some souvenirs. The shop was also quite big.

“Go look around while I choose a cane.” said the blue haired teen, noticing how her girlfriend was staring at everything.

“Can I pay for it?” asked the kind blond.

“…Seriously? It’s not even your fault it broke. If anything, it’s mine.”

“Yeah, but it never hurts to help. Especially my girlfriend.” reasoned Melodie as she hugged Marinette, giving her a kiss on the cheek. The blue haired teen sighed but conceded, before going to the cane basket and looking over them all: there was one that looked like a golfing club, one with a coiled-snake circular handle, one with a skull, one with a banana handle (that made her laugh a little), a sword cane (Marinette put that one back and made sure nobody saw her touch it), a few knobby walking canes and then… she saw it.. a cane with a ram’s horn as its handle.

“This should work.”

“Should I add ‘uncaring about animals’ to my list of your personality traits?” asked Alya, making Marinette internally wince. Not here… Not now… the blue haired teen thought to herself as she realized Alya was probably stalking her. Marinette used the cane to support her leg as she looked around the shop.

“What are you doing here Cesaire? Let me guess: you just ‘happened to be here’.”

“Kind of. I thought of getting you a cane so you’d let me visit to talk. Looks like you beat me to it.”

“Gotcha…” Marinette said absentmindedly.

“What are you doing?” asked Alya, trying to follow her friend’s gaze.

“Looking for Nino. I bet you roped him into this.” the young fashion designer smiled on the inside when she saw Melodie. Now to make sure she doesn’t see us. she thought to herself as she grabbed Alya by her arm and pulled her over to the changing rooms. “So what’s so urgent that you couldn’t have left me a message?”

“I did leave you a message. Several in fact.” Marinette checked her phone, finding 10 unread messages and 36 missed calls from Alya.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have turned my phone to silent. Busy day and all though.”

“Right… At least now we can—” the blogger cut herself off as Marinette threw her other cane for her to catch.

“I’m going to pay for this and then I’m going to come back her to get you. Sit.”

“Do I look like a dog to you?” asked Alya, a bit angry, but smiling. She sounds pissed. considered Alya.

“Not really, but if you do sit here I’ll come back with a Scooby snack for you.” said Marinette. Ok yeah. She’s pissed. realized Alya with a laugh and a nod. Marinette left her alone with her thoughts, limping over to Melodie and grabbing her hand, intertwining their fingers.

“Found something you like sweetie?” asked Marinette. The kind blonde blushed.

“Kind off. It’s a bit expensive though…” she replied as her eyes trailed down to see Marinette’s brand new cane. “Did you buy it yourself?”

“Obviously.” she lied smoothly.

“I said I’d pay for it though…”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I think I will.” Melodie pulled out some money from her pockets and gave it to her girlfriend.

“Fine… how about you go try that jacket on. I’ll join up with you in a bit.”

“Ok!” Melodie gave Marinette a kiss on the cheek before scampering towards the changing rooms. The blue haired teen, for her part, walked over to the counter and paid for the cane. She technically had enough money to pay entirely by herself for it (even though it was quite expensive), but decided to use the money Melodie gave her as well. Then she limped over to the changing rooms and pulled Alya out, the two walking out of the shop, Marinette intentionally limping very slowly.

“I’m listening.” The blue haired girl pulled her medicine bottle out of her blazer and popped a pill.

“So me and Max created this app together. Remember that? I talked to you about it and you said you’d handle it?”

“Sure…”

“You completely forgot, didn’t you?”

“Not really. It’s a bit on the backlog however. It’s that MonarChat thingy.”

“Yes it is. That ‘thingy’ which will probably help all of Paris.”

“I’ll look into it.”

“If you could. And this time please do it! He’s probably the only one besides you-know-who that could talk to him whenever.” Marinette wanted to say something but cut herself off, patting her blazer and pants’ pockets. “What’s up?”

“UGH! I forgot my wallet like an idiot. I’m going to yell at the shop keep to give it back.” she said as she turned tail and pulled out her medicine bottle again, Alya stopping her.

“Maybe take it easy on the meds. You might be getting loopy if you forgot your wallet.”

“I’m in pain.”

“I know, but you could try other stuff. Like maybe your parents can get a masseuse or whatever.” Marinette put the bottle back and began to limp towards the shop, which was just a few steps away

“Also I’ll look into that too!” she replied. What’s happening today…? Alya asked herself before she shook her head. Then the blogger realized she didn’t even give Marinette the app for her to pitch. That’s why she forgot! So she ran right back in to do so.

“Dupain-Cheng? Where’d you go?” The shop clerk, a man with a bald head, bushy eyebrows that obscured his eyes, and an even bushier mustache, pointed her to the changing rooms.

The blue haired teen had just arrived to see her girlfriend wearing a disco jacket that didn’t really fit her right, which made her laugh a little, when she heard Alya voice call out her name. The young fashion designer knew that the kind blond would immediately call out to what she knew as a stranger just because the voice spoke her name, so, she did the only thing she knew would keep her quiet: she leaned her head down a little (there was a little height difference between them) and pulled her in for a kiss. It wasn’t one of those kisses on the cheek either. The whole thing felt electrifying for Marinette, and she felt even better when Melodie melted into her, wrapping her arms around her neck. They even went a little bit further and turned it into a French kiss. However, Marinette had to soon pull away in order to blab some lie to Alya… she absolutely hated the fact that her first kiss was born out of necessity and not brought about by more romantic circumstances.

“Ok listen…” she said a bit out of breath, peeking her head through the curtains and keeping it down so her blush won’t be visible. “I’m having a bit… of an off… day… I’d be glad if you could give me some alone time Cesaire...”

“…Ok… call me later when you feel better, ok girl?” asked the blogger, very serious.

“Sure…” Marinette peeked back in and looked at Melodie, who pulled her into another kiss, this one even more passionate.

Cooool… my first and second kiss happened in a shop… Marinette thought sarcastically.

“You wanted to speak to me sir?” asked Nathalie as she closed the door behind her, standing there when she noticed he was in his ‘work outfit’: his shirt’s collar had to buttons open, its sleeves rolled up, the tie removed and the waistcoat open, a roll of measuring tape over his shoulders.

“Yes. This is of utmost importance.” explained the fashion designer.

“You seem to be working on a… teenager’s ensemble?” she mentioned, taking in the black shirt under the dark green flannel.

“It’s for Adrien’s birthday.” Nathalie didn’t say a word. “You’re allowed to say anything that comes to mind.”

“It’s about time!” exclaimed the secretary. “Adrien has so many pens he has begun to throw one away every year.”

“I was talking about the outfit… Although I do agree I haven’t really… put my heart and soul into gifts… Do you think he’ll like it?” asked Gabriel. He looked unsure, something Nathalie hadn’t seen since when she first got the job as his secretary.

“Well, I unfortunately don’t think Adrien has a preference per say… he seems to wear just about anything. I’m sure that the fact you made it will be enough for him.” said Nathalie. “Additionally… since he is on the topic of his birthday, perhaps he could spend it this year with his new friends? He talks about them and meets up with them quite often.”

“I’ll consider it… Thank you Nathalie.” replied Gabriel thoughtfully. With that Nathalie left. She hoped that whatever change of heart was taking place within Gabriel was going to remain for as long as possible. Adrien hasn’t been this happy in years!

Chapter Text

Adrien has been doing Chat Noir stuff for a while now and he was beginning to get a handle on things. Volpina shows up, he keeps her occupied till a champion arrives, him and the champion try to catch, she runs away like a scaredy-cat, rinse and repeat. It wasn’t nearly as glamorous as he hoped it would be, but, to shake up the formula, occasionally he’d have his dad talk him through more complex and tact needing situations, like the one time Volpina took hostage everyone in a bank. He had to be very careful to keep the realistic illusions of executioner-knights (he made a pun about how she could let him have a good knight’s sleep) from harming (or killing) the hostages, keep her from getting his miraculous, while also stalling for time for the champion to arrive. He actually almost managed to gain the upper hand all by himself, but then Lady Wifi arrived and the vixen found a way to distract them both and ran off. He was getting better at it though, not only at the hero thing, but also at working together with Lady Wifi and Ironheart, his father being a huge help too (Gabriel didn’t find it in his heart to tell his son he was reading a book about teamwork). Gabriel counted down the days to his son’s birthday patiently as he worked on a way to clear his schedule for it. He would need to pile some of his work near the end of weeks, but if it meant being there for Adrien’s birthday, it would be worth it. Speaking of his son’s birthday, Gabriel decided to once again pause his work and walked into the back yard to see how the ‘preparations’ were going. There he saw Adrien, their one bodyguard, Nathalie and… that Nino boy. They were all working together, putting up decorations and setting up the tables.

“Father!” exclaimed Adrien happily, waving to him from atop a ladder, almost giving him a heart attack as that was not a safe place to do that, not because he would fall, but because he would land perfectly, blowing his cover.

“Make sure not to fall from there!” he called out calmly, his voice only a little bit raised.

“Hello sir! Have you come to help us with some of the preparations?” asked Nathalie. When Gabriel turned to look at her his words died in his throat: she was still wearing her dress pants, but she got rid of the suit blazer, the turtleneck and the high heels in order to make work easier (also probably because she got hot with the blazer). He’d never seen her dressed… with so few layers. “Sir?” she asked and turned to him. He immediately schooled his expression and cleared his throat.

“No, I have not. The reason I came here was to announce that I had to time to consider.” he saw Nathalie smiled.

“Consider what?” asked Nino, who came over from his work of putting together a playlist for the party. Gabriel side eyed him, the action making his blood grow a little cold.

“I’ve considered the possibility of having you and the rest of Adrien’s friends over for his birthday.” Adrien fell off the stairs but landed in a hand stand, holding it for a second too long by Gabriel’s calculation. The experienced fashion designer winced internally at that.

“I’m allowed to have my friends over?”

“Yes, you—”

“Thank you father!” before Gabriel could get the whole sentence out Adrien hugged him. He awkwardly patted his son’s back in return.

“You’re welcome.” replied Gabriel before he looked over to the bodyguard and motioned with his eyes to Adrien. The bodyguard understood perfectly what his boss wanted and walked over, checking the rich blond’s wrists for any signs of damage, minor or otherwise. Gabriel left with the sound of his son complaining and saying that his wrists were fine. As he wandered back to his office he thought about the talk he had with Dupain-Cheng a couple of days ago.

Just like the first time, Gabriel had walked into the café dressed in a coat and wearing a fedora indoors. The only difference was the lack of a scarf. He scanned over the café hoping she would be here, and she was, seating at a table to the side with a blond girl, smiling, laughing and in a really good mood, a sharp contrast to how she acted with him around, but he wasn’t complaining. He did ask a really inappropriate question (Plagg’s curiosity rubbed off on him in the worst of ways and sometimes it showed). The experienced fashion designer walked over to the table and cleared his throat. The shift in mood was so palpable he could practically touch it.

“Greetings again.”

“Hi! I haven’t seen you around here before. Is this your first visit to the Quantum Café?” asked the blond politely, trying to contain her excitement.

“No, it’s the second. I came here hoping to find Miss Dupain-Cheng.”

“Well here I am. If you want I can give you an email address. Or tell you about my site.”

“You have a site…?”/”You have a site?!” asked both the blond and him.

“No…!” she replied while suppressing a snicker. “I use my social handle as if it were a site, but I don’t actually have one. I post ideas there and even take a few commissions on articles of clothing.”

“Right… speaking of clothing, I wanted to ask: I have been considering offering a paid internship.” The implications were clear: he was offering her the internship and was now asking if she wanted it. The experienced fashion designer saw a glint in the blue haired teen’s eye.

“I humbly accept.”

Adrien could see that Nathalie was a little bit impressed as well as curious about his landing. Nino was too, but not as much, since he didn’t know everything about Adrien in order to have a point of reference for what was weird and what wasn’t. The blue and red haired woman decided to forget about that fact and focus on something else, opening the discussion the moment she saw Nino put his headphones back on:

“Adrien?”

“Yes Nathalie?”

“Since your father is letting you have your friends over for your birthday, I need to make a guest list.”

“Oh, you want me to tell you who I want at my party?”

“Yes. I am good with remembering names, so it shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Cool! Uh… I guess kind of the whole class? Except for one person.”

“Who would that be?” asked Nathalie curiously, wondering who the little sunshine boy wouldn’t want at his party.

“Her name is Lila Rossi.”

“Did she do something do you? Was she rude, or what happened?”

“No, it’s not that, it’s…”

Adrien happily decided to tell everyone in class that they were invited to his birthday party. He would figure out how to convince his father afterwards, right? The rich blond could see all the happiness on everyone’s faces. His friends were happy that he could spend his birthday with them, while everyone else that he didn’t quite know yet were excited to be at the party (“Rich party!” exclaimed Kim enthusiastically, which was a bit shallow, but funny nonetheless). Then after the initial excitement Adrien saw everyone sort of… stopped. The atmosphere grew a little cold and he could feel that something was wrong.

“And her the penny drops!” said Marinette as she got up and limped over to the rich blond, something which made him blush a little even though he didn’t realize why. “Adrien, since you’re new here, let me introduce you to Lila Rossi. Rossi, say hello if you want.”

Adrien looked over to see a girl with long hair dressed in white and blue. He got shivers down his spine from meeting eyes with her, his ring feeling cold and Plagg shifting in his shirt’s pocket due to suddenly not being comfortable. The girl regarded him coldly.

“I don’t think I care much about your party rich boy.” she said with boredom in her voice before she pulled out her phone and looked at it.

“Wonderful. That settles that then.” Soon after that little interaction their homeroom teacher, Miss Bustier, arrived and classes began. The rich blond was not sure what was up though, but he was willing to find out. He first wanted to ask Marinette, but he felt a little awkward about it for some reason, so he decided to ask his closest friend, Chloe, instead.

“She’s a… patholo-thingy?  A liar basically. Dupain-Cheng used some fancy word.”

“So, she lies?”

“No, it’s not that she lies. That brat lies about anything and everything. She lied about being friends with and knowing a bunch of celebrities, until Dupain-Cheng put a stop to it and ripped the curtains off of your classmates’ idiotic eyes. I mean come on! They weren’t even good lies!”

“Mind not shouting? I can hear you from over there.” Marinette came from around the corner, holding her Playerboi.

“You were listening in?!” asked Adrien.

“Was curious. You too go off to talk privately that it makes me think there‘s something more there.”

“There’s nothing ‘more’ there Dupain-Cheng. Unless Adrikins wants it to. I’m always open~!” Chloe, in a very uncharacteristic move, winked at him spicily. He got the subtext a second later, upon that moment turning red. The two girls shared a laugh, Marinette messing up Chloe’s hair, giving off a sort of elder sister vibe, like one of those Adrien saw in of the shows he was watching.

“You do you Bourgeois.” said the young fashion designer as she began to limp away, pulling out her medicine bottle. “By the way…” she turned around before walking behind the corner, popping a pill. “The term is pathological liar. Rossi is under some delusion that she is supposed to be important. Better keep away from her. Her lies are so ridiculously bad that you might actually believe them Agreste.”

Adrien didn’t tell Nathalie all of that, only telling her about the incident in class. The secretary was a little thoughtful at that. Gabriel was not kidding when he said the world is dangerous. Good thing that girl got found out before Adrien joined the class.

“…So, yeah. Lila Rossi isn’t invited.”

“I see…”

“Can you keep it a secret?”

“Of course Adrien. I don’t even want to begin imagining how your father would react if he knew he was right all along…”

“Yeah… Nathalie?”

“Yes Adrien?”

“Can we instead do the list together? Oh! We could send everyone invitations!” That got the blue and red haired woman laughing softly. It was so nice to see Adrien excited about his birthday, as opposed to the sadness he felt almost all the other times.

After all the decorations were set, the tables prepared, the music selected, Adrien and Nathalie, along with Nino and the bodyguard, all collaborated in making the invitations. Gabriel had seen them and, at his son’s insistence joined in. It ended up roving the best moment to add a condition he had remembered he should have said earlier.

“If your friends will come over then I want to see them in formal wear.” he said calmly, and watched as they all had their own different reactions: Adrien softly slammed his head on the table, Nino began grumbling and both the bodyguard and Nathalie looked over to him with that unimpressed, one eyebrow raised, expression. Were it not for years of being hounded by vultures his poker face would have fell.

“My friends don’t even have formal wear…”

“I can imagine. What I can also say is that I remember seeing the opposite and do not want to see it in this house.”

“How about semiformal?” asked Nino. Interesting. Let’s see where this goes.

“And why would I accept semiformal?”

“Well it is Adrien’s birthday. It also happens that none of his friends besides one have the money to get full on formal wear. Semiformal is accessible to everyone, sir.” After that response Gabriel gave his shadow of a ghost of a smile.

“Very well. Semiformal it is.”

Marinette’s phone rang in her room, the girl getting up the stairs with a small envelope in her mouth as she climbed the ladder. The blue haired teen limped to her desk and accepted the call, putting it on speaker.

“Sing for me.”

“The app… Have you talked to the mayor yet?” asked Alya. Marinette looked to the phone, then, with a sneaky smile, looked over to her wrist watch, a completely useless action considering Alya couldn’t see her.

“He’s got me booked for next week.” replied the young fashion designer as she opened the envelope and read the piece of paper inside.

“Oh come on! Your family’s friends with the mayor.”

“Can you explain to me how that equals to me being able to talk to Bourgeois Senior? You believe in this preconceived notion that the man has to drop everything to talk to me…”

“Fine… Then how are Max and I supposed to get the app out there? If we’re going to go to a company they’ll probably grill us into a contract that basically boils down to us selling out.”

“Well you could talk to Bourgeois Junior about bumping you up the list at the party.” offered Marinette as she read over the invitation.

“What party?”

“Didn’t Lahiffe mention he was helping Agreste with making a playlist?”

“He did mention, why?”

“Well it was probably for his birthday party. I got an invitation. It’s pink.” the blue haired teen said that last sentence with great satisfaction.

“I didn’t get any written invitation.”

“You sound bummed out! Cheer up you’ll probably get yours today or tomorrow. Mine just arrived here. I’ll see you there.”

“See you there.”

With that Marinette ended the call.

Chapter Text

Marinette woke up bright and early, following a good night’s rest. She’d had the luck to have a bunch of painless nights back to back, which made her a bit anxious, since that meant her leg will bother her in the near future very soon. The very next thing that happened was her feeling like she was being weightless, and then she realized why: she had fallen asleep in her Garden again, and the butterflies kept her body suspended in the air the whole night. Now that she was awake however, she was gently planted back in her armchair, sitting in front of her desk where a certain purple Kwami slept peacefully on top of the tome. The blue haired teen smiled good-naturedly at her cinnamon roll, knowing he was the author of her unique sleeping position the night before. Already dressed, Marinette got down from her Garden into her bedroom to go through her morning routine. She had a shower and brushed her teeth before she opened her closet… to get her sports outfit… With her day now ruined the young fashion designer grabbed her still new cane and her bottle of pills, taking one as she went down.

“Hi…” she greeted her parents as she sat down and waited to eat whatever her father made for breakfast today. After that it was time for school, which was frankly incredibly boring from home. The two subjects she had managed to make a little interesting for herself and the rest of the class were history and physics, her whiteboard, which she had brought down from her Garden helping with the latter, while the tons and tons of wooden sculptures she somehow managed to cram the making of into her schedule brought to life the former’s lessons (being awake at night half the time meant she had to be productive; 5 hours was a long time). Now all she had to look forward to in terms of action was occasionally meeting with her friends and, more recently, the upcoming ‘Agreste Junior’ birthday.

“Wait, you’re actually going?” asked Nino, confused.

“Sure, why not?”

“’Why not?’ You never go to anyone’s birthday. You don’t even celebrate your birthday!” said Alya. The three teens were talking about this since Adrien was running late.

“First of all, you don’t even know when my birthday is. And second of all,  we now have a new classmate. It’d be rude to give the wrong impression.” replied Marinette with a sly smile.

“You don’t even care about impressions…” murmured Alya.

“No she doesn’t. It’s probably because she knows his dad, like I think.” said Chloe, who suddenly showed up, leaning with her arms on top of some lockers. The teens looked over in her direction.

“Wait, really?” asked Nino.

“Ooh~! In what way though? Partnership? Did you meet before at some point?” theorized Alya.

“Is Raincomprix doing a good job?” asked Marinette. Chloe, knowing what she was talking about (Of course she knows Sabrina is holding me up. She’s Marinette.), looked down at Sabrina, who smiled, signs of strain still showing on her face.

“Kinda.”

“Good. Make sure she keeps exercising. I’d ask you to help her do it, but I already know you’d moan and say something like: Oh no! My hair would be ruined! Not to mention my nails, which I just got done!” said Marinette with a surprisingly spot on voice impression of Chloe, pretending to swoon dramatically.

“OH! I’ll make you eat those words Dupain-Cheng! Let me down Sabrina; after this we’re going jogging!”

“Ok!” said the orange haired girl with a little excitement in her voice, happy to do another activity together with her best friend.

Alya and Nino laughed their butts off after Chloe was out of the locker room, all walking along with Marinette, who took a pill.

“Did you just scam Chloe into exercising?!” asked Nino, still laughing hysterically.

“Did I miss something?!” asked Adrien, running in. Marinette noted how he wasn’t too out of breath after what clearly was a full on sprint.

“Not really…” she said.

“Only Dupain-Cheng scamming Chloe into exercising!” explained Alya as they all continued on their way to class.

“Oh, I thought she already exercises…” said Adrien.

“Does Chloe ever eat when you’re around Agreste?” asked Marinette.

“Uh… not a lot.”

“There you go then! The only reason Chloe would need to exercise would be to keep her figure. If she doesn’t eat much around you then that is a clear indicator she doesn’t eat much at all. So that is how she keeps her look.”

“But… I thought… never mind…”

“Are you a gift type person? Or do you just want to spend your anniversary with others?” asked the young fashion designer suddenly, turning to look straight to him, making his heart jump and his cheeks flush.

“Please no presents! Not that I don’t likepresentsoranythingthoseare nicebutI’dratherjustspendmybirthdaywithyou! No I mean—”

“No presents; got it…” said Marinette absentmindedly, ignoring most of the blond boy’s fast speech as she thought about what she had to do today. I still need to finish the dress and get everything set up in case of an emergency...

Marinette enjoyed sewing and making clothes, tailoring as well, anything that let her work with threads and pieces of cloth in any way. It was the second thing she learned to do after making bread, and the first thing she had sewed together were little plushies of her mother and father. As she grew older however the young fashion designer found that working on pieces of fashion came to her as easily as breathing, a bit too easily in fact, as she sometimes spent her nights working till it was very late, either sewing together a dress, a shirt or pants, or just sketching up a bunch of other designs. Of course when her accident left her leg broken the hobby was thrown out the window as every time she looked at herself in the mirror to see how some of the clothes would look on her, she couldn’t bear seeing herself. Nowadays things were ok though. Melody had once upon a time asked her if she could help by making an exact replica of a T-shirt the kind blond had ruined (Melodie never asked for help with anything) and that lead the blue haired teen to getting back into it again. And now she was pretty happy for it, as she was about to do her friend Alya a big favor:

“Can I take my blindfold off now?”

“Go for it.” the blogger removed her blindfold and was met with the most beautiful dress she had ever seen, the beauty lying in simplicity, Marinette’s designing style.

“I can’t…”

“But you wanted a dress. You said so last year. I even taped it.” Marinette suddenly held up a tape recorder and pressed a button on it…

“I really want a party dress…”

“Are you going anywhere? Family gathering?”

“No, I’m just kinda in the mood, ya know? Can’t exactly go impulse shop one.”

“You’re not much of a clothes person, so that’s a big surprise. But sure… I’ll tell you when I get around to finishing it.”

“Thanks Marinette… Wait, I mean—”

“You’re welcome Caesar salad.”

…And stopped the recording there.

“Yeah, but, when I said I wanted a party dress, I didn’t think you’d make it so…”

“So what?”

“Pretty? Hot? Cutesy?”

“The heart cutout at the back is incredibly you honestly. It was either that or bare back.”

“I still don’t know if I can pull it off…” at hearing that the blue haired teen went over to her desk and grabbed her sketchbook, showing the page it was open at to Alya, making the blogger gasp and instinctually pull out her phone to take a picture.

“You’re wearing the dress!” Marinette said sternly.

“Yes ma’am…!” The sketch of her wearing the dress was beautiful, and so was how Marinette styled her hair in it.

With that Alya got the article of clothing to go in a bag and left, saying goodbye to Marinette’s parents and passing by a blond girl dressed in white and purple, who, unbeknownst to the blogger, went to Marinette’s room and all the way up in the Garden.

“Ah, you’re here, perfect.” The young fashion designer immediately took off her brooch and gave it to Melody. Nooroo felt that and looked at the two.

“M-Marinette…? What are you doing?”

“Melody will have my job for the evening.”

“I will?!”/”She will?!”

“Yes, you will.” The kind blond immediately started cheering and running around the Garden, getting to know the butterflies up close too, who were a little weirded out by having a new mistress, but were excited nonetheless.

“Mistress, you c-can’t just leave m-me with just about anyone! The Butterfly Miraculous works b-best with someone t-that can infer a soul’s purity.”

“That’s why Melody will choose a Champion between a premade list.” Marinette gently grabbed her cinnamon roll and limped over to a board where a bunch of photos were pinned, all with a name and what looked like a short description.

“Xavier Ramier… Aurore Beaureal… Roger Raincomprix… w-who is Andre?”

“Love ice cream guy. He’s Paris’ self proclaimed matchmaker, says he’s never wrong. Never tried finding him yet though… I wonder if his matchmaking would be hampered at all by me liking a girl…”

“Do all of them have pure souls?” asked Nooroo, ignoring the last part.

“Last time I checked they were pretty pure. Whenever I look for a Champion your Miraculous—”

“M-Mistress I’m not supposed to know how things are on your end.” the butterfly Kwami cut her off, his old habit of not wanting to know anything about Miraculouses kicking in. Marinette rolled her eyes at that.

“The TL;DR is that they have my verification of soul purity.”

“O-Ok…” The young fashion designer had a feeling Nooroo was not convinced, so she put him on his shoulder and turned toward her girlfriend.

“Look at her please… tell me what you see?” she asked of him. The little Kwami looked and thought about it, comparing Melodie with Marinette… his mistress would be a lot better at this… “So? What’s your verdict?”

“I s-still think you’re a-a better fit.” Marinette sighed at that.

“Out of all the people that ever wielded your Miraculous, does she not resemble anyone?” With that little prompt Nooroo thought about it and he did see a little bit of a resemblance between Melodie and one of his last wielders before coming into the care of the Cheng family. As he did so he also realized that Marinette's analytical mind was similar to that of Ada Lovelace, only applied to physics and history instead of the field of computer programming.

“I suppose she is ok...”

“Good, because you’re going to have to spend the entire evening with her.”

With that Marinette got Melodie’s attention and told her all about what the kind blond had at her disposal if it came down to using the Miraculous: besides the board which had a bunch of Champion candidates for her to choose from, Marinette made a villain detector by frankensteining a radio with a bunch of other pieces of technology. It wasn’t pretty, but in the very least it got the job done. As a last resort, in the off chance Volpina showed herself somewhere near the Agreste Mansion, Marinette would just call her and tell her to get a champion over there.

Everything had been prepared for this evening. Everyone had come dressed in as formally as possible, Marinette and Alya making it fashionably late.

“You’re the only person that can call 30 minutes fashionably late girl.” said Alya.

“It’s not really my fault your elder sister can’t style hair in something more complex than a ponytail.” replied Marinette.

When they arrived they were let in by the Agreste’s bodyguard after checking if they were on the list. Feels like we're entering in one of those private club events. thought the blogger as they saw that the courtyard was fitted with a dance floor and tables were set up, some of her classmates sitting and talking while others danced.

“Go have fun for a bit, maybe talk to Nino. Then find Kante. I’ll go find Bourgeois.”

“Wait, really? We’re doing it at the party?”

“I told you I’d get her to talk to you, so that’s what I’m doing.”

Marinette decided to first see how good the food and punch was (they were all pretty good, as she tried everything at least once, the tiny éclairs being her favorite). After that she went to look for Chloe, not taking long, seeing as she was with Adrien. The young fashion designer bid the blond boy a happy birthday and got a shy compliment on her outfit in return (She was dressed in a black tux with black pants and a white waistcoat over a purple shirt with a white bow tie, a top hat to finish the look), before she grabbed the blond girl and lead her to where she needed to talk with the makers of ‘Monarchat’.

As everyone was having fun, nobody noticed the fox themed supervillain looking at them all from a perch. They did immediately notice her when she dropped down and started wreaking havoc however…

Chapter Text

Alya decided to make her way towards Nino, smiling a little as she saw him stare for a few seconds before he got really into working the DJ deck. Marinette was so right! she told herself. The blogger was dressed in a beautiful fire red dress that covered everything from the neck down. It was a bit form fitting though and it had a slit on the right, showing off her leg. Her hair was styles just like in the sketch her friend made, a Chinese bun with hair sticks holding it together, rest of her hair being side swept at the front. She mostly went with a natural look, without much makeup, the only thing standing out being her red lips. To finish it all off, she decided to forgo her glasses for her contacts, something she really didn’t do all that much. All in all, she looked gorgeous.

“So, you’ve dressed for the occasion.” commented the blogger, a little bit of a joke since his gray blazer was left on his, remaining dressed in only a white T-shirt and his usual jeans. His cap was off for a change though.

“<Awkward chuckle> Yeah, sorta…”

“I heard you managed to convince Adrien’s dad; How’d you do it?” she asked curiously, hoping that a little distraction might remove the awkward air. Ok maybe this dress is overkill. I need to get Marinette on making it slightly baggier.

“Oh you know… My usual charm and logicalness. Dude was pretty stubborn though. The question of ‘do you want your son to be miserable’ got him in the end.”

“Pretty bold! I’m surprised he didn’t throw you out himself.” Alya giggled before she went completely quiet… Was Nino’s awkwardness rubbing on her?!

“He looked like he wanted to for a bit. Then he just sorta… deflated? I think he got mad cuz I questioned his parenting, or whatever, but then he realized I actually had a point, you know?”

“I can see that… I was wondering: are you going to be doing this all party, or are you going to have some fun on the dance floor too?”

“Well, I suppose I can put something slow that I can leave on. Why?” Nino dared look over and saw Alya’s hand held out in silent invitation. Nino accepted it, blushing, and then went on the dance floor to share a dance, Ivan and Mylene going as well.

Marinette observed the music change and figured Alya was probably focused on other things. So she herself decided to, just for now, kick back, relax, and just stop worrying about her girlfriend at home. Melodie was a capable girl, one of the reasons the young fashion designer liked her, and so she would be alright. As she looked around she noted how some people were not too intent on dancing, so she limped over to them.

“Adrikins, let’s dance, come on!”

“Oh, I-I guess…” that conversation faded away as the blue haired teen limped to one of the tables where two girls were sitting together and talking.

“It’s just a coincidence Juleka. Look. How about we take a selfie right now?” The shy teen looked at her blond partner and shook her head “Nothing will happen, trust me.” promised Rose as she shimmied over and pulled out her phone to take her picture, both seeing Marinette then. Before the blue haired teen could speak up the party was literally crashed by large balls landing on the dance floor, the balls unfurling to reveal large, bipedal, armadillo men with sunglasses and guard outfits on them, complete with little guard caps on their heads. And who was in charge of these strange beings? Volpina of course, her voice heard over the music quite easily.

“Get me the blond boy guards! GET HIM! I WANT TO DROP HIM OFF THE EIFFEL TOWER FOR REAL THIS TIME!” she shouted excitedly.

Everyone was quick to run to towards the mansion, Gabriel Agreste being first in order to activate the security systems the moment everyone was inside. There was another reason as well, to cover for his son in order for him to turn into Chat Noir and save the day.

“Run!” ordered Marinette to the two girls. The blue haired teen began with helping everyone else get past their fear enough to at least run away. She was not the only one doing this however, as Adrien, the birthday boy, couldn’t find a single reason to run away. Even if he was Chat Noir, that didn’t mean he could just abandon his friends and risk them getting hurt in the small amount of time he hid to transform. So, the two teens, selflessly getting everyone to safety, were predictably caught by one of the armadillo guards and brought to the foxy villain.

“I got ‘em boss.”

“Good work Jean! Now we’ll use them as bait! Cat Noir~! Lady Monarch~! Yoohoo~!” called out Volpina in a sing song voice.

“These illusions talk meow?” punned Adrien.

“It’s a really big leap from ‘giant scissor and rope’. Also Jean? Really? Maybe if thought to run a search you would have realized the name’s meaning:’ God is gracious’? Not really since it would have given him a better mug.” snarked Marinette.

“Ooh! Burn!” replied Adrien.

“QUIET!” screamed Volpina before she manifested a sword and swung at Marinette’s neck before stopping, smiling as an evil thought came to her mind.

“Boss…?”

“Yes Jean?”

“Can we eat them after we’re done here?”

“The boy— absolutely— but this one…” Volpina put her blade tip to Marinette’s neck. “She’s all mine…” the vixen laughed, first lowly, before it went to a full blown crazy laughter. All the while the young fashion designer was fructifying this opportunity, seeing as she most likely won’t get another again, and took in every detail about Volpina that she could now see up close. Her suit was definitely magic for starters: there was no piece of clothing in existence that could protect someone from getting hit by a Miraculous wielder while also remaining intact. The ears seemed to be functional similarly to Chat’s seeing as they would occasionally move like that of an animal; then there was the one thing that stood out to her and that Marinette was never able to get a proper look at… a fox tail necklace. A very familiar fox tail necklace. A fox tail necklace she had seen before!

Before the blue haired teen could analyze the necklace more she heard the commotion caused by some armadillo guards as some others were poofed. Finally Chat… you sure took your sweet time… thought Marinette to herself before she heard the actual hero’s voice:

“Your games of illusion and trickery end now Volpina!” said the heroine, who, as Marinette observed once the guard holding her and Adrien turned around, was in possession of the peacock Miraculous.

Gabriel bolted into his office and prepared to turn on the security measures. He never had any idea why his wife had been so adamant about spending so much money on basically building the house like a fortress, until he had discovered her secret that is. Now he could sympathize with the idea of having a nearly impenetrable home to keep the two powerful magical jewels safe. Nathalie ran in at about the right moment where Gabriel thought everyone would be inside, but what she said shocked him:

“She has Adrien! Engage the security system!” Gabriel was speechless… “Agreste!” that almost-shout was enough to get him out of his funk and to turn on the security, the armadillo guards getting stuck at the doors and windows, unable to smash through the metal plating that covered them. Gabriel immediately went for the painting, pressing the buttons that allowed him to access his safe and the peacock brooch inside. Nathalie had walked up to him, knowing what he was about to do…

“I need to save my son.” She stopped him right before he was about to put on the brooch and looked at him meaningfully before speaking.

“Gabriel…” she spoke softly. “Do you really want Adrien to experience the despair you felt when you lost Emilie?”

“What else am I supposed to do? Adrien can’t transform in front of Volpina, Lady Monarch hasn’t sent a champion by now so she obviously has no idea what’s going on, and I have no other Miraculouses!” the experience fashion designer, who hadn’t looked at her up until now, turned around seeing her patiently holding her hand up and looking at him with great sadness. “No.”

”It’s the only way…”

“I am not losing you too! You’re not just some assistant that I can fire and replace you’re… family… just like the bodyguard. You are, unofficially speaking, an Agreste, working by my side for the good of the family.” Nathalie smiled at that.

“You just said out loud the reason I’m doing this: It’s for the good of the family.” Gabriel looked at her before looking down at the brooch in his hand, closing his fist around it…

“You’re the missing one… My master will be immeasurably joyful once I get your miraculous!” exclaimed Volpina, going head first to attack the peacock heroine. She without hesitation, began to avoid the vixen villain, taking out the remaining guards, or having Volpina do it for her, thinning the heard down considerably, the only remaining ones being the guard holding the two teens and two other ones flanking him and making sure they were secured. As the fight continued the heroine started making mistakes, or becoming predictable, Volpina getting the upper hand, predicting where she would land when jumping and being there to hit her, occasionally using her flute to summon a few more guards which were fortunately taken care of a bit too quickly to be of use for more than a few seconds, but all Volpina needed were a few seconds. Whenever the heroine was focused on the guards the vixen villain would easily overtake her and push her into the ground, either with a kick or by batting her with her flute. Eventually, the peacock heroine’s movements became sluggish and Volpina was able to overtake her, the remainders of the guards she had summoned holding her down on her knees with her arms behind her back.

“Aw~! Is someone tiwed? GOOD! Once I’m taking off your Miraculous it’s OFF WITH YOUR HEAD! Luke, you can have it. Pierre, you take the limbs. The both of you will share the torso.”

Nathalie sort of stood there, unable to summon the energy to get the guards off of her, breathing a little heavily, sweat droplets going down her face. Looks like your Miraculous won’t be the one killing me Nooroo… She will. Thought the peacock heroine grimly as she listened to what Volpina said, awaiting her demise, not hearing Gabriel’s voice in the discreet earpiece he had given her, until…

“Prepare for backup.”

“What…?” asked Nathalie, confusing the vixen who was just about to take her Miraculous.

“What ‘what’?” she asked before the armadillo guards got poofed.

Adrien and Marinette observed how, from the mansion, drones flew out and started attacking Volpina and her realistic illusions. The foxy villain was pushed back as some of the drone focused their fire on her, one of them going for the guard holding them and poofing it. Adrien, without a second thought, grabbed Marinette and pulled her towards the mansion, needing to make sure she was at least partly safe until Chat Noir could show up (read he could transform). The two went to the side before Marinette pulled on him to let gom, the boy understanding the message.

“Sorry! I-I forgot—”

“I have an injured leg you IDIOT!” said the young fashion designer before leaning on the wall and sliding down to sit, holding her leg.

“I’m sorry! I’ll go see if I can find a way inside!” he said before running off. Marinette pulled out her bottle of pills and emptied it, taking the three pills that had remained in it before leaning her head back.

Adrien kept running until her reached the backyard, Plagg flying out of his jacket, the cat Kwami a bit too energetic and giddy for his liking. Then everything explained itself.

“This is what I’m talking about! I’ve just been reminded of my wonderful when Emilie decided to use my miraculous for a change… too bad that didn’t last though…”

“Excuse me, what?”

“I’ll explain that later! Go kick but kitten! Peacock girl can’t handle herself for long!” Adrien nodded and without hesitation:

“Plagg! Claws out!” Transformed into Chat Noir and hopped on the roof of the mansion, seeing the vixen having destroyed the drones and now fighting the peacock heroine.

“YOU’RE MINE!” said the foxy villain as she attempted to smash her opponent with a giant hammer. The black cat hero instantly jumped in and blocked it with his staff.

“I don’t know where you think you are Volpina, but this is no Looney tunes! She won’t get unsmushed if you do that!” he joked as he pushed her back. The peacock heroine took that distraction to flee, Volpina trying to follow, only to be stopped by Chat, who lengthened his staff and batted her out of the sky.

“Damn you! I HAD HER!” Volpina, came at him raging, summoning a pair of swords that he handedly countered with his clean and superior fencing technique.

“Sorry Foxy, but that’s the type of bird you eat. You would have gotten indigestion with all these feathers!” She shrieked in rage at him in return.

Melodie was determined to make Marinette proud, she really was… but waiting around doing nothing was not really something she could do. So she decided to make some use out of her time. First she focused on ridding Marinette’s room of dust, because her girlfriend tended to have it gather a little. Then she checked on her parents to see if they needed anything (they respectfully declined help knowing the kind blond would get wrapped up in it), and then she watered Marinette’s plants, finishing off with organizing Marinette’s desk in the Garden, all of this done while checking back to see if she was.

“Anything yet Nooroo?”

“No… t-tonight is really quiet. I have a bad feeling a-about this...”

“Me too…” agreed Melodie worriedly as she placed a small bowl with black berries in front of him. “Here you go Nooroo! Your favorite.” she said kindly

“Oh… thanks…!” said the little Kwami.

“I’m going to check on Marinette.” said the kind blond as she made a call for Marinette. If everything was alright then she would at least be checking on her girlfriend to see if she was having fun.

“What a coincidence… I was just about to call you.” was the blue haired teen’s response.

“Marinette? Where’s the music…? Wait what is—”

“Volpina. Need champion! Focus on Nino Lahiffe. He’s not on the list because he was here at the party but right now he’s perfect for this. He’d have the perfect motive to jump into action. Plus you know him.”

“I will! Be safe, love you!”

“Love you too.”

The call closed, the emergency Lady Monarch got to work. First the transformation then getting swarmed by butterflies. It took a little before she got the little guys to calm down and then she empowered one, turning it into a Fay:

“Go and make Nino a powerful Champion to protect his friends!” said ‘Lady Monarch’, the clean instruction making it really easy for the Fay to fly where it needed to be. Once arrived, it saw Nino pacing back and forth worriedly as he thought about Adrien and Marinette being out there in danger. By the sounds of, the gunshots were not really a good sign.

“Ugh! This is really bad! We can’t even see what’s going on!”

“Nino, calm down. My lady will send a Fay aaany second now.” assured Alya.

“Why isn’t she here yet though?! She’s usually right on top of this!”

“Look! There’s a Fay!” exclaimed Rose, pointing to the little guy who entered through under the metal plate that protected the window.

“Finally! Uh… I don’t really have anything on me… besides these?” said Alya as she removed her shoes. The problem about a Fay object was solved by it entering Nino’s indispensable headphones, the butterfly symbol appearing in front of his face as he was hit with an aura full of energy.

“Nino Lahiffe, I am Lady Monarch, and I’m going to grant you the power to stop Volpina and save your friends as Megamaster!”

“Finally! Don’t worry my lady! I’ll blast her to pieces!” said the boy before he was enveloped in the yellow light, coming out as Megamaster, a robotic figure with a purely metallic body, all uncolored. His ‘face’ was more of a helmet with a black reflective visor covering his eyes while his mouth was covered by a piece of metal. His legs had giant boots while his forearms were similarly huge, his right one shaped like a cannon.

“I won’t disappoint!” he said with a deep modulated voice, befitting that of a robotic warrior, before he walked over to the wall and interfaced with the security system, opening the door for himself to go out, the doors automatically closing behind him. He started off with sending a laser beam Volpina’s way, the villain too focused on Chat to notice and getting shot.

“Ugh… This has gone from bad to worse… I need to get out of here…” grunted the vixen to herself before she jumped into the air.

“No you don’t!” exclaimed Megamaster shooting a wave of bubbles in the air, capturing Volpina in one, before he pulled every single one of them back. “You messed with my friends! Now you’re going to pay!” Megamaster shot another laser beam at her, popping the bubble and sending her to the ground. She got back up on her feet and used her flute to create a dozen or so of Geishas with umbrellas, which worked wonderfully to redirect the laser beams back at them.

“Wow dude chill! That my—Mister Agreste’s Mansion! You want him to sue us or something?!” Almost blew my cover… whoever this Champion is, he’s intense.

The Geishas went on the counter attack, Chat using his agility to his advantage (those illusions weren’t really fast considering their outfits), and slashing some into oblivion. Megamaster simply ran around them, occasionally jumping and using another of his special ammunitions: homing claw bombs. Once shot, the bomb would seek the nearest target that wasn’t Chat and their claws would stick to it, blowing it up.

“Ha! Take that you annoying Chinese ladies!” The butterfly symbol appeared in front of his face.

“First of all, that’s rude. Second of all, Geishas are Japanese not Chinese.”

“Poteito, potahto.” was his response before getting back into the swing of things. He at one point noted Volpina trying to escape and he once again used a bubble shot to pull her right back. The vixen, seeing she had no other way of escaping, created a large robot dragon.

“Have fun dealing with this one suckers!” she bid before running off, the dragon sucking up all the bubbles Megamaster shot like a vacuum cleaner.

“She’s calling us the suckers?! This thing clearly has this covered!” joked Chat, making Megamaster laugh.

“Good one dude!” said Megamaster before he began shooting the robot dragon, to no effect. The bubbles were already useless, and when he tried to have it eat the bombs, they had no effect either. Chat himself was unable to get close enough to even consider the possibility of Cataclysming it, and the dragon breathed laser, which were not good since it meant they would probably be fried.

“Lady Monarch, any ideas! I’m not planning on becoming extra crispy food for this thing!” exclaimed Chat, knowing Lady Monarch could hear him through the Champion. Melodie was freaking out a little, unable to come up with a plan.

“Megamaster! I-Is there anything else you didn’t try? Any shooty you could use on this thing?”

“There is one more thing… Chat! Get back!” ordered the Champion, the cat hero doing exactly as he was told. “Here goes something…” mumbled Megamaster before pointing his blaster upwards and activating the sonic base, releasing a low frequency sound, like the base in a song, the sound breaking the windows and, more importantly, something which Marinette got to see in premier, making the dragon illusion ‘glitch’ before it poofed.

After the fight was over and the dust settled the Agreste mansion front yard was pretty broken and the walls of the mansion proper were burned, but everyone was ultimately safe. Of course, the ruckus was noted by the rest of Paris, the emergency services arriving, Marinette herself volunteering to get to the hospital ASAP, her friend not knowing why exactly. Nino went back to normal after Melodie fumbled a bit with how to disconnect, getting a message from her girlfriend on her phone:

“Getting to the hospital. Tell my parents, please. It’s my leg.”

Chapter Text

Following the whole fiasco with Adrien’s birthday, the one that surprisingly wasn’t covered that much by the press (it was possible Agreste had something to do with it), Marinette’s poor leg was finally pushed over the edge, literally being broken beyond what had happened to it originally… and she needed surgery… which the Bourgeois family paid for out of sympathy. After the whole ordeal Marinette was to stay a little bit more at the hospital, as per the procedure that came with every time she broke or fissured her leg’s bones (this was only the third time thankfully). The young fashion designer was not one who could handle sitting around doing nothing very well. Formerly the best young fencer of France, a very active person both physically and mentally, she needed at least some activity to keep herself sane. So, she took this as an opportunity to get some more work done on her tome in addition to the homework she was already getting from school.

Melodie was also always by her side. The kind blond looked exhausted and didn’t speak with her mom or with anyone else at school, resulting in her talking Marinette’s ears off. So the blue haired teen had an idea: have Melodie help her with the tome. Usually the tome’s translation were impossible to remember, requiring one to know the contents by heart, something that Marinette partially accomplished. Another way was discovered however, and completely by accident as well. When the blue haired teen had once written down with a crayon and ripped the page to write it again, she observed the indentation she had made with the crayon on the second page, and realized she could actually remember it when looking away. This lead her to experimenting, which then resulted in her figuring out that having the words could be seen, as the tome said in one of its riddles, ‘By the one who reads what cannot be read.’. So she had essentially used invisible ink and a black light exclusively to write down and read the translation, as apparently that counted. Seeing as using invisible ink was not viable at the hospital, Melodie and her came up with another way: using a chart. By writing down each letter vertically, the two were able to make out the words but not have them in the basic reading format, which was what triggered the magical amnesia in the first place.

Momentarily Marinette’s father was at the bakery because it had already been closed for two days and couldn’t stay like that forever, while her mother was called by the doctor in charge of the Marinette’s medicine and aftercare, Doctor Garconniere, so it was just the two girls.

“I really like this disk thing.” said the kind blond happily as she spun the middle bit around, watching the letters rotate.

“It’s a Caesar cipher disc. My only one too, so please don’t break it.”

“Oh sorry… What is this? ‘Ienpriahnoetudihsiotbtedmmarcnaetwoeemftocshsveselrtirhscea’?!”

“<Giggle> You didn’t need to pronounce the whole thing…! That’s just Scytale, an ancient Greek cipher using a rod and some leather. You write across the leather then unwind it so nobody knows what it says.”

“Oh. That’s really creative!”

“I know, right? The fact there are so many different encoding methods in this thing, some piled on top of each other, makes it very difficult. There are even methods of encoding it which are more modern and I have no clue how they got there.”

“Isn’t it magic?”

“Well yes, but there is no Miraculous of Knowledge in there… Or is there? There are hundreds of pages in that thing and 90% of them catalogue every single Miraculous, the rest being either for explaining other abilities or being mentions about tea and spiritual practices, although the last ones seem more modern, like someone had been writing in it still…” Marinette had long since suspected her mom may have written some of the new pages in the tome, taking into considerations that Nooroo’s Miraculous was a gift from her, but the fact Sabine was a little put off by the spirituality her girlfriend practiced, going as far as to politely stay about two meters away from a scented candle, lead to conflicting information (Marinette even let an unlit candle on the living room table one time and waited to see if her mom would react the same way she usually did even when she thought she was alone… and she did, so it wasn’t an act). Currently that was not her focus, but rather a certain Miraculous page in the book, one she was very focused on the decoding: the Fox Miraculous, a necklace with a vibrant orange fox tail pendant. It’s power?

“…Trixx grants the user the power to create the most fantastical of images into a mirage, shaping worlds, objects and even beings of the mind into something real for the eyes to behold…”

“<Gasp> That sounds like Volpina!” exclaimed Melodie as she shuffled onto the bed to sit on its edge, realizing something as she looked at how Marinette was holding only the book in her hands. “Wait, you can read this?”

“Kinda? Every single page in the book has something common codewise: these symbols are the first coding barrier. Then it’s just a matter of running down the list of any other codes. These pages are some of the ones I’ve already translated so I have a feel for how to decode it in my head.” explained Marinette.

“Oh, you memorize it.” simplified the kind blond.

“Not word for word, just the method of encryption.” reiterated the blue haired teen.

“The older guardians used to memorize it like that.” added the little butterfly Kwami as he flew from the direction of the window in between the teens, holding a piece of clay shaped like how she sketched it on the first paper she got her hands on.

“Oh, hi Nooroo!” Melodie said, grabbing him and patting his belly. “Who’s a wittle cinnamon roll? You are!” Marinette compared the piece of clay to the drawing in the book… it was identical in shape, something which made the teen want to scream. She calmed down by looking at the two cutest beings in the world, one the person she loved, the second, her purest friend. She leaned a little closer and gave a kiss to Melodies cheek.

“I’m happy to see you too are getting along.”

“Oh it’s been great! At first I thought it wouldn’t work out too well and that Melodie’s aura was a bit too scattered for this, but the she transformed and she suddenly became more focused, if a little apprehensive, but it all went swimmingly!”

“Aw~! Thank you Nooroo!”

“You are welcome.”

“Now, onto the matter at hand: we have info. Volpina uses the fox Miraculous… What I can’t figure out is how she managed to change the coat of paint and one up the powers…” said Marinette.

“Isn’t the Fox Miraculous supposed to be like that?” asked Melodie. Her girlfriend shook her head.

“It’s not… Even if it were, I doubt Trixx would take the wrong use of her Miraculous lying down. She likes playing jokes and getting into trouble, but she surely wouldn’t go up against me and Plagg.”

“There is another one. I saw it.” added the blue haired girl.

“There is?!” asked Nooroo.

“Yes. In any case, there probably is an answer to our question in the book. Until then, I can probably answer another question that’s just as important.”

“What question?”/”What’s the answer?” asked the Kwami and kind blond at the same time.

Volpina was currently running some drills after the incident at the Agreste Mansion. Chai was very pleased. His apprentice may have come back empty handed again, but this time she threatened the heroes to such a degree that they brought in the Peacock Miraculous in order to help. He didn’t expect such great opposition from them, but considering that Volpina made a show out of trying to kill the son of the most famous fashion designer in Paris, on day one no less, might have caused that Gabriel Agreste to find a way of getting in contact with the heroes… or perhaps he had all the Miraculouses and distributed them? It was a bit hard to tell. Those details didn’t matter much to Chai as long as some form progress was being made.

“I am quite pleased my pupil. You still have work to do on your resolve however. Were you to stand and fight I am quite certain you would have obtained the Cat Miraculous at the very least.” Volpina, who had just been sparring with some rusted robot thing, stopped and turned to the silhouetted man, dropping down on her knees as a sign of respect.

“Yes, master. I am quite aware. I will make sure to attack again as soon as possible.”

“That would be unwise my pupil…! After all, now those thieves are expecting an attack. I will give you my command when I feel the time is right. Until then you shall wait.”

“Yes, master Chai.”

“Now…” Chai suddenly dropped down to seat cross legged in front of her. “Care to enlighten me on how you happened to arrive at the brilliant idea you went with?”

“Hm? Oh, it was just his birthday. I thought it would be fun to mess everything up! Especially since I’ve already messed with Adrien so much already.” explained Volpina proudly. Chai had a not so good feeling and decided to push for more details:

“How did you know it was his birthday that evening?”

“Oh, he invited pretty much everyone to it… well, except me… He should have invited me, I am more worthy of his attention than those wastes of breath…” Volpina’s disposition was dark, but not as dark as Chai’s.

“You mean to tell me… Your course of action was based on knowledge only your civilian identity should have known…?”

Volpina felt a chilling sensation go down her spine, looking up to see Chai in his monstrous, horrifying, scorpionic form. He grabbed her by the neck, bringing her up, putting as much strength behind his grip because he already knew she wouldn’t die from asphyxiation, Miraculouses protecting their owners from mortal danger when active. She didn’t know that however, which is what made the moment for him so sweet. Watching the puny human struggle to breath, not quite running out, but not really having enough either, stuck in a perpetual state of the most vile of tortures.

“Plea…se… I… I… ca—”

“You what? I should eat you right now! Don’t you understand…? Lady Monarch already has her eyes on that class of yours… all it takes is for someone in that class to figure it out and she will know that you are…”

“…Lila Rossi.” spoke Marinette with confidence. “The only people that knew about the party were Agreste, his family, me, my classmates and you. Nobody in his family even seems to match Volpina’s overall age, so that leaves my classmates. When I was at the party I did a head count and, considering I left you with Nooroo, the only other person that could have known about it all is Rossi.”

Chai took Lila’s Miraculous away for some time, letting her think about what she had done. Unbeknownst to him, that ran the risk of his corrupting magic losing its effect on her. Fortunately for him, the Italian girl still had enough negative emotions that his magic could feed on, buying enough time for her to come up with a plan in order to get suspicion off of herself while she was ‘grounded’. Then she just ran to her master and built up enough courage to face him again and tell her his plan. Of course, he had none of it yet, but she stood her ground:

“Get out of my sight you retched girl! You can’t even keep your identity a secret. Without it, those thieves will come for you!”

“Master, I need my Miraculous for—”

“YOUR MIRACULOUS?! Have you grown so arrogant to consider your borrowed power your own?! Remember that I am the one who gave you this power, and I will not have you abuse it for your own amusement!” Chai, had found Lila’s hiding spot under a table and overturned it, grabbing her with his tail and using it to strangle her, this time with much less force so as not to kill her. She could still be useful, not to mention that if she did die it might all be traced back to his civilian identity considering she was seen coming to this place.

“…plan… I… need… to… trick them...” managed Lila to push out.

“Oh, a plan you say? <Laughing> What makes you think your so called plan will work? Convince me you lowly human…” replied Chai, letting her go. After a few seconds to get a appropriate amount of air in her lungs, Lila began to explain her plan:

“If Volpina and Lila Rossi are the same person, then we need to have the both of them present at the same time.”

“They’ll never—”

“However, the heroes will realize it if I’m using an illusion. I need something more physical, more real… I could probably trick them if I, as Volpina, make myself look like Lila, but I would need your help to pose as Volpina… Did that come out right master?” she asked once realizing that the ways she spoke was a bit convoluted. Chai stared at her for a moment before reverting back to his silhouette form.

“It could work, but I think I have a better idea in mind…” he walked over to his desk and from somewhere (Lila couldn’t exactly see since he was a silhouette, but she swore he reached into a jacket or blazer inner pocket) pulled out a key, using it to open a drawer. From it he got out an octagonal, black, wooden box with a dark red design on top that looked like the one she received when she was first given her fox Miraculous. Chai opened it and threw her the Fox Miraculous, its coldness making her feel more at ease. As she put it back on she noticed her master grabbing two others out, a pair of red earrings, and another in the form of a necklace as well. He presented her with the necklace.

“This… is the Mouse Miraculous. It grants the wearer the power of Multiplication. With it you can make as many copies of you as you’d like when saying the magic word: Multitude.”

“Wow…! And you’re giving to me master?”

“Yes, but be weary: there is a malevolent and chaotic spirit that has infested and taken control of it. He hates me, and will say anything in order to convince you to run away with my Miraculous.”

“Can’t you get rid of it, master?”

“Not without destroying the Miraculous.” That reply left Lila a little confused. Didn’t he make this though? Couldn’t he just make it again…? Those questions went unanswered however. “Now! There is more.” the Italian teen looked back at him. “This is the Ladybug Miraculous. Considering your latest battle, I came to realize we need to escalate this battle to force the thieves into using all of the stolen Miraculouses.”

“I’m getting a partner?”

“Yes. I will be giving these earrings to one of my lucky… jesters. Leave now. Go cause havoc whenever you feel like it and your partner will show up.”

Chapter Text

Lila had decided that a good place where she wouldn’t be missed was Le Grand Paris, hotel for the rich and important. She felt right at home. Now she needed a motive to be there… School project came up and she ended up in Chloe’s team. Perfect! Now that everything was set, she just needed to get her plan into motion! The Italian teen first found a place to transform, and that was a whole process:

“He’s using you. He doesn’t want to keep the Miraculouses safe; he wants to destroy the Miraculouses!”

“As if! Listen closely: Chai warned me of you! I won’t believe any of your lies! Now let me transform!”

“Chai used his magic on you, but you don’t—”

“Tell. Me. How. To. Transform.” said Lila darkly, before smiling smugly. “Or else you’ll be fox food.” Mullo, not really intent on finding out if she could actually do that, decided to go along with his pup’s wishes, as misguided as they were. Maybe if he behaved he could get some information on what was happening… Master Fu still has to be alive… I hope… and Chai… If I can somehow get in contact with the other Miraculous users I can warn them of his plan

“You call out the phrase ‘Mullo, get squeaky’ to activate the Miraculous and ‘Mullo, go quiet’ to deactivate it.”

“Master Chai was really serious when he said you took over. Whatever, you’ll still be a useful upgrade…”

“Upgrade?”

“Your multiplication powers combined with my illusions? With you my plan will go swimmingly!”

“Combining powers is completely different though.” said Mullo.

“Oh really…” replied the Italian teen drily.

”If you want to combine powers, you need to say ‘Trixx’ and ‘Mullo’ followed by ‘Unify’ to transform.” There was one thing that confused Lila about what the spirit said.

“Who’s Trixx?”

“Oh, she’s—”

“No! I don’t have time for stupid things like that. I’ll just ask later. Trixx; Mullo; Unify!” she exclaimed, the two Miraculouses combining powers, the teen feeling both warmth and coldness along with a rush of more power. The sensation felt so different than when she did it just with the Fox Miraculous. This time she felt some… emotion (?) coming from Mullo as he entered the Mouse Miraculous. Her costume looked completely different now: mostly gray, with the white of her ‘boots’ and ‘gloves’ remaining and ending in light blue, her ‘underbelly’ colored a solid black and her mask a combination of gray and light blue separated by the horizontal axis. Her fox tail was gone, replaced by the faux-tail made of the Mouse Miraculous’ tool: a jumping rope.

“Kinda simple, but whatever. It’s not like they will actually see how I look anyway. Multitude!” she spoke the magic words, focusing on creating two copies of herself. Within seconds, she stood face to face with another Volpina, or Multifox, both looking exactly the same.

“So cool!”/“So cool!” the two clones said at the same time.

“Ok, so you go and play Volpina while I go and be Lila… Sounds good!”/ “Ok, so you go and play Volpina while I go and be Lila… Sounds good!” the two once again said in synchronicity before using their illusionary powers and going their separate ways, one as the foxy villain and the other as the Italian teen. Lila went over to the hotel’s entrance and was allowed in, surprisingly enough, no need to sneak in so she could talk to the rich blond. Up on the roof, Volpina activated her magitek armor and decided to wait a bit before beginning the performance.

Once Marinette was allowed to leave the hospital, she was carted back home in a wheelchair, and just in time for one of her classes to have a group project, this one with randomly assigned team mates. Hers ended up being Adrien, and she didn’t feel up to it considering he was the one who pushed her leg to the point it broke really badly again. Melodie, being the kind person that she was and hearing her girlfriend talk about this, decided that it was better for her to stay, without really knowing nobody in Marinette’s group of friends knew of their dating status, least of all the blond boy himself. When Adrien awkwardly arrived at the Dupain-Cheng bakery for the project (because the young fashion designer still couldn’t walk far distances so she had to stay near home), he was met with the pleasant and polite parents that were Sabine and Tom, the two even giving him a plate of black berry cookies to take up to their daughter’s room and share while working on the project. There he saw Marinette and a blond girl dressed in white and purple talking, something small and purple zipping up into the air and out of sight, too fast for him to catch. Some introductions later and Adrien expressed his happiness at hearing the blue haired teen had someone she was in love with, but deep down he felt this unexplained, sinking, empty feeling, like something bad happened. I’m supposed to be happy… so why aren’t I? he thought to himself as he worked with Marinette on the project, him on research work and her on putting it all together, sharing some of the cookies all the while, Melodie dipping into them as well while she worked on… something. He had no idea what and the atmosphere was a bit too tense to ask anything, so he just kept quiet, the blond girl being the one to break the ice with a strange question:

“What cipher is this?” the question lead to Marinette stopping her information gathering and getting up from her chair, using the quad cane to limp over to her girlfriend, who was laying on the bed with a bunch of blank pages and a thick book.

“It’s Kryptos… damn it…”

“What’s that one?” asked Melodie.

“It isn’t a cipher, it’s a sculpture.” said Adrien after a quick search.

“Figures an unbreakable code would be here…” mumbled the young fashion designer as she looked over the large book, before she turned to the kind blond and whispered something in her ear. Then the blue haired teen went back to work. Now that the atmosphere felt a little more relaxed, he decided to ask:

“So… what’s that big book?”

“It’s a family heirloom from my mother. It’s full of ciphers and I’ve been working on decrypting it. Melodie’s been helping me as of recently.”

“…She’s not doing a very good job seeing all those blank pages…” mumbled Adrien absentmindedly before realizing what came out of his mouth.

“Excuse me?!” was Marinette’s reaction as she sat up. The blond teens sat up as well.

“It’s not what I meant! It came out wrong—”

“Of all the Freudian slips— What is your PROBLEM?! I see you glaring at her all afternoon and now you insult her! Sheltered rich kid like you probably doesn’t even find us normal, does he?” interrupted Marinette as she grabbed him by the shirt.

“…You know what? No! ‘Sheltered rich kid’ like me doesn’t find it normal!” With her other hand the young fashion designer grabbed her cane upon hearing the rich blond’s reply, the boy himself clenching his fists. Melodie realized this would escalate if she didn’t do something, so she grabbed her flute, which she had brought with her hoping to try a new song with her girlfriend afterwards, and played what she had read in the book once to be a song who could calm the creations of the Peacock Miraculous wielder. Luckily for her, it seemed to have a potent effect on humans as well, as the two teens almost immediately went from openly aggressive to passive aggressive, the young fashion designer letting go of the blond boy’s shirt. The kind blond then got in the middle of them, putting a little bit of distance between the rich blond and proficient fencer who happened to hold an aluminum cane in her hand.

“I think you too are probably a little tired after so much work. Maybe we need to take a break. Oh! Adrien, I remember you once played the piano for some event, right? Mari has a synthesizer here so we can—”

“I think it’s better if he leaves instead…” said the young fashion designer coldly.

“Fine by me.” replied Adrien before gathering his stuff and leaving. He quickly made his way out of the bakery and felt Plagg move around in his pocket, prompting him to go hide in some remote corner of somewhere, the Cat Kwami flying out of his shirt once it was safe. “I don’t have any more cheese on me. I’ll get you some once we’re home.”

“It’s not that.”

“It isn’t?” asked Adrien, so used to Plagg begging for Camembert that his present behavior surprised him.

“No, it isn’t… What in the world happened back there kid? You were like one step away from throwing punches!” asked Plagg.

“Oh, back there? Back there I saw Marinette be herself! You know, Nino was right! No wonder she keeps everyone at arm’s length.”

“Well since you had that reaction. Also… what did she say? Freudian slip? Anyway, since when did you insult people?”

“I didn’t even mean to say it out loud…”

“But you thought it.”

“I guess… Doesn’t mean I’m wrong though! I mean, we’ve been working for a good hour while she was sitting there with that deciphering book and she didn’t decipher anything. All the pages were blank!”

“I don’t think it’s just the pages… Listen, I’m not the best when it comes to the more subtle human stuff, but I know the simple stuff: You like her!”

“What?! Ugh! I don’t! It’s just—” Adrien cut himself off when he heard the alert on his phone. In the last few days the Mayor had promoted an app called ‘Monarchat’, its main purpose being to alert the citizens of Paris, as well as the heroes, to the location of Volpina, doubling as a platform where people could openly talk about the heroes and share theories. Adrien had connected to it also, choosing the username Oh_Chat_Noir, after what the training room referred to him as. It was funny inside joke he had with himself. And right now the danger alarm went off, Volpina being spotted at Le Grand Paris, Mayor Bourgeois’ hotel. This meant multiple things, but to Adrien one thing came to mind faster than any other:

“Chloe’s in trouble!” exclaimed the blond teen.

“Alright then! We’ll talk about this later! Now go kick butt kid!”

“You got it! Plagg! Claws out!” with the magical words spoken, the Cat Kwami was sucked into his Miraculous, releasing the magical energy that created first his mask, then ears, followed by the suit as he posed dramatically. Chat Noir went off running toward the hotel where, judging by the image a person took in the ensuing chaos there, Volpina was flying around with two hostages in her magitek armor!

“Not everything can be solved with singing and dancing.” said Marinette harshly before Melodie moved her to the bed and went to seat behind her for a hug from behind.

“I saw it in an American show once… the ending was kinda bad though. Anyway, why did you go all ballistic on him Mari?”

“When I first met him I had some reservations since he acted differently. But Agreste is nothing more than a cuddled, rude, brat! The moment he came in I noticed he didn’t seem to like you. He kept throwing looks at you. Then the first chance he got, he made an aside that he didn’t think I’ll catch. And then he has the gall to imply we’re not normal. We still love each other just like any other people…! I fucking hate these people…”

“Language…! And you know what: it’s his loss for seeing us like that. Also what about Nino and… Alya was it? Maybe they’ll be different.”

“But what if they’re not? I mean, maybe Nino would understand since we knew him for a while, even if we sort of drifted apart, but Alya is a bit too basic. I mean she’s understanding and all bu—”

“See? You already know it will be alright!”

“<Giggle> That’s not really what I meant, but ok…” Marinette let her head rest on her girlfriend’s arm, letting her worries melt away for the moment… Before some alarm went off from both Marinette’s and Melodie’s phones. It was the hero alarm, which meant it was time for Lady Monarch to choose a Champion, this time a new one maybe…

Chapter Text

Chat Noir was first at the scene, where the foxy villain was flying around, terrorizing people with her real illusions of oxen wearing sophisticated and pricy looking outfits, keeping people out and the rest inside while chatting rich-people stuff. Chat felt like paling: of all the possible creative illusions possible, Volpina decided to bring to life boring, high profile oxen. He of course got the hidden meaning since these creatures were symbols of prosperity in China, but still. It was pretty boring as far as cannon fodder went. When Chat first got near the group of illusionary oxen, one of them threw the contents of his wine glass at him, the cat hero deftly dodging.

“Hey fellas; easy on the wine! This may not look it but…” Chat paused in his quip when he heard sizzling and looked behind himself, where the win had covered the floor… in its place was a now an acidic, bubbling puddle of melted asphalt. “… it’s a bespoken hero suit…” The oxen laughed at him.

“Were you not of importance to our queen I would have asked to kindly leave peasant! Gentle bovines! Capture him!” said an Ox, bigger than the others. All of the illusionary villains turned their attention to Chat and threw their wine at him, the cat doing backflips to avoid their acidic drinks, launching himself to a streetlight. “Ok! Maybe we got on the wrong foot. Besides, didn’t you want to capture me?” said the teen, stalling for time a bit. Where are you champion partner? thought the teen, seeing some of the oxen putting more wine in their glasses. Suddenly his street light started moving, and he looked down to see the Ox leader had rammed it.

“I ask you to hand over your ring, peasant!” said the ox before pulling the pole out of the ground and shaking it a little.

“You and every other thing Volpina made. Take a number!” replied Chat before he pulled out his staff, making it lengthen and unlengthen rapidly to hit the ox. That proved to annoy him instead, the illusionary villain grabbing it and with his hand and using it to throw Chat off the pole, the cat hero landing on the ground and rolling to the side to avoid being hit by the pole. He got up and, instead of running back, he ran towards the group ox oxen, brandishing his claws. With him getting so close in between them, they couldn’t use their long range attack in fear of hitting each other. He really should thank Nathalie for teaching him that. He sliced and diced the realistic illusions to clear the way to the hotel door:

“It’s locked!” he exclaimed, as he pulled on the door.

“HA! Only the mistress and her guests are allowed inside peasant! What made you think you were invited?” asked the ox leader humorously.

“I’m usually on the list.” Sorry Mister Bourgeois. thought the cat hero as he pulled the doors out of their hinges and used them to shield himself from an expected onslaught of acid wine. Then a large boom was heard, the realistic illusions and Chat looking up to see Volpina had been exploded out of the building after she had gone inside. The foxy villain played a slightly longer song on her flute than usual, recreating her armor along with a large metal bat. From the hotel flew out a yellow robot, which Volpina batted to the ground, sending her into the asphalt with so much force that Chat’s enemies were poofed. The cat hero ran to the robot quickly, seeing that she looked unharmed, if a little dusty. The champion pulled herself out of the human shaped hole she was in, looking back up at him.

“About time you arrived!” said the champion with a familiar voice.

“C-Chloe Bourgeois?!”

“Why are you surprised? <Gasp> You destroyed the hotel doors!” exclaimed the champion as she stood up, before the butterfly symbol appeared over her face. “Got it my lady.” She suddenly pointed to Chat. “You! Get the people out. Watch out for the red guy!” the champion ordered before flying off.

“Red guy…?” the cat hero mumbled before going to grab his staff and running inside.

Marinette was in the Garden, the butterflies glad to see her again after so much time spent without her. The blue haired teen couldn’t help but notice that her mom and Melodie had kept all the plants watered and in good condition. Good. Without these my darling butterflies would have died…

“Let us begin Marinette! We’re doing a new champion, correct?” asked Nooroo, excitedly.

“Sure do. What’s gotten into you?” asked the young fashion designer.

“Whatever do you mean?” asked the Butterfly Kwami in return, confused but smiling softly while he looked her in the eye.

“Never mind. Nooroo, fairy wings rise!” with the magical words called, the Kwami was sucked into the Miraculous and the butterflies surrounded her. Like a tornado they parted, revealing her hero outfit, before beginning to fly around, Lady Monarch spun her cane above herself, her magic reshaping it into her trusty Miraculous tool. “Let us see what we have to play with… A large group of hostages, afraid of the evil fox. All except her for one.” Lady Monarch smiled as she held her hand out, a lucky butterfly landing on it first, the others calming down somewhat. She blew a kiss on the butterfly, sending yellow energy that got sucked into it, making it become a Fay. “Fly away my darling Fay, and give the rich girl the power to complete her heel-turn!”

The Fay did as it was told, flying quickly towards the hotel. Following the ‘emotional light’ of its future collaborator, the Fay squeezed through a window, entering a room full of people, most cowering while the blond girl was… reassuring them(?):

“Once Lady Monarch sends her Champion and Chat Noir shows his face we’ll all be safe! Guarantee. I mean, they even managed to protect the Agreste’s from a full on assault, so this will be a cake walk for them! So please stop being scared, yada, yada.”

“Still nothing! I hope they didn’t find your lap dog sniffing around.”

“Shut up Rossi, do you want them to hear you?! AND SABRINA’S NOT MY LAP DOG!” shouted Chloe at Lila Rossi, who in this room as well, with one year to the only exit/entry point of the room. Just a few seconds later Volpina kicked it open, scaring almost everyone, the Italian girl running behind Chloe to cower. Stick to the ceiling! This can be valuable information my wonderful Fay. ordered Lady Monarch to her Fay, noting that both Volpina and Lila were in the same together. “Where did you take my dad!” she came right out the gates. She didn’t even call him ‘daddy’. She’s serious. I see why it felt like she was a good choice.

“Upstairs to his pool of course. Can’t really boil him without a cauldron full of hot water.”

“You’re lying.”

“Of course I’m lying! Are you going to bitch about it some more?” asked Volpina humorously.

“Ugh! You’re gonna be so sorry when Chat and whatever Champion comes and wrecks your plans!” Volpina grabbed the rich blond by the neck, somehow holding her up with enough force to keep her slopping through her armored fingers while also not fully suffocating her, a move that looked copied from somewhere. Suddenly, from the same window the Fay used earlier, Mayor Bourgeois and a man clad in a red armor with black spot fell, the former tied up with the tether of a yo-yo and hanging upside down from it, while the latter was holding on to seemingly the same tether hanging upside down Spider-man style.

“Boss, we’ve got a situation. Chat is here!” said the man, apparently one of Volpina’s minions, Lady Monarch unable to shake off the fact he looked Ladybug themed.

“Daddy…” whispered Chloe as she looked at her father, the older man having a scandalized expression on his face.

“Let go of my daughter right now, you fiend! And you, red-man…”

“Actually, my name is—”

“I do not care what your name is! I demand you to gently put me on the ground and let me out of your yo-yo rope.”

“Can’t do bud, sorry. Boss’ orders.”

“Yes. I also ordered to keep him up there. The altitude combined with all the blood going to his head should kill the old fart faster.” explained Volpina calmly, as if she were talking how to make coffee. This made Chloe’s ‘emotional light’ stronger, the Fay attracted to it, its instincts overriding Lady Monarch’s control, and landing on the teen’s sunglasses, the butterfly symbol appearing on Chloe’s face as she pulled down the sunglasses.

“Fay!” said Lila excitedly, making the people there smile in relief and Volpina to look back at the girl she was strangling.

“Grettings Comet Streak! I’mgivingyouthepowertosaveevryone— Oh forget, it! Blast that villainous fox to the cosmos and get her necklace from the scattered ashes!”

“My Lady…” was all Chloe could respond in these circumstances, smiling, but it was enough to trigger the transformation as Volpina tried to strangle her for real, with both hands. When the light dimmed, Chloe wore a golden armor of alien design, although the head looked as if it had a Pharaoh’s headdress. In the center of her chest there also was a blocky, heart shaped glass piece, light blue light coming from it. “Let’s see who’ll be bitching now, foxy!” exclaimed Chloe as, from the chest piece, a large amount of energy focused into a huge laser that blew Volpina away and out of the building, putting a huge hole in the room as well. The foxy villain played a slightly longer song on her flute than usual, recreating her armor along with a large metal bat as, from the hole made, flew out a Comet Streak, which Volpina batted to the ground, sending her into the asphalt with enough force to make an indent in her shape. She hits hard… thought the Champion as she pulled herself out of the human shaped hole she was in, looking up in front of her, seeing Chat:

“About time you arrived!” she exclaimed and her HUD brought attention to micro expressions from Chat, which meant recollection.

“C-Chloe Bourgeois?!”

“Why are you surprised? <Gasp> You destroyed the hotel doors!” exclaimed Comet Streak, noting the half melted doors, which had been pulled out of their hinges, as she stood up, before the butterfly symbol appeared over her face.

“We have no time to waste my darling Champion! You must capture Volpina and remove the source of her power: the fox tail necklace she wears. Chat will be in charge of the hostages’ safety. Inform him of his role and stress the importance of being wary of the new unknown treat posed by that red-clad man!”

“Got it my lady.” She suddenly pointed to Chat. “You! Get the people out. Watch out for the red guy!” the champion ordered before flying off, back to the battle.

“Never in my existence have I ever pondered the possibility of being too concise. You have now opened my eyes to this new possibility!”joked Lady Monarch, careful not to push past into her civilian persona too much.

Comet Streak flew all the way back to Volpina, this time putting more juice in her jets, getting there so fast she caught the villainess by surprise. She still kept going, flying so fast she could feel the heat of escaping Earth’s atmosphere. Chloe had no idea why she was given space travel capabilities, but really enjoyed the idea of sending the foxy villain on a one way trip to the moon. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Volpina turned to light blue smoke. It was a decoy! Flying even faster now, and activating her heat shield, Comet Streak made it back down to the hotel, seeing Volpina shooting lasers through the inside of the building, probably at the hostages, and rammed into her.

“STAY AWAY FROM THEM!” the Champion shouted, flying after her enemy.

Chat was not having a good day today! First he got into a shouting match with a member of his group of friends, then, once he arrived at the scene of Volpina’s usual chaos, was almost taken down by the side-villains, something which was a big no-no. Everything seemed to becoming better as he made his way to the hotel. First he saw the mayor screaming and falling, and the cat hero had no issue jumping out of the window to catch him, then propelling himself back up with his staff, getting back inside the hotel. He considered it a good idea to have the older man walk with him, as the Volpina was clearly targeting him. He went up the floors with a quiet elevator ride, barring the sound of explosions outside, arriving at the room where the hostages were kept, the mayor having figured out where they were after being hung upside-down by a window. Chat congratulated him on his impeccable knowledge of his own hotel, before making it into the room proper. That’s when his luck ran out:

“Watch out!” warned Lila, but it was already too late, a very strong wire wrapping around him, before he got pulled into a spin and thrown back down the hallway, Mayor Bourgeois ducking to prevent getting hit, instead getting wrapped in the wire too and thrown through the hole Comet Streak had made earlier:

“NOOOOT AGAAAAAAAIN!” screamed the mayor as he was falling to his doom. Chat got up from his position and ran towards his new adversary, a man clad in red with black spots all over his armor plating, helmet, boots and gauntlets, a black undersuit also visible.

“Sorry, but the mayor had a flight to catch.” said the spotted villain before using his weapon, a yo-yo, to attempt at capturing Chat and throwing him around again. The hero used his staff to get the wire around it, before letting go of it as his opponent pulled on the wire, getting hit with it enough for the young hero to come in and kick him away, grabbing his staff as he ran towards the hole, only for the champion to fly up to it, carrying the mayor, and place him down gently inside the room.

“Thank you, Chloe dear.”

“It’s Comet Streak for now daddy. Be safe!” she bid before shooting the red clad villain and flying out again, likely to face Volpina once more. With the villains stunned, Lila took charge and had everyone run out of the room, the mayor included. Chat decided to stand his ground and hold the villain in this room, trusting that the teen girl that was seemingly volunteering herself to help could do a good job. He had to at least hope everything was going to be ok, especially since this situation never happened before. So, since it was something new, he decided to do what his father had instructed him to always do: talk his way out of the problem.

“So! How did Volpina rope you into this? Did she threaten you with something? We can help if that’s the case.” The villain just chuckled, a hint of resignation in his tone, as he got up and entered a battle stance.

“You can’t help me kid. I am Lucky Jester, the one playing the role of ‘villain’ for the true master.”

“True master? You mean Volpina’s not the boss?”

“Goodness, no. Our true master is stronger and more intelligent than both of us combined. Now why don’t you be a dear and turn around to catch my partner.” Chat suddenly tensed and turned around, prepared to bat the foxy villain, only to see nothing through the hole. He suddenly heard the sound of a window breaking and turned back, his enemy having jumped out the window.

Chapter Text

Chat caught up to the hostages and took charge, letting the brown haired girl help since she seemed incredibly keen on doing so. The elevator had been destroyed, and even if it were functioning, it would take inefficiently long for everyone to get down using it. The stairs were the best option momentarily even though they weren’t too safe either, the explosions outside causing tremors all the way inside the hotel. Some of the walls, as they went, were being destroyed, Chat noting the telltale yo-yo that was the cause of them. They proceeded nonetheless, the cat hero ready to use his staff in case the ceiling would cave in on top of them all. That thankfully didn’t take place, but instead he arrived in a large room with them, finding their way blocked by a web of wires spanning the entire room, in the back middle of it, the yo-yo’s ‘head’ connected to its ‘tail’ (the ring). The trap was set up specifically, all the wires imbedded into the walls, ceiling and floor in such a way that brute forcing them would lead to the entire room collapsing. Inside the room, amidst the wires, ion the selling, there was Lucky Jester, the man climbing down using some of the wires in order to reach the floor and block the way. He entered a battle stance and beckoned for Chat to come over to him.

“You may have entered this building with the ring, but you’re sure not getting out with it kitty-cat!” he taunted.

“Oh yeah? Why does your master even want it?” asked the cat hero, giving his staff to Lila, knowing that one hit from it to the wires

“It would seem strange for a man to not wish his stolen property returned to his care, don’t you agree?”

Chat initiated the fight with a high kick to the villain’s head, or at least it would have been if he hadn’t dodged and retaliated with a shove that sent him into the wires. Chat decided to climb them in order to dodge another attack from Lucky Jester, resulting in the wire getting strained and threatening to destroy the room, the cat hero correcting this by pulling on them as well. Lucky Jester grabbed him by the wrists and attempted to remove the ring, prompting Chat to ask the mayor a question:

“Mister Bourgeois, is this room under another high ceiling room?”

“No.” Chat immediately resisted. “Try your best bugster!”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“No! You wouldn’t! You like your yo-yo too much!” Chat let go of the wire the moment Lucky Jester started pulling, the villain having thrown him away from the mess of wires.

“Get me my staff!” ordered the hero, Lila, who had been playing with its resize feature, doing so. Chat threw it straight after he got it, Lucky Jester predictably dodging, the projectile hitting where the yo-yo’s ‘head’ and ‘tail’ connected, disconnecting them and causing the wire to harmlessly pull itself back into the yo-yo proper, leaving the room with just a few tiny holes and cracks. The spotted villain decided to retreat and plan something else, letting the young hero and all the hostages to continue their escape. There were still a lot of floors to go down. Thankfully, there wasn’t much else from the jester, expect for once when he hid in the elevator shaft and tried to have the girl fall to her doom, Chat intervening to and catching her just in time before the Champion, or Volpina, had been blown right through, making a hole in the shaft. Deciding to use it, the young cat hero brought everyone down one by one until they were all there, and a lot closer to the exit in fact. Two more minutes of running and they were out, the building clear for Chat and Comet Streak to have their fight with their respective enemies. The cat hero decided to go all the way up to the roof, knowing he would have better luck in tripping up Volpina, which would no doubt bait Lucky Jester out of his hidey-hole!

In the air, Volpina and Comet Streak were still having their fight, the villainess sending out rockets and never ending hail of bullets from a turtle themed gatling gun. The champion retaliated with lasers and her own magic guided missiles, which hit Volpina, or sometimes went off course if the red guy happened to be near, resulting in the further destruction of the hotel. Right now Comet Streak had gotten an upper hand on her opponent, firs smashing her through an elevator shaft, something which she really didn’t want but was forced into doing because otherwise Volpina would shoot down at some police cars and ambulances, which had gathered here after the illusionary villains had been dispersed. Then she flew the foxy villain all the way above the roof, where she was now coming down on her with the righteous justice of quick anime punches, moving so fast she had no way to be countered. Volpina, being a crafty and evil opponent, found a way, flipping backwards in the air and uppercutting her opponent with a kick before taking another few seconds to look for some indication of an opening in the armor, not only to pull Comet Streak out, defeating her, but also so she could get her hands on that blasted Fay. She had no idea why Lady Monarch chose Chloe to be a champion anyway. What does she see in you? Some arrogant brat? I can be arrogant! And a brat! thought Volpina as she resumed her bullet fire, only for her weapon to be hit out of her hands by a fast and spinning staff. She looked over to see Chat saluting to her with his left hand.

“Long time no see! Your partner’s nice! Kinda schemy, like you! I see why you chose him.”

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT! TAKE HIS RING AND DISPOSE OF HIM!” shouted Volpina, before getting rammed by Comet Streak. Chat was certain of who she told that to, so he performed a cartwheel to avoid getting hit by Lucky Jester’s yo-yo.

“Thank you for the compliments! Too bad I have to repay you with destruction…”

“Well, you could—” the cat hero cut himself off as he dodged another attack. “—you know, not. You could come to the light side. We have cookies!” The spotted villain chuckled before resuming his attack. Chat kept on avoiding, occasionally throwing his staff to hit Volpina from afar. Lucky Jester tried to intercept it once, only for the collapsed staff to split and hit its target double time. Seeing his luck, the cat hero attempted to hit Lucky Jester with his staff, only for the villain to spin his yo-yo around rapidly, sending the projectile right back in the young hero’s face. He was then caught in the yo-yo wire and thrown off the building without his tool to save himself.

“So long Kitty-cat!” called out Lucky Jester before he turned his attention to the champion and used his yo-yo to capture her.

“Finally! I thought you’d never help me!” exclaimed the vixen villain.

“I had my hands tied… sort of.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Now… where is the open button…” mumbled the villainess as she looked over the Champion’s armor.

“Pfff! Puh-lease! You think I would allow such a mundane and obvious weak spot? Grow up; the only way you’re getting rid of me is by throwing me into the Sun!”

“That could be arranged~!”/“That could be arranged~!” came Volpina’s voice twice from behind the Champion.

“Verify your radar my darling Comet Streak. I believe we have two Volpinas on our pretty hands…”

While this was happening Chat was falling. Thankfully for him, the spotted villain had let him free. Now he had a few seconds to figure out how to not go splat. Think Adrien think… he said to himself as his earphone ringed. He answered the call.

“Father, I don’t think I have time to chat!” the young hero joked.

“Then listen instead: Use your environment to your advantage!”

“What environment?! I’m in the air.”

“Tell me what you see! Now!”

“The fast approaching ground I’m absolutely sure I won’t be able to land with my feet on…” he trailed off, his eyes shining for a second, a light bulb having lit up in his brain. “…As well as a lovely street light.”

“You don’t need me to tell you what to do then.” Gabriel sounded pleased.

“Nope! Love-you-father! Bye!” the cat hero ended the call and looked back to see his teammate for the day being stuck in Lucky Jester’s wire, the Champion having formed a force-field around herself to keep two Volpinas away from her. He smiled and looked back down. He had one chance to get this right, so he had to make it count. As he fell, he caught the light pole with his hands and sacrificed some of the momentum to flip back up. “COMET STREAK!” Chat shouted, the Champion looking down to see her teammate moving up.

“Divert all power to shields.” the force-field her armor projected grew exponentially in half a second, sending the two Volpinas away as she fell. “50% to thrusters.” she said as she shifted her position in the air, her thrusters coming back on, pulling the spotted villain with her.

“Cataclysm!” the young hero said the magic words, energy of destruction collecting in his ring hand, feeling like a buzzing, burning sensation that threatened to destroy everything in its vicinity. “I’m going to destroy the yo-yo!” he said.

“Be my guest kitten! Just don’t pulverize my armor!” Chat touched the wire with the tip of his claw when he and Comet Streak were at the same elevation in the air, the destructive energy releasing and making it weaker, enough for the Champion’s armor’s magical hydraulics to rip it apart. The destruction went all the way to the yo-yo itself, which burned Lucky Jester’s hand as it disintegrated.

“VOLPINAAAAAA!”  he screamed, now free falling towards the ground. The two copies merged into one and, faster than ever before, flew right down to catch her new partner in crime.

“Gotcha Jester!”

“Thanks. I—” the spotted villain cut himself off when he heard the sound of beeping in his ear.

“What’s that?”

“That is something which shouldn’t be. We need to retreat to a safe locale. Pronto!”

“Who made you the boss?” asked the vixen villain.

“Incoming!” warned Lucky Jester instead of responding. The villainess immediately dived, avoiding a fast moving Comet Streak with Chat on her back. The Champion immediately sent a magirocket after them, which was going to follow them no matter what. “I assume you can’t shake that off?” asked Lucky Jester, the second series of beeps in his ear telling him he had less than four minutes to get gone.

“Not from what I can tell.”

“The only time I’ve seen you manage to avoid that is when it almost hit me. I can—”

“No… I have a better idea! Brace yourself!” Volpina flew close to a building near the hotel and threw her spotted partner at a window, the villain making it through, before she flew right into the hotel, the rocket following, and her letting herself get hit, the explosion not only affecting her, but also making a huge hole in the building, one that, combined with everything else that happened today, resulted in the building beginning to come down. Chat and Comet Streak got to work saving the people from the debris, the Champion, blowing pieces of it into tinier bits and occasionally flying low to pick up some bystanders or police, while the cat hero made sure to get the majority of people out of the way, police cars as well, occasionally batting away debris.

“… the complete destruction that had come upon Le Grand Paris a week ago and the self appointed heroes of Paris, Lady Monarch and Chat Noir, have still not given any message to the public. The mayor himself has also been questioned due to his lack of proactive counter measures in response to the first villain in Paris since—” Marinette stopped the news on her computer, before turning back to her black board, where she had put up a small map of the region of Paris. It was late into the night, the young fashion designer dressed in a comfy oversized flannel, which acted as her pajamas, her brooch fastened, like a badge, to the left side of the flannel. Her leg hand been acting up, so she elected to not cover it for a bit and see if the pain went away.

“This doesn’t make any sense… How could have Lila gotten her hands on the Miraculous of duplication?” Marinette asked aloud. The Italian teen’s ploy to thrown her off was valiant, and worked, until she had asked Nooroo for something to feed her confirmation bias, the Kwami revealing one of his friends, Mullo, could duplicated anything in existence, including people.

“Maybe… that ‘true master’ man had that Miraculous?”

“As well as the ladybug? I think we’re dealing with a thief of a Miracle Box…”

“I-I really hope n-not… I.. I don’t want to know what is happening to my friends right n-now…” Nooroo rolled himself up in a ball, or at least tried to, failing at keeping from crying as well. Being the a Kwami that could sense emotion was difficult, the fact he was the shy and more grounded counterpart to Duusu’s more energetic and chaotic one also lent to his more negative outlook. Marinette had seen him act like this before, and had an idea of how to help him. The blue haired teen grabbed him up from his spot on her lap and gingerly cradled him in her hands, swaying them slowly.

“Shhh... It will be alright my Cinnamon roll. No matter what happens, your friends will be safe, I promise you. After all, you can’t exactly harm a Kwami. You’re all immortal. I promise you my darling that, for as long as I live, I will do everything in my power to reunite you with the other Kwamis, if they are in the possession of whoever this coward ‘true master’ character is…” Her comforting speech was interrupted when she heard the sound of someone knocking on her window. She partly turned back to see Comet Streak, her Champion, who had been in possession of her powers for a week, the longest one. Marinette had never taken away her powers and was glad she didn’t as she solved whatever little crisis Volpina caused since the destruction of the hotel. Comet Streak pointed to the blue haired teen in a silent plea to let her in. ”Hide.” she instructed the Butterfly Kwami, and he obliged while she put on a pair of pants and pocketed her brooch, before turning the blackboard to the other side and stumbling over to her desk, collapsing on it due to the a combination of pain and exhaustion. She opened the window, the Champion hovering outside.

“It’s two in the morning...”

“And you’re the only person insane enough to stay up later than this. It’s why you’re the only one I can talk to.”

“No… there’s something you want specifically from me. Otherwise you’d be asleep at Raincomprix' house in a sleeping bag.” Comet Streak ‘shivered’ in disgust.

“Ugh! Those things are horrendous… How does anyone sleep in them without getting back aches?”

“If you want my bed you can have it…” replied Marinette as she downed the last remaining pills in her bottle, throwing it somewhere.

“That’s not what I’m here for, but I’m glad you offered.” replied the Champion as she crawled inside and turned off her armor, going to sit on the edge of Marinette’s bed. “You’re the only person that could have any response on the following question: How do I fix Lady Monarch’s reputation?”

Chapter Text

Marinette was shocked to say the least. Chloe coming to ask for her help? This hasn’t happened since, well… a long time. Chloe usually didn’t let herself look like she had no idea what to do, since that would ‘show weakness’ or whatever. The fact the blond haired girl actually arrived at the conclusion that it would be in her best interest to ask her smartest friend for help was commendable. Marinette however, had only one thing on her mind: Time to mess with this absolute fool!

“Interesting…” the blue haired teen started as she walked back to her chair. “Didn’t know you suddenly cared about what people said about you.”

“This is not about me… I’m being serious.”

“So am I.” replied Marinette before she was suddenly grabbed by Chloe and pulled out of her chair.

“No you’re not! I don’t need snarky-ass Marinette; I need super-smart-can-fix-anything-Marinette!” exclaimed the rich blond. The young fashion designer, now forced to look at her friend in normal form, noted a few things: first, she Chloe’s hair was messy; then she noted how it was bob cut; then came the realization that there was less makeup on her face, especially around her eyelids where she usually had that annoying blue; then the fact she wore a stylish red flight suit. Marinette began to repeat in her head a mantra: I love Melody.

“Please begin with lowering your voice before you wake up my parents. Follow up with letting me down.” Chloe did and the blue haired teen sat back down on her chair and exhaled. “And finish it off with coming up in the morning…”

“You’re kidding me…!” said Chloe, crossing her arms.

“It’s late, I need sleep and…” the young fashion designer turned to the snobby blond. “I can’t with all this” she gestured to Chloe’s entire being with her hands “in my vicinity. Can you please come back tomorrow?”

“Fine…” the blond girl turned to leave.

“Why are you even wearing a flight suit? I mean, sure, it suits you well, and the color is nice, but why?”

“Well, first of all, I obviously look stunning in it! I decided to wear this because I mostly spend my time in the air nowadays. You know, since my lady entrusted me with my powers for the long term. Also they look awesome with my sunglasses.” explained Chloe, pulling down her sunglasses, which now had red lenses, before, in a flash of light, she transformed back in her champion form, and flew out through the window. Once the coast was clear Nooroo flew out from under the bed and settled on his mistress’ head as the blue haired teen was limping her way to said bed.

“Maybe you should sleep, Mi-Marinette…” he said a little awkwardly.

“I’m a bad girlfriend…” was all Marinette mumbled before thinking of going to bed and deciding against it, instead going up to her Garden.

Later in the morning, the young fashion designer woke up feeling refreshed and awake, something she did not expect. She must have slept like a log this night, but of course, the clock also showed she slept in a little. Good thing it was the beginning of the weekend starting today. She took off her blazer, putting on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a black, zip-up sweater before limping down to the living room and grabbing an apple, leaving her empty bottle of pills on the table.

“Morning dad. I’m out again.” she said as she continued to limp towards the stairs.

“Already?! Marinette, this was supposed to last you until next week!”

“Rough days.”

“How are you going to get through next week?”

“I’m going to Melody’s. She said dopamine helps regulate pain and I really need some of that right now.” replied Marinette before beginning to descend down the stairs. Behind her, Tom put her share of the food he prepared today in the fridge, figuring she’ll probably eat it later. Once down the stairs the blue haired teen was in the bakery, Sabine at the desk, getting the payment from the early birds who preferred to eat sweet or salty pastries on the go for breakfast.

“Morning Marinette!” said her mom cheerfully, some of the daily returning customers saying hi as well.

“Morning mom. I’m going to Quantum Café.” That made Sabine laugh good naturedly.

“You know, I’ve been thinking. Our businesses will probably combine once you and Melodie grow up and take over.”

“Probably. Imagine how good an éclair would be after one of those mini-burgers.” Marinette made a chef’s kiss. Sabine’s smile turned into a frown as she noted something missing on Marinette’s apparel.

“Where’s your brooch?” she asked, making the young fashion designer stop in her tracks.

“It’s with me.” she replied revealing her brooch under the sweater, fastened like a badge to her T-shirt. Sabine sighed in relief.

“Don’t loose it, alright? That has been an object of great importance to my family for generations. It’s irreplaceable.”

“Don’t worry, it’s in safe hands!” called out Marinette as she limped out of the bakery, not with her four legged cane, but with her normal one.

The walk to the Quantum Café was very short; in fact it felt shorter than usual, probably because the blue haired girl was thinking what to say. This was a rare situation, since it wasn’t that often when she actually cared what another person said or thought about her. She could imagine Melodie’s face, her warm smile, compassionate eyes, and how that would all melt away into betrayal and disappointment once she heard what Marinette was about to tell her. As she reached the café, Marinette saw from the window how her girlfriend walked back and forth, from table to table, attending to nearly every customer in the establishment with an energy and exuberance the blue haired girl once demonstrated when helping her parents at the bakery. With a heavy heart, nerves on edge, she walked in with her head down, Melodie turning to the sound of the chime.

“Mari!” exclaimed the kind blond before going to hug her girlfriend. The hug wasn’t returned right away, signifying something was wrong. “Everything ok?” she asked. Marinette looked up at her, sadness in her eyes. She had no idea what to say yet, so she opened with a simple:

“I’m a horrible girlfriend…” her whispering voice edging towards a sob. Melodie definitely knew something was wrong now, signaling to her mother that she would be seating down with her girlfriend at a table, her mom, who had been a little bored just with cooking, giving a thumbs up. The two girls sat down at a table in the back-ish part of the café, next to the outer wall window, for the blue haired teen to vent for a few minutes.

“…A-And I thought s-she looked hot a-and now I feel horrible, cuz it feels like I b-betrayed y-you and…”

“Hey, it’s ok. The fact you feel remorse means you wish to be with me. It means you love me. And I love you~!”

“I love you too, but… Before we became a pair, did you ever feel attracted to someone?”

“Nope! I had an enormous crush on you. That’s why I spent the entire first week of our relationship with you.” That made Marinette blush.

“Of course… You’re too pure for this world, you know that right?” That made the kind blond blush, her eyes sparkling and tearing up a little as she intertwined her hands’ fingers with Marinette’s.

“That’s the most wonderful thing anyone ever said to me…!”

The wonderful moment was shut down by the sound of someone knocking on the window. Marinette and Melodie looked to see Comet Streak, who pointed up to the roof before flying up and out of sight. The two teens share a look before Melodie made sure her mom knew they would be going up. Miss Melodie was delighted, mostly because she got to do a little more work at her café. From the kind blond’s room they were able to get up to the roof, going up actual stairs. Oh hey! Never noticed that Harry Potter door under the stairs. I wonder what she hid in there… thought Marinette. Once arrived at the roof, they saw Chloe sitting on the edge of the building facing the door they just came through, her magitek armor deactivated and her sunglasses on her head. Now her hair was made better, the makeup still more moderate than usual.

“Finally! I searched for you at the bakery, but of course you weren’t there! At least you tell your parents where you go.”

“Marinette… I take it back. I see why you came to me with a conflicting aura…” said Melodie, blushing softly.

“Told you!” replied Marinette. Chloe blushed a little.

“Wha— Can you not lesbian over me? I have— oww— problems…” cut in the rich blond as she got up, her back acting up and sending signals of pain. The kind blond noticed this and did what came most natural to her:

“Do you want a massage?”

“You want to give me a massage? Pfff! Don’t make me laugh. What makes you think that your massages can surpass the ones I could get at a deluxe spa?”

“Mainly the fact she’s got my seal of approval. I’m no good at massages, but she is.” complimented Marinette.

“Aw Mari~! Don’t feel sad.” Melodie grabbed her girlfriend’s free hand, holding it up. “Your hands were made for creative endeavors. Mine were made to heal. These are both wonderful gifts.”

“Would you shut up if I said yes?” asked Chloe.

“Absolutely!”/”Pretty much.”

A few minutes later Chloe was thoroughly happy she went along with Marinette’s girlfriend’s weirdness. She really was good at massages, and her back, which had been subjected to sleeping bags and long distance flying in a cumbersome armor, was really thanking her right now… until she felt a third hand squeeze around the base of her neck and giving her pain.

“Mari!”

“What? She made lesbian sound derogatory.” Chloe grunted in pain and what seemed to be apology.

“Please do not interfere in the energy flow or you might make it worse.” said the kind blond before going back to work. Once she was done, Chloe felt so much better. It was like her body was melting while feeling energized and capable to lift a ton all at the same time.

“Oh… that was good… Don’t expect me to pay for this.” said the egotistical blond.

“Not at all! My only rewards are the smile I get to see on your face and the feeling of having helped. Oh! That reminds me: I need to go back down and help my mom. If you need anything then call me.” replied Melodie. Chloe sneered before going back to the topic she wanted to discuss since early in the morning.

“So, hit me—” Marinette hit her with the cane. “Not like that Dupain-Cheng!”

“You should have worded it better then.”

“I mean, give me ideas on how to get people to help my lady again!” Marinette took a thoughtful expression, her eyes going around the room before landing back on her conversation partner.

“Why do you like her anyway? And what’s all this ‘my lady’ business about.” The blue haired teen knew the Butterfly Miraculous user was, to some level revered by their Champions, but never knew in what way exactly.

“Because she is my lady! I owe it up to her to do my duty and make her proud. To let her down would mean making her believe she wasted her blessing on me. She chose me to be among her ‘darling Champion’ and I refuse to let her down!” By the time she finished, she was already standing.

“Would you say you revere her?”

“Yes! She is majestic, flawless, an absolute goddess~!” Chloe’s tone took a more musical tempo.

“Among man and child?” Marinette wondered if her friend was going to go on a crescendo.

“Ha! You think she has me beguiled~!” Chloe seemed to do just that.

“Nah, I just think she is the cause of your brain being frazzled.” explained Marinette, her tone flat.

“Oh, but my friend, I—”

“Ok, enough rhyming! You revere Lady Monarch, got it.”

“That didn’t even help, did it?”

“Oh it absolutely did. Now I know all Champions revere Lady Monarch.”

“So?”

“If the whole of Paris become champions then all the mistrust will go away.” The rich blond smiled.

“That’s perfect I need to tell her next time she connects! Thanks!” said the teen before reactivating her armor as she went back up the stairs to leave. Her job done, Marinette decided to leave. Seeing Melodie helping her mother out reminded her that her parents’ didn’t get as much of her help as she once used to give, so today onward she was going to rectify that. Not that she had anything else to do anyway. On her way back to the bakery, the young fashion designer saw a sight to behold: Gabriel Agreste, disguised in his usual coat, which didn’t even fit with the present weather, making him stand out even more, and Adrien, dressed in a similar coat, Marinette noting the legs of a sunglasses on his head.

“Oh, I get it! You’re cosplaying Elgoog’s incognito mode. Bold fashion statement.” snarked the young fashion designer as she entered the bakery, noting how Adrien went straight as a board. “Not to sound rude, but a little variety goes a long way.” she added.

“You want me to write that down now, or later?” snarked back Agreste, a smug smile on his face. I can joke too.

Chapter Text

There was always something magical about the night. From years untold the human race had marveled at the true face of the sky, revealed when the blinding, life giving light of the Sun didn’t shine upon the surface of Earth’s atmosphere. There was something so different about night. The moon’s light was bright but not overpowering, and the sky itself was dotted with far away lights, other suns, called stars. Oh how amazing the night sky was, how some stars shone brighter than others, how some formed shapes in the sky. The night was a time of quiet, of solitude, but also of thoughts and dreams. Everyone on this planet had, at one time in their life, been awake past their bedtime and looked at the sky. Some found it a comforting sight to aid their thoughts, some marveled at its beauty, becoming inspired by its mystery to write, or paint while others chose to study it, finding even more beauty behind it, learning how the light of the moon was just a reflection’s of the Sun’s light, how the light of stars traveled a great distance just to be visible from Earth, how there was so much more space outside of our planet, untouched lands, brimming with potential, but still out of reach, probably for many years to come. Still, even with all the knowledge learned, there still was something mystical about night, something that empowered people, that let their emotions lose, let them feel more in touch with their dreams and goals. Perhaps it was just that their tired minds felt more open to possibilities, before realistic thoughts and insecurities are rejuvenated by sleep, or maybe it was something else entirely. Still, there was something there. And that something was special, it had power, because people felt and embraced that something.

Adrien too found himself staring at the night’s sky tonight. His thoughts were all mixing together as he couldn’t sleep. He really should have tried to control himself while he was at Marinette’s. Jealousy combined with not understanding things resulted in him being hostile. The blue haired teen, probably used to hostile reactions in the past, acted angrily too. It wasn’t entirely his fault, but he still had a part to play in that. He fudged his friendship with one of his first friends (Chloe not included). Could I repair it, or is the bridge fully burnt…? he thought to himself, sighing.

“How do I even ask for help… ‘Hey father, you know, I had feelings for Marinette, but now we’re probably not even friends anymore cuz I found out she likes girls and I couldn’t take that. Can you tell me how to fix it?’… that sounds so lame… and embarrassing…” The blond teen sat up in his bed before getting out of it entirely. He walked over to the couch, where his Kwami was sleeping inside an empty Camembert box, and picked him, an action which waked him.

“Huh…? Kid? Go back to sleep...”

“I can’t. I’m still thinking about how I destroyed my friendship with Marinette.”

“You can fix that later. Now go to sleep. In my experience, you humans are good with solving issues in your sleep.”

“I don’t even feel tired… I’m not sure if it’s ok, but can I go out as Chat Noir?”

“Ugh, fine! Just don’t do something stupid. You have the power of destruction at your fingertips remember?”

“Thanks Plagg. I’ll ask father to get you some more special cheese.”

“Maybe you should talk to him too while you tell him that.”

“What?! No, no, no! I don’t even know how to say it without embarrassing myself!” Teenagers; they never change. thought the Cat Kwami, smiling to himself.

Adrien transformed into Chat Noir and jumped out the window, taking off. It wasn’t the first time he had been out at night, mostly because he was out on night patrols, along with whatever Champion Lady Monarch had chosen to accompany him (most of the time it was Lady Wifi, but Bubblemaster made his appearance almost as much). He had never been out so late however, and the young cat hero was given the spectacle of the city’s darkness, only few lights coming through the windows of Parisians’ homes. It actually made looking at the sky a lot easier, with the light pollution at its lowest. As he ran and jumped around, he saw someone flying by. The golden glow of their armor, as well as the trail of blue light behind them, immediately clued him on the identity of this Unidentified Flying Person (Oh, that’s good pun. I need to find a way to say that in conversation). It was Comet Streak. His long-distance partner had given him some major radio silence, but did leave this Champion around to help with the few times Volpina had shown up alone. The vixen villainess had done a few pranks here and there, always alone, that Lucky Jester guy not appearing (Chat considered that very strange, since the two managed to cause massive damage when they worked together). The cat hero decided to follow the trail of blue light and try to meet up with Comet Streak. If she was out patrolling at this hour, then he might as well keep her company, and vice-versa. Luckily for him, the golden armored Champion took a break on top of the Eiffel Tower and, as a result, he was able to catch up. The moment he did get in vicinity, she shot a laser net that pushed him off, the cat hero now dangling in the air near the tower.

“Déjà vu…” he mumbled. “Care to let me down? Or pull me up?” Once the Champion heard his voice, she let him go.

“Sorry about that Chat.”

“No worries! After all, I’m quite the catch.” replied the cat hero, showing off his ‘muscles’. That made Comet Streak laugh.

“Oh please! You’re probably just some average person who’s letting all the attention get to his head.”

“Well, I’ll have you know that I’m doing this more for the experience rather than the attention. Being a superhero is awesome!”

“Yeah, whatever…” Comet Streak sighed.

“Something wrong?”

“… I haven’t heard my lady’s voice in quite some time, I thought that maybe, if I could fix the relationship between her and the rest of Paris, she would speak to me again…”

“I don’t think it’s that easy. Maybe she’s just taking a break. You seem to do well on your own. Although, I do kinda miss her listening in on the conversation.”

“I asked a friend of mine on advice as to how to fix this, and I was told that everyone needs to become a Champion for it to be over.”

“All two million two hundred and forty-five thousand Parisians? Even if she created a new Champion daily, it would still take her over a millennia to get everyone on her side. And that is only if the population stays the same, which it won’t. She’d be better off making a new Champion every second.” explained Chat, calculating the numbers in his head.

“Wow… You’re smart. Guess now I know why you got your thingy.”

“It’s a Miraculous. My ring.”

“That’s so tacky! Don’t tell me you walk around wearing that wherever you go.”

“It doesn’t always look like this. It’s camouflaged.”

“…So that’s what Volpina wants?”

“Her master does.”

“What master? My lady never said anything of a ‘master’!”

“That’s because she didn’t know. Neither did I actually, until Lucky Jester told me during the big fight we had at… well, you know what I’m talking about.”

“I do.” The Champion once again sighed. “You know what? Why not talk about something else. I’m tired of flying all over the place.”

“Ok. How about we do it over pedicure? I’ve been thinking that my claws would look lovely in red.” now Comet Streak was laughing.

“You really want that?”

“Just joking. I’m not going anywhere near makeup. I’ve had enough of that when I was a little kid.” Little do you know, I’m talking about you covering me with it.

“Any hobbies?” asked Chloe.

“I like videogames.”

“How about movies?”

“I’ve never watched a movie with people…”

“Ooh~! You want to watch one with me and Sabrina then? We were having a sleepover when I went out to check some report, thinking that it was maybe Volpina.”

“That sounds great! Let’s go!”

The movie that they decided to watch was a romantic comedy. The young cat hero was bored out of his mind, but the little noise was much better than outright silence. The fact it was a romance did upset him, because it got him back to thinking about Marinette and his situation. He really did get caught up in the moment at that time. After the movie was over, and Chloe with Sabrina were done trying out makeup and various shades of nail polish (Chat was roped into trying some red on his claws), he laid down on the floor, Chloe getting into her sleeping bag, and Sabrina (guiltily) going in her own bed. Of course, the hero and Champion couldn’t sleep and, eventually, one of them spoke up:

“Are you awake?” whispered Chloe.

“Yeah…”

“Wanna do truth or dare?”

“Sure. I’ll go first. Truth or Dare.” began Chat.

“Truth.” replied Chloe. This was harder than anticipated. If Chat weren’t Adrien in disguise, this would have been so much easier, but in this situation he needed to be careful of not asking too personal questions.

“What would you consider the real you?”

“Like, who I am when I’m not in front of a camera?” asked the Champion.

“More like, when you are alone with your friend.”

“… Well Sabrina and I go shopping together, she does my homework and caries most of the heavy stuff, she remembers my birthday… I’ve… done none of that… Dupain-Cheng was right; I really am a bad friend.”

“When did she say that?” Oh no! “And who’s Dupain-Cheng?” Saved it!

“She’s a friend of mine. Maybe? We don’t talk that much anymore… M-My turn now! Truth or dare?” Chloe said, trying to deflect a little.

“Dare.”

“Ooh~! Sing the first part of the most embarrassing song you know.” Chat was quiet for a bit. “Come on.”

“Hold on. I’m saying goodbye to my cool factor...”

“Any day now.” Chloe knew from the buildup she was going to enjoy this.

“Whatcha gonna do with all that junk/ All that junk inside your trunk…” Chloe covered her mouth before grabbing her pillow and covering her entire face with it, suppressing a really loud laughter that would have probably woken up Sabrina, if not the entire house. The cat hero was singing ‘My humps’ by ‘Black eyed peas’. She’d heard the song before, and could agree with the young cat hero that it was really embarrassing. What made it really funny to sing was that the first part till the hook was so long. The fact he was able to sing without stopping was really commendable, even if the cringe could be heard in his voice.

“Impressive…”

“My turn. Truth or dare?”

“Hm… truth.”

“Do you sleep with a stuffed toy?” He was pushing his luck on this one, but he could just say he noticed Sabrina, who was sleeping peacefully with a little frog plush, was the inspiration for it.

“You got me…” she sounded so defeated.

“I’m not gonna tease you on that. Just wanted to know. What’s its name?”

“Mister Cuddly…”

“Aw~! That’s adorable. Mister Cuddly is probably cold though, all alone with you to hug him.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just say what you choose already.”

“Truth.”

“… I know.” Chat gulped: the blond teen had that voice when she was thinking something particularly embarrassing to ask or do to someone, or when she got what she wanted. “Do you have crush?” That question hit deep for Chat. He really didn’t want to think about this, but the discomfort combined with a little tiredness resulted in a more grumpy response:

“I do and meow she hates me. Feeling’s probably mutual.”

“…I’m prying into this. What’d you do?”

“She doesn’t like guys.”

“Oof! You had a big argument about that?”

“We were friends before, but now… whatever. Truth or dare?”

“What? No, no, no! This is important. I can help if you want. I know someone who likes girls. We went out together a couple times, but it didn’t really work out.”

“You like girls?!” asked Chat a bit more loudly than before and Chloe shushed him. This was news to the blond. I’ve been friends with Chloe for so long and this never came up?!

“I’m demisexual actually.”

“Uh…”

“It basically means that I like people after I know them better and bonded with them. Me and Marinette have been really good friends once upon a time… It didn’t start that way though: I was a bit of bully as a child, but, I don’t know why, she saw something in me, something to challenge and bring out. She was, and is, very competitive. She was so hotheaded and even overly confident when doing something she was good at, like fencing.” Chloe sighed wistfully. “She has someone else now. I fucked my chance…” She’s talking about Marinette.

“When did—?“

“Mh… Chloe?” asked Sabrina sleepily.

“Did we wake you? Sorry…” said Chat.

“’s fine… Chloe come up here…”

“W-Wha…?”

“I’ll go… in the sleeping <yawn> bag.”

“Oh come one… I told you it’s fine.”

“You’re awake…”

“So what? I’ve— ow…!” Chloe’s back ached, giving Sabrina enough of a reason to start shuffling off the bed. “Ugh…! If I get in bed with you will you stop trying to kill your back for me? Who’s gonna carry all my shoes on our next shopping trips…”

Chat decided to leave the two teens and go home. Tonight really helped him get and understanding not only of the blue haired teen, but also of his oldest friend. He stopped by Marinette’s place when his ears picked up on the sound of humming. The girl was in her Garden, her privacy protected by the one way windows she had. He could only imagine her, limping around her garden, watering her plants, the sound of clipping cluing him in on the fact he was also cutting pieces of her plants, why, he had no idea. He didn’t get much into gardening since his mom… Adrien decided to leave for home now and planned to tell his dad in the morning about what happened between him and his friend. He’ll find a less embarrassing way to tell him about it.

Chapter Text

The whole affair with Adrien apologizing was awkward, as one would imagine. Marinette herself decided to apologize for her own aggressively regarding the matter. She explained to the blond boy that Melodie tended to bottle up negative feelings, especially regarding those who thought badly of her. It’s because of this that she came to be a bit more protective of her girlfriend. Adrien seemed to understand, although not fully, since he didn’t see that in action (he didn’t want to find out more however, knowing full well Marinette would have his ass). One thing that also changed was the young fashion designer’s view on her internship, voicing her opinion:

“I mean no ill will towards you or your son Agreste, when I say that I have decided to decline your internship.” she said simply, speaking overtly polite.

“May I inquiry as to why you have changed your stance?”

“You may not.” the young fashion designer simply said, going back up to her room and all the way up in her Garden. Of course both of them knew the reason. While Marinette and Adrien may have made up, that didn’t mean there won’t be tension, and the idea of them being close by one another was not something the blue haired teen wanted to entertain or deal with. On another note, Comet Streak finally got her powers revoked after a while, Chloe ending up spending her time trying to be nicer to Sabrina, that experience with Chat being kind of eye opening.

Back on the villains’ side of things, Chai was absolutely furious. It was taking him a lot of mental power just to not destroy everything and everyone in sight. With the complete destruction of the Ladybug yo-yo came the dysfunction of the associated Miraculous, something paradoxically unforeseen and predictable, as the magical tool was connected and getting its powers and functions from the earrings themselves. Now the scorpion villain had a broken Miraculous and nothing to show for it.

“This is unacceptable… Those DAMNED TEENAGERS!” shouted the silhouetted man. Meanwhile, Lila was just waiting from him to let her go home. Honestly, the fact he gave her a complete rando to work with was his fault. Maybe if she gave her someone that she knew and understood, not some old man. As if he heard her thoughts, Chai turned to, and pointed at, her. “You are responsible for this!”

“What?!”

“You absolute imbecile! I gave you a partner in the hopes that you could maybe win for once! What did you do? How did you let them break my Miraculous!”

“B-But I had no control over that! Lady Monarch—”

“NO EXCUSES! How is it so hard to work together like your enemies do! That cat has better synergy with a bunch of strangers!”

“Strangers chosen by a good strategist…” mumbled Lila.

“What was that? Speak clearly if you have something to say!” snapped Chai, making her angry.

“Well if you gave me something that I could actually communicate with like Lady Monarch does with Chat, I could have succeeded! But No! You gave me a FUCKING OLD ASS IDIOT! I HAVE 3 PEOPLE IN MIND THAT I COULD HAVE GIVEN THAT MIRACULOUS TO AND HAVE BETTER TEAMWORK WITH!” the Italian teen snapped back. Of course, she then realized what she did and gulped. A couple of minutes later she came out of the room she was locked in with the villain, claw mark on her arms, which she would need to hide from her mother now, and her left eye blackened and a bit swollen, something she would have to explain since there was no amount of makeup that could hide that. She slowly walked, tears in her eyes and arm crossed, not in the mood to transform yet to go home.

“H-how bad is it…?” asked a familiar voice that made Lila sneer.

“Leave me alone…”

“He hurt you! I can’t just say nothing!” exclaimed Mullo, flying out of one of her pockets and floating in front of her face.

“I had that coming… I spoke out of turn…”

“No you didn’t! St—Chai is angry because you told him the truth, because you dared have a thought of your own. He hates the truth and he hates independent people! Even if you don’t agree with him being evil you have to see he’s at least in the wrong!”

“Shut up! I don’t have to see anything! I’m lucky he didn’t kill me for stealing his Miraculous!” exclaimed Lila.

“You what…?” Lila once again realized she spoke too much and shut up, ignoring Mullo’s questioning until he gave up. Unbeknownst to her, she started feeling the empty pit in her soul, the one Chai created with his corruption, grow smaller, the corruptive energy beginning to be used up in order to fight reality and the thought that the tiny mouse Kwami was right.

Once Lila arrived home, before her mom, she closed herself in her room and went to sleep. She didn’t want to think about what she would tell her mom, and just hoped she would be gone before she woke up. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans. The Italian teen woke up a little earlier than when she knew her mom would be gone and couldn’t go back to sleep due to the  freak weather, lightning and incredibly heavy rain hitting Paris. She tried waiting it out, both her mother leaving and the weather, but to no avail, her hunger pushing her out of bed. Of course, the first thing she tried to do was sneak around, grab a snack, and book it back to her room. Maybe she would be able to go back to sleep with her stomach not being completely empty, and how hard could it be for her, the girl who was secretly Volpina the fox villain, to sneak and steal? Pretty hard it seemed, as her mom came into the room right at that moment, prompting the teen to run to the bathroom and lock the door.

“Lila? Everything alright sweetie?” asked her mother.

“… I’ll be ok. Just a little jumpy.” Technically the truth.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“Kinda.” Worse actually.

“Do you need to talk about it? If you need, we can do the same thing we did when you were younger—”

“No, mom; I don’t want to lay my had on your lap. I’m not a kid anymore.”

“Alright then… Once you’re done, please come to get breakfast. I made waffles! Your favorite~!” sung her mom. Lila was in full panic mode now, so she immediately tried to cover up the eye with makeup. Of course, that didn’t quite work, especially since the swelling didn’t even go down, so the only thing left to do was try to cover it with her hair. When she finally did sit down for breakfast she decided to keep her head down as well and be as quiet as possible, eating the pancakes but not fully enjoying them because of the fear of her mom seeing her black eye. Thankfully, her mother was telling her a story about something or another (she didn’t pay attention). Suddenly however, her mom reached forward to tuck some of her hair behind her ear:

“…You might end up with some hair in your <gasp>…” And she saw her eye. Lila was really panicking now. “How—?!”

“I fell and hit my head… hard… I don’t want to talk about it…” Her mom was out of her seat and by her side in an instant, looking over her.

“Oh, it’s really swollen. We need to put some ice on it to get the swelling down… I also have a cream to help make it go away faster. How exactly did this happen?”

“I fell…”

“Yes, I understood that. But how?”

“I don’t want to talk about it…” the Italian teen turned her head away.

“Lila—”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it!” she exclaimed, turning her back to her mom. A stale quiet fell into the room for a few seconds…

“Did someone hit you?” asked her mother, making her breath hitch.

“Nobody hit me… I told you I fell.”

“Then did someone make you fall? You need to tell me Lila. If you don’t, then that person will keep hurting you.” said her mother, afraid for her daughter’s safety. It was at that moment Lila was struck with the reality that if her mother knew, then both of them would be die.

“Nobody did anything to me… I’m going to eat the rest in my room, if you don’t mind…” Lila sat up and took her plate of waffles, along with a fork to eat with. Her mom couldn’t do anything but watch, tears in her eyes. Why do you keep pushing me away… I want to be your mother, especially when my job doesn’t get in the way.

“Maybe I should ask for a break in the near future… I’ll get one for Christmas and Easter… and I’ll try to get some time off for Summer break…<Sigh>… Stupid parents not letting me chose who I wanted. They pushed me to marry a rich douche bag… For now it’s off to work for me.”

Later that day, Lila’s eye was better. She applied ice herself and used some of that cream her mom talked about. She spent a couple of minutes just staring at the two Miraculouses, surprised Chai didn’t take the Mouse one away. Mullo was looking around in her room… doing nothing. And that really got on Lila’s nerves. She was told the little creature was evil, but wouldn’t it try to persuade her then? Wouldn’t it fill her head with weird ideas to go against her master? The only things it did was tell her Chai was evil and… show concern for her.

“Hey, squeaky toy!” exclaimed the Italian teen, getting Mullo’s attention.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t you have anything to say about what happened between me and my mom?” the mouse thingy looked at her with big glassy eyes before it smiled.

“…You want to hear my opinion?” it asked apprehensively. Lila rolled her eyes.

“Just speak dammit...”

“Well, I don’t have much experience with that sort of thing myself, as I was often given to guide—”

“Guide?! Guide who? You’re an evil spirit.” cut in Lila.

“Am not, okay?!” shot the mouse before calming down. “I’m a Kwami. I am the one powering the Mouse Miraculous. Have you never wondered where all the magic comes from?”

“Then why does my Miraculous not have a ‘Kwami’?” she showed him her fox necklace, its silver and blue coloring glowing coldly a little.

“That’s not how the Fox Miraculous is supposed to function… It’s not even the right color. It’s supposed to be orange.” The Italian teen imagined it being orange as she replied:

“Why would—?” Suddenly, a splitting headache hit Lila, the girl covering her head and let out pain filled groan, filling something liquid going down her nose. The biggest thing about this whole situation was the sudden influx of images. She saw, right in front of her, very vividly, Marinette’s book thing, with a page showing a bright orange necklace with a golden chain. Then, right after, she saw her necklace, the fake thing that she called a family heirloom. The pain soon subsided and, like a person possessed, ran over and threw open doors and checked every book and cranny of her room until she found it. She bought it because it looked like the one in the book. From the eaves dropping she did, she learned the girl called it a Miraculous. Comparing the two necklaces, Lila understood what Mullo meant.

“You have two?!”

“N-No. One’s a fake but… why… w-why is my necklace blue? I-It shouldn’t be blue. Why did I even think it’s supposed to be blue…?”

“I don’t know but— I think you are bleeding.”

“Huh?”

“From your nose.” Lila brushed her hand over her top lip and looked to see blood.

“I guess it was from the headache…” she wiped away her blood, feeling her emotions start to ebb away. The empty pit in her soul grew smaller. “What could turn a Miraculous blue?”

“I don’t know. Probably Tikki or Plagg know, or Longg. But the last two haven’t been around. Tikki disappeared recently too.”

“Who are those?”

“They are other Kwamis who power other Miraculouses. Plagg powers the Mircaulous of Destruction and Tikki power the one of Creation. Longg powers the Miraculous of Perfection.” Lila chuckled.

“What are you then? The Kwami of Duplication?”

“The Kwami of Multiplication actually, Mullo, at your service.” I deliberately used the wrong term to try and confuse him… thought Lila.

“… By the way. Is Tikki supposed to be all about ladybugs or something?”

“Y-Yes! Have you seen her?”

“No, but I know that Miraculous is broken.”

“Oh no! With her Miraculous broken she might have lost all connection to this plane or, worse, whoever is using it will get nasty side effects.”

“You know a lot about this kinda thing?” Mullo suddenly looked embarrassed and… ashamed?

“Well, one of my previous wielders, a Guardian, has given me that information in secret.”

“So you can help me repair the Ladybug Miraculous to learn from this ‘Tikki’ why my Miraculous is the wrong color?”

“I guess… I must warn you, however, if Chai finds out, he will have your head.” Those words gave Lila a grim image, but she knew her fate will probably be worse.

“Trixx; Mullo; Unify!” Lila said those magic words with much energy, the Kwami entering the Miraculous and adding his powers on top of the tainted power of the Fox Miraculous. Volpina made a copy of herself, which was tasked with playing decoy as to not rouse any form of suspicion from Chai. Her work was going to be focused on some weather girl thingy that was apparently going to take place today. Hopefully, she could force Lady Monarch into creating some new champion. The original Volpina went to where her master would often call her to see him outside of the place he had her train: the museum. Once outside the building, the vixen villainess played a few notes on her flute to make herself invisible and went inside. Ok Lila; in and out. I’m not getting caught like last time. she thought to herself as she made her way to the same place where she tried to steal Chai’s Miraculous. Inside the office-like space, the foxy villainess noted how that guy who was given the Ladybug Miraculous (Kubdel. her mind supplied) was working here. He seemed to be completely absorbed in looking at some papers, notes and books, so she walked past him and went over to the secret compartment in the floor where her master hid the box full of Miraculouses. Volpina, very, very quietly, opened it, along with the box, and found that one of the earrings was missing. WHAT?! The vixen grabbed the one earring and looked back at Kubdel, remembering she had seen something red on his desk. Low and behold, the man was holding the other earring in his hand, looking at it through a magnifying glass. This complicated things. The only solution that Volpina could come up with in order to grab the little jewel without clueing him in on her presence was to make a book fall. She thankfully didn’t need to do that, as he paused to look at his phone, Volpina quickly and stealthily running in to snatch the other earring, her eyes looking at his phone’s screen for a second to see he checked that hero app. After all that, she exited the room and ran out of the building. She would need to be as fast as possible.

Chapter Text

The Volpina clone got to work on keeping all attention on herself. Due to the intense rain happening at this time the finale of a weather girl competition thing was put on hold, a telephone tower having been struck by lightning and rendered nonfunctional. Since the contest relied on the audience sending messages from home to a specific location, it had to be postponed to later. So, there were important quests at the TVi studio, along with the present of the contest, Alec. They were just easy pickings for the vixen villainess. The perfect prey! How could she resist. The clone’s immediate action was to create a huge illusionary minion, one that would be immediately noticed and cause the public to use that app thing to call for the heroes. Nobody liked Lady Monarch and Chat Noir as much after the destruction of Le Grand Paris, but the Mayor still decided to rely on them and half heartedly promote them because there was nobody else who actually had the fire power to deal with Volpina and her shenanigans. So everyone still used that app to call for the heroes’ aid, a photo of the foxy villain’s creation: Huli, an enormous nine tailed fox, her fur a combination of white and a reddish-orange hue. The fox acted just like any other member of it species, being playful. Her purpose was to follow any of Volpina’s commands, so something overtly violent or with too much intellect would not do at all.

The moment Adrien’s phone sounded the hero app alarm, him and his father had the bodyguard/chauffer drive them to a more remote part of town. As he did so, the two Agreste’s and Plagg checked out the information available.

“Oh, wow! That’s one big fox!” said the Cat Kwami.

“You can say that again Plagg! It’s one fourth as big as the building… at least I think. Why so many tail though?”

“It is a nine tailed fox. They are spirits which are part of Chinese folklore, literature and mythology. Most often, they are spirits which were thought to appear during times of peace, and were either good or bad omens. Older Chinese manuscripts attested to the fact they ate humans, while newer ones spoke of their ability to turn human by wearing human skulls that fit on their heads without falling off, or simply by growing older. There were a lot of different interpretations. Nowadays fox spirits are part of almost all eastern cultures and even got to the western world.” explained Gabriel, sounding a little sad.

“Well most of that stuff is obviously not real. It was because of a previous Miraculous holder that all these myths were established.” said Plagg, not paying too much attention to the elder Agreste’s words.

“Are you alright father?” asked Adrien, receiving a nod in return. Both of them knew that was a lie, and knew why Gabriel got all teary eyed: Emilie used to talk all about eastern cultures with them whenever she was home. They sometimes took it for granted, but now that she was gone, they really missed it all. The car came to a stop, signifying they arrived somewhere that would be safe. “Okay. Plagg! Claws out!” called out Adrien, the magical words making the Kwami get sucked into the ring, magical energy flaring forth and creating his superhero suit, mask, tail and staff.

“Be careful.” spoke Gabriel. Chat smiled at him.

“Don’t worry father. I promise I’ll be alright!” he said before taking off. The young hero raced first to the place where Volpina was, seeing the illusionary minion playing with Alec, the guy who presented a ton of shows at TVi and KIDS+. Naturally, Chat felt like showing off in front of such a guy, knowing full well he’ll be praised by him on TV, and he and his long distance crime fighting partner really needed some good publicity. “Worry not, you are safe! Why? Because I am here!” exclaimed Chat as he jumped into the fray, thinking that the illusionary minion would be interested in him more than Alec. Unfortunately for him, the giant, nine-tailed fox had almost no interest in fighting him, only playing. As such the creature gulped down the show presenter. Fortunately, the illusionary minion shot him back out, inside a bunch of slimy fox slobber, hitting the cat hero as well. Both of them landed on the roof of the TV building, bouncing a little from the bubble of slobber they were in, before coming to a stop and getting cleaned by the heavy rain.

“You’re going to save me all by your lonesome? I am doomed!” exclaimed Alec.

“Oh, come on! More help is on its way.” explained Chat, his pride hurting more than his body. That was Volpina’s cue to make herself known, the clone doing one of those evil cackles.

“I see you are keeping my pet company? Hope she’s not too tiring for you hero.”

“Your pet?!”

“But of course!” the illusionary minion grabbed and pulled Alec to play with some more. “Huli is the most nicest of pets and very loyal too. Watch! Huli!” the foxy villainess called out, getting Huli’s attention. “Fetch!” Alec was thrown at Volpina, who caught him. “See?” as she asked this, a yellow butterfly flew behind her, something Chat noticed.

“Hm… I don’t know if I’d call that loyalty. How about you have her do a more complicated trick?”

“Sure thing. Huli! Snack time!” ordered the vixen villain, her ‘pet’ immediately starting to growl at Chat, who laughed awkwardly. It was play time.

Meanwhile the Fay that Chat kept Volpina distracted from managed to get inside the building. “Fly fast my beautiful Fay and have the weather girl live up to her namesake so we could finally have a day without a chance of Volpina appearing!” were the words the Mistress spoke, but there was a little bit of a problem… There were two weather girls! Aurore and Mireille were cowering together in the studio, waiting for the day to be saved by Chat and a Champion. The Fay was waiting for an opportune moment.

“… Okay listen, Mireille?” asked Aurore.

“Yes…?”

“I know that this might seem a little sudden, but since we might die I need to get this off my chest: I’m sorry I said you weren’t even a contestant before the recording! I just really really wanted to be a weather girl, so I guess I got a little feisty…”

“… It’s okay, I don’t mind… Honestly, I’m surprised I made it this far…” admitted Mireille.

“What?! But you’re a good weather girl!”

“I’m not that good with being in front of a crowd or on TV though… Even if I did win I’ll probably mess up the weather forecast on my first day…”

“No you wouldn’t! I’ve seen you participate you know. Your facts are so straight and your knowledge of the weather is so good it’s practically scary! That’s how you got here!”

“B-But you practically live weather! Watching you present it that one time really made it clear how much you love it and how much passion you put into it!”

“Well, of course! Weather is my life, but that doesn’t automatically mean I’m the best at it... Listen, just for a bit, I’m going to lent you my lucky umbrella. I doubt we’ll start back up with the contest after this, but if we do, I want us both to have as fair a chance as possible. This will put you at ease about that.” Aurore grabbed Mireille’s hand and placed it on the umbrella. That’s what the Fay was waiting for. Swiftly, it flew into the object, creating a link between Lady Monarch for the both of them. The heroine was taken aback for a second before getting in gear:

“Greetings Climatika and Phantom Cyclone! I am Lady Monarch. Now tell me, isn’t it a bit frustrating how Volpina invited herself here and began to put every one of you in danger? After all, if this building falls, I will have to unfortunately say goodbye forever to Paris’ darling weather girl!”

“You think I can be weather girl?”/ “You think I can be weather girl?” asked both girls at the same time.

“But of course. Instead of presenting the weather, how about you make it? If you agree, all you would have to do in return is bring Volpina’s fox tail necklace to me. What do you say?”

“We shall do whatever we can Our lady!” said both girls at the same time, yellow light moving from the umbrella and enveloping both girls. Mireille’s body turned into moths of light that scattered into wind while Aurore’s outfit began changing. Her attire was simple, yet still eye-popping in its own way, very different from how all the champion before looked: she wore a red hat with a dark blue band with white polka dots, a knee-length red skirt, dark blue stockings that turned into flat soled boots with the same pattern as her hat’s band, gloves that followed the same color scheme as the boots, a red blazer with puffy shoulders over a white shirt and a white silk scarf; her eyes were covered by a dark blue butterfly mask, the lower wings looking like lightning and, finally, her blonde pigtails had red highlights that made them look like drill heads. Her umbrella was dark blue and had a red-headed parrot handle.

 “Climatika… Let us do our best…!” Phantom Cyclone’s spoke into the ether, like an echo of a powerful faraway whisper of thunder flying on the wind and piercing the mind. The still corporeal Champion smiled.

“But of course, my dear friend! Now let us not dilly-dally. Chat is awaiting reinforcements, so we must arrive at the scene. Posthaste!” replied Climatika with a more sophisticated accent as she waved around her umbrella, before she held it up and opened it. The incorporeal Champion was attracted to the umbrella and used her windy form to propel her Champion partner towards the desired destination, instead of going straight up and creating a hole through the roof however, using her enhanced perception and flying her through corridors and out the first large, openable window that was available, taking her all the way to the roof where Chat was having a little bit of trouble and Alec was trembling in the cold.

Climatika plopped right next to the show presented and waved her open umbrella, Phantom Cyclone getting the message and making a small window of sunlight right where she and Alec stood, something which attracted Volpina’s attention. Chat was still focused on his own predicament, mainly the fact that Huli was holding him up by a leg above her open mouth, ready to eat him, digest him, and later burp out his ring probably.

“Okay, please don’t eat me! I don’t even taste that good— Plus I’m stringy. I don’t even give that much fiber, or vitamin. I’m way to thin to even provide calories!” begged the young cat hero as he repeatedly hit the illusionary minion’s paw with his staff.

“Now is that how a respectable fox acts?” asked the well dressed Champion, Huli turning to her with a curious expression and yelping. “Yes, I am speaking to you young lady. A wonderful fox such as yourself has no need, and frankly no business, eating a cat. How about we find some chicken and eggs instead?” Huli let go of Chat, beginning to pant in excitement. Meanwhile, Volpina, who had planned to jump Climatika, was fighting a powerful wind that only seemed to affect her. “Phantom Cyclone, won’t you be a dear and invite our vixen friend down for a ‘chat’?” asked Climatika.

“’Chat’… I see what you did there! But who are you talking to?” asked the cat hero.

“C-Can I maybe h-have s-some more sun?” asked Alec.

“It is simply my incorporeal counterpart and partner weather maker. Her name is Phantom Cyclone.” explained the dapper Champion as she pulled out a large white towel that impossibly fit in her blazer’s lower left pocket, and threw it at the show presenter, receiving a ‘Thank you’. Volpina was picked up and restrained by a mini tornado, the villainess brought down next to Chat.

“Happy to make your acquaintance, Chat Noir…” the incorporeal Champion’s voice echoed in the young hero’s head.

“Oh, so you’re two Champion rolled into one. Lady Monarch sure has leveled up.”

“Now Volpina. I ask you to give up your fox tail necklace.”

“No way! Huli! This girl is lying! There is no amount of chickens and eggs in whole world that could satiate your hunger. Get me out and I’ll let you feed on these guys instead!” Huli suddenly got serious and quickly moved in close, munching on Volpina’s upper body before throwing her up, the villainess flipping onto the nine-tailed fox’ back. Huli started to growl in anger as her mistress sat atop her, ready to issue the command.

“Oh dear…” said Climatika.

Chapter Text

“Huli… Pounce!” with that the fight was on! Chat instantly decided to let the backup keep Volpina and her impressive illusionary minion, the young cat hero making sure to get Alec to safety inside the building. Once that was done, and he received a thanks, it was back up to the roof where Huli was essentially sailing against the wind produced by Phantom Cyclone and trying to eat Climatika, who also kept managing to throw Volpina off. The villainess decided to shift her focus in Chat when she saw him, making both Champions shift gears too, the incorporeal one taking the cat hero off the ground with winds while the corporeal one used her own powers.

“HEY THAT’S TELEKINESIS! THAT’S SO COOL!” shouted Chat over the noise, realizing what power the corporeal Champion was using to fight. Volpina heard too of course, but couldn’t really o anything about it. She did figure something out to turn the tables: running. It was a little early to turn tail, but she figured that the wind followed some rules, and it did, Phantom Cyclone being a little more limited with her currents when it came to ground level, needing to be much more careful, resulting in slowing down. As a result, Chat was following the vixen villainess near the ground while Climatika was flying up above. Quite suddenly, Chat got a call on his staff and answered:

“Greetings my darling partner!”

“Lady Monarch! You’ve been hard to find this past few days.”

“Yes and for that I am sorry. We shall speak again in a bit, however now I called to inform you that Volpina is approaching a nice open part of Paris, where both you and the Champions assisting you can cut her off.”

“Thanks for the heads up… Can you tell Phantom Cyclone to prepare a huge gust of wind?”

“Already done so. I am way ahead of you my good friend.” replied Lady Monarch. After a bit, a sudden and powerful gust of wind sent Volpina and Huli into the more open part of town, the chances of things being broken here reducing. So Phantom Cyclone began to go ham! The thing about the incorporeal Champion was that, unlike her name suggested, actually had powers over more than just wind. As a result, a sizable amount of the rainclouds above were moved and became her body, a concentration of electric charge in two separate places forming glowing ‘eyes’. The rest of the electricity was used to strike Volpina and her illusionary minion/pet. This resulted in something interesting, mainly Huli glitching out and sending the foxy villainess to the ground where Chat and Climatika were ready to attack. The villainess took the initiative and took advantage of her speed to run straight for the corporeal Champion, who dodged by spinning clockwise to the right to avoid Volpina’s staff coming for her head from the left, spinning the umbrella above her head clockwise, then using it to parry a strike to her left leg.

“Chat, your turn.” said Climatika, moving back and using her umbrella to push the villainess towards the young cat hero.

“FOUR!” he shouted, and hit Volpina hard enough to send her flying. From her spot on the ground, as she tried to get up, she noted how Huli was fighting the clouds and realization dawned on her. That Climatika bitch can’t possibly focus on me and Huli… Someone else is keeping my pet busy.

“Well I didn’t think you’d be one to cheat Lady Monarch.” spoke Volpina with a laugh before she played a few notes on her flute, creating another huge fox, this one fully white, still with nine tales, and with red eyes. “Now that I know you have two Champions, I can settle the score! SAY HELLO TO WINTER!” shouted the vixen villain as she had her new illusionary minion/pet attack Chat while she took on Climatika. Now this was more her speed. For once she was getting enjoyment out of this, it was like some part of her that kept telling her this was wrong stopped nagging her… In fact she had been feeling this part stop trying to get in her ways since she split from her other self. Now she had her entire mind focused on the task in front of her, mainly, how to defeat her opponent, which happened to be a really good fighter, parrying most of her attacks with what looked like practiced ease. It almost looked like they were practiced techniques for fencing and swordplay, strange. One thing Volpina did notice was that Climatika needed to use her umbrella to do her telekinesis thing, so she made sure to give as little openings as possible, abusing the fact her power set included the ability to not be tired and going all out, forcing the corporeal Champion to keep evading and parrying, without any opportunity to retaliate. Meanwhile, Phantom Cyclone was fully focused on trying to tear apart Huli, which was easier said than done, considering this illusionary minion was a lot more sturdier than others. Perhaps it is the attachment Volpina has for you that keeps you functioning. The incorporeal champion though to herself as she, once again, focused enough wind power to create a tornado that wouldn’t rip apart the clouds she commandeered for the purposes of using them to strike lightning upon Huli, the effect of her glitching being something that her lady wished to study in detail. The fact that a magical illusion glitched like a bugged video-game asset was interesting, but Phantom Cyclone was more interested in destroying it more than analyzing it. Meanwhile, Chat was having his own troubles with Winter, who was really, really eager to eat him. By now, the giant white fox tried to ram its maw into the ground in an effort to close it, the young cat hero taking advantage of the fact he had no endurance limit, even though he did feel some pain.

“Why… are you… so… annoying. CAT’S DON’T TASTE GOOD!” Couldn’t even make a pun out of this situation. I’m really struggling here. How do I get out of this… Chat thought to himself, trying to keep the white fox from eating him. Then an idea hit him: if he can’t get out of the illusionary minion’s mouth then he will give him a tummy problem so bad it will dematerialize his hole illusionary body. So Chat let Winter swallow him before he activated his ‘Cataclysm’, the illusionary creature instantly turning into a black cloud, the young cat hero falling to the ground and staying there a bit as he evened out his breathing. “You… will be sorely mist! Ha! I did a pun for the occasion… now to go help Climatika…” The cat hero got up from his spot on the ground and ran towards the battle between then umbrella and flute users, seeing something quite strange: Volpina was the one leading the fight, something that wasn’t an ordinary occurrence for him to see. So he decided to step in:

“You know, I just realized: I’m the only person here who’s using an actual weapon at this point! You two are torturing that umbrella and flute!” with that little distraction, Climatika unleashed her own combo of hits at Volpina, consisting of a few quick stabbing lunges, followed by a second intention (Climatika sure knows how to fence), essentially sending an attack for the foxy villain to parry in order for her counter attack to be parried, the corporeal Champion adding a beat, hitting Volpina’s flute right as she retracted it for another attack, making her next swing faster, sloppier and leaving her a lot more open for Climatika to use a side to side attack, almost like how a baseball player would hit a homerun, right to the vixen villainess’ body, sending her flying towards Chat, who used his own strength to hit her right back, the hero and Champion almost juggling. “Strike one… Strike two!” said the young cat hero as he sent Volpina flying two times, only for her to throw her flute right in his face, her weapon spinning right back to her, the foxy villain landing right in front of him and striking his knee, causing him to drop down, before following up with a knee to the jaw, a left-to-right strike to the head with her flute, followed by a front kick, sending him rolling a little bit away. She didn’t stop after this quick combo, turning around to block and overhead strike from Climatika and having a hard time resisting the force.

“I think I got… how you work… You’re not that strong… or fast…” said Volpina, letting go of her weapon and taking a few steps back as she ducked, before speeding right back into the fray and punching the corporeal Champion in the face, grabbing hold of the umbrella and taking it from her, pushing her off with another front kick. “All you did was make this stupid umbrella move faster! Which means…” trailed off the vixen villainess as she held the Fay object overhead with both hands before she snapped it in two on her leg, breaking it enough to spook the Fay right out of there. In a flash of light, both Climatika and Phantom Mist were back in their civilian forms, Mireille falling from the sky, along with a still intact Huli, who, only after landing, blew up in a puff of smoke. Volpina was already focused on running away, grabbing the now white butterfly as well. Chat first ran and propelled himself up with his staff to catch the falling girl, entrusting her safety to Aurore before running after the foxy villain, while Mireille was consoling her friend on the broken umbrella. At least she cleared the sky of clouds so they didn’t need to run for cover.

Volpina knew she had no way of posing him right now, considering she only had one hand to work with compared to all other times, however the vixen villainess smiled when her fake ear twitched at the sound of beeping… Her pursuer was running out of time. She turned around and, as predicted, Chat turned tail and ran. I can get you later. This a golden opportunity. thought Volpina to herself as she began running after the young cat hero.

“GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE! I’M JUST GONNA CUT YOUR HAD TO GET THAT RING!” shouted the vixen villainess, playing a few notes on her flute and creating a chainsaw.

“Are you sure you wanna do that? I don’t think I’ll be all-right after that!”

“STOP RUNNING!”

“Only way to catch me is with sheer will!”

“Your jokes are NOT FUNNY!” the foxy villainess was getting annoyed, realizing that the chainsaw may not have been the best choice of tool to hold while trying to be fast. There probably was a way for her to reduce all weight of her realistic illusions, but that might make them less durable, so she often just gave things their own weight, as close to reality.

“Maybe they aren’t funny to you! But honestly, when it comes to what you find humerus, even if I don’t cut corners, I’m absolutely stumped as to what would make the cut.” with that combo of jokes, the young cat hero found a man hole and ran down to the sewers, Volpina following with a snarl, throwing her chainsaw away and playing her flute again. Chat got the short end of the stick, as the vixen villainess summoned a bunch of incredibly fast constrictor snakes which caught up to, and ensnared, him.

“There we go. So much easier when you’re not squirming, don’t you think?” asked Volpina sarcastically, for Chat was squirming and trying to wiggle his way out. Without his Cataclysm though, he had no chance, and both of them knew this. The foxy villain played her flute again, making the snake that held his right arm force it to be held up and backwards in an awkward position. The vixen simply reached her hand and, as easily as slipping any other ring off a finger, removed Chat’s, depowering him.

“Oh crud…” was Plagg’s reaction when he noted the situation.

“I’ll be taking this. Follow me spirit, or I will make you regret your existence!” warned the villainess. The Cat Kwami looked back at his wielder, realizing he had one more car he could play:

“Wait! Aren’t you interested in who’s behind the mask?”

“Hmm, let me think about that… No! That doofus, who had your power before, is obviously a nobody. I mean, no way someone important spouts out puns! Speaking of puns… Hey Chat, I know you’re tied up at the moment, but don’t worry; Those snakes will kill you in a slow, agonizing death by breathlessness. Got inspired by my master. Toodles!” called out Volpina before taking her leave. Adrien, who was slowly dying from asphyxiation, gathered as much of his breath as he could before rolling into the stream of sewer water, the snakes getting spooked from the sudden splash and loosening because of it, allowing him to go free. After a bit of work getting out of the water, he pulled out his phone, which had its screen cracked and was waterlogged. He threw the nonfunctional Smartphone at the opposing wall of the sewer, before sliding down to sit on the ground, silent and sad, tears beginning to roll down his face. He had been all jokes and played around, which almost cost his life in addition to costing him his Miraculous and friend Plagg…

Meanwhile, Marinette was consoling her butterfly, which had arrived, after the defeat of her Champions and the manhandling from the vixen. There was one question on her mind however… Why did she let you go? You were her ticket to me… What did she gain? Then realization hit her, and a cold dread ran down her spine. Nooroo who was seated on the desk in the Garden, eating peacefully from a bowl of black berries, was startled by the blue haired teen:

“Nooroo, please eat faster! I think something happened to Chat Noir and I need to check.”

“Okay!” of course, he didn’t pick up the pace by too much, but both knew the young fashion designer would understand. After getting the refill, Marinette once again became Lady Monarch and tried to call her feline partner in heroism, her call getting sent to voicemail…

Chapter Text

While the clone did her share of the work, and then some, Multifox was busy trying to compile the ingredients necessary for repairing the Ladybug Miraculous, which was easier said than done. To begin with, she had no way of traversing a long distance on just land, so she had snuck in a plane while invisible because she needed to get some meteorite bits from America. That alone took a while, but she wanted to get that one out of the way first, since the others two elements were easier to find. One thing that the vixen did get to experience was the humongous amount of heroes America had to offer. There an absolute overflow of heroes, which was explained by the amount of paranormal activity in the country, which was just a weirdness magnet by the looks of it. Thankfully, Multifox was able to get away from some hero that caught her, using some other villain along with her powers of illusion to her advantage. After a few hours, she found the place where there were some samples of meteorites held and stole a small piece. Since she was also here in America, the land known for having the most gold in the world, she decided to steal a little bit of that as well, for the purposes of repairing the Miraculous, of course. Once that was done, about a whole two-three days later, she was back in Paris. When she arrived home she had a bit of a rude awakening as she learned a lot of things: first of all, her mother was in a hospital, second of all, the Cat Miraculous was used for evil now and, finally, Le Grand Paris was repaired? Last Lila checked, the hotel was still in construction, but whatever. The important thing about this whole ordeal was that her mother was in the hospital. She rushed to the hospital and found her in not that bad of a shape considering how powerful and brutal Chai could be: only a bandaged head and a broken arm were the only injuries. The woman was being helped with eating by an attendant, since her dominant arm was the one broken. Lila and her mother locked eyes the moment the Italian teen barged into the room.

“Romana, who is—?”

“She was right… Lila, where have you been all this time?!” asked Lila’s mom, bursting into tears. Her daughter also burst into tears, before running to hug her, being careful as to not hurt her. “Can you leave us for a bit, Claire? She’s my daughter…”

“Oh! Of course, no worries.” the attendant left in a hurry.

“Romana… you sure got close to that person.” lamented Lila.

“Don’t change the subject young lady!” Romana was angry with her daughter right now. “You’ve been missing for almost three days, a-and there was this man that came into our home, demanding to know where you were and—”

“Chai…” mumbled the Italian teen.

“Pardon?”

“His name is Chai. Mom, I have a confession to make.” she trailed off, letting Mullo out of her jacket.

“IS THAT A MOUSE?!”

“NOT SO LOUD! Shhh!”

“Sorry.”

“Well, technically your mother is not wrong.”

“It talks…?” asked Romana

“He talks.” corrected Lila.

“Aw, you’re finally seeing me as a someone.”

“Begrudgingly… I honestly feel like in some sort of fever dream half the time— Anyway! This is Mullo. He is called a Kwami, and he, well, I should probably show you. Mullo; get squeaky!” with the magic words spoken, Lila turned into… she had no name for this form, as this was just the Mouse Miraculous active. Now that she had it alone, she noted the pink, which was just the right amount to make the outfit pop. From her neck hung both Miraculouses, both the Mouse and the inactive Fox one.

“You’re one of the heroes…?” Lila noted the look on her mother’s face and any sort of denying got stuck in her troath.

“Kinda…? I’m new.” Why did I say that?! What the hell, this is really not the time to lie!

“Which means you must have been away for training? Wait, you mentioned that Chai man. Is he the real enemy behind Volpina? Did he find out about your involvement?”

“Yeah, basically. Although he only found you at home… And hurt you… I’m sorry, I was unable to protect you.” said Lila, sadness heard in her voice, before she transformed back.

“Oh Lila… come here!” Another hug, this one a little more heartfelt. “I’m so proud of you.” those simple words meant the world to Lila. This was an achievement. I’ve been looking at this all wrong… All I’ve done is cause pain and misery. Chai made me hurt people and destroy, but what sort of ‘Guardian’ does that…? He’s no Guardian, he’s just someone who tricked me and made me hate again… After all the work me and my mom went through for me to get better. The pit in Lila’s soul almost closed. She now had a different mission, the start of which was repairing the Ladybug Miraculous. Her home was completely wrecked about a day ago, so the Italian teen didn’t exactly have where to go to repair the Miraculous. Well, there was one place, but in order for her to go there she needed to get the person on board, which meant coming clean to her. Lila felt some self-hatred flare up inside her for this idea, however she pushed it down. There was no other choice, and besides, if she were to actually get on the good guy’s side, she needed someone to help her. Bonus points was that she had that book about Miraculouses, or at least something similar.

Taking into consideration the fact that Chai didn’t seem to know Lila split herself in two copies, she decided to do herself a little makeover in order to avoid being spotted by her clone and have her alert him. She had the length shortened to about above the shoulders and let her two shorter strands of hair free, dying it all a bright neon orange and the strands in particular white. After all that, she finally had the courage to enter the bakery that she once stepped into for the purposes of theft. Now she was going to lie for a completely different reason. Ok, gotta get my game face on. This is lying, but for a good cause. I don’t need her parents involved in this mess as well. Lila told herself as she approached the jolly blue haired woman at the cash registry.

“Hi? My name is Melina. Me and your daughter, Marinette, have recently got together to help with some research of hers. She might not have mentioned me, I think.”

“Hello there Melina. Marinette didn’t say anything about you, that’s true. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to drop by unannounced, especially right now.”

“Well, I have some notes I have to share with her…” replied Lila, reaching into her bag in which she had her stolen materials and faking preparing to pull out a notebook.

“Yes, I know, but she’s not in a good mood. She’s been cooped up in her room since three days ago, trying to solve something— Oh! Are you the one she’s been on the phone talking to?”

“Yeah. I’ve been helping her, as I mentioned, since recently. She asked me to drop by and give her my notes, but didn’t say when. And now that you mention it Miss Cheng, she did seem a teensy bit frustrated. I think she’ll be in an even worse mood if she has to wait longer for my notes though. Talking over the phone has been… difficult…”

“Alright then. You can go up.”

“Thank you!” Lila almost hurried to the back of the bakery.

“Hold on.” called out Sabine. The Italian teen was the closest thing to a statue right now, but she loosened up and tried to prepare a myriad of lies in case Marinette’s mom figured out who she was. Thankfully, she didn’t have to, as the blue haired woman gave her a small box with macarons. “For you two to share. Also you can call me Sabine.”

“Thanks Sabine. I’ll tell Marinette you said hi.”

“Thank you. I hope you two have fun.” This time Lila rushed out of the bakery and into the Dupain-Cheng home proper through the employ only door. Sabine walked back to the cash registry, a knowing smile on her face. A haircut and some dye don’t change one’s voice. You seemed to have good intentions though… I hope your mother is doing alright. Though Sabine to herself, before greeting a customer. The Italian teen rushed through the living room and walked up the stairs to the blue haired teen’s room, where she barged in, not minding to knock. She received a cane strike to the head for her troubles.

“That hurt…” grunted the neon orange haired girl before she looked up, seeing Marinette wearing a sleeveless white shirt and a pair of long black pants, that brooch of hers pinned like a badge on the left. Her blue hair was pulled into a ponytail and she had her glasses on her face. The most important detail however, was that the young fashion designer was holding a knob cane, with its tip pointed at the neon orange haired teen’s head.

“It should have knocked you out.” Marinette stopped pointing her cane at Lila and leaned down, grabbed her by her jacket, and pulled her up. “…Lila?” the blue haired girl asked, looking over her and noting the bag, along with the Chinese pendant necklace that was the camouflaged Mouse Miraculous, as well as the chain that was part of the Fox Miraculous.

“Yeah, it’s me. Listen—” but the neon orange haired teen didn’t have time to say anything else, as her world went black. When she woke up, she felt something cold and a little wet on her head, along with a dull pain. The very next thing that she felt was her bare neck. So she sat up in the bed she was in suddenly, getting a little lightheaded. “Ow…”

“If only I had the Scorpion Miraculous translated I’d know what the hell I could do to free your friend…” said the blue haired teen.

“Don’t worry Mullo. Everything will be alright. We must be strong.” spoke another voice.

“Whos dere…?” asked Lila, a little slurred, her vision spotty.

“Oh, you’re awake. Your, uh… ‘associate’ here has been working on repairing the Ladybug Miraculous. She even has the Spellbook. This is really exciting.” explained Mullo, flying close into the Italian teen’s field of vision.

“Hi Lila. Where are we?”

“Your room? Wha…”

“I meant city.”

“Paris. Wh—”

“Good. That means I didn’t hit you hard enough to cause brain damage. Your Kwami mentioned you decided to learn about why your Fox Miraculous is ‘broken’.” added Marinette, throwing the foxtail necklace over her shoulder for the neon orange haired girl to catch.

“I’m guessing you know something about that?”

“It’s called the Miraculous of Corruption. You’ve probably seen it. An amber necklace. I don’t know the details, but I think the name is self explanatory.”

“…How do I know you’re not lying?” asked Lila, noting how Marinette seemed to be working with something akin to a chemistry set.

“That’s the difference between the two of us. You can only lie, while I can do that and know when someone is lying to me. Nice rick with the Mouse Miraculous by the way. You almost had me fooled… Volpina.”

“I hate you.”

“I sometimes have that effect on people. Now shut up. I need to be careful not to break the Ladybug Miraculous further.” Lila got up and looked over Marinette’s shoulder, noting she melted the gold and had sample of it probably mixed with the meteorite dust and ladybug ready to be used. The blue haired teen got a tiny bit of it in a pipette and then dropped that bit on the earrings. The substance glowed, then was absorbed into the Miraculous. “Miraculous, repair yourself!” exclaimed the blue haired girl, the earrings beginning to float and glow, a ghostly, warped form of the yo-yo appearing above them, its shape becoming clearer and clearer before it spun around the Miraculous, growing smaller before getting sucked into them. The earrings then floated back down into Marinette’s hands, the light from them flying up and becoming brighter, before shaping itself into a being similar to Mullo, only red and with black spots, in theme with the Miraculous.

“Tikki!” exclaimed the Kwami of Multiplication, flying over and hugging the other. The blue haired teen was well aware of how her own Kwami probably itched to participate in the reunion, but she had a way of making sure this particular Miraculous stayed with her.

“Mullo…? Wait! We’re not in that room!”

“No, you are in mine.” said Marinette, before getting up and limping to window, pointing to a piece of paper with Chinese lettering on which was placed on the wall next to the window. “And, as you can see, it’s magically protected.”

“You need two for that.” said both Kwamis at the same time, making the young fashion designer’s eyes widen as she looked at the other side of the window.

“Must’ve fallen off. I’ll have to check back at the hospital too…” she mumbled. “I’ll repair it. Anyway, this here is Volpina, and she’s the one who saved you Tikki, believe it or not.”

“Wait, you saved me?” asked the little red Kwami, flying over to Lila, clearly not believing it.

“Y-Yeah…?”

“But, how, and why? Shouldn’t you be under Stingg’s control?”

“Uh… who’s Stingg.” Marinette, who had kept silent for a bit as she put away the stuff she used to repair the Ladybug Miraculous, cut in, realizing that if the Kwami of Multiplication didn’t mention Stingg, then it was for a reason:

“Stingg is the Kwami of Corruption, and him, along with his Miraculous, are currently used by Chai, I assume.”

“Oh, ok.” replied Lila. Marinette took a peek at Nooroo and noted how he sighed in relief. Why the secrecy… unless my explanation is not right… I’ll figure it out later. thought the blue haired teen. “So, uh, how about we slow down for a bit. I’ve been away for three days and this is too much information all at once.”

“Figured. So the Volpina that has been around is, what, a clone?” asked Marinette.

“Yes.” answered Mullo. “Although it’s possible, because of all the powers mixing together, that we have backdoored Duusu’s power.”

“I SAID NO MORE NEW INFORMATION!” shouted Lila, covering her ears. Marinette discreetly pulled out the Mouse Miraculous from her left pant pocket and mouthed to Mullo ‘We’ll talk more.’, the Kwami nodding.

“Alright then Lila, here’s your Miraculous.” The young fashion designer tossed the foxtail necklace to her.

“Wait, but how do I fix it? The whole reason I came here was so she could tell me how to fix it.” explained the Italian teen, pointing to the Ladybug Kwami.

“It isn’t broken in the normal sense…” began Tikki. “ The only problem it has is that the Kwami in it, Trixx, is ‘trapped’ basically.”

“Ok, if she were to be freed, that would fix it, right?”

“I don’t think you understand what she’s saying foxy, so let me spell it out for you.” cut in Marinette. “Chai ‘broke’ the Miraculous. In order for you to repair it, you need…” she trailed off, starting to limp over, slowly. “You know what, call me greedy, but I want something in exchange. I’m close to deciphering the ins and outs of the Scorpion Miraculous, which are explained in my tome, so I’ll reveal that information to you after you do a couple things for me.” Marinette held out her hand. “Do we have a deal?” Lila, looked at the hand, then up at the blue haired teen.

“How do I know this isn’t a trick?”

“Very well, here’s an excerpt: ‘It preys on the soul, upsetting its balance, bringing to light the inner poison carried by each of us.’ Basically means it brings out the worst in you.” Lila faltered a little bit, before remembering that, for how much she hated her, Marinette was like a mirror of her in a way: they both lied and used deception, but whereas she used it to have people like her, the blue haired teen preferred using it to help others and even keep them at arm’s length. Lila shook her hand. “No take backs.” said Marinette before limping to her desk and writing something on a piece of paper. She came back and gave it to Lila. “Now go. Also, for the time being, I will be holding on to the Mouse and Ladybug Miraculous, both to keep them safe and to make sure you actually held up your part of the deal.” That was something Lila had a problem with, and the neon orange haired teen voiced her concerns quite quickly:

“I want to have Mullo help me…” the Mouse Kwami was surprised by that.

“Get the first thing done, and I’ll give his Miraculous back. Of course, if you have any reservations, you can take them up to my cane.” Lila gulped.

“Fine. But you will keep up your end of the bargain.” she said before walking away and exiting the blue haired girl’s room through the trapdoor. Nooroo flew out of his hiding spot and greeted Tikki…

Chapter Text

Adrien was at home, specifically in his father’s atelier, feeling sorry for himself, Gabriel taking measurements for something, which was honestly incredibly weird considering Adrien’s measurements were already taken some time ago. It had been a day since he lost Plagg and his powers. His father was, weirdly enough, pretty calm about the whole situation. In fact, he acted almost like it didn’t happen at all, which was pretty strange. The fact that Nathalie actually had with him a lot more PE than usual was also out of the ordinary, but the latter should have clued the blond teen in on the situation. Sometime later, during the evening, Gabriel invited his son over in his atelier to talk.

“Hello father… You wanted to see me.”

“Yes, I did. Come over here and take a look at this.” Adrien walked over to his father, looking at the monitor and reading some of the words written on it:

“…Champion file: Megamaster… Civilian name: Nino Lahiffe… Bubble-Trap… Laser Beam… Attach-a-Bombs… Father, what is this?”

“This is one of the Champion Files I have archived. I have begun to gather as much information as I can scrounge up on all Champions that Lady Monarch has created for the purposes of aiding you in your work, as well as trying to, at least partially, replicate them.”

“Oh… well I guess the first reason is out, because I blew it. I’m surprised you’re not mad at me honestly.”

“I’m not mad. I honestly expected you would lose the Cat Miraculous at some point—”

“Wait, then why did you give it to me?”

“Don’t interrupt me…” said Gabriel with a sharper, angrier tone, holding a finger up. “… please.” he added. “My expectations are tied to why I entrusted Plagg in your care in the first place: I almost lost him as well.”

“You did?”

“Yes. For this reason, I decided to give it to you, as I knew Plagg and the ring would, at the very least, be a little safer. I however, still knew that there was a possibility of you losing them, so I decided to work on a side project.” Gabriel got up from his chair and walked over to the painting of Emilie, pressing a new combination of hidden buttons, the circular transport pad going down, and coming back about thirty seconds later with what looked like an unfinished version of the Chat Noir costume, lacking the ears, tail, even the mask. What it did have was some form of exoskeleton, a helmet which looked really cool, as well as a belt full of gadgets.

“Wow! This is like the Dark Owl. Almost, it’s missing the cape and it’s black instead of brown.”

“No capes.” replied Gabriel. “They are aesthetic above function, and I prefer to not have you get stuck or pinned because of it. I took your measurements for this”

“… Wait, but why did you need to take my measurements? Didn’t yea already have them?”

“I did, but I wanted to make sure. The person that works in doing these kinds of things needs precise measurements.”

“So, this is a superhero suit.”

“Yes. This a superhero suit for you specifically. Courtesy of one of Emilie’s American friends... You will need to maintain distance when fighting, but other than that you will be fine. It is blast proof and the exoskeleton can help you lift up to 3 tons. The downside is that it takes, I believe, a maximum of five minutes to be put on. As a result, your schedule will unfortunately be a little stricter, until you can regain your powers that is.”

“I will do whatever you’re telling me as long as I can get Plagg back.” said Adrien resolutely, a serious expression on his face.

“Had a feeling you would say that.” replied Gabriel, smilling.

School had resumed for a while now, the building repaired after the battle between Volpina, Ironheart and Chat. Now, things had been somewhat normal, barring the incident at the hotel, but school life overall was the usual affair. One of the things that was normal for Miss Bustier’s class was Kim’s dares and annoying comments, which were, frankly, quite annoying (it was like he was trying to get Chloe to like him with all the stuff he did). The newest one probably had to take the cake for ‘Biggest Dare’, and, thankfully, the stakes were quite high: if Kim lost, then he would no longer be allowed to have anymore dares during this last school year, meaning that everyone would finally be able to kick back and relax more, not be annoyed or preoccupied with the challenges Kim made up. So, as class representative, Marinette felt it important to participate, especially since she had, very discreetly, implanted the idea in Kim’s head of the particular challenge: a race between Alix, on skates, and him, on foot. The jock was obviously going to lose, the blue haired teen did the math in her head, but she wanted to see how close he would lose by. To do that, she needed an excuse, because no way Marinette was going to break her ‘smart yet grumpy’ persona with the rest of the class no matter how much Alya would goad to do so. Melodie had given her the best idea on how to show up at the race, telling her some race fans had posters. So, she hand stitched a poster one evening when she couldn’t sleep. Now, with it under one arm, Marinette went down the stairs to the living room, where her mom was preparing for her twentieth wedding anniversary dinner latter today.

“Oh, Marinette! How do I look?” asked Sabine, having a bit of makeup on her face.

“Well, I am no expert on makeup, besides the one part that helps me cover up the rings under my eyes, but if I were you, I’d say it’s nice.” Marinette’s mom hummed amusedly. “It’s missing something though… Be right back.” The young fashion designer hurried back up the stairs, as fast as she physically could without hurting her leg too much, then came back with a flower. She gave it to Sabine, who accepted it and attempted to put it on the left side. “Try the other side.”

“Like this?”

“Perfect.”

“Marinette, do you have a minute?” asked her dad his voice caring all the way from downstairs.

“Coming!” called out the teen, who limped down to where Tom was, the incredibly large man coming into view, wearing his apron.

“So my moustache, I groomed it. Is it too short? Should I shave the whole thing off? Maybe it's a little crooked on one—”

“Holy hell! That’s actually geometrically symmetrical. Did you use a ruler?” asked the blue haired girl, having put on her glasses. Tom chuckled.

“Yeah, I did. I’m guessing I’m all good then.”

“Well, it depends; are you going to wear the apron as a fashion statement?” Marinette’s dad looked down and almost jumped, thanking her and removing his apron. While he did so, Sabine came down the stairs.

“Remember about our customer dear.”

“Yes I will. Miss Chamack will be coming around to pick up the Eiffel Tower in...” Marinette trailed off, checking her watch. “...thirty minutes, give or take.”

“Good. We’re depending on you sweetie.” said Tom, both of Marinette’s parents preparing to leave.

“When have I ever let you down? I all over I, you two go have an awesome wedding anniversary.”

“Thank you dear! Have a wonderful day too!” replied Sabine for the both of them, before leaving. Nooroo came out of his little hiding spot in Marinette’s blazer.

“Married for two decades and a year… That’s quite long for today’s standards. Your parents are very special Mistress.”

“Yeah they are. And they are truly in love with each other. ‘Till death do us part’ is going to be literal in their case… Also my name is still Marinette.”

“S-Sorry!” Nooroo laughed awkwardly. The blue haired teen left the bakery, putting a countdown on her phone to know when to come back and get Miss Chamack her order. The place was where Marinette used to go a lot for inspiration, until she didn’t anymore, mostly because it was a bit of trek for her leg. It was almost nostalgic now, seeing the place she hadn’t been to in a long while. I need to come here more often. Thought the young fashion designer to herself.

Tom and Sabine had originally planned to celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary at Le Grand Paris, but things happen and so they were having it at another high class place. Tom noticed one of their daughter’s classmates was there and both parents waved hello. Alix waved back before turning to her curious father and explaining what that was about:

“They’re Marinette’s parents!”

“Oh, right! You did mention her parents were bakers.” he waved back at the couple as well before turning back to his daughter, who was wearing a semiformal attire, the bag at the bottom of her feet, which was peeking around the table a little, indicating that she will go change after they’re done with the discussion. “Happy birthday my dear! Now do you know why I wanted to meet with you again here, at this exact table?” he said, tapping the table with his fingers, before one of his fingers dragged a little on the cloth’s surface.

“Well, you wanted to have a nice lunch her for my last birthday… Still don’t know why you switched from the reservations at Le Grand Paris though. Did you like, see into the future or something?” asked Alix curious. Something shuffled in her left pant pocket, unseen under the table. Her dad chuckled, seemingly unaware of the little hidden message.

“Not really, but boy am I glad I did it. Anyway, I wanted to see how the watch has been doing. You’ve been keeping goo care of it?”

“Sure did. Even polished it up a little.” explained Alix as she pulled it out, covering up the real reason why it had become much shinier. “Feels awesome every time I check it.”

“I bet it does. Our ancestors created a masterpiece. I’m incredibly happy you’ve taken so much care of it. You remind me of my grandmother when she had it. Always shiny and sparkly… Never could polish it like her, or you, for that matter. What’s the secret?” asked her dad.

“It wouldn’t be a secret if I told you dad.” replied Alix mischievously. Alim chuckled. Alix’s phone buzzed, she apparently got  a message.

“Are your friends waiting?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to bail on you. It’s cool!”

“No, no! Go ahead! Before you go though, I wanted to give you this!” Alix’ dad leaned down under the table and picked something up with his left hand, which had been out of view the entire time, revealing it with flourish: it was a cool, black aerodynamic helmet with a neon green highlights that had a scales pattern, matching her jacket. Alix gasped then got up to hug her father, happily taking the helmet and trying it on:

“This is exactly what I needed for my race today! Thanks dad!”

“Race?”

“Oh yeah! So class jock, Kim, challenged me to a race, him on foot me on skates. Dude was going to see me in front of him, but with this I don’t think he’ll even keep up enough to see me! Thanks dad!” One last hug then Alix took her bag and began walking away. “Cool ring by the way!” she said over her shoulder. Alim looked down at his left hand, noting the copper brown ring that he wore on his left ring finger, feeling an uncomfortable, burning, almost chocking sensation from under his scarf. His head started to buzz a little too.

“Don’t worry I’ll get it… Volpina got this, so with her help we’ll get the others too.” he mumbled, and the sensation went away, Alim sighing sadly.

Marinette arrived where everyone in class was gathered, except Adrien of all people. Alya and Nino were chatting, Chloe and Sabrina were also chatting, the thing that made the young fashion designer’s eyes attracted to them was the way they were dressed: Sabrina wore a sporty attire, consisting of a light blue sleeveless T-shirt, a pair of light gray shorts worn over black leggings, running shoes, a dark blue hoodie tied around her waist, and a pair of running shoes, her usual glasses probably replaced with contacts; Chloe had her hair down, her sunglasses ever present on her head, and wore a simple, yellow jean jumpsuit with pockets and rolled up sleeves. Function over style... What happened Chloe?  Everyone else was chatting normally, while Kim was waiting for Alix to show up.

“Oh look. Class rep’s here.” announced the jock, everyone greeting the blue haired teen.

“Hello everyone. I believe someone ordered a banner for today’s race?” asked Marinette rhetorically, holding up the rolled up banner she sown together.

“Let’s see it then. Betcha you put some cool tagline or joke in there.” said Alya.

“Perhaps.”

“Rhymes! Calling it now!” said Nino. Marinette revealed the banner: small versions of Alix on her skates ahead of a small version of Kim, who was running full force, in between them a trophy, above, letters writing out ‘Defeat the Conceit of the Athlete!’

“Correct.”

“Aw, they look so cute all small~!” said Rose. Juleka nodded in agreement.

“It really is cute!” agreed Mylene.

“It’s awesome!” exclaimed Ivan.

“Y-You drew this b-beforehand, right?” asked Nathaniel a bit awkwardly.

“Sure did!”

“The message is a little bit one-sided, but overall it’s a nice poster.” said Max.

“You all picked the wrong side to cheer on! Looks like Alix isn’t even showing up! Probably too chicken to race an extreme athlete like me!” boasted Kim.

“You wanna bet cocky?! You wish I wasn’t coming so you wouldn’t lose and have to give up on making more dares!” replied Alix, coming in fast before slowing down and stopping near the group, almost everyone cheering for her. She wore her trusty goggles, black shirt with a white cog symbol, black leather jacket with neon green snakes ‘coiled’ around the sleeves, leather pants, her usual pair of roller skates, that were showing signs of wear but also care, and her new aerodynamic helmet, matching the snake design of her jacket.

“Lê’s overreaching his limit here. Film the thing for me to laugh at later.” Marinette told Alya.

“Girl, you’ve been avoiding me and Nino, for a while now, what’s going on?” asked the blogger.

“I’ve been busy is all. My parents are having their twenty-first wedding anniversary today, so I have to hold the fort at the bakery. There’s this cake for a party that a client is coming to get.” the blue haired girl shrugged. “Everyone, I’ve got other things to do today, so I’ll see you later.” Everyone was a little sad, but were ok with it.

In the distance, Volpina was watching, waiting for the Monarchat app to go off, her partner acting as decoy so she could steal the Bunny Miraculous. She had no idea how master Chai knew exactly who had this one, unlike all the others, but frankly didn’t care. Her other half might have cared, but she was all the way in America wasting her time with a broken Miraculous that she stole. Stupid other half! If she ends up getting in the way and Master finds out I’m dead meat! thought the vixen villainess, her phone ringing with the hero app alert.

“Finally! Took you long enough…” mumbled Volpina as she watched the race. “The hell is he doing just running…? Forget about it, I have a Miraculous to steal.” said the villain to herself as she prepared to butt in.

Chapter Text

Why all the way in the middle of the city…? And why is Volpina not there. Is it a trap or are they after something else? Gabriel asked himself as his son was suiting up, getting ready to go and reclaim his Cat Miraculous from the evil claws of whoever was using it right now.

“Father? You seem distracted.” the blond boy, noted, brining his father back to the present.

“Sorry, just… trying to predict what they are going to do. It might be a trap.”

“I figured as much. Volpina’s nowhere in sight. Don’t worry though, everything will work out fine this time. I have a plan.” said Gabriel’s son as he put in his earpiece, now ready for combat.

“Mind telling me about your plan?”

“Well, you mentioned I’ll need to fight from a distance, so I think I’ll first check from Volpina. If can catch her off guard I could probably take her necklace and with that, her powers. Then, I could probably use it to get my own Miraculous back.”

“You never mentioned her necklace was the source of her power.”

“Never really came in conversation. Sorry.”

“It’s alright. I’ll send some drones ahead. Maybe they’ll get a glimpse of Volpina for you.”

“Thanks dad! I’m going to be serious now. No more jokes.” said Adrien as he prepared to leave, going with the transport pad to his training room, which also happened to be where he was going to leave out of. The teen hero jumped out of the open window and left for the center of the city.

The two teens got into position and began the race. The winner of the race was clear from the start, as Alix was already in first place by the time they came back for the second first lap. Two more laps and I win three to zero! thought the goggled girl, moving around slightly faster than normal because of her aerodynamic helmet. She did get a bit cocky, which caused her athletic competitor to get ahead, but only for a bit. By the time they were done, everyone cheered, as they would no longer have to bear with Kim’s dares. Chloe wasn’t as enthusiastic, but she did give a weak ‘woohoo’ to go along with Sabrina’s. The happiness and excitement was short lived however, as Paris’ resident villain made her appearance causing her usual chaos. Everyone took cover to shield themselves from the onslaught of small blue hedgehogs thrown their way, Alix taking separate covers from everyone else. The pink haired girl felt something in her jacket’s pocket and she looked let her out.

“This isn’t right! We weren’t supposed to help out until after winter!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Maybe ‘after winter’ is now.” said Alix, before a harpoon flew past her head, cutting her left ear a bit and cracking the ground in front of her when it landed. She looked up when a shadow came over her, seeing Volpina looking at her with a bloodthirsty smile. Alix crawled to the harpoon and pulled it out, Fluff hiding back in her pocket.

“You have something of mine.” The villainess said calmly.

“In your dreams Volpin-ass. You’re not getting my watch.”

“I know I’m not.” the foxy villain looked back, making Alix see a large, red and absurdly muscular, anthropomorphized echidna walking to them. The pink haired girl began to sweat as she slowly backed away. “He is.” The echidna suddenly jumped and landed in front of Volpina, the villainess crawling up to sit on its shoulder and watch. From Alix’s right an electric neon light blue portal opened, and from it sped a dark blue and neon light blue blur that grabbed her, running off unseen. Volpina just stood there, dumbfounded… “WHAT THE HELL?!”

Alix was being moved at incredible speeds by a woman dressed in a skintight leather suit with neon light blue accents making up a ‘play’ button on her chest, a ‘stop’ button on her right shoulder and a ‘skip ahead’ on her left one, as well as a helmet with a neon green visor.

“Ok, I’m happy you saved me, but who are you?! Why aren’t we stopping?! WE’RE GONNA HIT SOMETHING!”

“Say ‘chicken’!” ordered the super fast woman.

“CHICKEN!” shouted back Alix. The woman instantly went from ‘eleven’ to ‘zero’, letting Alix down, who was contemplating why she didn’t get whiplash.

“Ok listen. I’m you from the future.” The visor lifted revealing to Alix eyes just like hers. Fluff flew out of her hidey-hole.

“Ok, I think I remember this. It happened yesterday night.” The Champion Alix chuckled while the younger one looked at her weird.

“’yesterday night’ means the past in another timeline branch.”

“Branch?” asked Alix.

“Time is like a tree, and it has branches. Someone is cutting the branches though…” explained the Bunny Kwami, a bit saddened by the end.

“Yes and I know who did it. Anyway that doesn’t matter for now. In about a minute seconds my lady will connect to me so pay attention cuz I only have time to say this once: I came here from an alternate timeline and so I’m asking you to take these and not mess up like I did.” The Champion Alix held a rusty ring and what looked like charred earrings for her younger self to grab, which she did.

“What are these?”

“Those are broken Miraculouses. You need to get them repaired just before you hit thirty. The world as you know it depends on it.”

“O-Okay…”

“Now get going niña; My lady is connecting.” Alix nodded and ran off while her older, Champion self had the butterfly symbol appear in front of her face, glitching between purple and light blue, its shape glitching as well.

“Greetings my lady. My name is Playback.”

Marinette wasn’t even home by the time the hero app alarm sounded off, the blue haired teen sighing as she quickly found a place to hide in, her cinnamon roll coming out.

“Cat villain spotted in city center.” read the young fashion designer.

“The cat Miraculous!” exclaimed Nooroo. “Wait, why aren’t they using them together…” added the Kwami.

“That’s a good point. I’ll find out later though. Nooroo, fairy wings rise!” the magic words spoken, Nooroo flew into the Butterfly brooch. Marinette spun her cane above herself, mystic energy changing its shape while also falling on her form, like the first snowflakes in winter, creating her hero suit. Lady Monarch now stood where her civilian self once was, immediately feeling a champion. “What…?” she asked herself as she made the connection.

“Greetings my lady. My name is Playback.” spoke a voice she didn’t quite recognize. The heroine felt the connection was weak, glitching almost, like her powers were incompatible with this Champion’s.

“Playback you say. And what are your powers pray tell?”

“Time travel, obvi. I came from the future.”

“I see. What catastrophic event are you here to save us young ones from?” asked Lady Monarch.

“I already did. Don’t have much else to do.”

“Very well then! You wouldn’t be too hard-pressed for time to help me with my plight, would you?”

“Nah, I’m good. Where do you need me to go?”

“City center, if you’d be so kind darling.”

“Consider it done!”

Adrien was not exactly having a good time. It all started out all right, what with his father telling him Volpina was nowhere in sight, which meant he could have a one on one with the villain who had his Miraculous, but it soon turned for the worst. One important thing about the Miraculouses was that they blessed their users with seemingly infinite stamina among other things. In the hands of an adult, the ability of the Cat Miraculous was also magnified, allowing for the repeated use of Cataclysm and, thusly, for hundreds of euro of destruction, along with the endangerment of everyone in the villain’s path, who called himself Lucky Cat, basically cementing himself as the same villain who had the Ladybug Miraculous beforehand. Adrien was stuck protecting civilians and from the debris caused by Lucky Cat’s destruction, unable to actually get in to attack, only throwing one attack boomerang or two, which were promptly disintegrated. The villain seemed to have stopped for a little bit after noting his opponent grew tired, and instead started leading him to partly broken down building, where Adrien lost sight of him.

“Keep your eyes peeled. He’s going to tray and ambush you.” advised Gabriel through the earpiece. “I’m going to send in the drones for a better view.” added the experienced fashion designer. Since the attack on the Agreste mansion, Gabriel opted to have his security upgraded. Once he told himself that his house was built like a fortress, but now, it was built like a fallout shelter, and his drones, which were simple in design and had a bit of a limited function, were now peacock themed and could not only fire bullets, but had a flamethrower and taser attached, along with cameras that had better resolution as well as night vision and thermal vision, the latter being particularly good a tracking since the ‘hero suit’ that a Miraculous created seemed to give off a slightly higher temperature than the average human, something that seemed to differ from how the Champions functioned. The moment Gabriel noted a bigger heat signature he all but shouted to his son:

“ADRIEN GET OUT OF THERE!”

It was a bit too late, as the scorpion man Gabriel had met on that fateful night returned and mercilessly attacked his son, resulting in his suit almost completely getting destroyed. Nathalie, without any prompting, went over to the safe and opened it, taking out the broken Peacock Miraculous and putting it, a little blue Kwami coming out. Duusu.

“Hi again! You’re feeling better already!”

“Hanging in there…” replied Nathalie. “Mister Agreste I’m going to save Adrien!” said Nathalie, running out of the room while Gabriel was desperately giving his son directions and helping him time the dodges necessary to not get hit more so the suit wouldn’t get compromised and in turn, for him to not get hurt. Of course, this was easier said than done, literally in fact. While this was happening, the bodyguard and Nathalie took the car that was specifically custom built for long distances in case Adrien needed to get somewhere faster and drove to where the blond boy was having his ass handed to him.

While this was happening, Playback was moving as fast as she could with her hover skates, limited somehow, as Lady Monarch could feel. The butterfly couldn’t help but realize, as she continued to be connected to the Champion, that something was absolutely off. Playback’s power set felt… different. Ever since Comet Streak, Lady Monarch knew a Champion’s powers could remain active even after the connection with the Butterfly Miraculous was lost, but this one Champion seemed to have had her way of access into her mind broken, like her own lady had been forcefully disconnected, like the metaphorical cord was cut.

“My lady, I understand your concern, but can you please not root around in my mind.”

“My apologies darling, It’s just that… is everything alright from when you’re from?”

“It will be once I get back… Also sorry if I’m slow. I kinda need to absorb time energy in order to go faster.”

“Why are you not doing that then?”

“Cuz taking time means sending the object back to a previous state. I need a lot of energy, and I need it from something that’s been around for a while and underwent a lot of change.”

“Ah… Well then I might have something for that.” Lady Monarch redirected Playback to another place, one where the rebuilding just so happened to be stopped for lunch. Le Grand Paris.

“Yours broke too?”

“What do you mean too?” asked Lady Monarch, slipping out of her persona for a hot second.

“Never mind. This’ll work, thanks!” Playback used one of her abilities and a glowing light blue symbol of a watch appeared, the symbol’s hands moving counter clockwise as things were moving on the building, beams getting removed and disappearing, along with other things. Eventually it all reached a point where it started to resemble how it used to be at the start of the rebuilding process. So much so that the workers were starting to get angry with the Champion. “Wait for it.” Lady Monarch heard her say as she held up a finger, pieces of debris beginning to materialize, along with dust, and starting to fly back into place. In a few seconds, the hotel looked the same as it had always been, give or take a couple of month. “Aqui vamos. Brand new. Well, more like old. Thanks for the refill guys!” said Playback before she took off at speeds immeasurable, arriving at the center of town.

“Oh no… this is so much worse than I anticipated…”

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Playback nonchalantly used her powers to turn everything back, following the trail of destruction as she used her powers to help fix everything. At the end of the trail was what looked like a giant scorpion creature, a teen dressed in damaged battle armor along with a blue skinned woman wearing a peacock themed hero suit were fighting for their lives. The Champion wanted to speed right on through and help before blue hedgehogs rained down on her. “Mierda!” exclaimed the Champion before, quickly dispatching with the illusionary minion pests, turning around and completely avoiding the charging attack of the echidna by moving so fast it could have been mistaken for teleportation, then moving even faster and kicking Volpina off her minion’s back, following up with destroying the minion itself. Volpina tried to use her flute to make new minions, but Playback came right in her face and grabbed on to it, kicking her away, the villainess losing her grip on the Miraculous weapon.

“How are you so strong?”

“Run off cobarde. You’re wasting my time.” The foxy villain, feeling the menacing aura of this particular Champion, did as she was told.

Chai was almost done with his own battle, Adrien now being unable to get up due to exhaustion and the fact that the exoskeleton could no longer aid in moving the heavy suit. Nathalie, in her hero form, felt tired, her broken Miraculous doing her much harm. The scorpion villain was just about to finish her off when a dark blue and neon light blue blur sped past, the heroine no longer in sight.

“What…?” Chai turned around, the same blur making Adrien disappear. “Another one of your ridiculous Champions Lady Monarch? When are you going to come out and FIGHT YOUR OWN FIGHTS!” that earned the scorpion villain a punch in the face, so much velocity behind it that he went flying. The monstrous man looked up, seeing who his opponent was, and felt the overpowering aura coming from her. For the first time in a long time, Chai turned tail and ran, not saying a word.

“And that’s that my lady! I will be going mi casa now. Hopefully I will see you in the future.” Bid Playback, before creating a portal for her to go through.

“Wait!” asked Lady Monarch. “Can I at least know who you are behind the mask?”

“My name is Alix… Alix Gutierrez. Bye-bye for now!”

And with that Alix Gutierrez, a.k.a. Playback, was gone, Lady Monarch losing connection. Since then Marinette has been looking not only for chat, but looked into the whole thing with Alix, only getting so far considering she couldn’t talk with the girl herself because of the risk of her cover being blown (she knew Alix was the type of person to keep a secret, but who would also call someone out on crap). One day, while she was working on this stuff, her whiteboard moved from the Garden to her room, someone barged in, and she immediately hit the person with her cane.

“That hurt…” grunted the intruder, her hair neon orange.

“It should have knocked you out.” replied Marinette…

Chapter Text

After the whole Playback thing Marinette was a little bit frazzled. Not only did she learn that there was a hero wearing power armor to fight the villains (probably Chat trying to get his Miraculous back), but the heroine with the Peacock Miraculous returned and the future version of Alix seems to speak Spanish by second nature, with the accent, her family name indicating she was going to marry someone from either Spain or Mexico… it was all just a bit mess for the blue haired teen, and she hated messes, but not as much as hating being in the dark. So, she decided to try and get things under control by gathering information. Of course, she knew that trying to discover Chat’s identity would be impossible, as the Quantum Masking was going to get in her way. The new heroine that appeared to come and go when convenient was even less likely to be discovered. She knew that she was an ally of Chat Noir, so she was possibly connected to Grand Chat, if not acting as a go-between for the older and younger Cat Miraculous holders. The girl searched a lot on the internet and decided to make calls to the library for old archived information about vigilantes. What she learned was that both the Cat Miraculous and Peacock Miraculous started being used around the same time, the former here in Paris and the latter… well, she was still searching for information there. The young fashion designer discovered from some filming that who was probably Chat came accompanied with some drones, so the teen had money, or received help from Grand Chat, who himself had money. That reduced the search significantly for the person behind the mask significantly, but the blue haired teen still didn’t have enough information to break past the Quantum Masking, so there was more work to do. After discovering that ‘Volpina’ actually was just Volpina, no longer connected to Lila, at least not directly, and learning the Italian girl wanted to ‘repair’ the Fox Miraculous (i.e. her subconscious started fighting Chai’s corruption), Marinette decided to make her do some of her work. The deal was that she would tell Lila what she needed to do to ‘repair’ her Fox Miraculous, but the young fashion designer already knew that finding who Chat was and interacting with him, learning his side of things, would help her beat the corruption on her own. Now with some free time on her hands the blue haired teen had decided to spend some time with her girlfriend, maybe go to a movie or something (Melodie loved those romantic comedies even though Marinette found them barely tolerably cheesy), but then Alya decided to invite her to go out with the others. Of course! The young fashion designer had no reasonable excuse to shrug off the meeting, like he had other times, so giving a half-baked one would make the would-be reporter suspicious, the consequences being snooping. That’s the last thing Marinette wanted.

So, the blue haired girl was now out with her friends, expecting a meeting with Adrien who might very well try to divulge her secret. The teens met up at Place Royale, where Alya would sometimes go with her little sisters due to the carrousel that was there. Surprisingly Adrien was not there, making Marinette curious.

“Hey girl! We’re over here!” Alya exclaimed, she and Nino sitting on a bench.

 “I’m here… as per your request. Where are the little Sapotis?” asked Marinette as she sat down. Nino laughed.

“You talking about Alya’s sisters?”

“Yup.”

“Nora’s keeping them occupied thankfully…” sighed Alya. “Besides, it wouldn’t really be a meeting between friends with them around.”

“Right, that… So what do you want to do? Take a walk and talk?” asked the young fashion designer, deliberately pulling out her pill bottle and taking a couple.

“We were thinking more of just talk? I mean, we haven’t really had the time to meet up and talk for a while, almost like we’re all grownups.” explained Nino.

“Oh, ok… So who’s going first? Want me to flip a coin? If two us think the same then the third has to go.” offered Marinette.

“Nah, I’ll go.” said Nino, beginning. “So, you know how I was DJ for Adrien’s birthday party?”

“Yeah. It was really good until Volpina came in and messed everything up.” said Alya.

“Yeah, outside of that, I think I did a really good job. I’ve actually been thinking about doing this, try to gain some notoriety too?”

“You could try going for small gigs. Baby steps though. And read contracts thoroughly if you are given one.” offered Marinette.

“You could also go to those TV shows. What was that one called… where you have to reach a goal?” asked Alya.

“The Challenge!”/”The Challenge.” replied Nino and Marinette at the same time.

“You watch that?” asked Nino.

“Yeah… I tend to watch a lot of shows. I did some fiddling around with some old technology and managed to convert the digital signal and record shows on a VHS. It’s old and stupid, but I was too proud of it not to use it.”

“That sounds so cool. We could, like, use this for a presentation. It would have a classic American school-video style!” exclaimed Alya.

“Could we also film stuff on the tapes?” asked Nino.

“Nope! You need a compatible camera. I don’t have that and can’t MacGyver one.” explained Marinette. “Speaking of: Didn’t you want to be a movie director as well?” she asked.

“I still do. Actually I have this movie idea. It’s sort of like sci-fi horror about aliens. It doesn’t have a name, but this is what I got so far: an alien escaped from a facility, killing everyone there. The alien goes from city to city, and the protagonist starts following it because it killed her family. The action takes place in this sleepy town and…” The young fashion designer and blogger listened to the future film director’s skeleton script, talking about this nice idea he had that Marinette just so happened to notice was written with budgetary constraints in mind. She’ll look into it later. The blue haired teen’s phone buzzed alerting the other two. Lila was calling.

“Gotta take this. It’s about that book I’m translating.” Marinette lied smoothly, limping away from the two and towards the carrousel and responding to the call. “Sing for me Melina.” was the blue haired girl’s way of greeting. ‘Melina’ was silent for a bit before she replied:

“Oh right, my… other name. I’m calling cuz I got something for you.”

“Yeah, I know. C’mon spill!” encouraged Marinette.

“So, looking for Chat isn’t really working since he’s not showing up to patrols, so I thought to look into the previous guy. Apparently he’s been working even before I showed up and—”

“Sorry to disappoint, but I already know that. I’ve done some research of my own.”

“…I just wasted your time, didn’t I?”

“Depends. Got anything else?”

“The other heroine, the Peacock girl; I couldn’t originally find her because I was looking for the one that I fought at Agreste Manor and I realized that was the wrong peacock.” explained Lila, peaking the young fashion designer’s interest.

“Go on…”

“There is another Peacock. What people know was that she was French, due to the accent, but she never acted as a superhero in France. She’s been around a lot in Asia and Africa though: India, Tibet, Yemen, Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, the list goes on. The only reason I figured it out though was because I found a picture of her in Britain!”

“Britain?”

“Yeah! There was this construction accident, a crane hit a building near an outdoor charity event. The heroine, dubbed Phantom Peacock, used her powers to shield the people there, then vanished.”

“Just vanished?”

“Poof! As if she was never there…”

“Alright… Listen, I’m a bit busy at the moment, so come back tomorrow with the info and I’ll see what I can do with it. You’ve been much help thanks.”

“…”

“Melina?”

“S-Sorry… just didn’t expect to be thanked is all.” Lila laughed awkwardly.

“Okay. I’ll be going now.” said Marinette before closing the call. That was weird. Did she never receive any praise from accomplishments? That might explain her attention hogging and the lies… thought the blue haired teen before beginning to walk back. Her phone rang again however and she picked it up when she noted it was Melodie.

“Hi sweetie~! What’s up?” asked Marinette with a smile on her face, one which faded away after hearing her girlfriend’s voice.

“M-Mari… can y-you… come over… p-please?” Melodie was trying very hard not to sob, her shaky voice still giving it away however, along with the sniffling.

“Alright. It might take a bit since I’m out with some of my friends.”

“W-Wait, I changed m-my mind… Stay w-with your friends, i-it’s ok…!”

“Absolutely not. I’m not gonna sit around knowing you’re crying! I’m coming over!” and with that she ended the call, making her way to the bench her friends were at, hearing how Alya was showing Nino some yo-yo tricks. That was a question for another time. “Hey, listen, Something came up, so I need to go. I’m not trying to ditch you, so here’s I’m going to tell you a little bit of what I’ve been doing: First off, that book I have, it is related to the heroes, specifically Chat’s ring and Volpina’s necklace and no, I’m not going to hand it over to a dumbass that will lose it. Besides translating the book I’ve also been working on a couple of designs. Nothing too big, and maybe you can try out some of my prototypes sometime. I also haven’t really had time to play videogames, so if it’s alright with you, we could meet up at your or Lahiffe’s place for a night of gaming. That’s about all. Gotta go!”

“Wait, what’s the emergency?” asked Alya, jogging after her, Nino in tow.

“The emergency is personal, so no snooping. I’m very serious about this too. If you try to snoop I’m going to be unspeakably mad.”

“Maybe we can help though!” argued Nino.

“Not this time you won’t. I don’t need or want your help right now.” Marinette ended the conversation, the other two no longer following as she picked up the pace a little. Nino and Alya shared a glance, both agreeing that they would need to get to the bottom of it.

Marinette raced as fast as her legs and cane could carry her to the Quantum Café, Melodie’s home. The blue haired teen didn’t really think to get back by bus, which would have sped the process along, but her judgment had been clouded by the whirlpool of emotions inside her. Once she did arrive, the young fashion designer entered, not really taking note of the empty chairs that should have been occupied, and were usually occupied, at this time. The number of clients here were few enough that Miss Melodie was doing everything alone, her daughter up in her room as she told Marinette.

“Thank you Miss Melodie!” said Marinette as she went up the stairs, feeling the pain in her leg resurfacing and shutting it up with a couple of pills before she gently bust into her girlfriend’s room, seeing her on her bed, with her head in her pillow to muffle the sobs. Leaving her cane at the foot of the bed, Marinette took a seat at the edge. “That pillow must be making you real sad…” she joked to get her attention, before her eyes saw something that she didn’t expect or want to see. It was Melodie’s flute… snapped in two. She got up and limped over to her girlfriend’s desk, where the broken flute laid.

“Mari…?” asked Melodie, who was still sobbing, looking up from the pillow. The blond haired girl noted the look of rage in her girlfriend’s eyes at seeing the musical instrument broken, so she ran over and hugged her. “I-I-I’m s-sorry…!” she sobbed.

“Wait what? Melodie, this isn’t your fault! I know you wouldn’t be careless enough to break it, and even if you did happen to drop it, it wouldn’t break like this. No, someone broke this. And I want to know who.” Melodie shook her head.

“If you are afraid they would hurt me, don’t. I know fencing and learned hand to hand.”

“I-It’s n-not that… I don’t want things to get worse.” sobbed Marinette’s girlfriend, the young fashion designer beginning to return the hug.

“If I scare them enough, they’ll back off. Why didn’t they try to hurt you? If they went as far as to break your flute…”

“H-He said he didn’t want anything on his record.”

“Oh, like breaking a fellow student’s property doesn’t appear on one’s record… Damn idiot asshole… Have you told your mom?” Melodie shook her head. “Then that’s what we’re gonna do.”

“P-Please don’t…”

“Melodie, she’s your mother; she needs—”

“I-I’ve already m-made i-i-it hard f-for us. I don’t want to make it even worse…”

“Allegra… Your mother needs to know.” Melodie looked up at her girlfriend. The blue haired teen stopped using first names when talking to anyone after the accident. Melodie didn’t mind, as right after she was let out of the hospital Marinette had limped to Melodie and revealed her feelings. To hear her use her first name however. It was electrifying, but also spoke of the seriousness of the situation. The young fashion designer was not going to let her keep her mother in the dark, and would probably tell her herself if she didn’t agree.

“O-Okay…” Without even realizing, their faces moved closer until they shared a short kiss, Marinette then patting her girlfriend’s head, as if she were a little kid.

“Good. Now come on.”

Alya and Nino were at the Agreste Mansion. The inner yard was still not fully repaired (unlike the house proper) from the fight between Chat, Megamaster and Volpina. The two teens entered, being allowed to see Adrien. Apparently they had arrived just in time, as the blond teen was done with a photo shoot and had just arrived back home.

“Hey Adrien!” greeted Nino, sharing a fist bump with his friend.

“Hi Nino! Hi Alya! Is everything alright…?” he asked, noting the somewhat serious expressions on the two’s faces.

“We’d like to ask you a few questions. It’s about Marinette.” Explained Alya.

“Oh… Sure.” He lead them to his room before all of them took a seat on his couch. “So what did want to ask?”

“You two have been acting weird dude.”

“Ever since you had to work on that school project together you have been avoiding each other. And more recently you didn’t even show up to Alix’ race, or our hangout today. Is something going on between you two?”

“What?! No! We just had a little argument.”

“Like, over the project?” asked Nino.

“Yeah.” Alya look straight through Adrien’s soul, the boy feeling a little unnerved.

“Okay, wow. You are a terrible liar… Nobody holds a grudge over a school project disagreement!” said the blogger. “What’s really happening?”

“Nothing. I just told you…” Alya looked down, thinking and that’s when Nino, sighing, stepped back into the conversation.

“Adrien, you gotta tell us what’s happening. I mean, D-Cheng’s been avoiding us like she’s got some big secret to keep.”

“Wait, I get it! You’ve got another type of tension. You shared an intimate moment while working on the project, didn’t you?” asked Alya.

“No! She doesn’t like guys!” Adrien steamrolled right ahead with a blush on his face, before realizing what he said and covering his mouth.

“What?”/”What?” asked Nino and Alya.

“M-Marinette doesn’t like guys… She has a girlfriend…” said Adrien, knowing he couldn’t backtrack now.

Chapter Text

Melodie’s flute had been a gift from Marinette herself, the blue haired girl sculpting it herself when she was younger. The fact it was now broken was quite impossible to hide, not to mention that the emotional impact of it had caused the blond haired teen much distress. Marinette, having read books on psychology, knew her girlfriend’s tendency to put others above herself (in this case not telling her mother) was almost pathological. The young fashion designer considered this flaw objectively better than others, although it had gotten worse in the recent years. She loved her girlfriend for not being perfect, as she herself had been imperfect, and the kindness was slowly helping with her own issues after the accident. This however, was getting a little out of hand. Then again, if she helped fix me, I might as well help fix her. thought Marinette. The first step to do just that was to inform her mother. Of course, both Melodie’s had a crying section, which the blue haired girl didn’t participate in, focusing instead on drawing up a little sketch to see how she could salvage the flute. It wasn’t going to be too hard of an accomplishment, but it definitely wasn’t going to be the same. That didn’t really matter however. What mattered right now was to help Melodie then focus on the flute. My goodness, and that’s all in addition to my superhero work. How do Americans cope? And some do it without secret identities to hide behind. thought the teen.

“So Allegra…” it felt unreal yet so right for Marinette to call her girlfriend by first name again. “… you mentioned you made it ‘hard’ for yourselves. Can you maybe explain that one, as I fail to understand how a couple of bullies can cause problems for your business. Is it bad publicity? Did they come and scare off customers?”

“Ah, well… it’s more like, bad publicity I guess? I imagine everyone in my class and in the school spoke to their parents, who then spoke to their friends—”

“And so on and so on. This place is just a short ride from your school so the talking got to here. Great! Just great…!” Marinette looked down in thought, trying to figure out a solution to this mess. I now have leverage over Lila, so maybe I can have her stage an attack on… No, that’s a bad— the blue haired teen’s train of thought had been interrupted when she heard:

“No, she was just being sarcastic… Yeah I know. I’m helping with that.”

“Budgeting my defining trait are you? I could probably go on with one sarcasm a day, but can I haggle for more?” Allegra giggled a little at that while Miss Melodie shook her head, a smile on her face. The very next day after this whole little mess the two girls were out together, Marinette attempting to cheer the younger Melodie up on her mother’s orders, even wearing some pale yellow colored pants and jacket over a purple collared T-shirt, taking advantage of color physiology to smooth the process along.

“So, uhm, Mari… Taking me on date has nothing to do with what happened yesterday, right?” asked the blond girl.

“Your mother asked me to help you feel better because of my pushiness. She didn’t say what I should do though.” Melodie, who’s hand’s fingers were interlocked with Marinette’s, changed her position, holding on to her arm instead. The young fashion designer saw her girlfriend’s blush and she blushed a little herself. This was nice and quiet. Today actually happened to be perfect for a nice relaxing walk. Marinette had this whole thing planned out, first beginning with the Champs-Elysees and stopping by the Arc de Triomphe (Melodie always loved it since it was one of the few places she and her father were at before his passing), then going to the Trocadero and secretly feeding the pigeons along with the resident pigeon lover (Marinette had considered him a Champion candidate at one point, but she realized he was a little too soft for the job), then going to Pont d'Iéna where Andre, the ‘Love Ice Cream Maker’ was seen with his cart, and finishing it off with giving Allegra the gift of the repurposed broken flute. That was the plan at least. Thing don’t always go according to plan…

After her call with Marinette, the Italian teen was ready to continue with some of her work. She was absolutely certain that this previous Peacock heroine was the key to discovering the identity of the new one, or at least of her one time enemy Grand Chat, and from there, get to Chat Noir, Lady Monarch’s current partner. It was rather strange for the young fashion designer to desire the identity of a hero. What was more surprising was the fact that that book of hers actually managed to fix the Ladybug Miraculous. Could pigtails be Lady Monarch? Nah! She’s probably her assistant of something, like how Chat has assistants. thought Lila, dismissing the idea that the person she sort-of-not-hated-as-much-anymore would actually be the one to give the people of Paris their powers and abilities to fight her, Chai and the other guy. As she prepared to switch gears from news stories of the peacock to the ones of Paris’ main and only vigilante, Grand Chat, she felt a hand on her shoulder and someone whisper in her ear:

“Miss me, sister?” The voice was trying to simulate happiness, but was hiding an undercurrent of hate that made the neon orange haired teen shiver. She turned around, seeing her clone, Volpina, in her civilian form, as she waved to her, an innocent smile on her face.

“Oh, hi…” Multifox smiled back, inwardly cursing her luck. “You know, I just realized something.”

“What?”

“I should have taken my phone. If I had, then you wouldn’t have had to look for me. By the way, how did you know I was here?”

“I can feel your presence. Didn’t you know?”

“I meant besides that. I guess it works better since you’re the clone.”

“Sister…” corrected Volpina. The Italian teen looked at her for a moment.

“Well, I guess you’re more than a clone now. How’s Master treating you?”

“Very well actually. I assume you know of my victory in returning the Cat Miraculous to him.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Good. Now all we need is to return the Ladybug Miraculous.”

“Yeah, about that…”

“What?”

“I wasn’t able to repair it yet. I hid it for the time being, but I want to give it back functioning. Otherwise I think he might kill us.”

“Us?” Okay, hope pigtails was right about what she said. thought Multifox as she prepared to give a very big lie.

“So, you know how you can feel my presence?”

“Yeah?” Volpina took a seat at the empty chair next to her.

“Well, that’s because we are connected. If one of us dies, the other dies as well. The reason for that is because you’re not just the basic clone, but have a piece of my soul to help you act like me.”

“Right… How do you know that?”

“Master Chai told me. Do you not remember?”

“Not really…” Multifox patted her clone on the back.

“Don’t worry. You only have half my soul, so there might be bits and pieces of memory missing.” she said solemnly.

”…So what are you doing here?” asked Volpina, looking at the library computer’s screen. “Oh~! Are you trying to find out who’re behind the masks?”

“Yeah. It’d be much easier to just attack them as civilians and take their Miraculouses. They care too much about their secret identities to reveal them to the world… Unfortunately I didn’t find anything.” explained Multifox as she sneakily put her notebook away and placed it in her bag, which she then shoved right under her chair with her legs.

“Let me guess: you want that to be a surprise too?”

“Yeah… If you wouldn’t mind, of course.”

“Sure, why not. I guess I’ll go now, and let you work out the identity of our enemies. See you sister.”

“Bye.” As Volpina left Multifox felt a sense of relaxation, not looking after the clone and seeing her turn into small lights. Outside of the library, a wave of blue light went from the villainess’ head down to her feet, making her visible again. In her hand was Lila’s notebook, in which was the little note Marinette had given her, the vixen villain recognizing the handwriting.

“Should have known… This makes things more difficult.” she mumbled to herself as she walked off, ignoring the few stares she got from some people.

While this little interaction had taken place Alix happened to oversee it, the pink haired girl having come to the library to see if she could find any bit of folklore on the Miraculouses before trying to find a way of asking her dad. Her first reaction was ‘Holy crap Lila’s back…’, which she kept to herself as she continued to watch, getting in closer to listen in. The fact the Italian teen spoke of unmasking the heroes and calling them enemies was a clear indication of who she was. The fact this was the person that was Volpina made sense in retrospect: the liar had the power to turn illusions into reality. Who she spoke with was little harder to discern: she called her ‘Sister’, and a quick look shown the girl with neon-orange hair showed her face was really similar. Even her voice sounded the same, when whispering anyway. The only problem was that Lila didn’t have a sister, as said sister would have not only popped up in conversation, but also that Miss Bustier mentioned she was an only child as a way to try and explain some of her lies and behavior in the class’ eyes. Of course that didn’t work, but it was worth a try. Alix herself didn’t much buy into the lies and didn’t really care either. She knew that eventually the Italian girl would find her match, and Dupain-Cheng proved to be it. Back to the present however, Alix was sure Lila didn’t have a sister, and cursed the fact she didn’t manage to hear the entire conversation without giving away her position.

“Hey Fluff?” whispered Alix as she went back to her seat in the library, looking for stories and legends in France that made mention of something matching a Miraculous. The little bunny Kwami moved inside her hiding place, the pink haired girl’s jacket’s pocket, signifying she was paying attention. “Would it be alright if I used the Bunny Miraculous to find out if Lila had a sister?”

“Yes. But not at this moment. You need to wait for the first winter’s nightfall.”

“When you say that what do you mean exactly? You know I could really use the help of my alternate self right about now…”

“The first winter nightfall. I’m actually being literal.” The small Kwami laughed quietly at the whole situation. It wasn’t exactly her fault she had all her times mixed up since she could see it all, beginning to end. The fact there was an alternate version was a little bit scary, as that existed outside of her sight. Nevertheless, ever since that other version of Alix showed up, she had had a better handle on giving proper times, this one being the case.

“Oh. Well, I’ll make sure to check then. But I guess I’ll end up finding out much earlier.”

“Yes you did. You have already found out.”

“Not yet.”

“Oh, right, sorry.” Alix chuckled at that , reaching a hand in her pocket to pet Fluff.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure it out eventually…” A blanket of silence covered Ailx’ peripheral hearing, a tense silence, as she thought of the implications of knowing who Volpina was and being unable to say it to nobody.

After accidentally telling his friends that Marinette had a girlfriend, he was hogged for answers, Alya demonstrating she’d make a good reporter specifically, asking things like ‘Can you estimate how long they have been together?’ or ‘Does this change your attitude towards Marinette?’. All in all, it was a little tiring for the blond haired teen, and it took him a while to shake the two other teens off so he could relax the time he had before tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, both Gabriel and him agreed that Adrien’s most recent outing as his still unnamed hero persona (but probably still Chat Noir), was really bad. The teen himself could see how, even with his hydraulic suit’s enhancement, his abilities, stamina in particular, were really lacking. He could feel the ghostly pain of how his fist hurt after trying to deck Lucky cat in the face, as well as the strain on his feet as well as the suit every time he had kicked, his staff having been rendered useless very early in the battle thanks to Cataclysm.

The solution to this superhero problem (until he recovered the Cat Miraculous), would be physical training. So from now on, every morning, he would exercise. Apparently the mansion had a gym in it, one only for weight training and other types of muscle exercises, a bit different from Nathalie’s basic P.E. exercises. Every time he would wake up Adrien would look forward to running on treadmill and lifting weights, the repetitive activity letting his mind wander and think about ways to get back the Cat Miraculous, even thinking up scenarios and strategies where his limited abilities could work in tandem with one of the Champions, and today that thinking brought a question to his forefront that he needed an answer to from his dad:

“Father? Do you know how Miraculouses are made?” asked the blond teen during breakfast, surprising Gabriel.

“I… don’t think I do, no. If I knew even a little bit of how Miraculouses were created, then I would have repaired the Peacock Miraculous by now.”

“Ok then… I just thought that maybe—”

“—it was possible for you to make an entirely new Miraculous.” Gabriel chuckled a little. “That is unfortunately not possible. Even if you were to make another jewel, you would need a Kwami in it to power it…” the experienced fashion designer trailed off, as a thoughtful expression came over his face. “You know, I never tried to study a Miraculous before since Duusu and Plagg said they are magical in nature. But what are Duusu and Plagg; they are gods, and so if gods, thought to be fictional beings, are real, then maybe the ‘magic’ of the Miraculouses can be explained as something more closer to home: technology. Incredible advanced technology that, at the time of their creation, was viewed as magic. I mean, if we were to go back to the dark ages and show off our phones, we would probably be called sorcerers.”

“So you think we can make a Miraculous?!” asked Adrien, excited by the prospect of this solution of empowering him.

”I’m uncertain. I’m sure that, after some analysis of Duusu’s Miraculous, we may be able to make something similar to it, but not the same. An empowered armor, or weapon maybe? I will have to look into. Don’t expect anything anytime soon, since I need to find someone who I trust to analyze our last Miraculous without trying to steal it or reveal it to the world.”

“I will be patient father. Imagine if we could have super amazing armor and weapons though! It would come in real handy!” said the teen excitedly.

“It would, but you know what else it could do? Escalate the situation. We’ve seen how Volpina eventually got her own partner. Imagine what would happen if we managed to produce weapons that could fight them.” that put a cap on the excitement, but Gabriel found it important for his son to know the possible ramifications. In this operation they were essentially a third party. If only he could find a way to connect his work with Lady Monarch…

Chapter Text

Marinette and Melodie were out on their date and the blue haired teen was already seeing that her girlfriend’s mood was improving. She probably should have known that dressing up a little and just being with her was enough for Mari. Speaking of dressing up for the date, the young fashion designer went with a purple leather jacket, a pair of white pants and a simple, white, collarless T-shit, the brooch fastened at its neckline. Allegra was wearing a lavender white dress and wore her hair in its usual braid. It was nice, not just for Allegra, who was able to escape her sadness over the broken flute, an act of cruelty born out ignorance and fear, but also for Marinette, who used this as a chance to focus on helping her girlfriend and letting the whole superhero mess in the back of her mind, ignoring the fears that if she wasn’t able to keep things under control the government and military might intervene, something that has not happened since Playback made her debut and managed to repair all the damage that has been caused. Now all they were doing was walking peacefully, going towards the Champs-Elysees, just feeling happy in each other’s company and taking full advantage of the small reprieve in between the villain attacks. The blue haired teen already had the plan for a perfect date prepared, but what she didn’t know was that multiple pairs of eyes were watching her and Melodie, some out of curiosity, another out of sheer anger and disgust.

Alya and Nino, dressed in way as to not stand out for Marinette to see, the blogger wearing a red flannel over a white undershirt, her glasses replaced with contacts and the dye on her tips washed off, while the amateur DJ wore a green denim jacket over a black T-shirt and a green flat cap, his glasses remaining since he never bothered with contacts, were following the duo on their date, pretending to be just two others together on a date.

“You know Nino, bright green might actually get her to notice us more.”

“Nah! I haven’t worn this stuff in a long time, the cap specifically. No way she notices. Also I don’t think she’ll even pay attention to us being nearby. Look at her man. She’s so in love!”

“Okay, I gotta agree on that. Never seen her so happy and relaxed ever… I wonder why she might have thought we’d have the same reaction as Adrien.”

“Well… I guess I have to explain don’t why…”

“Are you holding out on me…?” asked Alya, a bit suspicious, but mostly in a joking manner, if her smile was any indication.

“Before you showed up, me D-Cheng, Allegra and few others were in this ‘group’. Some of us weren’t in France and we mostly talked over phone and played videogames or Caves and Quests, but the one time we did get together we... kinda sorta fell apart. I think Marinette was afraid I’d be angry since I’m friends with Allegra.”

“… After this maybe we can talk about your cool past, ok?” asked Alya as nonchalantly as she could muster, the stars in her eyes giving away the level of excitement that hearing that gave her. Meanwhile, Volpina was jumping from roof to roof as she followed the couple, unaware of Alya’s and Nino’s presence as she smiled to herself, thinking she could destroy Marinette while also making her suffer.

Back with the couple, the two girls had just arrived at the Arc de Triomphe, where it was somewhat crowded, but that didn’t really matter to neither of them, Marinette actually enjoying the little noisiness as it allowed her to shut off her brain and relax even more, while Allegra was happy to see that the tourist attraction was doing good, and remembering some of her own memories of spending time her with her father before his passing, one of their activities shared together being people watching, her father, a former detective, using this as not only a bonding tool, but also a way to teach her daughter about understanding people, which in turn helped her make up for her mostly idealistic view of the world.

“I really like it here Mari… Thanks for having the date here.”

“Oh, we’re just getting started. I plan on making use of all the time we have today, especially since this is a day with no bad weather. Paris’ ‘Weather girls’ are responsible for the sunny days this year.”

“Wouldn’t that upset the weather though…? I mean, it’s already been getting hotter over the years”

“Well, maybe, but then again, when one has magic, most things are not even issues. Besides, if things get bad, the weather girls can sort of stabilize the weather.”

“Didn’t think of it like that… Actually, Lady Monarch could implement a system of champions, one where the already existing ones can help with rebuilding or damage control.” whispered Melodie.

“You know, that’s actually a good idea… Wait a minute, are you using our date to come up with helpful advice?” asked Marinette, smiling playfully. Allegra giggled quietly.

“Sorry! I can’t help myself… You once mentioned the idea of how, sometimes, whenever you try to relax, you can’t because you feel unproductive. That’s me with not helping.”

“Right… You know what would really help me, Allegra? Like now?”

“What?”

“You trying to relax. Believe me, you can have all these ideas at a later time. I will always be here to listen.”

“Aw~! Mari, that’s so romantic. I will always be by your side as well.”

“Thanks.” While they were adorably sweet Nino and Alya were at a relatively safe distance, the young DJ was using a pair of headphones as part of a device that Alya had burrowed the plan for from Marinette, the device allowing them to listen in on their conversation.

“Ok, yeah, they are so in love.” said Nino.

“What did they say?”

“I… can’t hear everything cuz they’re whispering a little, but D-Cheng is calling Allegra by her first name and she is letting her use ‘Mari’ which is like the nickname she used for her back when we were all a big group.” explained Nino

“Oh, so the name thing only counts for us. You know, I’m starting to believe I— we never helped her at all, Dupain-Cheng I mean. Like, she’s probably gotten better because of this Allegra...” replied Alya, an undercurrent of sadness in her voice.

“Maybe. But maybe we were a part of her being nicer too. Besides, Adrien helped with her opening up a little too, even if they don’t seem to talk now.”

“Oh yeah…! We have to think of a way to have them make up, not just apologize, but actually make up. Until then—” Alya cut herself off as the sound of screams was heard, she and Nino looking around and noticing everyone present beginning to scatter to the wind. Volpina arrived to cause havoc, but she seemed to have a specific target in particular: Marinette and Allegra. The two teens, having been Champions on a couple of occasions during patrol, and seeing their friend and the one she cared about in danger, couldn’t just stand there and watch, or run away in fear, Alya running ahead while Nino went to grab something that could be used as a form of weapon, or at least for protection. Alya noted immediately that Marinette was having trouble holding her own, as Volpina used her flute as a staff, like usual, beginning with an overhead strike, blocked with some difficulty by the young fashion designer, followed by a blocked side-to-side strike, both putting pressure on the cane, even chipping of a few small pieces of wood, while Marinette’s face showed signs of strain, most probably from putting weight on her leg. The only reason she was because of what seemed to be more disciplined movement, but it wasn’t going to last long. So, she entered the fray, pulling out her yo-yo.

“HEY! How about you fight someone your own size!” said Alya, referring to the fact that Volpina was slightly shorter than Marinette, while she used the yo-yo to grab hold of the vixen villain’s flute and pull on it, making her turn around. Volpina struggled for a moment, surprised by Alya’s appearance, before her senses kicked in, along with her enhanced strength, stopping the blogger from pulling her weapon out of her hands. Having turned around, however, left her open to Marinette, who hit Volpina’s head with such a force that her cane snapped in two. The fox villain lost her grip on her weapon, staggering a little to the side.

”Fuck…!” Marinette whispered angrily.

“Come on! We need to go!” exclaimed Melodie, as she began to help her girlfriend leave. Volpina wanted to follow, but Alya got in her way, using her yo-yo to hit her, which failed miserably. Volpina in turn attempted to hit Alya with spinning kick, the blogger managing to dodge at the last second, before using her yo-yo’s string to grab a hold of the villainess’ left leg as she landed, and pulling, making her fall.

“Why are you after Marinette? What does she have to do with the heroes and their Miraculouses?” asked Alya, standing above Volpina. She didn’t respond, instead kicking the future journalist in her stomach, launching her about a few feet away. Alya ended up vomiting the contents of her stomach on the ground, her abdomen hurting incredibly much, her vision blurring and all sounds muffled, unable to hear the sound of Volpina’s flute grinding on the stone ground while she walked closer.

“Ew… You know, you could at least die with dignity … then again, turning your face into paste is probably no different.” commented the villainess as she light pushed Alya on her back before grabbing her by her flannel and pulling her up, a bored expression on her face. “PREPARE TO DIE!” shouted the foxy villain, a Cheshire smile finding its way on her face. Before she could begin pounding the blogger’s face in, something fast and metal came in fast and hit her in the back of her head, making her flinch and dropping Alya. Lila turned around, seeing Nino and scoffing, as the teen ran and grabbed what was essentially a garbage can lid. “You’re kidding me, right?” with frightening speed, Volpina ran in to attack, Nino barely putting up his guard and blocking multiple overhead strikes. “WHY DON’T YOU PEOPLE GET IT! RUN OR DIE!” shouted the villainess in fury before she  hit Nino with a side-to-side strike that sent him on the ground, the young DJ bracing for the impact and rolling back to his feet.

“No thanks. You, know, I still didn’t settle the score since last time.” replied the teen. The foxy villain ran in again but Nino anticipated another side-to-side strike and put all his strength in pushing back the attack, taking advantage of his enemy’s shock and using his makeshift shield to hit her head before he kicked her back, huffing and puffing from the effort, cold sweat beginning to go down his forehead.

“I won’t use all my power on insignificant bugs like you. Then again, you’re already spent, aren’t you?” asked Volpina, a smile on her face and her voice as cold as ice.

“… I can do this all day…” replied the teen in between his heavy breaths, holding his makeshift shield up.

“You won’t have to!” announced a new voice, this one a little familiar to the green clad teen.

After Alya intervened to save Marinette and Melodie, the two girls made their way to a place to hide that wasn’t already occupied, the blond haired girl letting her girlfriend sit down leaning against a wall and regain her breath. The blue haired girl popped two pills while she was at it, trying to block the pain. All the while Allegra was dotting over her while Nooroo stood by, unable to do anything. He did well with situations where his mistress was in distress, but nowadays that happened almost none at all.

“Please tell me you’re alright! We didn’t go too fast, right? Your leg didn’t break again did it? It hasn’t even been a year and you’re already—”

“Allegra! I’m fine… My leg is fine.” the young fashion designer cut in, smiling sweetly at her girlfriend, who was kneeling right in front of her, and held out a hand to wipe away a tear that Melodie shed, while also thinking that her plan for a great day was pretty much ruined. “Alya was probably following us… we need to go save her from the mess she got herself into.” explained Marinette before her expression looked slightly more alarmed, turning to her Kwami.

“Did something happen Marinette?”

“I also saw… Nino, in his old green clothes… I think?” the Butterfly Kwami and blond girl shared a look.

“The clothes Nino wore when you and Allegra were part of the uh… Quantic Kids?”

“Is that a bad thing? I mean, they are just clothes.”

“I… Never mind. We’ve got to hurry, Nooroo, fairy wings rise.” Upon hearing the magical words, the Kwami entered the Miraculous, purple energy surging out and enveloping Marinette’s body, turning her into Lady Monarch before her cane manifested in her hand. Fully rejuvenated and (temporarily) healed. The butterfly heroine stood up with ease.

“Huh… I expected something really flashy.” said Melodie.

“It’s way cooler when the other butterflies are around. They sort of… swirl. Speaking of butterflies…” Lady Monarch trailed off before whistling. In a short amount of time a swarm of butterflies arrived, taking both girls up into the air. Allegra giggled happily.

“I feel like a princess!” said the blond girl.

“I’m happy you feel like it. You’ll have the greatest view of the whole thing.”

“… Mari, I can’t just stand and watch! Make me a Champion. I can help!” The butterfly heroine sighed, figuring this would happen.

“Very well. I’ve been thinking of ways to defeat Volpina at her own game and I think you’ll be able to use the powers I’m about to give the best.” Lady Monarch did something with her cane, a purple glow emanating from inside it, a small package with a bow on it being pulled out. “Here.” Allegra caught the package thrown at her and after sharing a look with her girlfriend opened it, seeing what was inside and choking up a little, happy tears being shed this time. Her flute was repaired, but not in the way she expected: instead of one flute now she had two, one with 8 holes and another seven both now adorned with a few carvings small carvings of flowers on vines.

“They’re beautiful…” said Melodie as she saw a Fay land on the shorter flute.

“Fitting for the most beautiful girl in the world.” replied Lady Monarch, before the energy from the flute enveloped the blond girl. The swarm of butterflies let her fall, Melodie, now in her hero form, wearing a white jumpsuit with a black lower half. On her chest there was a treble clef on a save, black gloves adorning her hands and the black lower half having another stave, one with many musical notes. On her feet she sported white boots and on her face she wore a white mask, a black eight note around her left eye. As she fell she noted that Nino, really dressed in his old ‘Quantic kids’ outfit, which was a nice throwback. He was fighting Volpina, holding what seemed to be a very badly bent garbage can lid. One of her abilities that her girlfriend granted her was enhanced hearing, allowing her to hear the tail end of a conversation between the two.

“…I can do this all day…”

“You won’t have to!” announced Melodie, landing in between them. The first thing she did after landing was look around, seeing a girl dressed in red on the ground. “I will take care of Volpina N—No problem! Please go and help that girl!”

“Gotcha…” agreed Nino, a bit too tired for complex thoughts at the moment.

“Finally!” exclaimed Volpina. “Took Lady Monarch long enough. Time to play!” Volpina put her flute to her mouth and played a few notes, bringing to life illusions of large hearts made of ice that had legs and big maws with sharp teeth. Melodie twirled one of her flutes and played the same notes as Volpina, only in reverse, orange energy emerging from the other end of her short flute like liquid fire, separating as the branches of a tree and going through every single illusionary minion, resulting in them reshaping themselves into floating cute pink hearts with happy faces on them and some cartoonish arms.

“I love you!”/ “Huggies!”/ “Adorable foxy!” said the three illusionary minions, before hugging her tight.

“What the hell? What the fuck did you do?! GET OFF ME NOW!” shouted Volpina, frightening the hearts. She went about breaking each of these real illusions, getting kicked by Melodie after the last one was destroyed. A few notes were played on the longer flute, a flame emerging from its other end, this fire shaped like a sword’s blade. Volpina dodged a few amateurish swipes from Melodie, punching her in the face and launching her back before playing another set of notes, this time creating a humongous three-headed bulldog. The dog charged the Champion, who jumped over it, preparing to use her flute again. The vixen villainess however had other plans, rushing in and kneeing Melodie, before stealing the small flute and attempting to break it, unsuccessfully. The bulldog then pinned her down under one of its paws.

“Whoever you are, you suck! Why would Lady Monarch ever choose such a pitiful Champion to fight me?” asked Volpina before being smacked in the back of her head..

“WHY DOES EVERYONE HIT ME IN THE HEAD TODAY?!” The villain shrieked in rage, turning around to see none other than Chat, in his robotic suit thing that Lucky Cat spoke about. The teen’s staff shortened before he pressed a button, a spearhead decompressing from it. Without hesitation, Chat threw the spear with frightening force at the bulldog, turning it into blue smoke. Volpina took this opportunity, as the hero basically disarmed himself, to attack him. He however, having learned from his last battle, his father as well, was ready, managing to block most of Volpina’s flurry of attacks with her flute, the exoskeleton being a little damaged. He took the first opening he saw, first uppercutting her with a fist covered in metal (during his battle with Chai he learned that using his fists alone did nothing but hurt himself), continuing with a right hook, a punch to the stomach and a kick that sent her rolling.

“Chat Noir!” exclaimed Melodie, getting the hero’s attention, before she threw his staff back to him. As Volpina looked up from her position on the ground, she noted not only a distant cloud of butterflies far up in the sky, but also some blue drones flying lower, one getting closer and beginning to shoo at her. The villainess, finding herself both outnumbered and unable to use her entire repertoire, decided to flee.

“Leaving with her tail between her legs. Nice. I’m Chat by the way. Nice to meet you... Uh?” said Adrien, his voice masked by a modulator.

“Melody! Hello Chat! Nice to meet you too. Thank you for your help, I really needed it.”

“No prob, Melody. Sorry I couldn’t make it here faster. Still, I got in the nick of time by the looks of it.”

“Yes, thank you, again…” Melodie trailed off as she noted that a crowd was beginning to form since the danger was now past. “Maybe we could talk again some time? Up to Lady Monarch really. See you later!” she held her fist up to him.

“See ya!” he replied, fist bumping. Melodie ran off after that, a cloud of white butterflies swooping in and picking her up, the Champion flying out of view. Chat decided to make his leave as well, the car built like a tank waiting to drive him back home.

Chapter Text

Adrien got into the car and the guard began to drive away, going on the course to the secret entry point (Gabriel paid a small fortune to have that built). In the back of the car, where the blond teen stood, there was a small screen, almost like that of a tablet, which turned on, his father appearing to be calling from his atelier.

“Hello father.”

“Hello Adrien. How did it go?”

“I almost got here late.”

“That might be an issue in the future… Going over the speed limit and trampling over cars with what is essentially a military grade vehicle will just make things worse. The mayor has already been told to let the police and R.A.I.D. handle this due to the damages. He didn’t, because Lady Monarch fixed most of the damages, but still.”

“Oh! Oh! I know! Let’s get like a jet pack! I could fly to where I’m needed.” offered the blond boy excitedly.

“Adrien… do you know how much balance training you need for that?”

“No? How much?”

“Months, even years maybe. Otherwise you’re going to smash into a wall like a bug on a windshield.”

“Ouch… So the air is off the table then.”

“Hm… Not necessarily. I will need to see if there are any small, cost effective aircraft. It needs to be small enough to fit into the tunnel to the mansion.”

“Like a big drone? Maybe we could have our own ‘Flying Peacock’.” joked Adrien, knowing Peacocks don’t fly all that much. Gabriel smiled.

“You know, that’s a good idea. We could just get a bigger drone, one that can carry you, and you’ll be able get just about anywhere.” Adrien smiled happily.

“I was actually kinda joking… thanks dad!” said the boy, surprising both. Gabriel hadn’t heard his son call him dad in a long while, ever since…

“You’re welcome son. Have a safe trip home.”

After a humiliating defeat at the hands of not only the heroes, but two powerless teens and another empowered by a metal exoskeleton, the vixen villainess escaped. It infuriated Volpina to no end, especially because the two teens managed to actually hold their own against her for a short while. That shouldn’t have happened. She had super powers for goodness sake! She should have painted the ground red with their corpses, but instead she got her butt handed to her, one of them using a yo-yo (A freaking yo-yo!) and another using a trash can lid as a shield. Then there was the big problem. That Champion with two flutes was able to use her own illusionary minions against her. Master Chai never mentioned that could happen. All this time the foxy villain thought that she would always be able to get herself some troupes if she were ever outnumbered. Now however, Lady Monarch might employ this Champion every time and turn her only advantage into her downfall. And not only that, but her partner in crime was nowhere to be found! The first time he helped with keeping the whole hotel hostage didn’t work, and now the other time he showed up he as only good for bait. Now nothing! Volpina sometimes wished she could have her phone on her while transformed. At least that way she could call him. Even then, when she did try to call him to show up here, he didn’t respond. Like come on! Can you be any more useless? Master needs to choose a different guy. thought the villainess as she walked over, in civilian form, to where she usually met up with Chai to await for his arrival. When she got there, Volpina was obviously alone, so she decided to spend some of her time reading the notebook Lila tried to hide. Why would she do that? Because apparently pigtails had her on a leash. She was probably looking for their identities at her request. The betrayal was not really expected, but whatever. The information she could gleam from this could probably help a lot. If she could hand the identities of the heroes on a silver platter to master Chai then she would have his favor for sure. Although… this information was barely helping. Volpina, unknowingly, hit the obstacle that was Quantum masking. Her own mind became cloudy when it came to information about Miraculous users, unable to connect the dots.

“What are you doing here?” asked Chai, appearing out of nowhere after Volpina waited for who knows how long. The villainess was obviously startled, especially since she hadn’t heard him walk over, or make any sound really. “Volpina! What are you doing here?!” exclaimed Chai to get her to respond. He was not in the mood for one of his pawns to be annoying and wanted her out of his sight.

“N-Nothing! I was just leaving actually.” said Volpina cowardly as she got up and began power walking away. Chai was going to let her go, but something caught his eye and so he called out:

“Wait!” the villainess froze in place while he slowly walked over, giving her goose bumps. “You are on edge… have you something to hide?” he asked coldly. After moments of deliberation she decided to come clean about her original reason for coming here:

“… Where is my partner?”

“That’s all you came to talk to me about?”

“Yeah…?”

“<Sigh> You know how, when you took the Miraculous from Chat Noir, there was spirit that came out of it?”

“That weird cat thing?”

“The ‘weird cat thing’ was granted almost complete control of the Miraculous. My little pawn seems to have trouble getting it under control is all.”

“Why not just send someone else?”

“Quite simple: there aren’t enough people that would willingly attempted to go against the ‘heroes’, and even if there were, like there are now probably, I don’t want to lose Miraculouses. I still haven’t found the Ladybug one and, for your information, that one is the most powerful of them all.”

“I understand. With your permission I shall leave, master Chai.”

“Go! I need to be alone and think…” With that, Volpina scampered off, relieved she didn’t incur Chai’s wrath. She was well versed in how he could make her suffer without killing her already and didn’t want, nor need, another demonstration. There was only one thing she knew she needed to do: find out who the heroes were and use that information to achieve Chai’s mission and make up for her attempted theft.

Marinette, Melodie, Alya and Nino were walking together towards the Pont d'Iéna. The blue haired teen, having learned her lesson since the last time she had been in a villain attack, made sure to keep an extra cane on herself. This particular cane was telescopic, so it was easy to carry around, and its handle was shaped like the head of a gold club. It wasn’t the best, but it would absolutely do. The teens were mostly quiet, Nino and Alya not knowing how to explain themselves, the young fashion designer being angry and her girlfriend feeling a little awkward about this whole situation. While the blogger and young DJ did save them, they were originally there just to spy on them. In Allegra’s mind, this was further complicated by the fact she saved them in return, but couldn’t reveal that information. The four teens arrived at their destination, Andre spotting them from a relatively long distance away.

“Ah, ‘ello you beautiful love birds. But what is this? Feeling a little under the weather?” asked the ice cream maker.

“We came from Arc de Triomphe.” explained Marinette.

“I see. Well this won’t be an issue, as my wonderful ice cream is sure to raise your spirits. Now let me see…” Andre took one quick look at Marinette and Melodie and smiled. “Green tea, caramel and mango for you! A special concoction to make your love true!” rhymed the jolly ice cream maker, giving Marinette and her girlfriend their ice cream.

“Oh, I’m so excited! Did you know that couples who eat Andre’s ice cream will forever be bound by love?” asked Allegra.

“Of course. I want us to always face the future together, so I thought this would help us remain a couple.”

“Aw Mari~! That’s so romantic.” said the kind blond, hugging her girlfriend and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“Careful with the ice cream.” said the blue haired with a smile on her face. She grabbed one of the tiny spoons stuck in the ice cream, getting a tiny bit of it, and Allegra did the same, the two clinking the spoons before tasting their treat.

“Mh… It’s so good! Even a tiny bit like this.”

“Well Andre does make it from scratch.” said Nino, as him and Alya walked over, a single ice cream for the two of them.

“… You know Andre knows his stuff. You make a good couple.” said the young fashion designer, causing the two to blush a little. Her girlfriend gasped.

“You think so too? Don’t they look adorable? They’re even wearing complementary colors!” Marinette looked at Melodie a little shocked. “What’s wrong? I read some of your fashion notes from time to time.”

“That’s not we’re here to talk about.” said Alya.

“Yeah.” agreed Nino.

“Nope. We’re here to talk about how nice you are together!”

“That’s not it either!”/”That’s not it either!” said the young DJ and blogger at the same time.

“No, it isn’t.” said Marinette coldly, jamming her tiny spoon into the top of the ice cream before limping closer to Alya. “We’re here to talk about how you, Cesaire, completely disregarded me and my personal space.” Marinette then looked at Nino. “And you! I was not expecting you Lahiffe to go along with this, but you certainly surprised me. Now I know! Neither of you are getting into my home again, just so you know. Next thing I know, you’ll go through my stuff when I’m in the toilet or something…”

“Why didn’t you just tell us though?” asked Nino. “It’s not like we would have gotten mad at you for liking girls, right Alya?”

“Yeah, we wouldn’t.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point? Please tell us.” urged Alya, wanting to understand her friend better. Marinette opened her mouth, but no words came out, then she looked down, clearly in distress.

“Mari hates the idea of people’s perception of her changing… She knew that if you knew, you’d think of her differently.” explained Allegra.

“What she said…” added Marinette dejectedly. Nino and Alya shared a knowing look. “No! You’re doing that right now. Stop. It. Your pity has no place here…”

“Sorry…” apologize.

“It just sounds so sad.” added Nino.

“Yes, it is sad, just as sad as you loving that jacket. Our old little group is done Nino. Grow up! Come on Melodie.” were Marinette’s final words before limping off, her girlfriend apologizing for her before following.

If there was one thing that Tikki loved, was to be out into the world. As the Kwami of Creation, seeing how humans evolved and created new inventions, structures, even new types of food, was always beautiful. One thing she did miss however was space. The fact she was bound by a Miraculous meant she would no longer be able to lay her eyes on other suns, comets or planets, only the ones close by on this small planet called Earth, living out her days protecting humanity from dangers beyond their most amazing dreams and horrifying nightmares. Which was it came as a complete and utter surprise for her to wake up to the sight of the seemingly infinite cosmos… Plagg’s voice being that which she woke her.

“Hey…! Hey Sugarcube, wake up… come on… There we go!”

“Huh… Plagg?”

“Hi! Did you sleep well?”

“Where are we?” asked Tikki, observing her surroundings and realizing she was floating through space.

“No idea! If I were to guess, we’re about… nine million five hundred and seventy-six thousand three hundred and eleven light years away from Earth.” said the Kwami of Destruction with a smirk on his face.

“That sounds specific… Wait, how are you here? Isn’t Chai keeping you hostage?!”

“He was! Well, he still has my Miraculous, but right now I’m not within his reach.”

“B-But how is that possible? Who got you out? Nobody on Earth would even have the technology to fly us all the way over here.”

“In the world of dreams anything is possible.” said a new deep, yet soothing voice. Tikki looked around, trying to find the source of the sound, her eyes landing on a far away, yet approaching white light light as she heard the echoing sound of a horse. As the light got closer and closer, it broke off into all colors of the visible spectrum, eventually getting close enough to see that the light was a horse made out of cosmic rainbow colored energy, a large armored figure jumping off and landing on what seemed to be solid ground, even making a sound akin to his feet hitting a metal surface, while there was no ground in sight, the two Kwamis just floating in the depths of space.

“Who are you? How did you get us here?”

“Wow Sugercube, relax! He’s a good guy. His name is Lord X.”

“Lord X?”

“Stupid, I know.”

“H-Hey! That’s… Lord X is an awesome name. Sure it’s a simple name, but it makes more sense with context: X is the Roman numeral for ten. Lord is just cooler than king, or emperor.”

“Why ten then?” asked Tikki, curious. The armored man held up his hands, revealing that on each finger he wore a ring, all uniform in design, but with a different colored, coffin shaped gem, two of them glowing slightly: a yellow one and a green one.

“You know what these are? Either of you?” Tikki and Plagg gasped.

“AREN’T THOSE GEMS THE ONES THE SOULUCARIM USED TO ATTACK EARTH?!” asked Plagg in distress.

“How do you even have possession of them? They were destroyed!”

“Maybe your version, yes. All that potential was destroyed by the prodigious, but in my universe humans managed to harness the power of these gems and destroy them, not just drive them away. Now let’s see… why did I bring you here again? Ah, now I remember: I wanted to show you all that await you once I manage to break the barriers between words.” With a snap of his fingers, the figure caused their surroundings to begin breaking apart, white cracks becoming visible before huge chunks of the universe began to fall out, the holes that remained showing the other various universes like videos on screens: one showed Marinette and Adrien with the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous, fighting Gabriel Agreste, who held the Butterfly one; another had Marinette in a wheelchair, yet smiling and seemingly happy, with her using the butterfly Miraculous to fight Chat Noir and Volpina; another showed Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur using the Peacock and Ladybug Miraculous respectively, fighting Chat Noir and Champions made by another version of Marinette who seemed to be blind; another version had Alya using the Ladybug Miraculous while another had Chloe use the earrings; yet another world had what looked like Marinette creating a the Ladybug Miraculous, only in the shape of a ring instead; one universe showed Marinette using the Bee Miraculous, while another showed Nino with the turtle Miraculous along with Alya being the heroes of Paris; in some other universe another girl with blue hair neither of the Kwamis recognized seemed to be using the Cat Miraculous instead of Adrien. From what both could tell Marinette was almost always the center of all these various universes.

“Isn’t it beautiful? More evil and more heroes to combat it, all in a conflict that will be so much larger than any one of you Kwamis can fathom. After all, your existence only came after the multiverse was closed off.” A ringing sound began to be heard and the cracks began to repair themselves, everything around beginning to glow white. “What a shame. Looks like you have to wake up Tikki. And you too Plagg. No matter. I hope you too have fun in your small world, with your small conflict, because soon enough it won’t be small anymore.” Said Lord X happily…

Tikki was startled awake by Marinette’s alarm clock. She  looked around quickly, finding herself alone in the room, except, of course, for the blue haired girl, Nooroo and Mullo.

“Is everything alright Tikki?” asked Nooroo.

“You look like you’ve had a nightmare.” the Kwami of creation stopped and tried to remember her dream, noting her mind was already fuzzy on the details, only remembering Plagg was there.

“Maybe, but I’m not sure.”

”Didn’t know Kwamis had dreams…” said Marinette absentmindedly as she got up and grabbed her cane to walk to the bathroom and start her day.

Chapter Text

Marinette looked over the information she had amassed on her whiteboard as she tried to think. Up till now she had not taken into account the idea of a different Peacock hero doing her thing outside of France. From what Nooroo had told her, a guardian of a Miracle Box would often travel all over the world and deploy the Miraculous to deal with whatever local threat happened to be taking place at the moment. The reason this was the MO was the simple fact that having a Miraculous wielder travel from one place to another was much more difficult than just having the guardian travel themselves. It was for this reason that there was more than one Miraculous actually. This meant that for this previous Peacock Heroine to be all over the place she would have a ton of money to pay flights, or even have her own private jet. From there the location intrigued Marinette. A charity event in Britain… In fact, all the places where she had shown up were charity events. Going through multiple incomplete lists of guests at the events should have been difficult, but one of them stood out almost immediately, being the only one with a French citizenship: Emilie Agreste. Of course, Marinette knew that the connection had been blocked by the Quantum Masking effect of the Miraculous, but once she did realize it, it was completely obvious. Emilie Agreste, in possession of the Peacock Miraculous… Gabriel Agreste, holding down the fort here in Paris as the crime fighting vigilante Grand Chat, then giving away his Cat Miraculous to none other than the immaturish Adrien, who became Chat Noir, now using an exoskeleton to battle the villains... well, not anymore now that she knew.

“So, there we were…! Me and Bọ rùa managed to arrive just in time to save her partner from the Dragon. She spoke the magical words and I entered the earrings, empowering her. The Dragon proclaimed that he would wash out the civilization near its nest for not being ‘devout’ enough. Basically the humans there didn’t stroke his ego enough and didn’t offer him enough food. However, my wielder was not going to allow the destruction of her people to take place. At first she battled the dragon and used the yo-yo’s wire to wrap around his open mouth, letting her ride him out into the clouds to disperse them. He managed to shake her off, Bọ rùa landing in her village and getting caught by her partner. He offered to use the destructive power of the Cataclysm in order to overpower and decimate the dragon, but she knew that, without him, her village will have no way to survive, as the rain would no longer come. Bọ rùa summoned her Lucky Charm, creating something completely different, something even I didn’t expect could be created…”

“What was it?” asked Nooroo.

“Yeah, did she make like some sort of celestial object, or prison, or whatever?” asked Mullo.

“The Lucky Charm was a human. But not just any human. It was a human looking and acting just as his former, deceased lover and bride. In return for his continued patronage, giving rain to the crops to feed the people, Bọ rùa gave him the Lucky Charm, who would never age, like his older bride. In return the dragon’s ire had been sated and, in fact, he was so happy that he gifted the village with rivers.”

“Wow… It all ended peacefully…! Did the dragon continue to live with his bride?”

“Well he must’ve, right? No way Tikki’s wielder would use the Lucky Charm to repair the damages.”

“You are right Mullo. She didn’t. The dragon and his bride however are no longer alive, as his power faded and he turned to stone, while she dissipated without his magic to maintain her. However, it is said that the cave in which the dragon resided is still lived in by the spirit of his bride, and she would still tend to his stony needs.”

“That is so beautiful… and romantic! I hope my mistress will have the same kind of relationship with her loved one.”

“Well, from what you’ve told us, Nooroo, I’m fairly certain they will be together forever. Didn’t they seal their love with that magical ice cream stuff?” asked Mullo.

“They did. Plus, my mistress has even entrusted Melodie with my Miraculous and while I was at first skeptical, she performed alright!” said Nooroo, grabbing a berry cookie and breaking it in three pieces, sharing it with the other two Kwamis.

The Kwamis were currently hanging out in Marinette’s Garden, talking about their past experiences, Tikki especially speaking about her time with various users to Nooroo, who had been, for a long while, unable to interact with other Kwamis until the events this year. When they saw the platform come down and heard Marinette calling them, they flew over, interested to see what she wanted. When their eyes landed on the whiteboard they all stopped and stared. The young fashion designer had written down the name of who was Chat Noir for the past 2 months or so.

“It’s just simply Agreste junior. His mother had the money to travel around and be the Peacock heroine while his father stayed here and fought bad guys. If you stop to think about it, the fact the mantle was passed almost instantly from Grand Chat to Chat Noir. Why would Gabriel would obviously pass of his mantle and source of power to his son because Adrien’s safety is his priority. This also explains why Agreste Mansion is built like the Knight Owl’s Birdnest base as well as how Chat manage to come back as a hero with equipment that is definitely expensive… So: am I good or am I good?” asked Marinette smugly.

“You are incredible…” said Mullo.

“I knew my mistress would figure it out!”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng… you are the first person in history to figure out the identity of another Miraculous wielder without them revealing it to you.” said Tikki with a smile on my face.

“To be fair, Lila helped with this investigation. The impressive thing was that I figured her identity without issue.”

“So what now?” asked the Ladybug Kwami.

“Now, it’s time for Chat Noir to have a makeover.”

For the third time since the appearance and self-proclamation as the heroine of Paris, Lady Monarch, or more specifically, her swarm of butterflies, could be seen, flying out in a sort of cloud formation, the same way they did during the ‘Francoise Dupont High School Assault’ and the more recent ‘Arc de Triomphe Panic’. This time however, there wasn’t any form of emergency that would warrant this action, leaving the locals completely baffled as to why they would appear, as well as more vigilant, as perhaps the heroes managed to spot Volpina or yet another new villains before anyone raised the alarm via ‘Monarchat: Hero Watch’. Nobody knew what was going on, but they were all concerned (from this experience Lady Monarch would learn to be more covert in this kind of actions, but nevertheless, this mistake was already made and could no longer be rectified).

Even Gabriel Agreste had cause for concern, the experienced fashion designer having Nathalie, who was given a medical break, to oversee the ‘Ostentation’, the name given to the group of Peacock designed drones that were made for the purposes of assisting Chat in all future operations after the loss of the Cat Miraculous. From what she could tell, the swarm of butterflies flew near the area of the mansion and theater before the large majority dispersed, except for two groups: One that flew off who knows where, and another that obstructed the view of the drones that tried to follow. The fact this happened meant Lady Monarch had become aware of their involvement and the possible risk of her identity being deduced. For a superhero who’s entire MO was underground work, Gabriel sure didn’t manage to keep the drones at a safe distance… then again, he has been recording some of the current fights and cataloguing the powers and abilities of each new Champion, so I can’t really blame him for wanting clear footage. thought the blue haired woman as she recalled all the drones back.

For some time this swarm’s movement was a complete mystery, until Adrien came back from one of his photo shoots and had some time to relax at home. There he found a small purple box on the table in front of his couch. On the box there was a custom sticker showing the symbol of a ladybug and glowing in the light. Upon opening the small box the blond boy was hit with a red light that with a familiar intensity. And for sure, once the light dimmed he was faced with none other than a Ladybug themed Kwami. It wasn’t Plagg, obviously, but the sight of a small creature that looked like him reminded the teen of him while also reassuring him that now he was going to have powers again. And not just any powers, but ones that were capable to combat him when he was Chat.

“Hello there! You must be Adrien Agreste. Chat Noir, right?”

“YES! That’s me! Did Lady Monarch send you?” asked Adrien excitedly. The Kwami nodded in response.

“My name is Tikki. I am the Kwami of Creation.” that last part gave the blond teen pause.

“So, you’re the exact opposite of Destruction…?” he asked. Tikki smiled knowingly.

“Yes, I am the opposite of Plagg. I am the first and oldest Kwami, he is the second oldest.”

“And you’re more powerful?”

“I don’t think that’s really relevant… Why do you ask?”

“Well, that one time I fought the other guy I had a hard time one on one, whereas when I’m fighting Volpina it’s just a difference in skill.”

“Oh, that’s because you were fighting an adult. An empowered adult is stronger than an empowered child.”

“Ah, gotcha.”

“In any case. Lady Monarch gave you my Miraculous to use until we save Plagg. Then Lady Monarch will come and ask to have me back.”

“So I’m like renting your Miraculous?” joked Adrien, the entire sentence going over Tikki’s head.

“I’m... not sure what you’re talking about. What is ‘rent’?” she asked, confused. After this, the rest of the day had been filled with Adrien explaining a bunch of stuff about the modern world to the Kwami, telling her all about modern music, about videogames (they even played a little on one of his game cabinets), about stuff like manga and anime and all other things that the teen thought were cool about the modern world, while he learned that, when she was with Lady Monarch, she mostly spent her time in her base, a place filled to the brim with nature and butterflies and acting as a safe space, both physically and spiritually (she apparently had paper talismans), while also chatting and sharing stories with Nooroo, a rare occasion when she talked to a Kwami that has been ‘active for a long time’. Adrien inferred that Tikki hasn’t been out much due to being used for evil before her probable rescue accomplished by Lady Monarch. This all continued until it was time for dinner and Nathalie came in to announce it:

“Adrien, it’s time…” the secretary trailed off as she saw the Tikki in the room, who hadn’t expected the silent approach to the boys door followed by its sudden open, leading to the Kwami unable to go hide in time. “Is that another Kwami or am I hallucinating?!” she asked, completely shocked. The volume of her voice was heard by the other occupants as well, Gabriel sprinting up to the room before skidding to a halt at the door, barely out of breath, closely followed by the more stompy sounds of the burly bodyguard as he made his way there as well.

“You’re not hallucinating Nathalie.” assured Gabriel. A little bit later and everyone was at the dinner table. Adrien and Tikki felt incredibly awkward as not only the boy’s dad, who was watching them like a hawk, but Nathalie and the Bodyguard were there, the giant of a man having come back with some chocolate chip cookies from ‘Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie’ while the secretary was reviewing the footage from the drones.

“The only explanation would be that Lady Monarch gave us this Miraculous.” said Nathalie.

“We’re renting it actually.” explained Adrien.

“We’re what?” asked Gabriel.

“Lady Monarch expressively told me to tell you that once Plagg is saved she will take the earrings back.” further explained.

“… You know, I always wandered: what is Lady Monarch’s relation to this entire situation. You were used for evil before, but now you are here. How do we know Lady Monarch isn’t actually conspiring together with the villains?” asked the experience fashioned designer, bringing up a good point. In the back of his mind he felt this was a little bit of an outlandish theory, but he still wandered the possibility of that scorpion villain perceiving this all as a game, with the Butterfly themed heroine being nothing more than another ‘player’. Thankfully, Tikki was actually capable of clarifying:

“Lady Monarch is the keeper and wielder of the Butterfly Miraculous and the Miraculous Spellbook. Basically she’s been learning how to fight for her entire life in case someone came after her Miraculous, while she also learned of the secrets of most Miraculouses. I’m not actually sure, but I think she might be a descendant of the Order of the Guardians. Even her own Kwami is a little bit in the dark about this. If you are worried of her being on a different side, then you can put those worries to rest. Her main goal is the protection of any and all Miraculouses that fall into her possession.”

“But how did she save you?” asked Nathalie, curiosity clear in her voice.

“She didn’t. She had Volpina do it.” Everyone looked at the little Ladybug Kwami, not a sound to be heard for a short amount of time.

“Volpina’s with us; the good guys?!” asked Adrien.

“I think so? She originally recovered my Miraculous in order to find a way to repair it.”

“Repair it? It’s possible to repair a Miraculous?” asked Gabriel.

”Yes. Then it got into the hands of Lady Monarch through an intermediary. Now Volpina helped gather information that helped with discovering Chat Noir’s identity, as well as that of the original Peacock user.“ The silver blond man choked on his food a little.

”… Lady Monarch must be really bummed that I lost Plagg I imagine…” said Adrien.

“She doesn’t judge you, if that’s what you’re thinking about. She actually gave you my Miraculous because she thought I could help you grow. I agree. My power set needs more thought put into it, more strategy and creative thinking. You could use some of that.” said Tikki, smiling before she grabbed another cookie to crunch on.

“There something else that we need…” began Gabriel, getting everyone’s attention. “…the public’s trust.”

“What are you thinking sir?” asked Nathalie, having a vague idea of what the experienced fashion designer had in mind.

For some unknown reason to the public, the mayor made an announcement stating that everyone was welcome to come into the Parc des Princes… for another announcement. This was very bizarre for Marinette, who was quick to tell Lila to keep an eye out. Allegra offered to be on the lookout too and the blue haired teen agreed, the two telling their parents that they planned to hang out this evening to cover their tracks for Lady Monarch and Melody. Regardless what the announcement was, this kind of event was sure to attract the attention of the Volpina clone and the cat villain, so all the possible forces had to be here. Little did everyone know that this was exactly what Gabriel had planned from the start…

The Mayor was currently in the middle of the stadium, the lights on his pedestal where he was ready to have his speech, from afar, attempting to hide in the night’s sky, Multifox noted those drone things that have recently been everywhere Chat happened to be. Everything seemed to be quiet for now, until a buzz in the back of her head was felt.

“No…! Melo—” before Multifox could attempt to run to the Champion and announce her, Volpina ambushed her, the two rolling a little before the villainess stood on top of the faux-heroine.

“Now, now sister. We wouldn’t want to make master angry, would we?” asked Volpina, her voice dripping with venom. She knows.

“You don’t understand, he’s not our master! He hurt my mom!”

“Our mom! And no, he didn’t. I did that.” said Volpina, smiling.

“…What…?” asked Multifox, mortified.

“He sure gave her a big scare… Shadowy man turning into a monstrous scorpion. Before he could do anything however, I made sure to rough her up a little.” Multifox just stared at her. “He did break her arm to tell me he meant business when I forgot to show up at one of our training sessions. In all honesty, I don’t really need ‘em. All that I need was for this…” she tapped where Lila’s heart was. “…to shut up. And when we split it did! No more nagging from the weakling, the good girl, the one who failed to lie properly. I mean, how much of an idiot must you be—” Volpina got clocked in the face by Multifox, who used this opportunity to push her off and get back on her feet, the villainess quickly recovering as well and giggling creepily. “What’s wrong? Did your heart not shut up too? Are you sad dear old absent mom got hurt~?” before Lila could reply or attack again screams were heard from the stadium…

Chapter Text

On the stadium, everyone waited with baited breath, some having snacks like fires or seeds that were being sold at the stadium (obviously to make up for the fact the seating was absolutely free, but nobody cared). The lights were, for the most part off, making for quite the atmosphere. Then the floodlights turned on, following him as he walked up to the podium, some horns playing a slow song that some of the younger citizens jokingly called his ‘theme song’. Once at the podium everything was quiet again. He took one good look around before beginning:

“Our great Napoleon once said that ‘True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat’. He also said that ‘men are neither wholly good nor wholly bad’ and with that I agree the most. For the past couple of months we all have suffered at the hands of villains that have preyed on our safety and terrorized our future. While this took place heroes have always been on our side to combat them. Of course, now I’m quite aware that after more recent… blunders let’s call them, the heroes have given us mixed signals. However, I know that even if they mean well our heroes can’t be perfect, but they try their hardest to rise above expectation to save the day. Some time ago we saw this with the complete restoration of a huge chunk of our good city, including my hotel, but more recently, I received a sign of our heroes’ willingness to show that they wish for us to be absolutely sure they are the answer to our problems, not part of it. And so, Chat Noir, who has recently lost his powers has something to show you all; Introducing: Red Beetle!” announced the mayor, everyone’s attention being further stolen by the sound of more energetic music as a new figured made it on stage, some robus drones flying down into view for him to hop on and swing from, his red armor and shoulder pads with black spots shimmering in the light as he showed off his chops.

From afar Melody was watching, the Champion bouncing a little to the beat of the music while she looked at Red Beetle’s show.

“That ensemble doesn’t quite suit him… it sounds more like you actually sweetie… Do you not want me to call you sweetie? If you don’t I’m so sorry!” backpedaled the Champion, before the butterfly symbol appeared in front of his face.

“No, I don’t mind you calling me sweetie… it’s just… Adrien’s got to be fucking with me…”

“Language!”

“Sorry!... How could he though?! I entrusted the Ladybug Miraculous to him and he does… THIS?! Did Tikki seriously agree to this whole circus?!” Melody could tell Lady Monarch was incredibly close to a mental breakdown, especially since she kept trying to speak more, only for strangled sounds to be heard. Before anything else could be said, screams began being heard from the stadium, and both Champion and heroine turned their attention to it, seeing that Chai showed his ugly mug down there.

Melody immediately shot off like a rocket, quite literally actually, playing a short song on her longer flute before riding it like a magic broom, orange flame like magical energy propelling it, and her, down to the stadium. While she came over, the scorpion villain and ladybug hero were trading blows, in a way. Red Beetle kept his distance from the large villain, hoping around and using the drones to his advantage in dodging. Some of the other drones even shot bullets at the monstrous scorpion, and were ineffective in hurting him, but did provide the best distraction as Red Beetle swung by and kicked him in the head. Chai, angered, sat down on all fours and pointed his tail out, some yellowish liquid being blasted out, hitting the drone and causing sparks electric sparks to fly out of it, the ladybug hero falling to the ground into a roll while all other drones started to fly further up into the air. The villain then decided to turn his attention to the mayor, shooting a few blasts of that yellow venom at guards that were coming to get him, causing them drop down, as if dead, before he tried shooting the mayor himself.

“Reel him in!” ordered Gabriel over the earpiece his son had. The ladybug hero did just that, the shot narrowly missing Mayor Bourgeois.

“AND NOW YOU’RE MINE!” proclaimed Chai, pouncing at Red Beetle. With the yo-yo’s wire wrapped around the mayor without the experience and time to think, combined with the sheer ferocity of the scorpion villain, his maw open as if to crunch on RB, the ladybug hero panicked and remained frozen in place, regardless of Gabriel’s voice telling him to grab Bourgeois and jump. Suddenly, the song of a flute was heard and Chai was hit with a wave of orange firey energy coming from his right, pushing him off his course and saving the hero and Bourgeois. As Red Beetle sighed in relief, the mayor managed to get himself untangled from the yo-yo’s wire.

“Hey Melody! It’s me, Chat! I’ve got a new Miraculous!”

“Adrien, I think it would be better if you focused on the battle.” spoke Nathalie through the earpiece.

“I heard! We were keeping an eye out!” replied the Champion who, interestingly enough, had a slight change in her costume: the basic design was still there, the only changes being the golden treble clef on a stave replacing the black one, along with the stave and notes being golden on her lower half of the suit.

Before Lila could reply or attack again screams were heard from the stadium…

“That must be master. <Giggle> These pour idiots really thought they could some big celebration or whatever and not have us attack? Their naiveté is why we got away with our own truths, until that wretch ruined everything. And now you’re her lap dog…” said Volpina, smiling coldly. Multifox completely blocked out her words, focusing on her movements, the villainess walking casually. Suddenly, she was charged at, and so jumped, keeping it weak enough to land onto Volpina, essentially drop kicking her. She immediately continued with a flurry of blows on the villainess clone, who managed to roll away after a couple of seconds of pain. This time, Multifox didn’t wait to be attacked, going on the offensive herself. The clone quickly gathered her strength and began parrying the more chaotic attacks of her opponent, the anger making the vixen unable to strategize with attacks, the pit in her soul starting to slowly grow bigger once again. The villain was relatively quick in finding a lapse in her opponents chaotic attack pattern, using it to sweep her legs from under her. She wanted to pay her back for the many blows she suffered early, but couldn’t, as Multifox rolled away, Volpina following in an attempt to exploit her advantage, the vixen kicking up to get back on her feet and hit Volpina at the same time. The villainess realized that she was not going to gain any advantage by herself, so she played a short song on her flute, creating a combination between a snake, an eel and a blowfish, the creature immediately coiling around the vixen and growing its spike as it began to electrocute her. Multifox was in indescribable pain, so much so that she was knocked out of her rage.

“Why?! Why did you hurt my mom?! What did she do?!” asked the vixen, unable to understand.

“What she didn’t do you mean. Our mother was always so distant. Never truly around even if she was with me at home.” explained Volpina.

“She was… doing her best…” replied Multifox.

“Doing her best for her career! In fact, why did she need to take away my chance at being popular. I could have been queen on a school, any school! She kept applying to jobs that were guaranteed to move us!” The vixen laughed lightly, despite the fact the illusionary minion was coiled tightly around her.

“You could have been… queen? What… happened… to us?” Volpina’s eyes widened. “Freudian slip much…?” asked Multifox as she thought of the way to get out of this… The very first time she saw that video online, she couldn’t believe it: Lady Monarch had created a Champion who could manipulate the illusions and use them against Volpina. The thing that interested her however was how she did it: every time that Champion would some song, similar to how she would play songs to create the illusionary minions in the first place. A couple of days ago, while looking for Chat’s identity, she also tried to understand how that Champion work with the help of her nonexistent knowledge of music or its relation with her powers. Yet, she managed to learn one thing: play the notes backwards and the illusion is gone.

The vixen whistled a short melody, the complete opposite of what Volpina had played earlier, resulting in the illusionary minion’s disappearance in puff of smoke. Multifox immediately began booking it to the edge of the building so she could jump towards the stadium. Of course, the villainess noticed and immediately got in the way, launching the vixen back with a well timed kick to the stomach. Multifox was mocked by her clone for trying to escape, not really paying attention to what she was saying. She’s just trying to wind you up, to distract you… knowing myself, she’s probably lying about hurting my mom to get me angry… thought the vixen, seeing Volpina create a bunch of large purple starfish with cyclopic red eyes which cast a light as powerful as that of a spotlight, almost blinding. Some of these illusionary minions floated about in certain spots in order to obscure Multifox’ vision, while others were quick to fly at her, spinning like, and actually hurting quite as much as, saw blades. The wasn’t a single moment of reprieve, and when she thought she found one, Volpina ran in and smacked her with her flute. And that gave her an idea. Before the villainess could pull away and let the starfishes continue their assault, the vixen managed to grab hold of her opponents flute while keeping her ears peeled for the incoming starfish.

“Let go dammit!” Volpina struggled. The moment she did think of kicking her opponent, she was spun around and used as a meat shield for the starfish, before being kicked away, losing her flute. Multifox continued to listen very carefully for the whooshes of the starfish, as well as Vlpina’s steps and whooshes of her attacks, whittling the illusionary minions down to just a few, allowing the vixen to get around them all.

“You want to see a real minion? How about this!” exclaimed Multifox before she played a song on her on flute, creating a majestic, enormous, golden manta ray, its body shimmering in the moonlight. The illusionary minion was quick to gobble up all of the remaining starfish before flying off towards the stadium, the vixen jumping on his back and saluting to her opponent. Without a flute, Volpina had no way to use her main power but that didn’t stop from at least trying to be a pain in the bottom for the vixen, taking a running start from the roof and managing to land on the majestic manta ray, causing it to nosedive due to sudden force that came to push it down. Both Volpina and Multifox fell off the illusionary minion just as Chai managed to overpower Melody’s fiery energy projected from her longer flute, the manta ray landing on the scorpion villain, both of them getting pushed back, the manta ray dissipating. The crowd, which had planned to leave before realizing everything was under control, and the battle was restricted to the stadium interior, was now watching the battle like a show, eating their snacks glued to their seats, occasionally cheering for the heroes. Now that they saw two what they essentially knew to be two Volpinas… It was difficult for them to understand what was going on. Volpina was quick to grab her flute back, creating a bunch of muscular, crocodile football players, along with a large metal ball fitting for the size of the illusionary villains. The drones were quick to turn their attention them, the bullets, surprisingly, doing little. And so it began. The two foxes continued their battle while the crocodiles were focused on the drones, ending up leaving Red Beetle with little to swing from. Chai hadn’t noticed the two foxes yet, thanks to Melody’s powerful music. The villain was more focused on her rather than the ladybug hero, as her energy blasts were more damaging than any yo-yo hit. The villain managed to sort of corner her, getting close enough that she couldn’t have time to play the song for a blast, putting up a shield instead. Red Beetle had no idea what to do. He didn’t have the physical strength required to pull the villain back, seeing as he dug his feet in an attempt to push past the shield that Melody made and the shield itself was more of a force field that ball around the Champion.

“Say a witty remark!” came Gabriel’s voice over the headpiece.

“But that’s exactly what got us here!”

“Being serious is whole other thing. Factor your banter in strategically instead of switching gears between them!”

“Ok… here goes.. Hey Teeth-for-days! What am I? Chopped liver?” That seemed to get Chai’s attention only slightly. “Alright then. I’ll be here chewing gum and waiting to kick your butt.” No response this time. “How do I get to you…” said Adrien as he looked over to Chai. The villain seemed to be getting awfully close to penetrating the shield and that is when he noticed it. The glint of something around his neck. Red Beetle smiled. “That’s a nice necklace! Yoink!” exclaimed the ladybug hero as he threw his yo-yo towards Chai’s neck. The villain’s eyes widened and he pulled back, dodging the yo-yo. He immediately went to attack Red Beetle who, remembered something very important. The villain leaned forward and attempted to pierce him with his stinger, RB spinning his yo-yo rapidly, creating some form of energy shield that repelled Chai’s attack. He looked shocked for a moment.

“Like it? Learned it from your Lucky Jester!” Chai was not amused, the scorpion grabbing the faux-shield from above, essentially grabbing the yo-yo’s head, and used it to throw the ladybug hero up into the air, jumping after him. While flying, Red Beetle grabbed hold of a drone and swung it in the air, right back in the monstrous scorpion’s maw.

“Strike! You’re out!”

“Seriously?! Those are expensive!” complained Gabriel with an unfamiliar tone to the teen hero, Nathalie’s laughter heard in the background as well. Chai got up shortly after, opening his eyes to Melody running at him, putting her two flutes together and making the longer one spin like a screw, connecting them. Her face a little red, she took a deep breath and put her flute to her mouth pushing all the air out as her fingers moved quickly over the holes, a giant wave of energy being released, ethereal dragons flying inside the blast as well. Chai, along with the illusionary minions and Volpina, got hit, while Multifox dodged. The minions predictably got completely pulverized, while the two villains rolled on the ground, Chai ending up on top of Volpina. Multifox looked on, waiting, Melody resting on her whole flute and taking gathering her breath. Her left ear twitched as she heard the zip of a certain wire and she immediately leaned to the right, taking a couple steps away from the yo-yo RB threw at her as well.

“Wait! I’m with you guys!” exclaimed the vixen.

“Yeah and I’m Santa Claus.! Tikki said that too, but you went and made a bunch of weird crocodiles.” replied the Ladybug hero.

“Seriously?! Look, she’s the one you want! She made those weird crocodiles!” Multifox pointed to Chai, who was pushing himself up slowly. Under him was Volpina. The villain saw the two vixens and immediately felt a blood vessel explode:

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!” he screamed in rage.

“I wanted to tell you, but you never seemed to be in a good enough mood master! She’s a clone of me who—” Volpina was cut off by the scorpion’s roar, before he got up and charged at the vixen. She dodged to the side and Chai attempted to swipe at her, his arm getting caught and pulled back by Red Beetle. The villain used his superior strength to pull RB towards him, and then pinned him to the ground.

“You’d be a good… masseur… Has anyone told you… that?” joked the hero to buy himself a couple of seconds to think about how to escape the crushing grip of his opponent. Thankfully he didn’t need to do it himself, as Chai saw from the edge of his vision how Melody prepared to use her flute again, and he braced for it, letting go of RB and putting his arms up to block the blast of fiery energy, getting pushed back only slightly. The ladybug hero was quick to use his yo-yo to grab onto another drone, which pulled him up. He let go and the few remaining drones, four of them specifically, flew at Chai in an attempt to use their mounted flamethrowers. The villain roared for a bit before jumping away. The drones tried to follow, but each and every one of them was hit by a laser blasts that fried their circuits, courtesy of Volpina, who had copied Megamaster’s cannon arm.

“Deal with the Champion!” Volpina did as she was told, focusing her attention to Melody as an idea came to her mind. Using the power of her own copy of the Mouse Miraculous, she cloned herself, the villainess now having someone to run interference of the Champion’s power of illusionary manipulation. Red Beetle, seeing the odds, chose to help Melody first. “You ungrateful human… I gave that power and it’s time I took it away. You are no longer useful.” spoke Chai quietly. Multifox could feel the hole in her soul grow larger, back into a pit, just by being in the presence of this monster. Her muscles started feeling like jelly, her breathing became more difficult, her vision got blurry and she could feel blood drip from her nose as Chai slowly and calmly made his way closer. Images in Lila’s might went fleeting by. It was when she was a small child with her mother, followed by her kindergarten, then first grade, second grads and so on and so on. Always in a different place, with her mom growing ever distant due to work and her lies growing bigger. Her life was flashing before her eyes, all the memories all her mistakes… until Marinette. That girl… she was her match, her superior in her game of lies. She brought her fairytale castle down brick by brick… but what would have happened if she didn’t? I would have continued off lying… I would have been found eventually. Marinette, the one she hated the most, the one that had been used as the soil for the roots of corruption to grow, was the one that wanted to pull her out of darkness… and it took her this long to realize… Volpina smiled, tears going down her cheeks from her monstrous headache, caused by her remembering everything. She fell down, all her energy seemingly depleted. “I will enjoy squashing you.” said Chai happiness clear in her voice. Multifox began to laugh lightly. The villain intertwined the clawed fingers of his hands and then swiftly brought his hands down with as much force as he could… and she caught it. Chai’s eyes went wide as Multifox’ laugh grew bolder and little blue fire began to swirl around her, her necklace growing orange. “No… how are you… resisting… me…?”  asked Chai, as he struggled with the vixen heroine’s strength.

“I finally realized… that what I’m on the wrong side.” the blue and black in the suit began to be covered by growing orange and white spots. “That I made mistakes.” The fire around Multifox got bigger. “That my Miraculous was broken by you… And I finally realized that… there is someone out here who wants to help me… There is someone willing to give me a second chance!” Multifox managed to get up. “I refuse to let that chance pass me by! I WILL NO LONGER BE YOUR PUPPET!” shouted Lila with conviction, her senses overtaken by a sudden rush of power, of warmth, her body a conduit for the blue flames that, combined with her brute strength, launched Chai back, the flames stronger than anything which Melody had created that night, shaping themselves in the form of a large fox. Volpina saw the blast of flame, and hightailed it out of there, her own clone getting hit by the attack. When everything settled, everyone looked at Multifox after hearing her declaration. Her suit was completely different: a vibrant orange bodysuit with what appeared to have an orange swan necked overcoat with a white front, the orange fox tail that was her necklace now acting as the zipper; the overcoat had a long and wide foxtail which almost touched the ground; she wore pair of short, white boots that were part of her bodysuit, with soles colored orange and with white fox paw prints; her gloves were similarly white as well as long, going over her elbows. Finally, the most noticeable change, was that her hair was long, and white, her strands now a neon light blue.

Chai was quick to leave the premises and Red Beetle used his Miraculous Ladybug at Lady Monarch’s request, repairing all damages done to the stadium. Every single person in the crowd got up and made as much noise in celebration as possible. The heroes won big time, this time around.

Chapter Text

A soft snore was heard in the early morning, around 6:00, when Marinette was still asleep in her bed, blissfully relaxing after a long day of work. It had been a couple of days since the battle at the stadium, and she had used this time of peace to bring to life some of her fashion designs in her notebook after realizing that, lately, she had done nothing but work on the Miraculous Spellbook, as Lady Monarch, or being busy with school as well as with her girlfriend. Since she wasn’t going to shout to the heavens that she was a hero and make a career out of that, she had locked herself, feeling in the sewing mood as well, coming out with tons of clothes, tired, but also feeling incredibly proud and happy with herself. Today was a day of school however and, for the first time in forever, she forgot to turn on her alarm function on her phone, having turned it off prior in the weekend in order to destroy her sleep schedule and not have to worry about waking up early. Sabine and Tom were down in the bakery, both of them preoccupied with a relatively busier morning, more so than usual in fact, probably because of the slightly colder weather and the fact they started selling some coffee along with their pastries, a new idea that their daughter told them to test out and see if it went anywhere, thusly, they were not going to wake up her up. Thankfully, they didn’t even need to do it at all, as the blue haired girl felt something soft and velvety touch her cheek, almost tickling it. That pulled her out of her sleepy state a little bit, enough for her to hear a familiar voice:

“Wake up Marinette. Your cinnamon roll is reminding you that you have school today.” Marinette yawned in response, her eyes opening slightly before closing back up. After a couple of seconds she sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes enough to see a blurry Nooroo.

“Too close… I can’t see you when you’re… this close.” the young fashion designer mumbled sleepily.

“Oh, right. Sorry.” replied her cinnamon roll. Marinette took a little longer before she moved out of bed. Once out, she limped about, starting off the day with taking a couple of pain pills before she went to get a shower. Nooroo accompanied her as, despite the fact Kwami’s didn’t necessarily get dirty the same way humans did, he liked the warm water and the fact that Marinette would use a little brush on him. It was relaxing. After that the two were back in her room so she could get dressed. As she pulled out her gray blazer something else caught her eye, pulling it out as well: a short purple coat that was designed with a removable furry inner lining. It had been a nightmare to design, yet it was worth it when it resulted in something that could be worn during both cold and warm weather. She looked at the two before her ear caught the sound of the wind outside. With a smile she placed the gray blazer back in her wardrobe. In the following two minutes, the young fashion designer put on some different clothes that would look better with the coat; a classic white button up shirt, a pair of slim, black, pleated pants as well as a gray waistcoat, the same gray as her blazer in fact. After looking in the mirror she turned to Nooroo.

“What do you think? Too much?”

“I’m not really into fashion Marinette. You are the expert...” replied her Kwami awkwardly. Marinette gave him a look communicating ‘At least try.’ “... but I do think it looks nice.”

“Thanks.” Marinette got her things and went down the stairs, she greeted her parents and told them she was going to Quantum Café. Once arrived inside, she was met with Allegra running around filling orders and bringing customers their food all at the same time. It was terribly inefficient, but the young fashion designer was sure her girlfriend didn’t realize it one bit. Allegra noticed Marinette and walked straight to her with some order in hand, pushing herself up on her tiptoes to reach her girlfriend’s face, giving her a short lived kiss.

“Hi sweetie! I see you’re using my gift.” she said with a cute voice, referring to the black cane with flames at the end that she had bought. All the customers ‘Aww’-ed at the display of affection.

“Morning sweetie. You exhausting yourself before school?”

“<Giggle> I’m helping my mom out with some orders. There’s still a seat left by the way. I’ll come and get your food quickly.”

“Can I have a black milk coffee with that?” asked Marinette.

“Sure!” I love with when things change. thought the young fashion designer as she went to seat down, seeing that her tablemate was none other than Gabriel Agreste. Some things are good staying the same too.

After a quick breakfast Marinette made said her goodbye to Melodie, who had complemented her new look, and the two went their separate ways to school. On her way she met up with Alya and Nino, the three talking on their way to school about whatever. They arrived and went to class. Everything was normal for a while, however everyone from teachers to students had that one shared feeling that gave chills in their bones: it was too peaceful. Something was going to happen! Everyone was a tiny bit on edge, although nobody let it show, knowing that if something did indeed happen, the heroes had it covered. So things went on business as usual. Before one of their classes with Miss Mendeleiev, Marinette went back to the locker room to grab a little project she had been working on, wishing to ask her teacher about it after class: she tried recreating Chat’s voice modulator mask for fun using various plates to resonate and warp a person’s voice as an alternative to what surely was an electronic voice editor working in real time. She wanted to know of a way to preset some voices. When she did arrive in the locker room, her ears picked up a hushed conversation:

“Of course you’re my best friend! I’m one hundred percent affirmative! But I am also ninety-eight point two percent positive the teachers are not ready for… this advancement of evolution!”

“His friend is in his bag? Do you think that maybe…?” whispered Nooroo, trailing off. He didn’t want to think about it, while Marinette was more than ready to curb another evil Miraculous holder if need be. Why would Max be chosen though. He’s not a fighter. The young fashion designer saw him preparing to get out, so she faked exiting the locker anew, the two meeting outside.

“Oh, uh, hi!” said Max, clearly not expecting her to be there. Marinette waved with her left hand, which held her voice modulator. Please try to distract me, please try to distract me. “What’s that?” asked the bespectacled teen. Yes! Don’t think about us getting out at the same time.

“It’s a voice modulator.” explained Marinette as she began limping to class.

“Really? What program do you use? What about the insulation material and microphone?”

“It’s not electronic actually…” the two continued with a little science talk as they made their way to class. Once arriving at their seats they sit down, waiting for class to start, Miss Mendeleiev asking Principal Damocles for help with the school laptop. The principal, with rapid fingers, presses a bunch of buttons, turning the laptop. Everyone is impressed, except for Max, who simply isn’t, and the young fashion designer, who slams her head on her desk. When it came to the software part of technology, Marinette was bad, and seeing her principal being able to get the laptop going brought her mood down considerably. The celebration was short lived however, as something appeared on the screen.

“That’s not supposed to happen! What is it?” asked Mendeleiev.

“That’s Dino-33! A new malicious computer virus! Let me try something!” exclaimed the teen, getting up from his desk.

“Go back to your seat Max! Mister Damocles has it covered.” said the purple haired teacher as the principal’s fingers were flying over the keyboard.

“Inform Mister Damocles that if he doesn't neutralize the virus in the next seventy-five seconds, there's a ninety-nine point nine percent chance the hard disk will be permanently damaged!” said a new voice.

“Quiet!”

“You totally heard Max’s bag talk, right?” asked Alya.

“Yup.” So it’s not a Kwami. What is it?

“I don’t have it covered! All the school data will be destroyed! How many more seconds do we have?” asked Damocles.

“Only sixty-five.”

“If you can do something do it now!” Max ran to the computer and checked his pockets.

“Uh, where is it?”

“I believe this is what you’re looking for, friend?” asked the voice from the bag, revealing itself to be a tiny robot with a mechanical arm holding a flash drive. He flew over using his propeller and gave it to him.

“Thanks! This is an antivirus device I created with the help of my best friend.” explained Max, motioning to the little robot. Plugging the flash drive in, he pressed a button on it and, within seconds, the virus disappeared off the screen. “Crisis averted sir.” said the bespectacled teen, putting both adults at ease. Of course, now that the little robot had shown himself everyone was curious about him pretty much everyone heaping praise in one way or another. Miss Mendeleiev in particular.

“That’s quite the advance toy you have there Max.”

“Well…” the teen was a little flustered.

“I’m not a toy. My name is Markov, named after the Markov Chain used as the base of my design. Of course, being able to not just change in between variables, but also build new ones would make it a Kante Chain!” replied the little robot before turning to Max giving him a fist bump for the good work the two have done.

“But wouldn’t that mean—” pondered Mister Damocles…

“ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?!” …he got cut off by Marinette, who had sat up so abruptly her chair fell over, a star struck expression on her days, along with a wide smile. Everyone was definitely surprised with that. As the young fashion designer haven’t expressed such excitement and genuine happiness in a long time.

“Yes Dupain-Cheng, but please sit down.” said Miss Mendeleiev, the girl getting control of herself and clearing her throat before her expression went back to normal, though there was still that sparkle in her eyes. “Mister Damocles, thank you for your help. You as well Max.”

“Of course, Miss Mendeleiev.” replied the teen as he and his robot buddy went back to their desk.

“Ah, yes! I have other responsibilities I must attend to. Have a good day everyone!” bid the principal, slowly walking to the door.

“Have a good day Mister Damocles!” replied the class in unison. After the principal left, hanging by the door a little bit longer, everyone went quiet, with the exception of a few whispers here and there. Miss Mendeleiev looked around the class and noted immediately that nobody was going to pay attention to what she was going to put on for them to see on the laptop. So, in stroke of genius, she asked a simple question:

“Markov, are you familiar with the concept of gravity?” From there the rest of the class Miss Mendeleiev and Markov (with Max’ consent) cooperated in teaching the subject at hand, explaining using the various things the teacher presented on the laptop, as well as experiments demonstrating the concept of the center of gravity by making a really fast and large bridge made out of nothing but coins and the power of physics (she worked hard for that one, both at home and in summer breaks at school, in order to show off a little). Once the class was over, everyone flocked to Max, the young fashion designer especially.

“You look sooo cute!” exclaimed Rose.

“Dude, that’s so cool! I actually found science class interesting for once.” said Nino.

“Thank you Nino! Science is interesting just by itself however. Maybe it just doesn’t resonate with you that well.”

“You’re like, smarter than a computer, and these things are big. How did Max fit all that computer stuff in you?” asked Ivan, Nathaniel sitting next to him and quietly sketching the smart robot, Juleka occasionally looking at the drawing as well.

“It’s not that much when—” began Markov, getting cut off by Alix:

“How fast is that propeller of yours even spinning?” she asked, pulling out her watch and using its stopwatch feature to count how many rotations happen in a second.

“Uh, well—”

“Your voice is very calming.” said Mylene.

“Thank you! I—”

“Max is a real genius!” exclaimed Adrien. The suspender wearing teen, seeing his friend a little overwhelmed, decided to step in:

“Everyone, please one at a time! Markov can be overwhelmed by a crowd, just like any one of us.”

“So his mind is like… more human then?”asked Marinette, looking thoughtful.

“Yes. Ever since I created him, he’s integrated his own accumulative thinking system.” confirmed Max.

“Gotcha…”

“Oh! Markov, what do you think about being part of my Awesome-Collection blog!”

“Sure, I’d love to… what‘s that?” asked the smart robot, flying over to Alya when she pulled out her phone.

“It’s a blog where I talk a bunch of stuff which I think is cool. It started out with American heroes and their stuff, then moved on to our own heroes here in Paris. I’ve also added stuff like Dupain-Cheng’s fashion, Nino’s music and a bunch of other things.”

“Wow, that is awesome… I have but one more question.”

“Yeah?”

“Who is that lovely golden beauty?” asked Markov, pointing to a photo of Comet Streak.

“That’s Comet Streak… one of my lady’s Champions. Although I wonder why she got chosen in the first place.” said Alya, sounding a little tired, as if she had thought about this for a long time. Everyone turned to look at Chloe, dressed in a sky-blue leather jumpsuit with pockets and rolled up sleeves. Despite the fact Chloe had been uncharacteristically quiet after her becoming a Champion, everyone expected her to blurt out either something insulting to Markov, or some form of self-flattery.

“Even in that form I’m not a robot, just wearing a super-tech armor. Sorry! Maybe you could ask Max to make you girlfriend.”  Everyone was stunned silent. There was no hint of disdain or haughtiness in that statement. Chloe leaned in close to Sabrina. “Did I do that wrong?” she whispered.

“That’s not how Max said you usually acted. He said you were the arrogant type.”

“No, I’m not!” said Chloe, offended. Sabrina pulled on one of her sleeves, getting her attention and communicating something with a simple look. “W-What I mean to say is… I’m not anymore and I’m trying to… better myself. I want to make up for what I did, but I knew nobody would believe me until I started actually being nicer, which is why I ‘trained’ to become nicer… so, since I probably won’t have a better chance to do this I’ll say it now: I’m… sorry! I’m sorry for every insult I threw at you and anything and everything I did to upset you all.” The blond girl turned to her friend. “Did that come out right?”

“Yes, it did.” Chloe let out an airy sigh, letting her shoulders relax and eyes close. Everyone was quiet, so quiet in fact that the sound of a cane touching the floor could be heard. The blond teen felt a hand on her shoulder and opened her eyes. Marinette smiled smugly at her, a fire in her eyes.

“Welcome back Golden Girl.” said Marinette. Chloe gaped a little, before closing her mouth and smiling smugly as well. “Well that was easy. You could have told me all I needed was an attitude adjustment.” Marinette had already turned her attention to everyone else however.

“Hey everyone; let’s give a hand to our resident bitch who’s getting over being bitchy.” Marinette began clapping, followed by Sabrina and Adrien. Nino then began clapping and from there Alya gave a halfhearted clap. Eventually everyone clapped, even Markov.

“I am one hundred percent positive it’s nice to see people grow.” said the little robot.

“I one hundred percent agree with you.”

Under the protective veil of night’s darkness, inside a small apartment, a corpulent man was sitting at his desk, his face basking in the light of the screen in front of him as his fingers flew over the keyboard, his right hand occasionally taking a pause as he reached for his cup of coffee. His last cup, if things were going to go the way he prepared for anyway. A thick wire was connected to a metal port that had been placed in the back of his neck, that wire connecting to something sitting on a table covered by a tarp. A couple more keystrokes, and the program he had set up was put into motion, green light beginning to run through the wire from his neck to the tarp covered thing. Now all he had to do was sit back, relax and wait. The man grabbed his coffee and sipped at it quietly, his mind deep in thought as he waited. After a couple of minutes of waiting, he heard knocking, and he drank the rest of his coffee. Only ninety-seven percent. I need to stall. thought the man as he once again heard the sound of knocking.

“Doctor. It’s me, Chai.” The doctor stood quietly in his chair, without moving or making any noise. The sound of glass being broken was heard. Seconds later Chai knocked harder. “I can see the light passing through under the door! If you are trying to ignore me, you will regret it.” Ninety-nine percent. Come on… come on…!

“Is someone at the door? Sorry, I had my headphones on.”

“It’s me you imbecile. Now open the door!”

“Ah, Mister Chai, sir! One moment please, I’m a little tangled in wires at the moment…” said the doctor as his eyes kept darting between the door and the computer screen, sweat going down his brow. The very moment the screen showed the transfer of information was complete, the door got kicked down, the doctor, in his chair, being pushed over and landing on the floor. He quickly pulled the wire from the back of his head before Chai, the silhouetted man forever behind some sort of light, picked up the door and shoved it aside. He then pulled the doctor up.

“My data on that school. Where is it?” he asked, simply.

“W-W-Well you see, I don’t h-have it yet.”

“Why?” asked Chai coldly, already sounding like he was going to lose his patience.

“My virus was effective however—”

“Then where is my information?!” asked the villain, throwing the doctor into his desk before walking over and pulling him up again.

“I DON’T KNOW! S-Someone somehow managed to counter my vi—“

“You said you were the best hacker!”

“I-I am the master of all software, believe me, it’s just—”

“Just what?”

“I was countered with something that was almost alive. It was like a counter hacker with the speed and finesse of a computer program! It was something more advanced than I’d ever seen. I won’t make the same mistake though. P-Please give me another chance!”

“AND HAVE TO GIVE YOU MORE MONEY, YOU PIG?! NO!” Chai threw the man into the table with the tarp covered thing, knocking it over. The doctor grabbed onto the edge of the fallen over table in an attempt to get up, his eyes landing on Chai, who had changed from his human appearance to his monstrous, scorpionic one. “No more excuses and second chances human! I will not allow another Volpina in my future!” said the monster villain before he pounced on the doctor, the apartment filled with the sound of his screams as he was literally ripped to shreds. Once Chai was satisfied with his work, he grabbed some pieces of technology and attempted to hightail it out of there, before a metallic, long, and worm like arm with a set of four claws. “What in Tartarus?!” The villain looked forward to see two meter tall robot with green energy coming out of vents, as well as lighting up robotic ‘eyes’.

“Hello Chai.” said the robot, it’s voice familiar.

“Doctor Olivier?”

“No; you can call me… Doctor Octopus.” said the robot, before letting go of the scorpion villain, another one of his four tentacle arms pulling out a custom dark green and black jumpsuit that he began to put on. “I don’t know what you plan to do with all the information you have asked me for, however I want to strike up a deal.” Chai stood silent. “I’ll help you with whatever your plans are and, in return, you leave Paris in my hands. How does that sound?”

“I don’t care about this stupid town! You can have it!” said the villain before turning to the wall and busting through it. If Doctor Octopus could smile, he would have. Before he left out through the hole made by his now partner in crime, he grabbed a pair of black goggles with green lenses from his wall mounted coat rack. As the two left, a figure from the distance, dressed in grey and having a hood with mouse ears on, followed them with her eyes, a small fox creature sitting on her shoulder and eating a chocolate bar.

“Look at them go! They are definitely in a hurry. Want to follow them to their base?” asked the little Kwami.

“No… I’d need backup for that. I can stick by them for a bit however.” stated the mouse heroine as she took off, trying to follow them…

Chapter Text

Adrien was always tired by monotony. He hated the idea of waking up just to do exactly what he did yesterday. This was one of the reasons he wanted to go to school, besides the fact he was alone and sad of course. There were things that the blond teen had wanted to stay the same however, like how he had gotten used to Plagg waking him up by screeching about cheese a minute before his actual alarm went off. He always ended up waking up a minute earlier than his alarm, and today was no different.  Sitting up in bed, Adrien stretched a little and yawned. He waited for a couple of seconds, a part of him thinking Plagg will ask for cheese any second now. before he remembered: Plagg was not here. Adrien looked down at his ringless hand. He lost him. He was too preoccupied with making jokes. The sound of someone flying around his room pulled him out of his sad musing, seeing his new Kwami the littler red Tikki, looking around his room. That made him smile, as he got out of bed, the shuffling sound making her look at him.

“Oh, you’re awake!”

“Hi Tikki. You hungry?”

“Not really, no. I was just waiting for you to wake up.”

“Oh, sorry. You could have woken me up if you wanted.” Tikki shook her head.

“No. You are still growing so sleep is extremely important. I can wait until you wake up.”

“Alright then.” replied Adrien. It was a really big difference to how Plagg did things, but it was somewhat nice. The blond walked over to his bathroom, getting the toiletries done before walking to his huge wardrobe. Usually, he wore something that had green in some capacity, either a dark green shirt or his T-shirt with that green stripe, but this time he decided to get something with red, putting on a dark red T-shirt and a white shirt along with a pair of black pants. To top it off, since it had started to be a little colder outside, he grabbed a red hoodie before walking down, Tikki flying over and plopping down on his shoulder. The blond teen had breakfast as well as a little awkward talk with his father about school and his friends (they were both trying so hard to rebuild the father-son bridge) before he was driven to school. The school day was surprisingly uneventful, the only highlight being him getting to playtest a Playerboy horror game made by Max along with Marinette, Alya and Nino. After that, he ended up getting invited to play more games with the rest at Allegra’s house. To Adrien, as well as the DJ and future reporter, it was a sign Marinette was starting to burry the hatchet. It also possibly meant Allegra was exited to hang out with them seeing as the secret was out. On their way out of the school, the teens were talking about random things, the discussion at the moment being about this one song that Nino found to be his favorite this particular week, when every single one of their phones let out a jingle that alerted them to the MonarChat app getting an important update.

“Super powered bank thief?” spoke Alya out loud, looking at the photo showing a man dressed in dark red and yellow outfit, the yellow material looking like a mattress, a pair of cash bags in his gauntleted hands. Both Marinette and Adrien looked at the same photo, while the former also took not of some of the messages: they were a bit salty about Lady Monarch, saying things like ‘Who else is she going to make fight for her?’, ‘EVERYONE MAKE SURE TO STAY OFF THE ROADS OTHERWISE YOU’LL GET SQUASHED BY IRONHEART OR FRIED BY COMET STREAK!’, or ‘You know it’d be nice if it felt like Lady Monarch was more around. These past couple of days her Champions have been nowhere :/’, while also being excited and gushing over Red Beetle. It all left a sour taste in her mouth that she couldn’t really concentrate on coming up with a good excuse to separate from the group. Thankfully, she didn’t have to take the lead on this one:

“Oh no… Hey, guys?” asked Adrien, putting up a passable show of having remembered something and getting everyone’s attention. “I just remembered my dad squeezed in a one hour photo shoot today… Sorry.”

“Ah, come on man! Can’t you ask him to reschedule or something?”

“Sorry but I can’t. My dad may have let me off the hook a bit, but if I end up ditching photo shoots he might pull me out of school. Sorry again guys, you go on without me. See you in about an hour!” called out Adrien as he ran off.

“Dude! Man… you know, I get his dad is still strict, but let him live bro! I mean, I wonder if Adrien even models for his dad because he wants to or is afraid to say no.” said Nino, scratching the back of his head.

“I wonder why he’s running. Maybe the place where he has to shoot is nearby?” thought Alya out loud. That was Marinette’s signal to cook up a half truth:

“Speaking of excuses; I’ve been meaning to talk with Mendeleiev about this voice modulator.”

“Voice modulator? I thought you were bad with software stuff.” asked Alya, the blue haired teen pulling out the object from her bag.

“Didn’t you already have a good Chloe voice for phone pranks?” joked Nino.

“I only made because I was bored one time. Anyway; you to go ahead. Nino, you know where Quantum Café is.” said Marinette as she began walking back towards the school. When the DJ looked back at the blogger, he saw the look on her face as she stared at the photo on MonarChat.

“…You want to go film the battle, don’t you…?”

“Exactly. Based on this image I think our super powered thief is at the fifth.”

“THAT’S OVER THE SEINE!” exclaimed Nino loudly.

“We’ll get a cab! Come on!” urged Alya as she began running.

Back with Marinette, she slowly walked back to the school building, seeing some of her old fencing buddies D’Argencourt’s students walking by along with him. Marinette immediately walked to the bathrooms, closing herself off in one of them, Nooroo flying out of her pocket.

“Can I see that image as well?” asked the little Kwami, the young fashion designer almost shoving her phone in his face. “Is something wrong?”

“Look at all these comments…! They are making fun of me! After all I’ve been doing! What do these damn idiots even want? Taker over the town with an army…?” Nooroo watched as his mistress continued to rant… then he realized: for the first time in a long time, Marinette needed assurance and guidance. She may refuse to say it, but she needed him to be a Kwami and help her.

“Marinette?”

“What?!” she asked, voice sharp, making him stand straight. She realized her tone. “Sorry, my cinnamon roll; I didn’t—”

“There is something that you need to hear: when being a force for good, other people will look up to you, admire you and judge you. Just because you happen to be above them. In your case it’s the same: people have put trust into you and Chat, so when you failed at the hotel, they didn’t forget it. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you continue protecting these people, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because you also protect the ones you love, me included.” Marinette looked at him, lost.

“…But how am I supposed to help if nobody’s in the right frame of mind for me to make them a Champion? I can’t keep using the same Champions over and over again, lest they become ineffective.”

“That may be true, but that doesn’t mean you need to solve that issue right now. You still have time Marinette. Until then, look for someone in this sea of mistrust whom still believes in you.” Marinette smiled at him, patting his head with one of her fingers.

“Nooroo, fairy wings rise!” after her cinnamon roll entered the Miraculous, magical energy flowed forth, enveloping her body, then her cane. Lady Monarch looked the same as always, but she felt a little different. She couldn’t put her finger on it, and didn’t try to, focusing on her task at hand. The heroine pressed down on the purple gem of her cane, releasing the little white butterfly in it, which flew around happily before resting on her hand as she closed her eyes and felt with the sixth sense that allowed her to know the purity of people’s souls, her mind hearing echoes of many people’s thoughts and emotions. There was one in particular that caught her by surprise, mainly because she didn’t even expect it to exist.

“What a pleasant surprise. To be an artificial being, yet to have a soul all your own…” Lady Monarch’s lips glowed bright yellow before she brought the butterfly to her and gave him a soft kiss, relinquishing the yellow energy to him.

“Fly forth my little Fay! And give the little robot a chance to experience humanity, even for a little while!” The Fay did as he was told, flying out of the bathroom and into the school’s courtyard, where Max and his friend Markov were leaving the school after a talk with Miss Mendeleiev, the science teacher always interested by the little robot. The Fay was not seen as it flew down only when it got behind the artificial being, going inside it and burying deep into his CPU, the butterfly symbol appearing over his face.

“Greetings Captain Voyage! My name is Lady Monarch. I feel you long for the same humanity as your dearest friend and I believe I can grant it, if only for a short while. In return, I need your help to deal with an undesirable villain in this wonderful city of ours. Do we have a deal?”

“Sure, my lady! One question? Whom is my target?”

“You will find out soon enough!” And so Markov was overtaken by yellow light, growing in size and being change to fit a human mold, one with powers of course, Lady Monarch taking inspiration from one of the Miraculouses in the tome. The man that stood before Max was tall and muscular, with blue eyes, golden hair side parted and gelled, a blue highlight in it, wearing a blue body suit, with white gloves and boots, a white symbol resembling a wormhole in the middle of his chest.

“Wow… Markov…?” asked Max, making his friend look down at him and flash a confident smile, a little ding going off as his teeth shined.

“Not Markov, but Captain Voyage! Catch you on the flip side Max. I’ve got an evil doer to take care of!” Captain Voyage turned to his left to his left and held his hand forward, a magical energy springing from it, creating a temporary tear in the fabric of space-time, which he walked through, allowing him to shortly arrive onto the scene where the villain was running away.

Adrien ran as fast as he could into the nearest place he could hide, placing his hands-free phone into his ear, his father having awaited him to connect, Tikki coming out from her little hiding spot.

“Hello dad…! Yup, just received the photo… Will do.” spoke the blond teen before looking over to his Kwami.

“I know that man doesn’t have Plagg, but it doesn’t matter. You have to stay strong and focus. I have a feeling that man is however connected to Chai, so he might know where he is.”

“Gotcha. I’ll make sure to focus up.”

“Also don’t forget how the Lucky Charm works: make sure you are in a problematic position, have an opening to summon it and you have some understanding of what your enemy can do. The Lucky Charm can never fail under these circumstances.” The boy nodded.

“Tikki! Spots on!” the Ladybug Kwami flew into the silver earrings Adrien wore, the magical energy flaring forth and allowing him to create his mask, followed by his super suit, consisting of a black bodysuit covered by armored boots, a chest plate and shoulder pads, all metallic yet malleable and formfitting and seemingly part of the bodysuit itself. Red Beetle immediately took the yo-yo from his waist and used it to begin swinging up to rooftops. He wasn’t yet used to it, his instincts telling him to jump down and use his staff’s extension function as a pogo stick, but he was going to get over it eventually, using the yo-yo to gain a bit more speed, not daring yet to try and make turns while swinging. Swiftly, he managed to make his way over to the general area of where the villain was first spotted, seeing Volpina arrive at around the same time. He smiled and gave a wordless two finger salute before he leaped ahead of the villain, landing on top of a light post, and sending his yo-yo to grab hold of one the cash bags from the villain.

“You know I’m no bank worker, but I’m pretty sure this goes over the withdraw limit pal!” joked RB, giving Volpina an opportunity to jump from her spot on a roof, quickly and silently bounce off of the opposing building’s wall back to the wall of the building she jumped from, before landing a kick to the back of this mysterious villain. Instead of him being knocked forward, some form of sound wave was released from his suit, launching her back, the vixen heroine rolling into onto the ground and quickly getting back up.

“The guy who took that photo wasn’t joking. You do have powers. Weird ones at that.”

“Says the kid playin’ hero in ‘er fox pajamas.” replied the villain, aiming his free arm at her, a blast of sound releasing from it, Volpina dodging. Before he knew it, the villain’s right leg was caught in Red Beetle’s yo-yo wire and he got pulled , the hero hopping off from the light post and using it as a makeshift winch, his own weight pulling the villain up as he dropped the money.

“Do you by any chance know a guy who looks like a scorpion?” asked Volpina.

“That’s a good question Volpina.” he told the fellow heroine. “Also, who are you?” asked Red Beetle, taking in his apparel: a yellow and red bodysuit, the yellow parts looking like a mattress, being thicker and having a pattern of ‘X’s. He wore a silver belt and hand a pair of green sky goggles fused to the suit, his gauntlets, which had no form cannon or shoot system, fitting snugly around his red gloves.

“None yer business brats!” replied their opponent, blasting them both with the sound waves from his gauntlets. The villain landed back on the ground, grabbed the cash bags and continued making a run for it. The vixen heroine was quick to get up, but waited for Red Beetle, who was much more dazed by the attack, probably not that used to being getting hit as hard as her.

“Adrien, you need to get up. I’ve got the drones at the scene. They can follow your opponent.”

“Nice… maybe a little feathered friend can drop by too?”

“N-No… you’ve got Volpina helping you. Lady Monarch’s Champion will make their appearance soon enough as well.” The ladybug hero got up and shook his head in an attempt to focus back up.

“Volpina—”

“Multifox. I’m Multifox now.”

“Multifox. You go high, I go low.” she nodded, putting her flute on her back, hopping on a light post before jumping to the roofs. Looking at the distant villain, he took a deep breath and summoned his Lucky Charm, receiving a red-with-black-dots gong the size of a shield.

From up above, Captain Voyage dived down, creating a couple of portals that allowed him to land right in the villain’s way. The thief’s eyes grew wide and, before he could slow down a portal opened under his feet, another a few meters above the ground in front of the Champion, the villain landing right in front of Captain Voyage. The Champion immediately punched him in the face, the villain’s suit releasing a blast of sound to overpower the attack and push the arm back.

“What…?”

“<Sigh> Ahm surely with all the circus freaks now.” said the villain, before blasting the Champion back. Captain Voyage had wanted to be human, but he surely didn’t like this particular sensation. What was it called again? Ah, yes: pain. Maybe being a robot is better after all. The villain heard the sound of the Multifox’ flute, turning around to blast her, the vixen heroine having been on top of another light post right before she hoped behind a hydrant, keeping low. “You can’t ‘ide from me there!” exclaimed her enemy.

“Not trying to.” said Multifox smugly, the villain’s blast of sound causing the hydrant to be partly uprooted from the ground, the fox heroine dropping down and using her legs to keep it in a specific angle, a jet of water sprouting forth and nailing her opponent. A couple of seconds passed as Captain Voyage teleported back. “Please tell me I got him!” she told the Champion.

“You have not, unfortunately. He is stuck though.” That made the villain, who braced himself against the water jet, his suit doing whatever it could to combat the force of the water, aim one of his arm at the Champion. The very second his gauntlet began charging up, the suit stopped combating the force of the water and he got launched into the opposite building’s wall.

“His suit doesn’t protect him while he attacks.”/”His suit doesn’t protect him when he attacks.” said Lady Monarch and Captain Voyage together. The ladybug hero finally caught up with everyone. The villain rolled forward before shooting right at Red Beetle, the Champion creating a portal right in front of the hero and another to the side of the villain, the blast hitting him instead and sending him into another wall.

“Chat! His suit can’t protect him when he goes on the offensive!” said Lady Monarch through her Champion. His earrings beeped for the second time following the summoning of his Lucky Charm, but that didn’t deter him, as he looked around quickly. In his mind’s eyes, the gong, yo-yo, the villain and Multifox’ flute were highlighted as all the pieces of his plan came together.

“Can I have some fog for the mood my fox~!” the vixen heroine was taken aback by his sudden change in attitude, not really getting it was play-flirting and blushing a little before she conjured the illusion of thick fog via her Mirage, the villain getting up and walking a couple steps away from the building’s wall. From inside the illusion, Red Beetle threw his gong towards the villain, who dodged, moving slower than before due to still being dazed by his own attack hitting him. He tried to shot at where he saw the projectile come from, missing, as the hero quickly moved and threw his yo-yo forward, wrapping around both the villain as well as the gong that had bounced from the wall. The villain’s suit immediately started releasing sound waves to shake off the yo-yo’s wire, the gong bouncing it all back to the villain.

“Huh… that’s actually quite the ingenious way to use that. He turned the man’s defense into his own doom.” said Lady Monarch to her Champion.

 “Quite the shocker, isn’t it? You’re better at being your own massage chair than a villain.” joked RB.

 “Yeh, it do be a shocker… and so is this!” the villain activated his gauntlets and used them to propel himself in the air. The ladybug hero, not prepared for that at all, had let go of his yo-yo, the villain getting himself free. From his position in the air, he shot both hands at the base of a building, just so that it would fall towards the other building and towards the heroes, which would have resulted in a literal domino effect.

“Volpina! I’ll teleport you in and out to save the people!” exclaimed Captain Voyage.

“It’s Multifox!” replied the vixen heroine before jumping into a portal made by the Champion. While the two of them were focusing on saving everyone inside the building, Red Beetle ran after his Lucky Charm, needing it to fix everything. With them all focused on anyone but him, the villain left, making a hole where a manhole was and dropping down, leaving through the sewers. When the Miraculous Ladybug was cast, the villain’s escape route was cleaned away, leaving the heroes none the wiser.

Chapter Text

Alya and Nino were a bit bummed out when they saw the heroes lose that villain. It was still an awesome battle however, regardless of the outcome. There was still a matter of the title though, something which Alya had a bit of a problem coming up with one that was at least neutral and not depressing, the two discussing it. Meanwhile, Adrien was incredibly sad, considering his failure as Red Beetle as he secretly talked with Tikki, pretending to be talking on his hands free phone.

“Oh, man… I really messed up. If only I didn’t let go.”

“Hey, it’s alright Adrien. Things like this happen. You’re used to a specific way of doing things. You just need to give yourself time to adjust.” assured the Ladybug Kwami.

“It’s not just that… I kinda think I used the Lucky Charm wrong…” the teen whispered the last part.

“How come? What was the Lucky Charm?”

“It was this gong thingy. I threw it at him and used it to make his sound powers work against him.”

“Hm… well the Lucky Charm usually adapts to the complexity of the user’s thought process. The more creative, the more obtuse it becomes. Maybe it was just something simpler than you thought?” at hearing that, Adrien replayed the fight in his head, up until the point he had actually used it. In his mind’s eye, he had seen Multifox’ flute light up as he thought to have her used her illusion powers, hiding him from the villain’s line of sight, but now that he was thinking about it, outside of battle, with no pressure to perform, he realized something: the villain’s gauntlets and the gong had lit up as his mind had come up with a much simpler plan he automatically dismissed: send the shockwave from the sound blast straight back it him. Without his suit being able to send a sound wave to block the attack that would be sent right to the gauntlets, they would have probably broken due to the combined strain of both releasing and getting hit by the same blast.

“I did think of something simpler, but I ignored it…” said Adrien.

“Then, in that case, it’s just a matter of trusting your instincts more! I know you can do it, and next time you get the chance, you’ll get that guy!” said the Kwami, encouragingly.

“Yeah… Yeah! Next time I got it!” exclaimed Adrien.

“Exactly. Every mistake one makes is just another opportunity to learn and grow.” added Tikki, looking up at him with a loving and encouraging gaze, her eyes practically glimmering. The teen couldn’t help but give her a little head pat, making her smile. The three teens managed to walk into each other on their way to Quantum Café, Adrien seeing Nino and Alya from a distance.

“Hey guys!” the blond teen ran over to them. “How come you’re not at the uh, café?”

“We went to film the fight with that villain dude… Kinda went south, but they’ll get him next time probably.” replied Nino.

“They definitely will. I have this feeling.” said Adrien.

“Now if only we came up with a good title that’s also not super depressing.” murmured Alya. Gears turning in his head, the blond teen had come up with a good title. “How about ‘Rise of Shocker: Paris’ new scourge and our heroes’ new enemy!’” Both the DJ and blogger stared at him.

“That. Is. So COOL!”/ “That. Is. So COOL!”  said the two of them at the same time.

“How did you know his name though?” asked Nino. Adrien stiffened a little bit, before feeling Tikki shift in his pocket.

“W-Well I didn’t e-exactly. I just thought about it on the spot. People talked about how he had like electric powers in the chat… o-or was it sound powers…” Phew! I hope I sold that well enough.

“He’s got sound powers, but that name is awesome~! I’m using it if you don’t mind.” interjected Alya as she finally sent the video on MonarChat.

“How long have you been doing that?” asked Marinette, making everyone jump. The blue haired girl stood a couple a few inches away, positioned kind of like in between them, as if she was always there.

“Oh high, Mari— I mean, Dupain-Cheng! What are you doing here?” asked Adrien, holding his hands up in a fighting stance.

“Oh come on. Fighting a cripple ain’t fair! I’ve got a weapon.” joked the blue haired teen. Adrien put his hands down.

“S-Sorry.”

“You okay girl? You sound angry.” Marinette blinked a few times as he turned to Alya.

“I made a joke.” said the blue haired teen, her hand reaching in her pocket, then pulling out with nothing.

“You do that when you’re angry…”

“Limping away from that one.” replied the young fashion designer as she moved away from the group, everyone starting to follow her, catching up pretty quickly. A few more walking and they had arrived at the destination, all of them noticing how the Quantum Café was completely empty, the two Melodies running around like headless chickens as they cleaned up the place. Despite the sound of the bell that got hit when the door opened, neither one noted the four teens’ presence, not until the young fashion designer cleaned her throat and the young DJ greeted with a ‘Yo, Allegra!’.

“OH MY GOSH! YOU’RE HERE! YOU’RE ACTUALLY HERE!” shouted the kind blond in excitement, throwing her mop to the side and running at them.

“Volume!” exclaimed Marinette before she got hugged, Melodie pulling back before bringing her lips to her beloved girlfriend.

“Sorry…! I’m just so excited you’re here sweetie...” began Allegra before turning to the others. “…with your new friends!” she finished as she went to hug them all. Alya, knowing Allegra’s orientation, looked to Marinette to make sure she wasn’t giving her jealousy eyes. She wasn’t. Nino on other hand enjoyed it fully, being used to this since the last time they were part of the group, while Adrien felt awkward since the last time they met he was a little insensitive.

“Hey, uh, Allegra?” asked the blond boy.

“Yeah?” replied the kind girl as she pulled out of the hug.

“I wanted to apologize for last time.” Allegra let out an airy giggle as her sunny expression got sunnier, her smile getting bigger.

“I forgive you. There’s no need to worry about it. Plus, Mari told me you apologized to her too. Now come! EVERYONE TO THE MUSICIAN’S DEN!”

“Volume!”

“Sorry!” called out Allegra as she ran up the stairs, everyone else following behind. Once they had arrived, Adrien and Alya noted that the layout of Melodie’s house was the same as Marinette’s (the girl’s bedroom was above the living room which was above the café), only difference being that everything was way bigger. Melodie’s room was surprisingly cluttered, posters on walls, some unlit, scented candles on the ground, a few musical instruments scattered around, with medical books, magazines and notebooks mixed together, Marinette noting some books of code breaking along with a notebook on people fit to be Championed?! The blue haired teen promptly grabbed that notebook and threw it behind her, the sound making Alya and Nino looking towards her. They only saw her staring at a particular place in the room, her eyes landing on it after looking for something to distract them with. She walked over, seeing a framed photo on top of a cupboard: It was her, Nino, Allegra and the rest of the gang

“Sorry this room is such a mess… I didn’t plan for anyone being here…” said the blond girl sheepishly as she tried to clean up a little, her foot stepping on one of the candles and causing her to slip and fall.

“Allegra!” exclaimed Marinette, putting the photo back and rushing to her, letting go of her cane.

“I-I’m fine. Sorry I worried you.” said the girl, getting up and pulling her girlfriend up as well. After that she sped through cleaning up her room a little, before setting up the game. The sound of a growl was heard and Adrien excused himself:

“All that running must have made me a little hungry…” said the boy.

“Since you mentioned, I’m kinda hungry too. Alya, you?” asked Nino.

“I guess?”

“Melodie already went to make something.” said Marinette, the other teens noticing the lack of kind blond in the spot she had sat down previously on the couch. “Wanna go two-v-two?” asked the young fashion designer, referring to the game: Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Adrien and Nino decided to team up, Alya and Marinette making a team as well. By the time Melodie returned with bite-sized sandwiches that had meat, cheese and pickles, the blue haired teen and the blogger had won three times, mostly thanks to the former’s video game skills.

“Man, D-Cheng, how are you still this good?!”

“How many times did you win sweetie?” asked the blond girl.

“Three times.”

“And that was awesome! She took them both on first game since I got floored almost immediately.”

“To answer your question Mayonnaise…”

“No…! I though you forgot about that…”

“… I’m good at reading people. Agreste in particular is almost telegraphing his moves.”

“What’s this about Mayonnaise? Another Quantic Kids thing?” asked Alya.

“Yup.” said Marinette, not elaborating on it.

“Care to share with the class?” asked Adrien, curious as well.

“Nope.”

“It was really funny though.” said Melodie.

“You know, I don’t mind what happened as much as the nickname.”

“Then call me by my full name.”

“Come on Mari. Let’s tell them. Come on! Come on!” the blond haired girl repeated ‘Come on!’ a couple more times as she lightly shook her girlfriend, holding her by the arm.

“Fine… If that’ll get you to stop. Nino, me, Allegra and the others—”

“Allan and Felix.” supplied Melodie.

“—went to this fast food place and they had sauces in small packets right?”

“Uhu-uhu!” replied the blogger.

“With you so far.” said the blond boy.

“You know, you guys could pretend you’re not that interested.” said Nino.

”So Nino had a hard time opening the packet to get some mayonnaise. Allan wants to help him, since he was the muscle of the group. Nino doesn’t want any help, the two pull at the packet, and Nino ends up with Mayonnaise all over his face after the packet rips.” Alya and Adrien burst out laughing at that, but not too much, feeling a little guilty for laughing at their friend’s expense. After that they all went back to playing, Marinette giving Allegra her controller to play as well. Her and Alya were being wiped out by Nino and Adrien, the blond himself being incredibly good now that he had the chance to show off his talent. They hadn’t kept count of the win losses.

“Oh come on!” exclaimed Alya, laughing a little. “Hey, Dupain-Cheng, the boys are kicking our asses. Wanna assist?” asked the blogger, looking at her and seeing she had her eyes closed. Everyone went quiet, and only now they could hear her soft snoring. “Hey, Dupain-Cheng~!” sang Alya, shaking her by the shoulder a little. The blue haired girl was still asleep.

“Mari?” asked the kind blond, worry in her voice, and, magically, the young fashion designer stirred awake.

“What? Everything alright?” she asked, looking at Melodie.

“No…”

“You just fell asleep girl!”

“Marinette, are you having trouble sleeping?” asked Adrien.

“We could all let you sleep if you need.” said Nino. Marinette yawned.

“I’m fine. Being such a god gamer must’ve tuckered me out. Either that or you bored me to sleep.” Alya and Adrien smiled, seeing Marinette was alright enough to make a hubristic joke such as this, Nino snickering.

“Now that’s just arrogant dude!” said the young DJ, still laughing a little.

“Arrogance has to be earned! I’ve earned mine; don’t need an excuse.”

“You do need sleep though. When was the last time you had a full night of rest?” asked the kind blond. Marinette looked down before she closed her eyes tightly.

“Last week…? That’s the last time I had a nine hour sleep since now.” The room was once again silent. “Could I have some coffee?”

“Wha—No! You need sleep! Please don’t force yourself to stay awake!” begged Melodie, holding Marinette’s left arm. Alya placed a hand on her right shoulder.

“I gotta agree with Mel here.” said the blogger.

“We could always… hang out another day.” offered Adrien.

“Yeah, besides, if you slept so little, you probably need to recoup before you drop on the street or something.” added Nino. The blue haired teen’s eyes looked about at them, almost seeming afraid, before a curtain pulled over and she became unreadable.

“I’m going to grab some coffee.” she said simply, getting up, the kind blond getting pulled until she let go.

“Are you seriously going to blow off us all like that?” asked Alya, running after her and getting in her way.

“Out of the way Cesaire.”

“No! Not this time! You’re going to listen to us this time—”

“No, I won’t! Stop pretending you fucking know what’s good for me, because you don’t! You can’t help me Cesaire! I don’t want your pity!” Alya was speechless before her face contorted into anger.

“Fine! If me being your friend means pity, then we’re not friends anymore!” exclaimed Alya, grabbing her things and getting down the ladder.

“Alya, wait!” said Nino, getting his stuff and running after. “That was so uncool bruh!” he said to Marinette before going down the stairs. After that, the floor creaked. Marinette slowly turned her head, the upper part of her face dark as she looked at Adrien. The boy slowly leaned down and got his bag, then slowly walked to the trapdoor, where she was, stood there a few seconds, before rushing down.

“Why…?” asked Melodie, her watery voice carrying in the form of a whisper in the entire room.

“I just wanted to get some coffee. She made a big case about—”

“Why, do you do this…?” asked Allegra, walking over to her girlfriend and placing her hands on her shoulders.

“Wha— This isn’t my fault! Cesaire is just—!”

“Why do you keep pushing your friends away?” asked the kind blond, tears in her eyes.

“The weren’t—“ Marinette began, before cutting herself off, promptly closing her mouth. She closed her eyes, sighing. “I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are.” said the blue haired girl. Allegra’s face shifted from sadness to determination, the girl whipping away her tears.

“I don’t need you to be less stubborn than me. I just need to be more stubborn than you… Alya, Nino and Adrien are your friends.”

“No, they’re not—”

“Why, because they aren’t part of the old gang? If you wanted to continue those friendships then maybe you shouldn’t have pushed Felix and Allan away!”

“They weren’t friends either! Felix cheated me into winning that one tournament and Allan fucked my one chance to fix my damn leg!”

“Felix has never done the whole friendship thing before us—”

“Exactly! He didn’t know what friendship is. Many people don’t actually know. They all think being friends means getting involved in other people’s business. They are all idiots!” Allegra’s grip tightened on her girlfriend’s shoulders.

“Then what am I…?” The young fashion designer realized her mistake too late.

“No— wait— you’re not—”

“GETTING INVOLVED IN OTHER PEOPLE’S BUSINESS IS EXACTLY WHAT BEING A FRIEND MEANS! IT ISN’T PITY OR IDIOTIC! IT MEANS THEY CARE!” shouted the kind blond. “How can you be so kind as to protect a city yet be so blind to other people’s kindness towards you…?” Marinette was shaking at this point, and her breathing became ragged. She still stood straight, her hand gripping her cane so hard it went white. Her head was pounding and her leg felt like it broke all over again. Her lip twitched and tears began to escape her eyes.

“Caring and kindness are exactly the things that got me this.” ‘this’ was referring to her cane. “They care… then I care… then I make a stupid decision and I get hurt…” Melodie began to shed tears anew, pulling her girlfriend to the couch.

“It doesn’t have to be like that… You can do it differently this time…” she said, placing a hand on Marinette’s left cheek.

“She doesn’t know how.” Both girls looked down to see Nooroo in between them, floating low. “After she learned of the Butterfly Miraculous and its importance she cut ties with people because she cared about me, which hurt her soul. Then, when she cared about Chloe, she ended up with the cane… You don’t know how to care without hurting yourself in the process.” said Nooroo. Marinette sobbed and nodded. She grabbed him and pulled Melodie into a hug. “… sorry I didn’t speak up earlier… picking a side in your argument would have made things worse... I know you can learn to change this though… and make friends again…”

“I-It’s ok…”/ “T-thanks c-cinnamon roll…” replied Marinette and Allegra quietly.

Chapter Text

It was an early Thursday morning, Adrien still sleeping since his alarm hadn’t gone off yet. Tikki was reading a book from the three that Adrien had laid out for her, with a sticky note on the top one. ‘If you wake up before me.’ it read. The little Kwami was so happy to have such a kind wielder. Not that the others weren’t kind, but many really didn’t consider the idea of her potentially getting bored with nobody to talk to and nothing to do if she woke up before them. Usually, if her wielder was an adult, she’d just wake them up. Adrien wasn’t, so he let him continue sleeping. Right now she was reading a novel. The story? A princess’ carriage is attacked by some bandits while through the woods and fell in love with a squire who was pretending to be a knight. The historical accuracy of such a story was low, but Tikki did find amusement in the squire’s balancing of attempting to woo the princess and keep the knight he was working for in the dark. Based on the few era-specific-terms, the character’s seemed to be living during the time Adélaïde d'Orléans was also living. Of course, knights no longer lived at that time, but Tikki was not going to let that discrepancy get in the way of her enjoying this book. This was just a sweet love story and she actually liked it. The fact that Adrien liked was a mystery, until she got to the part that explained how the princess was already engaged and she was not allowed to go anywhere other than family without her husband’s knowledge. While the details were different, Tikki could see how Adrien could relate to the female protagonist’s situation. Speaking of Adrien, the boy’s alarm went off and he stopped it, waking up with a yawn and stretching.

“Good morning Adrien!” said the Ladybug Kwami.

“Good morning Tikki... <yawn> Do you like the books I gave you to read?” he asked.

“Well, I do like the one I am currently reading. I don’t know about the others yet.”

“I’m glad! I wasn’t really sure if I had something that you would like.”

“Oh, there’s no need to worry. I would probably like anything you’d have given me. Not many wielders would do something like that.”

“Guess I scored extra friend points then…! Am I the only one that made an axe of kindness like this?” he asked. The tiny being was just about to correct him for using the plural form of ‘acts’, before she realized the pun.

“I’m going back to reading.”

“Oh come on! Was it that tear-able?”

“You’re making it worse Adrien.” she replied, but he could hear she was trying not laugh. That made him smile, but he couldn’t think of any other, so he left it at that.

“Anyway, I’m going to go shower and get ready.”

“Are you going to sing in the shower again?” she asked, and unknowingly set him up perfectly.

“Hey, singing in the shower is great. Until you get soap in your mouth; Then it’s a soap opera!” Tikki burst out laughing at that one. She learned what a soap opera was from looking stuff up on the internet in order to catch up on what she’d not experienced since the last time she was active, so she totally had the context for that joke to land. After brushing his teeth, taking a quick shower and getting his hair under control, the boy looked into his humongous wardrobe, looking for what he would wear today. In addition to basic clothes, the boy had every single outfit that he has ever worn at a photo shoot. He couldn’t let them go to waste, after all, they were clothes made for his measurements without actually being used outside of the photo shoots. And one of them caught his eye as he was looking for something with red in. He pulled it out and turned to Tikki. “Do you think my dad would be ok with me wearing this?” he asked his Kwami. She turned to him, looking at the shirt.

“I suppose not. Why do you feel the need to color code with your superhero self though?” Adrien shrugged.

“Don’t all superheroes do that?” he asked. Tikki couldn’t really complain, as she had seen the person that is now Multifox dyed her hair orange. After the boy put on the red T-shirt along with a pair of very light gray pants and added a dark grey button up sweater since it was starting to get even colder out. He made his way down to have breakfast, his father noting his choice of clothes, saying nothing, as he found them acceptable. There was something bugging him about it though, so he decided to ask:

“Adrien, did you color code your outfit to match your superhero self?” the boy shot him a weird look, him and his Kwami sharing a look as well.

“Superheroes color code. That’s what Capacity Commandos taught me anyways.” said the blond boy.

“Multifox has orange hair in her civilian form.” added Tikki.

“I never color coded…” said Gabriel, feeling conflicted over whether to find it ridiculous or be sad for being left out.

“You did actually wear black for a while dad…” said Adrien, his voice lowering with sadness.

“Never mind that. I wanted to speak of you of something of greater importance Adrien.” said the experienced fashion designer. His son stood at attention.

“Yes dad?” Gabriel still couldn’t get used to hearing that, not for any bad reason however, as the word ‘dad’ made him feel so happy. His son and him managed to break that boundary he had set up like an idiot after Emilie’s death.

“I will be at a conference in Milan with Nathalie this weekend since my attempts at arranging a video conference for it had failed.” said the elder Agreste, disgust clear in his voice. Adrien was well aware of his father’s distaste of leaving the house, especially after his mother’s death. “As it stands, you would benefit from continued social interaction with the rest of your class, therefore I grant you permission for your friends to spend the night here.” Adrien beamed at him.

“You mean I get to have my first sleepover?” Gabriel nodded, the shadow of a smile dancing across his face. Adrien was so incredibly happy.

“Your bodyguard will still be here to ensure your safety, and if there is any issue, do not hesitate to call Nathalie.” With that established, the two finished their breakfast and went along to do their thing. Adrien got into the car that was going to drive him the short way to school while Gabriel went to do his job.

The boy didn’t really expect anything to happen on his way to school, seeing as it was such a short drive. It was for this reason that his mouth hung open as his bodyguard drove by a shop that was bust through, Shocker and Lucky Cat running out with bags filled. Adrien had his bodyguard stop quickly, the blond teen running out quickly into a spot to hide.

“He finally shows his face again. I’m getting Plagg back Tikki!”

“Try not to get distracted though. If you can’t get him, focus on stopping Shocker.”

“Alright… Tikki! Spots on!” he called out, his Kwami entering the earrings and summoning his superhero suit. Red Beetle jumped out of his hiding spot on a roof and ran after the villains, seeing them from his bird’s eye view. He jumped down and threw out his yo-yo, swinging low towards Lucky Cat. “Coming through!” he announced, hitting the cat villain with a swing kick and unwrapping the yo-yo from its hanging point. Red Beetle used Lucky Cat as a skateboard, the man sliding on the ground for a little bit, the ladybug hero crouching down on top of him. “You know, I’m happy to have somebody that I can hit.” said the hero as he grabbed the cat villain’s left arm, pulling his hand over to him. “Now, I think you hAAAAAAAAA—” Red Beetle’s words turned into a scream as Shocker shot him in the back, launching him off Lucky Cat.

“You a’ight dere? Some’n hurt?” asked Shocker.

“Nothing except my ego. I should have enhanced reflexes among other things. Proceed with the plan.”

“Who made you boss?” asked Shocker, dropping his bag next to his temporary partner. “Proceed with the plan. Ah’ll go squash that bug…” The cat villain did as he was told, grabbing both bags and making a run for it while shocker faced Red Beetle. The teen hero immediately jumped on a street light to avoid a one-armed blast from shocker, RB immediately jumping off again and landing into a roll, grabbing a manhole as he did and throwing it at his adversary, hoping the little reminder of their last battle would unnerve the sound villain. It did, Shocker dodging instead of firing another blast, the ladybug hero taking this opportunity to throw his yo-yo and letting himself pulled by it.

“It’s been grate bud, but can we postpone round two? Thanks!” he called out. Shocker was not about to let him get away however, the villain aiming at the ground behind himself and launching himself into the air towards his opponent. Red Beetle was just about to swing towards Lucky Cat when Shocker flew in beside him blasting him back. The ladybug hero landed on the hard ground in a heap, pushing himself up slowly as Shocker landed in front of him, the man stopping and leaning on his knees, breathing slowly. “What…? You eggshausted…?”

“Ah feel like ahma hurl…” replied shocker, holding a fist up to his mouth and suppressing his vomiting. Red Beetle felt bad for what he was about to do.

“Dude, don’t hold it in! You’ll just feel worse.” he said, wrapping his yo-yo’s wire around Shocker’s left food and pulling him to the ground, the villain quickly pulling his mask up and beginning to vomit as the ladybug hero used his yo-yo to get away. He jumped from roof to roof, seeing Lucky Cat in the distance. He was about to through his yo-yo and swing over to say hi when he suddenly got tackled off the roof. “You are persistant! I’ll give you that.” praised Red Beetle, throwing his yo-yo out and swinging very low, Shocker’s back sliding across the ground, the material that made up his suit chafing until he let go. Shocker immediately rolled on his stomach and shot at the Ladybug hero, who let go of his yo-yo to dodge. RB dodge further sound blasts by rolling on the ground and back flipping, managing to get his yo-yo as well. In what he thought to be a stupid idea, he began to spin his yo-yo rapidly, red energy releasing from it and another blast from Shocker.

“What in tarnation?!” the villain exclaimed, before Red Beetle, with quickly reflexes, ensnared one of his gauntlets in the yo-yo’s wires and pulled, spinning him halfway before getting him thrown away.

“Lucky Charm!” exclaimed the ladybug hero, believing he just about got enough info on this guy. He received a… “Lead tile? What am I supposed to do with this?!” he asked out loud, looking around he found nothing that he could use the tile with.

“Are you gon’ throw that at me too?” asked Shocker, pulling Red Beetle out of his musing, the teen hero dodging before using his yo-yo to shield himself. The beeping of his earrings already reminded him that he was on a time crunch now. What was he supposed to do with a lead plate? He wasn’t going to throw it like Frisbee, because that won’t stop Shocker… Unless it’s not for stopping Shocker! realized Red Beetle. Right on time, a Champion showed up. And it was Ironheart! The villain was immediately overwhelmed by the metal golem, giving the ladybug hero the space he needed to run and find Lucky Cat. He immediately swung to him, not to kick him, but to land in front of him.

“Oh for goodness’ sake! Cataclysm!” exclaimed the cat villain, hoping he just hit Red Beetle and turn him into a pile of ash, allowing him, to take the Ladybug Earrings. Of course, the ladybug hero was prepared for that, and held up the lead tile to block the attack, Cataclysm going into it and doing nothing. “What?!” exclaimed the villain, RB dropping the tile and performing an incredibly swift helicopter kick. The teen hero ran at his opponent with the intent to snatch the ring, instead getting blasted away by Shocker, who landed near his temporary partner. Seconds later, Ironheart burst through the wall of the building they were closest to, the two villains beginning to run away, accidentally leaving the bags of stolen goods behind. Red Beetle summoned his Miraculous Ladybug, before saying goodbye to the late arriving Champion and swinging off, rushing to school. If he was lucky he could at least catch the tail end of the first class instead of missing it outright. When he realized he heard the fourth beep from the earrings, he quickly swung down somewhere to hide, transforming back and hiding Tikki in his bag. He ran to the school building, going through the arch and then running up the stairs, making it through the door as the bell rang and tripping on the doorsill and landing face first on the floor.

“Adrikins!” exclaimed Chloe.

“Dude! You alright?” asked Nino, the blond teen letting him help him up.

“What happened? You missed the entire first class?” asked Alya, ever curious.

“Sorry! So sorry! A photo shoot dragged on for too long due to Vincent being picky with photos again. I’ll need to talk with my dad about putting of early morning shoots during schooldays.” said the blond teen, realizing he just annihilated his one and only, most logical excuse for being late. Miss Bustier had asked him if he got hurt and needed to see the nurse. He didn’t and his absence was marked with a slip that he would need to give home. It was the first offence, so they didn’t call his father (not that they would have anyway, seeing the way they usually folded when Chloe used to throw her father’s name around). The first class he missed had a pop-quiz, so he would need to take it alone at a later date. The rest of the day for him was normal, or, at least as normal as it could be without his friends all getting along. Nino and Alya had really wanted to sit together, so he ended up sitting with Marinette for every class today and there were a few things he learned about the girl through this experience: firstly, she was hiding bags under her eyes with her reading circular lens reading glasses as well as makeup, his father dipping into that as well, only her bags being more pronounces; furthermore, she would sometimes flinch when the teacher talked as well, even if the teacher hadn’t risen her voice; finally she would occasionally dip her head to hide the fact she closed her eyes, but still managed to take notes, written sloppily, but still surprisingly readable. At lunch, Adrien had considered eating with Alya and Nino, but when he noticed Marinette all by herself at a table, he went there. Considering all he had learned today, along with what he learned at Melodie’s, the blue haired teen was obviously under a lot of stress and pressure and, like he used to do, she tried to hide it, make herself look perfect. Unlike him however, she caved into the stress and snapped at her friends. The blond boy would have never done that considering his how his father used to treat him, but she clearly didn’t have overbearing parents. In fact, he could probably say she had the opposite, considering she could just do stuff without calling them in. And since she clearly wasn’t going to turn over a new leaf and calm down like he did, she might need to relax more. Considering she wasn’t too keen on sleeping when told to, he figured he needed another solution.

“So… wanna come over to my place after school?” the young fashioned designer raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“That’s allowed? Thought your dad loosened the leash, but I didn’t think he let go of it.”

“Oh, um, well, he usually doesn’t let me bring in guests, but he might make an exception with you. Every time I bring you up in conversation, he lights up and talks about your designs.” Marinette’s eyes slightly narrowed

“Hmm… I don’t know. Isn’t it your job to spend quality time with your dad?”

“I am! Kinda…” replied Adrien, noticing that, even now, the young fashion designer was bringing to his attention his own problems and implied he needed to fix them. “Anyway, I would be stoked if you came over!” I need to be careful not to let her realize I’m trying to help her.

“Sure…” she gave him a shrug, smiling tiredly. Adrien suppressed a sigh, knowing full well that would give him away.

“Awesome! We’re gonna have so much fun!” he said. Little did the blond boy know that Nino and Alya were looking at him, feeling a little betrayed that he would even continue to be friends with her, while also being shocked and appalled, Alya in particular thinking Marinette was only playing along with him for his father. After all, when the blogger wanted what was best for her (rest, nothing too unreasonable), her supposed friend snapped at her

Chapter Text

After school, Adrien and Marinette walked out together, the blond teen walking a little slower so his friend would not force herself to speed up. He absolutely had no idea what he was going to be doing after he finished his homework, but he sure was going to come up with something. After all, his room was overflowing with options, from his foosball table, to his game cabinets as well as the various console games. He actually had a bunch of movies and TV shows as well, so he could potentially just watch some with her while eating popcorn. Anything to pass the time and to get her to relax. Best case scenario, she’d fall asleep and actually rest, worst case scenario, she’ll get to relax, as her general straight face told him she was stressed; it was the same thing his father had, until he had given him the Cat Miraculous… Now I’m thinking about Plagg again. thought Adrien, sadness becoming visible on his face.

“Something bothering you Agreste?” asked Marinette, startling him. When they got into the car, Adrien had asked for the bodyguard to drive them on the ‘scenic route’. During all this time, the blue haired girl was staring out the window, facing away from the blond boy. The fact she was able to tell something was wrong just by being in his presence was utterly terrifying to him, bolstered by the fact he had no lie lined up and ready to be spouted out. He calmed down and let himself go with the flow, opening his mouth to reply:

“Sorry, just thought about my mom...” it was a plausible lie, and now technically the truth since talking about it summoned her memory to the forefront of his mind.

“You two must have been close.” the blue haired teen observed.

“Yeah… me and my mom were always very close. Closer than me and my dad anyway— We’re getting there though! It’s really surreal, but we’re getting there: we’re having breakfast together, he asks me about school and you guys… of course I didn’t tell him about everyone not getting along really well right now…” explained Adrien, laughing nervously.

“Probably for the best. I imagine your dad doesn’t like Nino… Why does he like me actually? I was a little rude the first time we met at Quantum Café.”

“Wait, you two met at Quantum Café?” the blond teen asked, his friend finally turning away from the window to look at him. The air felt tense all the sudden.

“He never told you? I thought I was the reason you were allowed at school.”

“Well, yeah, he told me about that, but he didn’t tell me exactly what happened between you too… Does being rude actually work on my dad? If that were the case I’d have been rude from the start.” joked Adrien, feeling the tension in the air. Marinette turned back to the window and the tension left as quickly as it had arrived. Adrien decided to leave it at that, not noticing how the young fashioned designer shuddered. Once they had arrived, the two teens were welcomed in by Gabriel, the man sitting atop the stairs like usual.

“Hello. I did not expect a new visitor here. I see you have replaced your usual style with something more colorful.” Marinette shrugged.

“It’s my girlfriend’s favorite color. Have no clue why, but who am I to question it. Besides, it works.”

“I concur; there is no other color I could imagine you into besides… blue. That might fit you.”

“Blue is an almost universal color. Even sunshine here can fit it probably.”

“Yes… he could. Adrien?”

“Yes dad?”

“This discussion has provided me with inspiration. I will be in my atelier working with a design for blue. Perhaps later you could come by and try it on.”

“S-Sure… I mean, yes, absolutely!” With that, Gabriel left for his work, while the two teens went up to the blond teen’s room. Adrien once again felt that amazement at watching the blue haired girl. Not only did she navigate a conversation with his father without any awkward pauses, but she even got them to spend time together with just two sentences. Then he saw how she managed to finish homework in record time. When he looked over, he did see that there was a mistake, and he pointed it out. Wordlessly, she fixed it. After that the two sat around awkwardly for a bit, before Marinette went up the stairs and looked over his library.

“Your taste in manga is… spicy.” said the girl, amusement clear in her voice. That made Adrien’s face resemble a tomato as he ran up the stairs after her. He didn’t even consider Marinette to be the snooping type, not that she was snooping really, only looking for something to do probably. He should have thought about hiding this stuff! It had struck him that this was probably what would have happened if he had more people over and a combination of happiness and embarrassment overcame him, mixing together and making him feel nice and warm. He had no clue how to manage these emotions, but that’s what made it interesting. It was all new! Is this what my dad was referring to when he said I would ‘benefit from continued social interaction’? the boy asked himself.

After a little bit, Adrien managed to navigate his friend away from the ‘spicy’ manga, as she put it, and then towards some of his favorite: Kamigami wa kono, Cowgirl Baboop, Hero University, Miss Tohru’s Dragon Butler, Singular bit, and a few others. They settled for one and Marinette insisted on reading together, with him as her ‘guide’. The young fashion designer told him how she never actually picked up a manga ever, and neither comic books. She was really missing out, so he immediately agreed, he two spending the next few minutes reading manga together, the blond teen trying not to spoil the plot while also pointing out jokes and references as well as giving his general opinion about the story and characters. It was really nice and he looked forward to doing this in the weekend. Although it might be a little complicated to pull off something like this with an entire class. He considered— Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room became tense and he felt a wave of anxiety wash over him. He had no idea where it came from however… Everything was fine just a second ago! Adrien thought to himself, looking to Marinette, who was rubbing at one of her eyes before leaning her head back on his couch.

“Hey Agreste…?” she asked tiredly.

“Yeah?” he replied, wondering what was up.

“I’m sorry about… what I did…” the blue haired teen yawned and the tense atmosphere slowly went away. Her eyes fluttered close and Adrien gently closed the manga, putting it away and leaning on the couch as well, putting his hands behind his head and closing his eyes. The room was quiet, the only sound the blond teen was able to hear being the blue haired girl’s soft snoring. A couple of minutes in however, and the young fashioned designer let out a hum as if disagreeing with something followed by a:

“No!” Adrien looked opened his eyes and looked at her, seeing her get up from the couch.

“Wha— did something happen?!”

“I had a nightmare you mo—! Why didn’t you wake me up?” asked the blue haired teen.

“I fell asleep too!” Adrien said forcefully. It was kind of true. He was about to fall asleep anyway. Marinette didn’t comment on it, and seemed to believe him, turning and going into his bathroom. The blond teen heard the sound of water from the tap, as well as it splashing. A few minutes passed before Marinette came out, looking better and… Did she reapply her makeup? Before Adrien got the chance to ask, Nathalie opened the door.

“Adrien, you have PE… Have I interrupted something?” asked the blue and red haired woman awkwardly.

“No actually. I was going to say goodbye.” replied the blue haired teen. The blond teen looked at her limp over to grab her bag, feeling like this still went wrong. Even though he was so careful he still managed to step on one of the bombs in the metaphorical minefield. Maybe sleep was just something that should never be brought up or attempted on Marinette. Still, she was one of his classmates, one of his friends, so he had to ask:

“I-I’m allowed to have a sleepover this weekend—” he began, getting cut off.

“Cute.” she said tiredly, with her back to him as she grabbed her bag, before straightening and shaking her head.

“Well yeah and—”he once again tried to get his invitation out before he once again cut off.

“I’ll be there.” said the young fashion designer, a wave of relief and confidence washing over him.

“A-Awesome!”

“Do you want me to inform everyone else? Or…?”

“Oh, no! I’ll tell everyone.”

“Ok then. See you tomorrow at school Agreste. Have a good day Sancoeur.” bid Marinette.

“A good day to you as well.” bid Nathalie with a smile.

“Bye D-Cheng!” said Adrien.

“Sunshine you gotta stop. Lahiffe’s style doesn’t fit you.” called out the blue haired girl as she left.

In the dark of night, after running through the sewers for what felt like a long time, when it was probably only an hour, Lucky Cat got out, a bag in tow, filled with many pieces of technology. He covered up the manhole again, before jumping to a roof and running around for a few more minutes. Finally, he had arrived at abandoned building around the edge of town and went down the fire escape into the first floor window.

“Claws in.” he called out, Plagg flying out of the ring as the man became a silhouette. The little cat Kwami, despite his exhaustion, still managed to smile smugly.

“So… You still haven’t commented on my gift.” he said. Chai turned to look at him, or so the Kwami thought, not quite able to make it out since the silhouette effect grew darker, the light that was obscured by his body from all angles growing brighter in anger. Plagg snickered.

“Shut. Up.” Plagg’s snicker turned into full blown laughter as Chai grabbed the ring in an attempt to pull it off. The Kwami sensing this, looked at him.

“You sure about that? You already shut me up twice. The next time you do it, it’ll be permanent.”

“…What…?” Chai’s anger completely dissipated as he looked over to Plagg again.

“Yeah! It’s the rule of three. Humans love it, plus if someone is willing to renounce a Miraculous for a third time, then they clearly don’t want it. In other words, you renounce me and you’ll have to find another poor fellow to use the ring.” The silhouetted villain removed his hand from the Cat Ring. He had no idea of that rule, and really hated it. As he did so, the cat Kwami began to fly around and throw stuff to the ground.

“I’m grumpy now! Gimme my cheese!” Chai sighed and Plagg took that moment to pull the bag of off him. The villain ran in circles with him until he tackled him to the ground, some of the bag’s contents making a crunching sound. Chai sighed again.

“Plagg… you do realize this would be so much easier… if you cooperated?” The Kwami yawned, disinterested, before phasing through the villain’s hands.

“And you do realize nobody wants ‘this’ right?”

“You were free—”

“And could do nothing but break things! I mean, sure, I had Tikki help fix some things, but it’s not like we traveled the cosmos together. And besides, now I’m actually doing something worthwhile! How is it so hard for you to understand? Just let me go back to the kid. Turn yourself in. I’m certain Ku—”

“NO! I will NOT stop until I can destroy the Miraculous! The fact I need to use them myself disgusts me!”

“Then don’t expect me to take this lying down. If keeping the Cat Miraculous locked in Factory settings is something I can do, then I’ll do it! Now give me my cheese!” Chai snatched Plagg out of the air and stuffed him in a pocket.

“You are not getting food until you learn to behave.” the silhouetted villain said. He then scoffed: “Food and rest! A Kwami’s energy was infinite, until it got sucked out and made to power those blasted devices.”

“Those ‘blasted devices’ also let us talk to all beings. Omnilingualism allows us to actually understand more about the world we were looking at when back when we were bystanders. Not that you would appreciate good music, a play or written stories and cuisine anyway.”

Chai ignored any other comments made by the Kwami and made his way down, walking into the inner courtyard of the building. Where a makeshift laboratory was created. A mix of substances and metal pieces covered the place, along with the equipment used, a one armed man and Doctor Octopus working on their own respective stuff. He multi-armed robot noticed Chai first as he came over, clearing his workspace up a little bit in order for the villain to drop the bag on it. Once he did so, the doctor looked at the contents.

“Did your pawn have a rough night sir? There are a few pieces here which were destroyed.”

“No, I did not. It was like you said doctor: the heroes still sleep, so doing this past midnight was the correct choice. You can attribute the damage to the ‘little inconvenience’.”

“I see. Still, it is a shame because I will need replacements for the broken parts.”

“That’s fine. I can have my Lucky Cat grab them for you.”

“Or you could always ask Shocker for sum assistance pardner.“ said Shocker, walking from the complete opposite direction into the courtyard, dressed in his civilian clothes and wearing a cowboy hat. “Yous done with juicin’ up my suit doc?” asked the villain.

“Almost. Due to the working conditions and…” Doctor Octopus trailed off, looking at Chai “… time constraints… these upgrades will come with a manual interface. The level of energy necessary to power the Sound Emission Gauntlets and the new sound emitters in your upgraded boots is too much. As such, extensive use will drain your you batteries if you are not careful.”

“So what? You’re gonn’ put a button somewhere for me to push?”

“Absolutely. Not just one button, but a switch button, to be exact. If you need the emitters in the boots, press the switch and activate them. Additionally, I finally managed to work out a solution for the suit’s force-field generation. There are now two layers for it, and are no longer triggered by proximity sensors. You’ll need to manually turn them on.”

“Are you kiddin’?! How am ah supposed to fight those freaks then? They react quicker than me!”

“Sometimes we have to make compromises. Thankfully, I’ve thickened the material of your suit and added a layer of scale mail for further protection from physical harm. It will provide you with ample warmth as well.”

“So ah’m going out wearin’ a Christmas sweater before winter. Thanks gran’ma.” snarked Shocker before walking away and towards the other man working in the room. He called him ‘Doctor Lizard’, whatever that meant, not that Chai was really interested anyway, as he, once again, focused on the robot, slamming his hands on the table.

“What about the ‘other project’ doctor? When I agreed to work with you, you told me I would have an ‘Army of Supervillains’!”

“We will get to that. Unfortunately, it’s a lot more complicated to create supervillains with the power of science, as opposed to magic. The Electromag Aviation Harness is almost complete, and I also happen to have a potential candidate for its use.”

“I’m listening…”

“The school you requested information from. I finally managed to get it. I found that an old college classmate and friend is working at the school as a teacher. I could try to ask for a favor to bring them here and then you could threaten her into using it.” Chai thought about this. He had not told Doctor Octopus about his ability to corrupt people. His power allowed him to corrupt someone only if that person had some form of regret or a powerful dark side, like that girl Rossi did. Chloe Bourgeois used to be a candidate, but since she became a Champion, she is no longer as susceptible to this. And whoever this teacher was, it didn’t really sound like they would be either.

“I’ll consider it. Do not make a move on this ‘friend’ of yours until I tell you.”

“Understood.” And with that, Chai took off and walked further into the building. He walked by general punks: thieves, drug dealers and bruisers. The ‘workforce’ as Shocker called them. Despite the silhouetted villain not liking the idea of partnering up with that ‘cowboy’, he had to applaud his ability to keep these men and women under his control and have them act in an organized way. The way he made use of the sound blaster technology Doctor Octopus had created was also somewhat impressive. Still, it could not compare to the power of a Miraculous. If only he could figure out how to open the side drawers of that damned box. Well, he was going to find out sooner or later. He only preferred it’d be sooner. Chai walked to a specific part of the building, its basement to be exact, intercepting one of the goons on their way and taking their box with food in it for himself. He walked up to a door, unlocked it with the key hanging by a hook next to it, and entered.

“Late dinner is served you ancient meat-sack.” Chai disgust clear in his voice.

“Ah, wonderful! I was wondering when you would be returning. I remember we last talked about the Witch Trials in Salem and how the view on supernatural phenomenon has progressed and transformed over time.” said the occupant of the room. Said occupant was a man small in stature, with frazzled gray hair, with a receding hairline and a gray beard and moustache, also a little frazzled. He was old and there was wisdom in his eyes. His chest was bandaged, as well as his right forearm and left leg, and he wore a pair of dusty brown pants along with an open, dirtied with dried blood and dirt, red Hawaiian shirt. Chai threw him the box of food, along with the ring, and the old man caught them both. Plagg came out of his pocket and settled down on the floor, curling up on himself to take a nap.

“I have no interest in these frivolous matters! I want to know how to open the drawers of the Miracle Box!”

“It is technically called the Mother Box, and, as I mentioned in our past conversations, you already know how to.” Chai sat down on the floor.

“I do not actually. One of the drawers, the one with the Mouse Miraculous, opened by accident during our fight. I have not been able to open any others since.”

“I see…” replied the old man, opening his box. “I imagine it must be difficult, seeing as your former protégé betrayed you.” Chai changed into his scorpion form, slapping away the box of food and roaring at the old man.

“You think yourself clever human? Because I can assure you, you are not. Keep this up and I will stop giving you any food.” threatened the villain.

“That is always an option, but alas, without me, you will never uncover the secrets of the Miraculous.” Chai turned back into his human form and walked out, slamming the door like a petulant child. Plagg opened one eye to look at the old man.

“He’s gone off the deep end Fu… If you keep doing this he will kill you.”

“I do not doubt that.” said Fu, walking over to his box of food to save what he could. “Have you memorized the path in and out of this building yet?”

“Not yet. He keeps me in his pocket, so it’s hard to know exactly where I’m going.”

“Understood.”

“Oh! One more thing! He’s planning to get another villain. This one I think will be able to fly or something. My kid is doing awesome with Tikki though, based on how angry scorpy is.” Fu nodded.

“I see. Then for tonight, we shall continue to wait. Once you have memorized this building and the circumstances are favorable, we shall make our escape.”

“Yeah! We’re going to break out of prison. This reminds me of Ife actually… she was so good at escaping the law in Egypt…” said Plagg dreamily.

Chapter Text

Another day… monotony had started to become a theme for Marinette. She would have to wake up early, or sometimes not sleep at all, either being in her bedroom or her Garden. She’d then proceed with getting ready for school, sitting at school and faking her being energetic in some classes (deluding herself into thinking she actually had any), then either going home or to her girlfriend’s place, and sometimes fighting the villains. She liked her work, and it was important, and she loved spending time with her girlfriend, but these things brought her only temporary joy, the rest of the time filled with emptiness or… as this morning reminded her…

“Marinette…! You need to wake up to show up on time at school.” spoke Nooroo, his soft voice not doing much to help her, either than not giving her a headache.

“Paiiiiin…” replied the young fashioned designer sleepily, the feeling being heard in her voice as she almost whined. It was one of these days. The blue haired girl felt like she wanted to die, just so she could get away from the torturous pain. It was on days like this that she regretted not amputating her leg, and cursed her previous self for her stubbornness. If I ever get the chance to get rid of this I’ll take it. I cannot live like this for the rest of my life. She thought to herself as she finally shuffled her feet into fluffy slippers. She sat on the edge of her bed a little before asking Nooroo to grab her cane for her, the butterfly Kwami complying. She sat up and tried to take a step before collapsing on the floor of her room. Nooroo was obviously worried about her, but his voice was muffled by her headache, sounding as if he was underwater. The blue haired girl wiped the cold sweat off her face and got up to get ready for her day as best as she could. When she arrived downstairs in her living room, she realized with a sigh that it was her turn to cook breakfast, seeing her mother reading the morning newspaper.

“Hi…” said Marinette, getting Sabine’s attention.

“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed her mother, running to her and helping walk her to sit down. “How bad is it? Do you need me to call Allegra and have her do—”

“No… Can we switch for today…? I’ll make breakfast on your turn.”

“Of course dear.” said Sabine, beginning to prepare breakfast. After a little bit she asked if the blue haired teen was capable of going to school, receiving an affirmative hum. The mother couldn’t help but feel helpless in these situations. If only I tried to convince her more back then… she thought sorrowfully. The mother and daughter shared a quiet breakfast, no Chinese words spoken like usual, before Marinette went down to give her father his share of breakfast. When he saw the state she was in, he offered, and was denied, helping her get to school. The young fashion designer did accept one of his hugs however, which was a lit gentler than usual. After that she limped to school. Since she already had a headache, and the weather was getting colder, the blue haired teen decided to wear a knit cap to avoid it getting worse. The walk to school felt like it took forever, but she eventually arrived, apparently after the bell had started since Miss Bustier was taking attendance. Since it hadn’t been the first time this has happened, the teacher didn’t bat an eye, but she did mention that she should go to the nurse after class and, if her pain got worse, she could just go home. Obviously all that fell on deaf ears as Marinette struggled a little to get to the desk above the first row. Adrien wanted so badly to help, but he didn’t, knowing that she hadn’t asked for it. The young fashion designer was not interested anyway she didn’t want pi— That’s exactly the type of thing that friends should help me with… Why am I like this…?

“Everything alright?” whispered the blond teen, taking her in: her hair was an absolute mess and she wore her coat with the lapel pulled up, almost covering her entire lower half of her face, her reading glasses a bit askew as she leaned her head on her right hand.

“Peachy… Oh! Except for the whole I’m in torturous pain part.”

“S-Sorry…”

“Not your fault… just… be quiet.”

“Ok.”

The rest of the day Marinette wrote with her left hand. It absolutely didn’t look as neat as she’d prefer it, and she could swear she accidentally wrote math in the history notebook and vice versa, but that’s what happened on days like this. What usually didn’t happen was her having lunch alone, since she used to have it with her friends. Adrien decided to ditch her this time in order to ‘explain the situation’ to the young DJ and blogger. She kind of liked it actually. Eating lunch in the back of the library, in silence. It helped with the headache at least, and the leg too since there was nobody in the back to tell her to take her feet of the table. Marinette was tired… she yawned, and felt her eyelids lower.

“H-Hi…” Marinette opened her eyes and looked over to see Nathaniel, the shyest boy and most talented drawer in class, realizing she's still wearing her reading glasses and removing them. He was holding his book to his chest like an anime girl, and looked like he was in the middle of a minefield. The young fashion designer couldn’t blame him. She was the one that butted heads with Chloe when she had gone back to her snobbish ways. Add to that the fact she singlehandedly took apart Lila Rossi, who was no longer in this school at all, and everyone would be afraid of her. Heck, the blue haired teen heard students who were not in her class talk about her in hushed voices.

“Need something…?” she asked, in a tired tone. The young artist paled and stiffened.

“O-Oh, uhm… uh… Sorry, I-I shouldn’t have—”

“Nathaniel Kurtzberg.” Marinette cut in coldly. “You did not just disturb me for nothing. So please tell me what you wish to tell me…” she finished more softly.

“T-T-There is a-a fashion history exposition at the Museum?”

“Sure.”

“S-Sure?”

“Mhm… I’m bored, so I might as well go.” Nathaniel looked like he was ready to jump to the moon and back.

“After school then?” Marinette nodded and the boy walked off happily. In her tired and pain filled state, she failed to realize why he had been so nervous about asking her, the blue haired teen dozing off for the remainder of the lunch break. After school, Marinette went home to leave her stuff, finding some headache pills and taking one, allowing her enough clarity of mind to freshen up a little and comb her hair properly, getting it into her signature, still a little messy, style. The blue haired teen took a bus to the Louvre, finding Nathaniel near the pyramid entrance. She sneakily limped over and stopped next to him, looking over.

“This brings back memories.” she said, startling the vermilion haired teen.

“O-Oh Dupain-Cheng! H-Hi…!” he greeted, looking at her as she took in the glass pyramid of the museum before turning to look at the pyramid entrance itself. “Yeah… this place does bring memories…” both good and bad in Nathaniel’s case. The boy’s mother used to work at the Louvre and, since Nathaniel was incredibly well behaved, he was allowed to wander the halls of the museum. There he met Marinette, who was working with Mister Kubdel on decoding some stuff. The two kids weren’t in the same class at the time, but he met her almost any other day. Nathaniel’s love for art had come from his mother, but after her death in a car crash, Marinette had pushed him to take the path of artistry, eventually getting him into the art club at a school. Now, every time he picked up a pencil or a brush, he would remember his mother but also think of the blue haired girl standing beside him right now. Speaking of her, she just hit his arm.

“Are we going in, or what? Come on Kurtzberg!” she exclaimed limping inside.

“R-Right!”

Nathaniel followed Marinette before she slowed down, letting him take the lead. This was going to be a wonderful day. He could feel it in his bones. They were going to look at famous pieces of fashion throughout history, then, once Marinette’s spirits would’ve been raised to their upmost limit, he would ask if they could have a soda too and when they were going to be together at the table he would summon the courage he had kept in reserve to reveal his feelings for her. It was perfect, flawless! There was nothing that could stand in the way of this wonderful day. Nathaniel had the tickets for the exposition at the ready and the two got into the attraction. It was nice, with articles of clothing from all eras. They weren’t the only ones there, as there were a few other people there. Of course, none seemed to mimic Marinette’s interest and energy. Of course, being a history buff on top of a fashion designer was a pretty rare combination, so of course she would be more excited in comparison to everyone else. Nathaniel could find some excitement too, as the clothes, leg wear and accessories gave him inspiration for many drawings. He was going to draw them later however, as it would be rude to just stop and do it on the spot. Besides, he had Marinette next to him, unknowingly helping him concentrate on the now. The girl’s happy face slowly shifted to her normal one however, souring the moment.

“E-Everything alright?” asked Nathaniel, as seeing such a one eighty threw him for a loop.

“That guy is sketchy.” replied the blue haired teen. The vermilion haired boy leaned around her to see who she was talking about: the man was a little over average height, wore a cowboy hat which cast a shadow over his face, a long red coat, and wore a long scarf, with most of it covering the lower half of his face. The man was standing still in front of an exhibit with a light blue dress, suitcase in his gloved right hand. If memory served, that was the dress belonging to a legendary Norwegian queen with the power to manipulate ice and snow.

“M-Maybe he’s just cold…?” asked Nathaniel, wanting this to be true. He didn’t want this day to be ruined.

Doctor Octopus was not pleased. He was a genius, not some errand boy for Pete’s sake! He was more than contempt to stand in the shadows, being support for the time being. But Chai apparently disagreed, and while this mission seemed questionable at best, the logic behind it was sound. Even now he could remember it, since he elected not to delete it from his memory:

“I’m not sure I understand sir… you want me to steal a dress?”

“Not just a dress. It is the dress worn by the Frozen Queen, a Champion who worked under the guide of a previous butterfly.”

“But why me exactly? Shocker is perfectly capable of retrieving such an artifact. Even yourself would be much more capable, sir.”

“<Sigh> Doctor, listen. This particular mission requires tact and care, not muscle. The dress, as well as all the other pieces in that museum, are irreplaceable, which is why I need them all unharmed. I am a sword and Shocker is a jackhammer. We require a scalpel for this, doctor.”

That still didn’t mean he liked his situation. His new body wasn’t actually made for battle, and the short preparation time meant he was only able to superficially enhance his defenses with armor-plating. It was less than ideal, but, by employing  a blitzkrieg, he might be able to make it out before the heroes would get here. In case they did make it, the biggest worry would probably be Lady Monarch, or, more specifically, a new Champion he didn’t have information on. Enough stalling Olivier. It is time to collect the required item.

The robot was so focused on the glass casing the dress was in that he didn’t notice the blue haired girl looking at him. Within seconds, he commanded his metal arms to rip through the back of his coat and cut through the glass with the claws, gently removing the dress and placing it in the suitcase he brought with him. The security system activated and, as he had calculated, panic took over the entire museum. Bars fell to block some paths while civilians ran to hide and the security came in. Now the hard part. The guards took out their stun guns and shot, Doctor Octopus focusing his mind to react faster than them, managing to catch the cable of each gun and avoid getting his delicate circuits fried. He pulled them out of the men’s hands and, with a simple swipe from another tentacle arm, he knocked them all into a wall. Meanwhile Marinette had gotten picked up by Nathaniel, who ran to the nearest hiding spot: a closet. It was honestly almost perfect, except for the fact the vermilion haired boy had no idea she was Lady Monarch. But that wasn’t the most important fact right now:

“Since when can your weak nerd arms carry a person? Been hitting the gym?”

“A-Ah, um… yeah…” he replied awkwardly, blushing. That is what did it, as Marinette realized why he had actually called her here for. Suddenly, she had gotten an idea, and was incredibly happy that she was naturally an asshole.

“Go out there.”

“W-W-What?! M-Marinette, I can’t.”

“Well it’s not like the heroes can get inside? Someone needs to turn it off before that man gets away and there is no one more brave around here.”

“Y-you really think so…?”

“I know so. Now go get ‘em champ!”

“I will!” Nathaniel ran out of the closet quickly, giving the secret butterfly the privacy she needed, Nooroo coming out of her coat.

“Marinette… I hope you don’t need me to tell you how wrong that was.”

“Yes, yes, I know! If it makes up for it, I’m making him a Champion.”

“And you will use your safety to convince him.” Marinette smiled.

“I abso-freaking-lutely will! Not my fault his ass can’t read the fact I’m not attracted to boys.” Nooroo looked at her with worry, making the young fashion designer lose her smile. “What’s wrong…?”

“Nothing, it’s just… that’s how it starts… manipulation… then a little arrogance here, some lies there and then the next thing I know, my wielder turns to evil.” The butterfly Kwami looked down and Marinette let him sit on her left hand, patting him gently with her right one.

“Is that why you used to be so skittish? Have many people used you for evil?”

“Well… after the order of the Guardians disappeared, your family kept me safe. Some of them knew of the brooch, and others knew of me as well, like you.” Marinette smiled, this time with motherly love clear on her face.

“I will not be the first to torment you after so long Nooroo and I’ll make sure the next person that gets you will be good. I promise you.” Nooroo smiled up at her.

Chapter Text

Doctor Octopus made his way through the Museum, finding it strange how only some of the passage ways had been blocked. It kept open the fastest route through the museum, and all the way through he had to contend with annoying security guards that, just like in a game, had become stronger. First it had been stun-guns, but now they were using actual handguns. With annoyance clear in his voice, he swiped the legs of two of them and then slammed them both into a wall. Shortly on the way out of this place he found a room with two open exits, something he did not expect. From the two open passageways came men from R.A.I.D. wearing their special tactical suits and leveling machine guns at him. The immediately began spraying and Doctor Octopus was surprised at the level of accuracy they had, hitting him but none of the museum pieces. That of course, still didn’t matter, as the doctor made quick work of them. The exception was one of them, who was able to dodge his initial attack and, with impressive accuracy, shot at the wrist of the hand which held the suitcase. Doctor Octopus, while incapable of feeling pain, did let out a cry of pain out of habit, his affected hand beginning to tremble, the fingers twitching uncontrollably, his pseudo-nerves interpreting incorrectly the signals his mind was sending. The R.A.I.D. man fired again, this time for the head. Unfortunately for him, all that did was make Doctor Octopus’ hat fly off, his head being the most reinforced part of his body, to the point the bullet had barely scratched it. The many armed villain was incredibly angry that this man had proved to be so annoying, decided the best payback would be slamming him into the wall harder than the others and, when that didn’t work, Doctor Octopus grabbed hold of the man’s head and slid the claws of his tentacle arm over it, slashing through his helmet as well as his face, disfiguring him. After that brutal display, every exit out of the room locked, the bars falling down.

“Pfff. They believe a couple of men and some bars are going to trap me?” said the Doctor smugly as he made his way to the doorway that was lead to the fastest route out, commanding two of his tentacle arms to grab hold of and bend the bars out of his way, his tentacles hitting some form of force field. He pulled back and hit it again. It had no effect. Changing his vision to AC detection, he found that the machine creating the force field had been built into the wall, with wires going though it and feeding it power. The robotic villain simply used his tentacles to break through the wall and ripped the wires to disrupt the current flow, shutting down the shield generator. “Amateurs. The machine itself is interesting enough however. Perhaps I could reverse engineer it.” said the villain as he sued one of his tentacles to pull out a piece of the shield generator, placing it inside an inner coat pocket, before walking out to continue his escape.

Nathaniel was not going to let his date down! She had been right on the account of the heroes not getting in, as apparently the security had been upped with force fields in order to prevent escapes of thieves as well as infiltrations during the night. If it wouldn’t open, then there was no way for the heroes to get in. The vermilion haired teen quickly walked through corridors and room on his way to the security room, a lot of doors kept closed with bars and force fields, making his route there much longer. When he walked into one particular room, he noted how one of the doors opened, the hum of metal tentacles moving and their claws hitting the ground. Nathaniel immediately ducked out of sight as Doctor Octopus entered the room. What followed was the robotic villain fighting off the special police forces that were sent in with machine guns to take him down, one of them in particular suffering a particularly nasty injury. However he was still conscious and even tried to move. The young artist ran out of his hiding spot and helped the mean lean on the wall in a sitting position. His face was absolutely destroyed: his right eye had been sliced, along with his nose, in a diagonal line; he had a severe cut on his left cheek along with a severe cut on his lips. The man was bleeding profusely, but other than that he seemed somewhat fine considering he started talking.

“Kid…? Ge’ out… Ugh!”

“Don’t talk, you’ll make it worse.”

“Nooroo, fairy wings rise!” Marinette spoke the magic words, her Kwami being sucked into the brooch. This particular explanation lacked the flair she usually put on since now she was in a hurry, the energy flowing forth from the Miraculous, creating her hero suit then changing her cane into her Miraculous tool. She popped open the top of it, letting the butterfly inside fly free, the beautiful insect doing a few loops before calming down and settling down on Lady Monarch’s hand. The heroine felt the emotions of those around her, focusing on one person in particular in order to ascertain whether her judgement was correct or misplaced. She smiled. “An artist’s heart is bigger than any other’s. Always ready to be compassionate, to show kindness. All art is pain, but this time I’ll provide the opportunity to inflict it on those deserving.” Lady Monarch lips glowed with yellow energy and she lightly kissed the butterfly resting in her hand, imparting the magical energy to it. “Fly away my wonderful Fay and give this aspiring artist the opportunity to turn reality into the canvas with which to protect what he loves most!” The Fay flew squeezed under the closet door then took off flying towards her target, finding the vermilion haired boy helping another person, covering their face with bandages.

“Fay…” said the man, making Nathaniel turn. The magical being flew closer to him, then stopped. Waiting. It took a few seconds, but realization dawned on him. He had a few things on hand which could be given to the Fay, like his sketchbook or pencil, but his hands gravitated to something much more important to him: his lucky brush, gifted to him by his mother on the last birthday she had been a part of. The Fay flew and fused with it, the yellow butterfly symbol lighting up in front of Nathaniel’s face.

“Greetings Invoclustrator! My name is Lady Monarch. Your determined soul and creative mind had attracted my interest darling. I wish to be your patron to remove all limits preventing your artistic sensibilities from being expressed, to make reality itself your canvas. In return you must find the man who caused this mess, paint your way through his defenses and make him see colors! Would this be an agreeable arrangement my darling Champion?”

“Yes my Lady… but there is someone that I wish to save first. Her name is Marinette and I left her hiding her. She’s v-very important to m-me.” His cheeks flushed as he mumbled the last part. Lady Monarch did not wish to add fuel to the fire, but could not control herself, the opportunity to distance her civilian counterpart from her heroic self being too high:

“Ah, young love…! There is no need to worry about her however. I have… run into her. She is greeting you.” Nathaniel smiled in relief upon hearing that, quietly fully accepting the powers granted to him. His body shined yellow and when the light dimmed Invoclustrator took his place: his face was covered by a dark purple butterfly mask adorning his face, a black beret sitting atop his vermilion, brushed back hair; he wore a white jumpsuit with a black leggings and sleeves, ‘boots’ and ‘elbow length gloves’ colored rainbow softly fading into the black; upon the center of his chest, a shooting star with a rainbow tail sat. His paintbrush had grew to match his size, its handle an ivory white and a color on the tip of the brush itself, ever changing, an ethereal color with which he was going to superimpose upon reality itself. He turned to look at the man, who stared up at him with his single working eye. There was awe behind them, but also desire. Invoclustrator didn’t catch the latter, and Lady Monarch decided not to stress him with a, currently, insignificant detail.

“That man has left this room. You’ll be safe here.” he commented. The champion manifested a mighty ram with a green fur, with proud golden horns, herculean legs with mighty golden hooves, a red collar with bells hanging along it and a rugged leather brown saddle on its back. The champion took off on his hefty steed, lightning sparkling from the hooves as they moved, avoiding all obstacles with perfect accuracy, every movement causing the ground to tremor ever so slightly. Swiftly, the Champion arrived at his destinations. In one of the bigger rooms, which was used to allow people some space while they traversed some, Doctor Octopus’ progress was halted by a blockade of R.A.I.D. units, all of them using shields and some in the back only shooting, changing magazine’s in small groups, the robotic villain moving his four tentacle arms at incredible speed to intercept every bullet, virtually forming a shield. When they saw Invoclustrator come in, the men slowed down, the villain having enough time to use one of his arms to propel himself to the ceiling, hitting it at an angle with his arms, hurtling through the air back to the ground where the men scrambled to get out of the way. Doctor Octopus landed a little roughly, smashing the ground with his tentacles before slamming them into the R.A.I.D. troupes, sending them to the ground, not down for the count however.

Note to self, upgrade wiring of the pseudo-nervous system to fiber optics to improve reaction time and minimize workload on the main action server. Continue research into bullet stopping materials. Perhaps polycarbonate for the inner wiring might help and the carbon fiber metal alloy design could be used for both myself and shocker… where am I going to gain such materials though…? Working with such limited funding is incredibly frustrating. thought the tentacle villain, among other things, his mind working at an incredibly accelerated rate. While he did so, he hadn’t yet noticed Invoclustrator, who formulated a quick plan in his head, seeing the R.A.I.D. were still battle capable.

“Earthquake Stampede!” he exclaimed, and his ram stomped with the front hooves, causing Doctor Octopus to rise in the air then fall over. Reminder: adjust balancing software and implement automatic re-balancing response in the ‘tentacles’. This excursion is proving to be quite enlightening. thought the villain as he pushed himself back up, then used his tentacle arms’ telescopic feature to hold himself right above the magical ram, acting like a gate. As he did so, he noticed the Champion, using his human-sized brush to shape a weapon, before replicating it as he also sent them over to the tactical unit. Now armed with different weaponry and having a large animal as well, Doctor Octopus couldn’t decide on whether he should feel a headache or be impressed. Since feeling the former was an impossibility for his machine body, he concluded the latter was appropriate, after all, this Champion seemed capable of creating anything. The members of R.A.I.D. began to shoot the guns, and mostly missed as the villain began to move more sporadically, the constant tremor caused by the mighty ram not helping. The shots that missed hit the walls and coated them in frost, or at least something resembling it from what the genius robot could gather. Invoclustrator looked on a bit frustrated: Lady Monarch had given him the power to unleash his creativity, but he was having a bit of an art block. He really didn’t want to make something stupid looking and not impractical. The butterfly symbol glowed in front of his face and he could feel the support and sympathy from his lady:

“Do not despair, my darling Champion! Close your eyes, take a deep breath and open your heart! Doubts will get you nowhere; reach into your soul and display wild and weird creations shamelessly for all to see! The only critic is yourself, I speak from experience.” Invoclustrator accepted that advice immediately. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and… was promptly grabbed by Doctor Octopus.

“H-Hi…!”

“I do not believe we’ve been introduced; I am Doctor Octopus.” said the villain, the attacks from the man now slowing down since he had a hostage, the mighty ram also stopping, in fear of hurting its master. The robot took away the Champion’s brush, which was promptly swiped by the ram, the butterfly symbol appearing in front of Invoclustrator’s face before he turned and addressed the tactical unit.

“Aim for the tentacles darlings! Chop-chop!” said the Champion in a strange impression of his voice. The men began shooting anew while the ram stood still, waiting for Invoclustrator to be freed. One of the ice blasts hit and pinned one of Doctor Octopus’ tentacle arms to the ground. The villain decided to turn this into an advantage, swinging around with it like a pendulum and avoiding shots fired at the other tentacles, some of the shots were concentrated on the pinned part, which, under duress, eventually broke. Doctor Octopus fell, but managed to launch himself to the ceiling again, and from there he sent himself flying into the troupe. It was a risky maneuver, but it paid off, as those people dodged out of the way, giving the villain the golden opportunity to escape… he ended up getting rammed by Ivoclustrator’s steed, dropping the suitcase and getting a popup warning him a few of the artificial muscles in his lower back broke. He tried to escape, but:

“Not this time!” exclaimed the Champion, swinging his paintbrush and sending a ball of rainbow light in front of the villain’s path, said ball turning into a large, muscular, one eyed goliath with angry red, leathery skin and tusks, a fur loincloth covering his nether regions. The goliath roared and tried to smash the robotic villain, who dodged, before getting nailed in the back with multiple projectiles. “Say hello to my creations: Hallor Unfless Lother Kavol, the strongest cyclopic goliath in his volcanic village, he has been wandering the land after surviving a volcano eruption that destroyed his home; Spirit Shot, a.k.a. Princess Katherine Rook! Her family had attempted to force her into a marriage with the prince of a tyrannical neighboring king. Taught by her late elder brother how to aim a bow, she has left her home and became quite the lucrative bounty hunter, killing down her enemies with cold efficiency or playing with them, making them dodge a hail of arrows.” Invoclustrator motioned to the fictitious heroine: tall and slim, wearing solid gold armor boots, her upper half also protected by a golden armor, with intricate details like feathers, along with golden gauntlets, small lion heads on the back of her hands as well as one performing the role of belt buckle, the belt worn along with a sash, her legs covered by skin tight, solid black, leggings. A purple cape was draped over her back and her helmet was shaped like a hawk, with wings on the side and a beak that covered the top half of her face, leaving her lower one only covered by purple cloth. Her weapon? An intricately designed bow with a dark oak grip, golden limbs and an ethereal white string. “Finally!” with a twirl of his brush as well as many other moves, the speed of them incalculable by the villain, Invoclustrator created a man with vibrant ginger hair and a ginger beard pulled into a braid. His Viking apparel was a little rugged, black and brown, leather wool and cloth, but held a form of gravitas, enhanced by his shinning, silver, horned helmet, his billowing, blood red cape and his hammer. The man laughed boisterously. “Say hello to Godhunter! Once a weak man with no purpose, he was worthy of inheriting the power granted by the mighty hammer Mjolnir! His purpose is now to bring an end to all gods who wish to bring chaos to humanity!”

“How wonderful! Your characters definitely have a fantasy flare… reminds me of Crypts and Creatures.” Invoclustrator blushed a bit, watching on as Godhunter speedily went after Doctor Octopus throwing his magic hammer and narrowly missing him, the villain getting nailed by Spirit Shot, Hallor blocking the exit and running interference in the form of stomps that shook the ground, The mighty ram doing the same, destabilizing the villain. The R.A.I.D. troupes came in as well, beginning to shoot their ice blasters.

“Y-You think so…?”

“Well of course my darling Champion! Your creativity lies not only in your illustrations, but the life you breathe into them. Like a fledgling god, you have crafted your own animals, Adams and Eves. And they are sublime. I hold on to the hope that your artistic endeavors will lead to great things in your futures. Perhaps an illustrator, perhaps comic books…Whatever your decision I would gladly see it.”

One of the tactical unit’s members managed to freeze another one of Doctor Octopus’ tentacles, resulting in him getting hit right in the head by Godhunter. His metallic head was caved in from the side, his plates fissured— suddenly green lightning erupted from his head, overtaking the Viking figure and turning him into dust. With his scrambled systems, the villain was still able to keep his wits about him and use the exposed wiring in his destroyed tentacles to get rid of the goliath. Before Invoclustrator could hurry and make a new character, Doctor Octopus used Spirit Shot’s perfect aim against her, catching three arrows shot by her at the same time and throwing them back at the forces of good. One of the arrows hit an ice blaster and caused it to explode, freezing over the fictitious heroine, all the R.A.I.D. men, the ram, along with Invoclustrator, who had just managed to create another hero in the form of a knight, this one sporting a golden armor painted red, a blue light emanating from a crystal in the middle of his chest. The Knight tried to follow after Doctor Octopus, who made himself scarce in a vent. Following this, he flew back to the place his master was at, seeing his master’s master was chipping away at the ice with her Miraculous tool. The knight used magical blue fire erupting from blue crystals in the palm of his hands to melt away the ice…

“Ugh… my lady…” asked Invoclustrator, his head on Lady Monarch lap, her face blurry.

“Worry not my darling Champion… everything will be alright.” She was smiling, but her voice was solemn.

When Nathaniel came to, he had no idea where he was. The ceiling was white and it almost looked like he was in a car. His vision was a little blurry, but he blinked that out and slowly looked around, seeing that he was inside an ambulance. He felt a little cold. The teen artist also noticed the one other person who was sharing a ride with him: It was Marinette, her usual calm grumpiness replaced with a conflicted expression, accompanied by worry.

“You’re awake…!” she noted. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you to the hospital soon. Everything will be fine.” After that, the medics began asking him a few questions to ensure he didn’t have brain damage and learned he suffered hypothermia. Apparently his Champion form wasn’t equipped to handle that, and when he was transformed back he was still suffering from hypothermia.

Nathaniel had been completely unaware of how badly Marinette was beating herself up over this. Fucking idiot! I’m an absolute moron! Why didn’t I think his powers could be used against him. I should have given him virtual invincibility… but I couldn’t… why is it so hard to shape these powers properly…? I should have the hang of it by now… Stupid, stupid, stupid! And now he’s hurt… he’s hurt because I decided to push him into this… I abused his emotions for this… I had dozens of trained, professional fighters I could have used instead. Even that man, the one hurt by ‘Doctor Octopus’ had more motivation to run him into the dirt… I need to be better dammit!

Chapter Text

“DON’T JUST STAND THERE!” shouted Marinette in anger and fear, sitting up in bed, drenched in cold sweat, breathing heavily. She groaned as she let herself lay back down on her bed. She predicted this little outcome since she stared getting flashes of nightmares back at the Agreste Manor, so she stopped wearing pajamas, not wanting to go through them like someone with diarrhea goes through paper. Still, the fact she had nightmares now of all times was a problem. I agreed to that stupid sleepover, ok? Can we reschedule brain? No? Then fuck you! thought Marinette as she saw Nooroo fly over to her, and sitting down on top of her chest.

“Do you want me to sing a calming song?”

“No… I just need quiet… what day is it?” asked Marinette, shifting to grab her glasses and phone.

“Saturday.” replied the butterfly Kwami after looking at the calendar.

“Could’ve sworn it was Sunday… Great! I totally forgot I was gonna check on V today. Agreste will have to wait a bit.” said the blue haired teen as she looked over comments regarding this latest incident with Invoclustrator and Doctor Octopus. Some of them were damming R.A.I.D. for getting in the way and keeping Multifox and Red Beetle out of the museum, but most of them talked about how Invoclustrator was actually hurt. She could see them all denigrating her and saying they would try to keep her out of their heads if this is what would happen from now on. It was an even bigger hurdle atop her plan. The young fashion designer began hearing Nooroo humming, taking the edge off her nerves. She took a deep breath then let out a watery sighed, before tears began flowing. “They all hate me… I was thinking of using this platform to communicate with them directly, to provide help and reassurance…”

“You could still do that if you wish. Even if people do not like you, it doesn’t mean you should give up. Strive to improve and people will accept you in the end.” that didn’t seem to help Marinette’s mood, but she did get out of bed and stretched as much as she could with her leg hurting. Her headache was only a one day deal thankfully. She threw on a pair of brown jeans, a white T-shirt with the word ‘T-shirt’ written in Chinese printed on it in black, along with a purple button-up and a brown jacket, her butterfly brooch affixed to the sweater. Her hair had been pulled in a messy upper bun hairstyle to finish the look and she limped down to get breakfast. It was her turn to make it since yesterday, and settled on a simple omelet with cheese. She unenthusiastically placed them down for both her mother and herself, both sitting down. Sabine immediately noticed that there was something bothering Marinette, from how she spent less time working on how she looked to how she wasn’t really touching the food.

“{Are you alright dear? You know you can tell me anything.}” the worried mother accidentally spoke in Chinese. Before she could say it again in French, her daughter replied:

“{I… there is this fashion contest that Melodie told me about. I’ve been meaning to register, but I’ve got art block and everything I do is just bad, so I’m not sure… Should I still go for it?}” asked the blue haired teen. It was a really roundabout way of talking about her actual problems, but she didn’t want to reveal herself like that. The secret butterfly heroine almost regretted asking, thinking her mother would give a speech along the lines Nooroo had given her in regards to not giving up.

“{No.}” said Sabine simply, shocking Marinette. The blue haired woman set her plate down, her daughter doing the same, before she shuffled closer and embraced her in a half hug. “{I know you dear, and as such I know that whenever you fail, you beat yourself up over it. You get angry, frustrated and shut yourself off from everyone to try and fix it or improve. You make mistake after mistake until you give up and come back later, when you have a clearer head… This is why I’m telling you to put everything on hold. Pause and live your life a little. Allow yourself some time to cool off and recharge. The world won’t end if you take a break.}” Marinette remained quiet before shifting to hug her mother fully, ignoring her leg’s complaints.

“Thanks mama… I really needed to hear that.”

“I’m always here dear. But do try to ask for advice as often as you need. The warranty will expire one day.” the implications of the joke were a bit dark, and the young fashion designer cracked up exactly because of it. She left her home and went to the Rossi residence to carry out an unannounced inspection on the little Kwamis living there, along with checking the wards she put around their place to keep them safe from Chai. The walk there wasn’t long, but it felt like it since she had limped slower. She didn’t want to bother the Rossi’s with her plight. After all, if what she had read about the Fox Kwami was true, then they already had enough on their plate.

Once in front of the apartment door, Marinette already heard the noise from inside as she knocked. She heard Lila call out that she was going to come open door, but a minute later and still nothing. The young fashion designer heard part of a conversation, Lila saying something along the lines of ‘No! Let me!’. The blue haired girl waited a little longer before sighing and looking down. They wouldn’t do something that stupid, would they? She asked herself, looking at the doormat. She kneeled and reached under said doormat, her face shifting to that of anger.

“This family is the pinnacle of stupid.” said Marinette to herself as she held up the key to her face. She pushed herself back up and unlocked the door, entering the apartment. She was faced with an absolute mess of a home, with things laying around in the living room as well as the open kitchen. Mullo was sitting on a kitchen counter with a bowl of seeds next to him. Trixx flew right by Marinette and made eye contact, stopping momentarily.

“I GOT YA!” shouted Lila, diving and grabbing Trixx midair. The Italian teen landed in a heap, still holding the Kwami in an airtight grip. Trixx fazed right through. “Wait wha—? D-Dupain-Cheng! HI! What brings you here on this fine morning?” Lila’s smile was huge and she lied on her side, completely in between awkward and hot.

“Hello…! You must be the girl Lila has told me so much abo—” said the Kwami of illusion, cutting herself off as she tried to get close and was stopped by a magical force field.

“No thieving for you I’m afraid.” Marinette pulled out a small piece of paper out of her pocket, an intricate symbol on it. “I found a drawing of the Miracle box in my tome. Apparently this ward acts like a wall for Kwamis. It usually keeps you in the box, but I figured it could keep you out of my pocket’s reach too.”

“Awwwww! You’re no fuuuun!” exclaimed Trixx as she pushed up against the magical force field, before flying to sit next to Mullo.

“There, there. Maybe you can trick other beings in this world.” said the mouse Kwami, patting his friend on the back

“Mullo don’t encourage her!” said Lila from her spot, before she felt herself being pulled up. The neon orange haired girl must’ve had one hell of a workout considering she was sweating bullets. That coupled with her messy, slightly discolored, hair and the fact she was only wearing an undershirt and panties made her look incredibly bad in comparison to her prim and perfect look she always used to sport.

“I’m not drawing you like a French girl. Put some clothes on!” ordered Marinette, looking to the side and pushing down her blush. Dammit I’m the worst girlfriend ever! the blue haired teen thought the herself. Lila looked confused before checking herself and looking back up, her face going as red as a tomato before bolting to her room.

“I’M SO SORRY; I’LL GET RIGHT TO IT!” she shouted over her shoulder. Trixx laughed while Mullo sighed.

“She is one of the strangest wielder’s I’ve ever had.” said the small mouse being.

“Well she wasn’t chosen for her redeeming qualities, but I hope she’s not doing too bad. Why hasn’t she helped in the last few battles?” the secret butterfly heroine asked the small fox being, showing her the shiny key that had been under the doormat.

“I’ve been training her.” lied Trixx, and Marinette went to put the key back in her pocket.

“Trixx, lies won’t work on Marinette.” said Nooroo, peeking out of his hidey hole.

“Ok, ok… we mostly have her work at night—” began the fox Kwami.

“With my Miraculous as the primary one.” added Mullo.

“—and she keeps getting close to Chai and that cat guy. If she’s seen she’s done for, plus she’s a lot more easier to tail during the day. I usually have her waste most of her energy by running around so she won’t really go on patrols during the day.”

“You do also like to mess up this place.” proclaimed Mullo, Trixx agreeing with a laugh.

“I’m s-so sorry for that! I wasn’t expecting to have any visitors.” said Lila, announcing her return. The Italian girl threw on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

“Does your mom let you parade around the house like that?”

“Well she’s not really here today. She’s been making up for all the lost days at work… leaving me alone— That’s not important; do you want tea? Coffee?” asked the Italian teen, smiling stiffly, blush clear on her face. Marinette’s eye twitched. This was exactly how Lila got the opportunity to lie. She wasn’t kept under parental supervision. The young fashion designer sighed and went about doing what she came to do, taking a report from the neon orange haired teen for ‘Lady Monarch’ as well.

“And that’s when I lost him. I was so focused on not being seen that I wasn’t able to track him in the sewers. I spent like half an hour in there. The stench was so hard to get rid of.”

“Thank you for the report. Lady Monarch will be pleased. Keep up the good work.” Marinette went and finished her tea, grabbing another biscuit to snack on as well. She sat up to leave, and then remembered something. “Use the Mouse and Fox Miraculouses more please. Their power combination works very well. Tell your mom to come ‘round the bakery as well. Oh! And this weekend Red Beetle will be off on a secret solo mission, so you’ll need to intervene in case of any emergencies.”

“Wait, all by myself?!” asked Lila, sitting up. She looked a little frightened. Marinette rolled her eyes then limped over, the girl’s face getting a little red.

“You are the master of solo Rossi. You used to hold your own with Chat and some of Lady Monarch's Champions relatively well. Just show no mercy.” advised Marinette before limping off, leaving the Italian girl alone once more.

Marinette prepared for what she would want to be a nice weekend, however she felt like something was wrong. She couldn’t really shake the feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong. Nooroo felt it as well, but could not place it either.

“Maybe we should cancel the sleepover and make a champion to keep watch?” offered the Kwami.

“No thank you! My mother is right. If I keep going like this absolutely nobody would trust Lady Monarch anymore. Without any support my powers would be next to useless.” countered the girl. She continued preparing the bag, putting in a couple of videogames too. She figured the blond teen probably had almost everything she might have had, which was why she was going to bring a rare gem in her small collection, one that there was no way he had one of as well. Even if it was Adrien’s sleepover, she couldn’t resist showing off a little bit. Especially since she didn’t get to de-stress properly at the party he hosted during his birthday for obvious reasons. I’ll get on her case later. Marinette told herself before pulling on her bag and leaving her room, a quiet Nooroo in turn. Both heard an ear piercing shriek and turned around, seeing a small white dot disappear in less than a second. The young fashion designer stays there for a few seconds before she limps over to the general area where the dot was and reaches a hand to grasp the air, feeling her skin crawl along with the sting of electrified air.

“Nooroo?”

“It’s definitely magical but… I’m not sure what exactly caused it…”

“Throw a guess, I don’t care.” spoke the girl a bit urgently

“A Miraculous? There is something else mixed into it though.” The blue haired teen sighed.

“… Forget it. I don’t want this right now. I’ll focus on it after I clear my head. I’ll get to the bottom of this later.” Marinette said to herself. Whatever mess was happening this time it could wait. Her mind had too much to process and she needed to stop or risk burning herself out. It was a really novel concept really. A shame it took her mother pointing it out for her to realize. The only bad part was that she was probably going to do it again later. Not probably, very likely. Thought the girl to herself as she limped the short way to the Agreste residence slowly. She probably was the first to arrive. The blue haired teen pressed the doorbell button and waited, the camera appearing to check who she was.

“Whoth art thou foolish mortal, whoth awaketh me frometh mine slumber…th.” said a deep voice. It was none other than Nino’s, the teen probably getting access to the camera system somehow.

“That’s a terrible impression of D’Argencourt. You could have just told me to leave.”

“Nah, Imma let you in. ‘Specially since this being a sleepover means you’ll actually have to, ya know, sleep. Thee shall not escapeth slumber.” The gate unlocked and Marinette smiled.

“Now you’re just challenging me to not sleep.” she replied. It felt strange to see Nino joke with her, but that was probably because they were older friends (plus Adrien probably put in a good word for her). She limped into the estate, the detail attentive part of her brain noting how it was almost perfectly repaired since the last time, a tiny irregularity in part of the wall remaining testimony of the battle, specifically the dragon’s ‘laser breath’. If only Multifox could create real illusions without needing her Miraculous to be corrupted. But alas, that wasn’t possible. Maybe there was a reality controlling Miraculous out there— That’s just Tikki…! I wonder what would happen if she created a dragon. The power one of her wielders had was enough to recreate an entire person with, what could be assumed, perfect detail, so a nondescript member of a long dead species should be easy. Marinette thought to herself as she got inside, being greeted by Adrien and Nino. They were already dressed in pajamas, the blond wearing a Red Beetle onesie, while the young DJ wore a baby blue shirt with a white vinyl record symbol and a pair of white shorts with a pattern of black music notes.

“You’re here! I almost thought you weren’t going to show…” admitted Adrien. He wasn’t wrong in his assumption. The blue haired teen didn’t exactly leave the impression of being a person who would enjoy sleepovers.

“You’re kinda late actually.” Added Nino

“It’s four in the afternoon…”

“Well yeah, but most everyone came with Alix. She was super excited about it… but she also looked tired.” Said Adrien.

“She’s actually dozing off right now. Kim already drew mustaches on her.” Added Nino with a laugh.

“Right… I—”

“Hey Nino! Come see—” Alya came into the foyer, running from the direction of Adrien’s bedroom, where everyone else was probably at. She was dressed in purple pajamas, with white butterflies, which was incredibly awkward for Marinette. She needed to fix things. Now! The young fashion designer opened her mouth to speak, but the blogger was faster. “Hi…” she greeted, awkwardly. Her face was stoic and her voice was cold and calculated, with a little awkwardness bleeding through. Marinette felt herself clam up harder than a mollusk, similar to what happened when Alya and Nino found out about Melodie. She looked down and rubbed her right arm, almost massaging it as if her arm was tired of her leaning on her cane. It was mostly a distraction though, so she could at least reply.

“Hey…” her voice came out tired and she could care less. Maybe she would take a page out of Alix book and dose off… But elected not to because of her current problem with reoccurring nightmares. She really didn’t want to rain on everyone’s parade with her issues. It was Adrien’s first sleepover, a sacred and necessary ritual, a test for the rite of passage for any teenager. And the blond teen was holding a big one right off the bat. He had no idea what it would take to keep everyone entertained and happy.

Marinette was shown the way to where she would change and did, hearing one of Jagged Stone’s melodies blasted through the walls in his room, before being quickly silenced, voices heard arguing. If she strained, Marinette could hear it was Kim and Alix. With a smile she finished putting on her pajamas. It had been made for the occasion of Adrien’s first sleepover, before she knew of his identity, the girl originally planning to rope him into it when she had time. Made out of smooth black fabric, airy but not too long as to restrict movement, these pajamas were perfect. She limped into the bedroom, confirming her suspicion and then some: Alix and Kim were on separate sides of Adrien’s bedroom, with other classmates next to them.

“It’s not my fault you didn’t get any sleep because of ‘excitement’! WE’VE GOT THIS PLACE TO OURSELVES SO LET’S PARTY!”

“YEAH!” agreed his side.

“You can party without causing an earthquake and bursting eardrums!”

“YEAH!” agreed her side.

In between was Adrien trying to keep the peace and failing. Where was the bravado and confrontational nature he had as his hero self? Marinette sure didn’t know. Not partaking in the little conflict were Nino with Alya, who were seemingly annoyed by the whole thing, Rose and Juleka, the former reassuring the latter, who was freaking out (I can cross Juleka and Rose off my list. Too soft.), Chloe and Sabrina, the two of them ignoring the whole thing and cuddling, Volpina walking past her… Marinette stiffened and turned to look back, Lila nowhere to be seen… She shook her head and turned her attention to everyone else. Limping over she placed a hand on Kim’s and Alix’ shoulders.

“Music is allowed.” she said, Kim punching the air. “At reasonable volume.” The young fashion designer added firmly. Alix smiled and puffed out her chest, before yawning loudly.

“I think I’ll go hit the hay for a bit. Sorry Adrien…” she said before walking off. Adrien sighed as everyone dispersed, the conflict over.

“Thanks… you saved me.”

“That was a freebie. Next time use your backbone. I know you have one.” the blue haired girl replied, jabbing a finger in his chest. She yawned and stretched, tearing up a bit, before walking off in Alix’ direction. To hell with nightmares! Hallucinations are worse! Adrien eyes followed her go, his cheeks flush before walking off to Nino and Alya, a sly smile framing the DJ’s face.

“Oh, I geeeeet it~! You’ve still got the hots for D-Cheng.” Adrien reddened and the blogger burst out laughing.

“Really?” she asked, before looking at the blue haired girl. The pajamas made her look almost like a ninja: she wore a pair of black short shorts, her right leg covered by a dark purple compression sleeve, along with a short sleeved, black pajama shirt with a large and high collar, as well as very deep V-neck, a white tube shirt underneath to cover up herself. “Ok, I can kinda see it. Didn’t take her for being a tease though…”

“She used to be though.” confirmed Nino.

Chapter Text

The alarm clock blared, signifying the beginning of another wonderful day! A blue haired young woman woke up quickly, her blond wife shuffling and trying to prevent her from leaving.

“Mh… noooo~...” She smiled and kissed her forehead, a hand patting her belly.

“I know Allegra, but I gotta get starting with my day… Here.” she offered her own pillow, which was really warm, the blond woman accepting it begrudgingly. Another kiss and the woman sat up. “Try not to sit in bed all morning.”

“…K Mari…” replied Allegra, Marinette getting out of bed and beginning off with stretches. Today was Halloween, however that didn’t mean she had a day off. In fact, it meant quite the opposite. Today was going to be incredibly, incredibly packed. First off though, morning exercises. After them she got dressed into her tracksuit, getting her water bottle too and went off. She was first going to run about a kilometer in distance before she would sprint and parkour back home. Of course, the kilometer distance running was usually a sprint in and of itself. The cause?

“IT’S LADY MONARCH!”

“OH MY GOD I LOVE HER!”

“Right on schedule!”

“SIGN MY AUTOGRAPH!”

“I’LL RUN WITH YOU!”

“TURN ME INTO A CHAMPION! I BEG YOU!”

“YOU ARE THE BEST! I LOVE YOU!”

Marinette had fans! Fans of both herself and her hero self, mostly civilians and paparazzi. It felt incredibly weird, even if it had been like this since she was seventeen. Being a celebrity was kinda hard. Then again, the overwhelming public support that her transparency afforded her was incredible. She had no idea why she had kept it all secret the first time round. Oh yeah, she actually did. As she sprinted away from the mob, she took various twists and turns, swinging off a light pole to make a corner, wall running to make it over a few people and demonstrating her incredible agility by leaping from the ground on the roof of a moving car, from it bounding to another, neither the cars nor her stopping. Of course, she couldn’t really get away from the mob since they took alternate paths in order not to lose her. It was ludicrously fun! The people of Paris were essentially training along with her, an unspoken agreement of friendly competition. She had honestly expected them all to be bitter about her essentially running away from them, however, her superhero status had given her some benefits on top of her celebrity reputation. Speaking of superhero, Kabujin swung by her while on her sprint.

“Ohayo Kabu! Anything to report?”

“Ohayo.” greeted the superheroine, her swing sending her up into the air, continuing with her reply when she swung down again: “Nothing to report. Have a good day my lady!”

“Thanks Kabu!” exclaimed Marinette while Kaby swung off, the blue haired woman following her and seeing Chat Noir up on the opposite side of the street, running on roofs. The two heroes grouped up and went off on their own. Marinette looked at her smart-watch, which had measured her distance up till now, and saw that she was about to hit a kilometer. So, she looked for a place to duck into in order to avoid the crowd, and got it in the form of an alley where one of the buildings had the fire escape available. The blue haired celebrity slowed down in order to treat her fans to the sight off her essentially wall jumping to grab the bottom of the fire escape, before she back-flipped onto the fire escape proper.

“HOLY SHIT! SHE CAN DO THAT WITHOUT HER POWERS?!” She gave a two finger salute before walking up the stairs and getting onto the roof, chugging most of her water bottle’s contents and letting herself breathe. Another look at her smart watch and it would need to return home soon. She was going to present her special-late-autumn-early-winter line clothing (still needed some work; ‘SLAEW line’ didn’t exactly roll off the tong), then she would have to sit in on a bunch of conferences talking about the usual boring part of her business (if she could get someone else to sit in for her, she would, however the investors were really annoying in spite of the fact her company’s shares’ values usually climbed or lingered, never dropping); there was also an interview she had along with Multifox since today was the agreed upon anniversary of her turning good, since the day it actually happened was forgotten (it also marked the first time she took a stance to protect Paris against supernatural forces). She also wanted to attend Allegra’s doctor appointment to provide emotional support and was also going to come around later and have her close the ‘Quantum Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie-Café‘ so as to not overdo it. Marinette sighed as she played with her jade wedding ring.

“Something wrong Marinette? You look a little worried.” asked Nooroo, who had sat in her pocket, knowing he might lose her if he tried to fly along with her running. She smiled and patted his head.

“I’m always going to be worried… I mean, things are fine, I know, however that doesn’t guarantee they will stay fine. So much happened: Stingg, Doctor Octopus, Lizard, Shocker, Rhino, Sandman, Beetle. The whole thing with that Lord X guy, my career, my responsibilities to Paris as a hero; I have my wife and I’ll even be a father I guess (?) in like what, a month? It’s… a lot… and it’s really, really terrifying. I don’t want anything to happen. Especially since I know anything could happen. Especially since we got rid of the Cube…”

“I suppose that is a lot of responsibility and expectations. But that is alright. You always managed to handle it and that’s because you trusted everyone in your life to be as dependable and hardworking as you. We both know that if a crisis happened the entire Paris would jump at the opportunity to keep the peace. And there’s also the Ladybug Miraculous which fixes everything. It’s alright to worry, but make sure not to let it consume you.”

“Thanks Nooroo… that helped.”

“This is what I’m here for.”

“Yeah, I know. Still though, thanks.” The experienced fashion designer stood up and took of her track suit jacket, trying it around her waist and pulling out brooch and chocker it was attached to. It was a simple solution for when she wanted to wear T-shirts or undershirts, like now for instance. “Nooroo, fairy wings rise!” she called out the magic words and the Kwami entered the brooch, Marinette making a pirouette as butterflies began flowing out of the Miraculous, all of them turning into the energy that created her hero costume: her svelte yet toned frame was hugged by a white buttonless tuxedo with four tails and a large, dark purple, lapels resembling the wings of a butterfly. Under it she had a black shirt with a tunic collar as well as a lavender waistcoat; her legs were protected by purple thigh high boots, along with white shorts that also sported an open front white skirt. Finally, her look was finished off with an electric purple cape than, when unfurled looked like majestic butterfly wings. There was no mask covering her face, as she had grown out of it. She could still remember her little self still hiding behind a mask even if people knew who she was. It was kind of adorable in a way. She griped her can tightly as she looked at it, a dark emotional cloud passing over her, yet dissipating quickly.

With a smile, Lady Monarch took off sprinting back towards her home. If she made it, she would be back to cook breakfast. Of course, sometimes things don’t go as one plans and the butterfly heroine noted a few Peacock Drones flying off towards the far west of Paris. La Defense sure was villain magnet. The heroine decided to take a detour since she was already powered up and ready to go. She jumped as high as her enhanced agility would allow her before her cape unfurled, her wings allowing her to glide towards her destination, the glow at its edges providing magical energy that propelled her with enough speed to be slightly faster than the drones themselves. From up above she got a butterfly’s eye view of the whole situation:

Shocker and Vulture were at it again, Chat Noir at the scene along with Kabujin trying their best to contain the situation considering the fact a building was on the brink of collapse! The heroine sighed. Shocker was a former crime boss, now more of a two-bit thug and muscle for other villains, but Vulture had been doing fine, recovering even. Last she checked with the psychologists, everything was going swimmingly! What happened to you…? as if the villain heard that, Vulture turned to her, flying at great speeds thanks to what seemed to be a slightly upgraded flight module.

“GIVE ME YOUR KWAMI! GIVE IT TO ME!” Lady Monarch dodged the villain, who quickly swerved in order to make for her again. She was having none of it however and, using her cane as a staff, the purple gem glowing with energy as she whispered a chant, the heroine formed a perfect circle shape by moving said cane, symbols appearing inside it.  She thrusted the cane into the circle, which resulted in a large frigid blast being summoned forth, the villain getting hit with it and partly freezing, going into freefall. Surprisingly, heat was released from Vulture’s suit, enough to melt most of the frost and return functionality to the flight harness. Lady Monarch dodged as Vulture began to shoot at her with back mounted blasters, the heroine dodging as she began to consider her options. Anything like fire and lightning was out of the question, as the intensity required to destroy the blasted piece of technology was more than enough to injure if not outright kill the villain. She had tried the magical spider webs, but the sharp metal wings Vulture possessed cut through them without fail. Water was absolutely useless since there were no more openings in the harness and freezing time was only temporary. Perhaps I could trap her in a bubble. If I make it hard enough she’ll run out of power before breaking out. thought Lady Monarch. As she prepared to go with this plan, a bigger drone came to her aid, firing a small rocket at the villain’s harness, completely destroying it. Now Vulture was truly into freefall and Lady Monarch, having a perfectly clean shot, cast a sleep spell, the accuracy requiring magical blast knocking the villain out, the ‘Mother Peacock’, as this big drone was called, using a grapple to catch Vulture. Half of the troublesome duo taken care of, the butterfly heroine flew down, seeing Kabujin summoned a Lucky Charm in the form of an old model of portable TV with antennas and hearing Chat (who was holding the building from collapsing) making a joke:

“That’s a great idea! Let’s channel Shocker’s blasts right back at him with those antennas.” That joked earned the cat hero a blast from the villain, which was blocked by Kabujin.

“Please be serious. That wasn’t even remotely funny.” replied the Ladybug heroine with a smile on her lips.

“Hey, I’m trying here! Sorry my jokes don’t make you screen with laughter.” These dorks. Flirting in the middle of battle… thought Lady Monarch as she saw someone she expect and was glad to find on the scene. It was Alya Cesaire, Paris’ most famous reporter and investigative journalist. As she flew closer to her and her cameraman, she heard what she was saying.

“…The situation looks dire however our heroes seem to be taking it lightly considering their flirting. Shocker has them cornered and is moving in to finish the job. It feels quite unreal how everything started off with a stolen bag of money, the villain’s priority now being the eradication of our heroes. The question I have on my mind however is where Vulture disappeared—”

“Allow me to enlighten you~!” said Lady Monarch smoothly, appearing on the camera, and bowing before standing tall.

“My Lady!”

“Would you like to make the news once again my darling Lady Broadcast, instead of just sharing it?”

“Absolutely! When would I ever turn you down!” the butterfly heroine smiled and swung her cane, the top opening and an already powered up Fay flying out of it, entering the microphone Alya presented for it. Without any more preamble, the woman was overtaken by blinding yellow light, changing from a reporter to Lady Broadcast: the Champion was dressed in a skintight, dark blue jumpsuit with a white cape, white knee high rocket boots, a white belt where she could place her microphone, which now had a small satellite dish attached to the front, two satellite dishes acting as shoulder pads as well. Her hair had been turned an electric blue, white near the ends, and she wore a pair of holographic light blue pair of glasses in a sharp shape of a butterfly. “Make sure to get this on camera.”

“Yes ma’am!” With that, Lady Broadcast and her mistress took off towards the battle.

“I’ll distract him, You get everyone out of that building!”

“Yes my lady!” the Champion turned from human to pure energy, traveling through the air in the form of loud electricity. The villain heard that and immediately turned, releasing a vibration shield to block a blast of fire from the butterfly heroine.

“O’-course you’d be ‘ere!” Shocker focused energy into the emitters on his boots and propelled himself towards his new opponent, preparing a vibration enhanced right hook. In puff of green smoke Lady Monarch teleported away, and the villain used the energy he built up to launch himself into the air, dodging the hail of icicles she launched at him. “Stop hidin’ behind yer drinks ya pansy! Fight for real!” he exclaimed, shooting at her. The butterfly heroine summoned a magical shield to protect her from the attack. As the villain landed, both heard Chat summoning a Cataclysm, turning the building to dust. Lady Broadcast saved everyone in it and the Miraculous Ladybug was going to fix everything anyway. “Darn it, I had ya!” Lady Monarch threw a kick at her opponent.

“Eyes front! You have to fight me soldier!” Shocker turned his attention back to her and Lady Monarch led him towards the other two heroes. “Chat, tag out!”

“Gotcha LM!” with that, the cat hero took her place, so she could help the ladybug heroine figure out the Lucky Charm.

“I think I got it. His controls are on the side of his belt.”

“I could probably hit that. But how do I get past that shield thing of his?”

“Oh that’s easy, you don’t.” said Lady Monarch.

“Sorry to say, but I do not follow.” said Kabujin.

“Me neither. If we can’t touch him how are we meant to destroy his equipment?” asked the Champion.

“Watch them for a bit. It’s subtle.” The two women watch and after a bit Kabujin gasped. After a direct Cataclysm from Chat, which had been blocked by the shield, Shocker dodged and dislodged a piece of road to throw at the hero.

“He can’t use his shield immediately after turning it off.”

“Exactly. We disable the shield and then we have my darling Champion to take care of the rest.”

“What’s the TV for though?” Kabujin watched as Shocker dodged another attack of Chat’s, the man keeping the side with the controls away from his opponent.

“I believe I know what we must do. Lady Broadcast, with me! Lady Monarch, if you could please help my neko.”

“No problem.” the Champion and ladybug heroine took off into the air, the butterfly heroine turning her full attention to the battle between Chat and Shocker. She unsheathed the sword part of her cane and ran into battle her and Chat working together quite well, the hero being her shield since she could not defend while on the offensive, while she used her magic along with careful strikes of her sword to move Shocker into position, taking note of Kabujin standing up above after Lady Broadcast informed her of the rest of her plan.

“NOW!” exclaimed the champion, her voice magnified by her microphone. Lady Monarch sent a blast of fire, which was blacked, before tackling Chat out of the way as electricity flew through the air, the ladybug heroine simultaneously swinging in behind the villain to drop the TV. Shocker predictably dodged with the controls of his suit facing the TV and, using the antennas, Lady Broadcast was able to change course and hit him straight there, frying them.

“W-Wait! No!” Kabujin swung by once again, this time delivering a swing kick to the villain’s head, knocking him down. The heroes and Champion walked over to him.

“I hope you’re happy. I’m late to my lecture and Kabu is late for her training.”

“No need to worry darling. This was ample training for me.” said the ladybug heroine before using Miraculous Ladybug to fix everything. Shocker’s controls were broken for a second time before he was handed over to R.A.I.D.

Marinette finally made it home! It wasn’t on time at all, as she was now incredibly late. She had even gotten a call from her personal assistants, and had to tell them to postpone everything for a few minutes. She still needed breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, as the blue haired fashion designer walked inside her home and into the kitchen she saw Melodie at the stove, preparing pancakes.

“Allegra!” her voice came out as horrified as she walked over to her wife, slowly moving her away from the stove and sitting her down. “You should have waited for me to come home. I would have made breakfast.” said Marinette as she walked over to flip the last pancake, putting it on the plate along with the others, and then beginning to decorate both pancake plates with some forest fruits and a little bit of honey.

“I saw that you were running late and thought I should make you a nice surprise. I saw you on the news. As amazing as always ma cherie~!” said The blond woman as she placed a kiss on her wife’s cheek, the blue haired woman sitting down next to her as she placed the plates on the table.

“There’s nothing wrong with that I suppose… but please do it when you’re feeling well.”

“I am feeling well!” Melodie radiated pure sunshine with her beautiful smile, which almost melted all of Marinette’s worries away. Almost.

“Two days ago you had a really high fever. Plus the baby will arrive in about a month. Try to relax until then… please?” asked the experienced fashion designer, taking hold of her wife’s hands and looking straight into her eyes, love and worry mixed into her own and reflected into Allegra’s.

“Alright. I’ll try.”

“Thank you…!” the relief was evident in Marinette’s voice. The two sat like that, looking into each other’s eyes, before leaning forward and sharing a passionate kiss. The tender moment was cut short as Melodie moaned a little in pain, placing a hand on her belly.

“They sure love to kick…” said Marinette a little sourly. “Betcha they smelled the pancakes. Hungry little monster.” Allegra giggled a little.

“Don’t be mean…! Besides, I saw your baby pictures, so you can’t really pass judgment.”

“Fair enough. Let’s dig in!” The two women ate breakfast in comfortable silence. Afterwards, Marinette did the dishes, once again telling Melodie to relax. There was a long day ahead of the experienced fashion designer and, as always, she was not looking forward to every part of it.

The sky was cloudy as the storm raged, thunder occasionally heard and the rain falling hard, the wind howling. On top of the roof, Detective Dinkleth cornered the perpetrator, blocking the only exit back down. Up to the roof both of them ran out of bullets as they traded shots, the perpetrator firing too much while she hadn’t recharged hers. She had called for reinforcements a minute ago, so all she needed to do was stall. The man ran at her with murderous intention visible in his eyes, the same one he probably had when he killed the other victims. He threw an inexperienced punch at her and she ducked to the left, punching him in the side before sweeping his legs. The man swept her legs too and moved to strangle her, Dinkleth rolling out of the way and getting back to her feet, only to be punched in the face, her nose broken as she staggered to the edge of the roof. The perpetrator hit hard, mostly relying on his strength, but was also overconfident, turning his back to her and calmly walking towards the stairwell door, expecting her to be down for the count. Too bad she trained in kickboxing and knew how to take a punch. She rushed him, the man hearing her clicking shoes over the sound of rain and turning around. He once again tried to punch her, missing again and this time getting hit straight in the gut, causing him to bend forward, getting punched straight in the jaw. He tried seeping her feet, but Dinkleth hopped back, running back into his space and using the momentum of another one of his punches to spin him round, the woman delivering a spin-kick to his back pushing him towards the edge of the roof. Because his boots were partly covered in mud, he slipped over, the detective, running after and narrowly managing to catch him by the leg. He sound of police sirens began to be heard. The perpetrator laughed.

“You’ll get tired before they arrive and drop me detective. If you pull me up I’ll kill you. I’m in a win-win situation.”

“In what world… is dying a winning situation?”

“And what would be the alternative? Life in prison? I’d rather die. If it wasn’t for you everything would have been perfect!”

“I am not… gonna drop you.” She looked down at the ground bellow and saw nothing… until a silhouette of a man passed by, looking up at her, a jagged toothed smile visible on a rotten, eyeless face. She let out a scream and dropped the other actor, who landed safely on the mattress below.

“CUT!” shouted the director, getting up from his chair. A ladder was placed down for the actress to get down from the building set piece “What happened Lila?” asked the director. The browned haired woman looked at him with fear in her eyes. This was Nino Lahiffe, an old classmate of hers. He had plans of becoming a director when he was younger, and now he was living out his dream. Lila opened her mouth to speak but decided to keep it to herself… She couldn’t imagine what his reaction would be if she said she saw Chai.

“Sorry I thought I… I’m just seeing things cuz I’m tired. C-Could we have a small break?”

“Alright, if you say so… EVERYONE TAKE FIVE!” shouted Nino for everyone on set to hear. Lila walked over to the fellow actor, to make sure he was okay.

“Sorry for dropping you Frederic… You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

“No, I’m perfectly fine. Are you fine, is the question. You screamed like you saw a ghost.” Lila nodded.

“I’m fine. Just dealing with stress and exhaustion from three consecutive days of shooting.” Frederic chuckled.

“I feel you. Can’t wait for us to finish shooting next week.” After that little interaction Lila went over to her trailer, getting rid of her hat and removing her coat, both drenched wet from the practical effects. Thankfully it was warm water (that will get a laugh out of all who would get the ‘Behind the scene’ extras). Together with her was one of the makeup artists. He was a bit slow, but that was balanced out by his sociable nature and attention to detail, particularly when it came to making Lila’s left pinky and ring finger prosthetics look real, the young woman losing hers some time ago thanks to Chai.

“Is everything alright out there?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Just tired. Accidentally dropped Frederic and screamed because of it.”

“Mh… pretty bad. Are you alright Miss Rossi?” asked the makeup artist as he walked behind her. “Not to overstep, but it sounds to me like you’re more than tired… it sounds as if…” Lila felt the makeup artist’s hands clamped onto her shoulder’s firmly, his hands colder than ice itself. “…You’ve seen an old friend!” Lila recognized the voice and looked up, seeing the man’s face: even more rotten than the other one was, turned an unnaturally dark gray color; gaping holes replaced his eyes, spider webs along with more smaller holes littering his face as some warms slithered through them; the worst part was his mouth, toothless, stretched into an impossible grin, his skin hugging the skull, warms undulating in and out of it, spiders and centipedes crawling out as well.

“TRIXX— LET’S POUNCE!” the actress screamed, her transformation taking less than a second as she got up and lightly punched Chai, careful not to cause permanent damage to the man. He fell face first on the floor, Lila turning him over to check for the scorpion necklace, seeing a face devoid of the corpse-like traits exhibited before, his left cheek beginning to swell. The door was opened at that moment, everyone seeing her kneeled on top of him. All who saw her gasped.

“W-Wait! I didn’t mean to! He w-was—”

“—‘possessed by Chai’, our anonymous source reports. Do you have anything to comment on this Miss Melodie-Dupain-Cheng?” Marinette felt like blowing up, the woman taking careful precautions to keep herself from outright grimacing. Her collection presentation was stopped by reporters demanding she come forward, before thrusting this story onto her lap. With a perceived calm, ironed out throughout the years, the experienced fashion designer responded:

“I unfortunately cannot comment regarding the event which you speak of. I shall come back to you later today knowing more. Have a good day and I hope you enjoyed the show, even if it was not finished.” With that, she walked back behind the stage, her phone going off in Alonzo’s hand, the man one of her two secretaries. She took the call, noticing who it was:

“Albert! What in the world are you doing?! You were supposed to notify me of news regarding Team Miracle Makers!”

“I’m so sorry ma’am, I did but it seemed I was too late! I apologize greatly for my mistake!” Marinette’s face morphed into an expression more fit for an angered predator, but quickly fell, the blue haired woman sighing.

“Strike two...” she said gravely and forebodingly, before she quickly ended the call. The fashion presentation was ruined, as she began getting message from multiple people and groups of people. Cutting it short, the blue haired woman turned off her phone and pulled out another from her bag. This one was for the Miraculous users only, nobody else. She sent a message to the random number which the shared Miraculous network hijacked, calling everyone to meet at her place, before she began to work through the thousands of messages that were still blowing up her phone.

After Shocker’s and Vulture’s defeat, Lady Monarch relinquished the powers she had lent to Lady Broadcast, her white butterfly flying away happily in a random direction. On top of a building, a corpulent man observed the butterfly passing by and, using metallic, snake-like appendages, he pushed himself into a jump. With practiced ease, he made his pseudopodia trap the butterfly into a glass container with air holes. He went on his merry way. Later that day, on the set of the second Detective Dinkleth movie, he hid, taking pictures of most everything that happened, especially the parts where Lila Rossi let go of that other actor and when she was discovered on top of the makeup artist, looking like she had hit him for no reason. The press ate up the photos, causing people all over the world to throw in their two cents. Marinette Melodie-Dupain-Cheng was clearly panicking, putting up a front in an attempt to show she was still under control. Now all they had to do was lean back, relax and watch the fireworks before moving forward to the next part of the plan, which had been exercised and simulated no more than one hundred and twenty two times in preparation. It took them the better part of a year, but they now had everything they needed.

Lila was hiding in the sewers, crying softly. She ran away from the place where, seemingly, an act of assault had been committed. She shouldn’t have done that. There were procedures which all the Miraculous holders had the responsibility. It had been years and she still wasn’t to shake off the ‘run away from trouble if things don’t go your way’ mentality.

“Whooooo cares? It’s more fun that way! An entire city of hapless fools rooting against you as you try to save them from doom!”

“Trixx!” exclaimed Mullo.

“W-What ‘doom’?! You never told me anything about doom!”

“That is because you won’t fail, and even if you do there is no doom. I once helped stop a one-night conflation of the Spirit and Mortal realms so the most of your concerns would be elderly dying of fright.” explained the mouse Kwami.

“WHAT?!” shouted Lila, her voice echoing throughout the sewer tunnels. Trixx laughed boisterously.

“You sure know how to make a convincing argument Mullo!” said replied the Fox Kwami, continuing to laugh. Before the conversation could continue, Trixx vibrated shaking her head, ears and tail. “You’ve got mail.” The vixen being joked, and Lila activated her Miraculouses, a voice-recording manifesting itself.

“Multifox, please drop by Notre-Dame de Paris before today’s interview. We need to discuss recent events… which I am sure you know.” Lila gulped, but none the less complied. This was not the time to avoid help. The vixen heroine made her way to the cathedral, where Lady Monarch waited, playing a game on a portable console of some kind.

“Ah, you’ve arrived. Let us get down to business: What in the world were you thinking?!”

“I-I saw Chai! He tried to take my Miraculouses, or hurt me, or—”

“Couldn’t you have love tapped him? Or maybe just tie him up! Even if I were to believe you, which I do, how could you prove it…” the blue haired fashion designer sighed. “Listen. You need to hide for a while. Me and the others will deal with this Public Relations nightmare while you prepare the song you are going to sing. Which one did choose again?”

“Bad blood…” said Lila, a bit embarrassed.

“Good choice. Anyway. You go, hide and prepare while we deal with your mess.” Lila nodded, leaving quickly.

Lady Monarch and Chat Noir, the original active members of Team Miracle Makers, were present in the interview room along with Kabujin and Plume Bleue II, the newest and second newest additions to the group (fairly though, both have still worked for years with the first two, so it was more of a ‘who came first distinction’). They all arrived a little early on in order to get the story straight with Alya and her boss Miss Chamack. The butterfly held on to her information about Lila and what happened, deciding to tell the others after the interview. A bigger couch was brought in from another part of the building and was set up, along with a few more snacks and bottles of water. Miraculous users never hungered or felt thirsty whenever transformed, but it was a nice gesture. It all happened about twenty minutes ago and now… it was show time:

“Good afternoon Paris! I am your one and only Alya Cesaire and with me today… well, I promised you the butterfly and fox, but I caught myself an even bigger fish for you all! Say hello to Team Miracle Makers!” The camera panned over to them all, Chat Noir giving a winning smile and a finger gun as Kabujin, always formal around fans, stood up facing the camera and bowed a little rigidly. Plume Bleue covered her face with her fan, playing up her usual air of mystery. Lady Monarch preserved a noble calmness as she smiled sweetly and waved, before turning back to Alya:

“We are happy to be here! Thank you for your invitation.”

“As am I for accepting it. Then again, I see a distinct lack of orange here. Normally I would have asked if Multifox was busy, but considering the circumstances, this is frankly suspicious.”

“Well we all know how she is. Very elusive dispute the fact everyone knows under the mask is Lila Rossi.” said Chat.

“She is a little unpredictable. We do not know what she thinks half the time.” added Kabujin.

“Although she is one of our best. She was the first to break through the limitations of her Miraculous.” explained Plume Bleue II.

“Not to mention she has been a wonderful heroine despite her history of villainism.  From Volpina to Multifox, she had evolved quite nicely.” added Lady Monarch.

“Right. I wished we could have gotten an insight considering the assault and battery allegations. Her hiding out also doesn’t really help calm down the general uproar most everyone is feeling presently, making her look even more guilty. Not to mention her affirmation about Chai feels a little unwarranted considering he hasn’t been seen around here in quite some time.”

“I am well aware of the situation and I have actually looked into it since earlier today: users of the Fox Miraculous, and this is surmised from the few identified historical instances, have undergone some sort of trauma and it is possible that their anxieties regarding said trauma can be brought to life by their own abilities as they become more in sync with Trixx’ power. Whether this is what happened or she actually saw Chai, we will have to verify. Until then I advise Paris to remain calm and vigilant. Halloween will be safe in our hands. Once Multifox shows up however, we will need to have a discussion with her as well as with the authorities and the alleged victim of her assault in order to decide her fate. That is all we know unfortunately and can say currently, however, if you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to share them with us my darling Champion.”

“Of course, and here’s one I will share with you all right now: Do you believe Multifox’s disappearance validates or invalidates her guilt status?”

“Validates.”/ ”Invalidates.” said Kabujin and Chat Noir at the same time, the two looking at one another. Marinette was perfectly calm during this, already used to the two heroes not always agreeing and thoroughly enjoying it. After all, on a logistical level, they were Ying and Yang, so they were bound to not always be in sync.

“Why would it validate that though? She got scared, so she ran off!” said Chat.

“That is true. However, logically speaking, if she were not guilty then she would have nothing to fear and therefore, not need to run away.” argued Kabujin.

“Well, there are situations when the opposite happened. Guilty individuals bluffed their way through an investigation and managed to leave free. Not to mention the fact that a case like this, where all evidence is stacked against her, might result in her getting locked up during a time she needs to save everyone from ghosts.” added Chat, turning fully to look at his partner.

“Considering the circumstances, I’m fairly certain that even if she stayed, we could all negotiate for her permission to sing the annual ‘Serenade de Nuit de L’Effroi’.”

“Now, now you two. You both make good points, however we would also like to respond.” interjected the butterfly heroine gently.

“My Lady, Plume Bleue II; your thoughts?” asked Alya.

“I personally believe that our little vixen has made the wrong choice if she wanted to let it be known to the world that she was innocent. At least, I strongly hope this is the case. Otherwise, tonight will be a long night.” said the peacock heroine.

“Speaking of… There is no need to worry, Team Miracle Makers shall be prepared if Multifox does not show up this evening to dispel the spirits that gain access during this holiday.” promised Lady Monarch.

The interview continued a little while longer, moving on to fan questions, some nice, while others regarding the current situation. The interview was also visited by France’s President via a statement on social media saying how the vixen’s status of heroine was dependent on whether or not she showed up tonight. As per the agreement that the heroes outline with the government of France, they all had freedom of operation and benefited from political immunity as well as military law when saving lives, but all these would be raised in the case they went rogue. The President made sure to remind them of that and obviously, they didn’t forget, as they had to actually cooperate with the government of France, along with many other governments, after the ‘Near-apocalypse’ which happened sometime when these heroes were all kids. After its end, Lady Monarch summoned them all to have a private discussion. Their reactions were about how much she expected them to be:

“But why didn’t you tell us?!” asked the cat hero.

“I believe it would have been appropriate to actually inform us of that Marinette. I would have never implied she was guilty!” proclaimed the ladybug heroine.

“I agree with Kabujin. We would have been a lot more prepared to speak on the interview with this information.” reasoned the peacock heroine.

“Yes, yes, I know that you all would have preferred to know, however I had my reasons: if Chai truly is back, that means he is planning to do something tonight. If we informed everyone the we spoke with Multifox, that means whatever plan he has, he would give up on it before it even goes through.”

“You’re suggesting we allow Chai to continue with his plan?” asked Kabujin.

“Yes. We lead him in a false sense of security that will then allow us to finally capture him. I mean, come on, he’s been eluding us for years! This is the best chance we’ve got.” Unnoticed by the heroes, a small scorpion stood and listened, before turning tail and beginning to run away. The little creature walked a long distance very quickly, arriving in an abandoned building in the slums in a few minutes. Inside there was the corpulent man, focusing on two projects at once, what appeared to be a rather rough looking armor, made up of different pieces of metal, but designed to the best of his abilities in order to provided protection in the near future, as well as metal amulet he was very carefully soldering to some device created perfectly to fit it. Along with him was Chai, the scorpionic monster crawling along walls or hanging from the metal bars near the ceiling. The scorpion crawled over the its master, who let it crawl further onto his finger before dropping down and listening to what it had to say. Chai smiled, then laughed:

“I assume we’ve got more good news?”

“I was right! That amateur decided to lie to the public and leave Multifox defenseless. She probably thinks all would happen would be us attacking tonight. What a joke! To think she had bested me for so long.”

“Serves her right for underestimating us. Thank you again for freeing me out of prison and allowing me to partake in this victory again.”

“Don’t believe I did that because I like you. I only needed your expertise. Have you finished it?”

“As a matter of fact I… just did! Right in this moment.” The corpulent man grabbed the device and brandished it to Chai. It was…

“A box?! Why did you make it a box?”

“Well, there is this human myth about a box that held many evils. When opened, all shall be released upon the world. Quite fitting, don’t you think?”

“As long as it works, I could care less Doctor Octopus. Also I know about Pandora’s. Tikki created it for a different purpose, but I made it what you humans know it to be. If it does not work… I will have your head.” said Chai ominously, turning his back to the mad scientist.

“… You would like that…” mumbled the doctor, turning back to working on his armor…

Lila saw the interview from her flute and realized one thing: R.A.I.D. wasn’t impressed one bit. Despite all that was said, they were rather willing to drag her out into the open for Chai to get his claws on her instead of leaving her the hell alone. She couldn’t travel on the ground since they made rounds with their cars and the sky was partly occupied by peacock drones, probably in an attempt to keep up the charade that Team Miracle Bringers didn’t know where she had gone through. The sewers it was then. Her house was not somewhere she could go so the only other place she could think of at the moment was the secret main base for everyone, Marinette’s house. The blue haired woman herself has made this choice, designing and building it herself with the power of Miraculouses, the basement level a computerized space where they had access to police communications and the footage from all the peacock drones. It was ‘hiding in plain sight’, as she put it. Add to it the magical defenses and it was perfect. When Lila sneaked into it, her costume changing from the white camouflage it sported back to its natural orange, she was startled by its sole inhabitant:

“Hello!” Multifox entered a fighting stance as she turned to Allegra, quickly dropping it along with her transformation, the blond woman giggling. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Don’t worry, you only made her heart burst just a tiny bit.” commented Trixx, avoiding a swipe meant to catch her and flying off into the mansion.

“We’re here for shelter, if you don’t mind of course.” explained Mullo, settling on Lila’s left shoulder.

“I don’t. Come with me.” the kind blond led the Italian actress to living room, where they settled on the sofa. “How are you holding up? It must be a little stressful.”

“Nah! I’m totally fine. I was a bit shocked at first, but now I’m over it. Let Chai throw whatever he has at us. He’ll lose and all his work will have been for nothing!” replied Lila with completely fake confidence, sold well by her acting. “By the way, how’s your baby doing?” of course, the quick change in subject actually clued Melodie in on her true feelings.

“They’re doing fine. Due in about a month.”

“Very exciting!”

“Yes it is. I cannot wait for me and marry to hold them in our arms, to feed them, wash them, dress ‘em up in cute little baby clothes… we haven’t really considered a name yet.”

“Here’s your tea mistress!” said a new voice, belonging to that of a green Kwami with a shell on his back, holding a Japanese teacup.

“Thank you!”/ “WAYZZ!” said Allegra and Mullo at the same time, the blond woman taking the cup before the mouse Kwami tackled the other into a hug.

“Hello to you too Mullo! I missed you. You should visit more often.”

“Wait, you’re using the Turtle Miraculous?” asked Lila. The kind blond nodded and showed off her left wrist, upon it resting a bracelet with a large sun-shaped gem on it where the turtle part usually was. She hadn’t noticed it because of the camouflage.

“It’s a precaution.”

“But don’t you have your…” Lila mimed herself playing a flute and Allegra elaborated.

“It’s better defense. Me and Marinette don’t really want to risk anything.” The two women continued chatting for hours and eventually the sun began to set. It was time to leave.

Suddenly, one of the windows was smashed through by what looked like a rocket, instead being one of Doctor Octopus’ claws, which dug itself into the floor upon landing. Its owner jumped into the window next, followed by none other than Chai himself. Both women called out their transformations, Lila splitting in two, one of the copied running off.

“Go catch that sack of meat! I’ll deal with these two…” said Chai, looking at the clone and Allegra, who looked like she meant business: her hero costume was designed around the alligator snapping turtle, consisting of a large and thick spiked shell-shield, a thick spiked helmet as well as thick spikes on her shoulders and forelegs, and, finally, she had curved horizontal plates covering her front and resembling the bottom of a shelf, only round, protecting her chest and especially her belly. The scorpion villain was the first to attack, charring forth, Multifox avoiding him while Allegra stood her ground, blocking him with her shield. He staggered a bit, feeling the pain of attacking something covered in spikes, the blond woman exploiting this and throwing her shield right into his face twice, the clone grabbing his tail when he let it down and swinging him into a wall.

“Please try not to bring the house down Lila. We recently finished repairing it since last week.”

“Sorry!” Chai didn’t seem to have the same concerns however, as he pulled himself out of the shallow wall indentation and jumped to the ceiling beginning to crawl towards them, ripping a piece of ceiling and throwing it their way. The clone once again dodged while Melodie bashed the projectile to pieces with her shield. She once again threw her shield at the villain, him catching it this time and throwing it full force at the clone, nailing her in the head. He turned his attention to the temporary turtle, taking her by surprise with a tail swing that sent her into a wall, quickly running up to grab and throw her into another wall before running up again, this delivering a left hook that downed her, followed by a punch to the stomach that pushed her into the wall again, and a straight right punch that caused her to stumble before falling on the floor. With her finished, Chai turned his head back to the clone, who disappeared.

“I can still smell you... Where are you?!” roared the scorpionic monster looking around, not noticing her camouflaged near an uncracked wall. Chai heard the sound of her playing the flute and turned to it, seeing her running straight at him and jumping to deliver and overhead smack with her flute. He intercepted it by grabbing her, the illusion turning to smoke as the clone’s temporary invisibility wore off as she landed on his arm and jammed her Miraculous tool in his eye. He let out a roar of pain before recovering and, with monstrous speed, even faster than when he attacked Allegra, got close enough to the clone in order to deliver a gut punch, sending her straight through the wall she camouflaged. He followed her and before she had fully recovered her grabbed her and, while horrifying smile on his face dug his fingers into her chest, using her power of corruption to render her suits invincibility useless. The clone began coughing blood as she looked at him.

“You love this city so much, don’t you… for this, I shall make you watch as I destroy it. But until then…” Chai unhinged his jaw like a snake and the last thing the clone saw was his teeth ridden mouth quickly approaching. Doctor Octopus returned to the living room, Lila held in a fireman carry, Chai entering through the hole he created, empty handed.

“Did you cause her to freeze?”

“What are you blabbering about?”

“She froze midbattle. It’s how I managed to knock her out.” Chai chuckled.

“I suppose I did.” From her spot on the floor, Allegra partly opened her eyes, raising her left arm and holding out her hand as if attempting to catch them, her eyes slowly closing again as she fully lost consciousness.

“Al… leg…Alle… gra… Allegra!” the temporary Miraculous users opened her eyes, seeing Marinette, in hero form, looking down at her. “Please tell me if anything hurts. Are you okay? Is the child…?” the blond woman nodded.

“Chai…” she said weakly, her wife shushing her.

“Relax. We’ve got this. We’ve seen people filming them run from my house with Lila. Whatever they are about to do, we will stop them. I just needed to know you’re okay.” Lady Monarch’s cane ringed and she picked up.

“Hey LM! The more we continue, the more it looks like we’ve got a ghost of a chance to beat them! Please bring backup!” came Chat’s voice over the phone. The situation was as he described it. Kabujin and him, along with Lady Monarch, intercepted the two villains, the butterfly heroine letting the other two deal with the situation as she went to check on Melodie, sending the turtle Miraculous to its last user. Now, they were all fighting on the roof of Notre Dame as blue lights emanated at its bottom, people down bellow watching them, hoping and cheering for the heroes’ success.

Captain Chelonian swung threw his shield in a specific way at the octopus themed villain, the shield’s trajectory curving just so it dodged the villain’s attempts at catching it, nailing him in the chest, making him, drop the box he had. The turtle hero ran to get it, before being shoved off the roof by Doctor Octopus, the man recovering the device and looking it over for damage. Chat Noir and Kabujin worked together to fight Chai, the villain managing to grab the ladybug heroine’s yo-yo and swing her by it, throwing her into Chat. He held on to the Miraculous tool, knowing it was necessary for summoning a Lucky Charm. The spirits were getting restless, beginning to rise in preparation for the song. The cat hero had a better time, running in and slamming his staff on the scorpion monster’s head as he jumped over him, before ‘nope’-ing two consecutive tail attacks, Kabujin coming in for revenge and delivering a flying kick to Chai’s face. The spirits were already beginning to realize the song was not coming some of them beginning to fly free. The villain roared and backhanded Chat off the roof hitting Captain Chelonian, who was making his way back up, and Kabujin’s head and left arm were caught by Doctor Octopus, who threw her off the roof as well. The spirits began flying around Notre Dame like a tornado energy, still not yet free but almost there, their voices heard as they made spooky noises, in preparation of scaring everyone this Halloween night. Little did they know, their wish would be granted tenfold.

“YES! The moment has finally come! I shall finally have my revenge! And when I am done, there will be nobody to stop me from taking back the Miracle Box.” said the scorpion villain, turning to his partner in crime. “But before that…” Chai stung Doctor Octopus with his tail, penetrating his armor.

“Argh…! But… why…?”

“Do you think me stupid? You were going to take this power for yourself. Now you must obey me, don’t you?”

“I… must obey.” Chai smiled and received the device, opening it, the octopus villain grabbing both Multifox and another man. This was the makeup artist in fact.

“The corruption from a scared fox’s soul… Prodire Tenebris!” he spoke and Lila, unconscious as she was, opened her solid white eyes and from her mouth came out dark orange gas that flew over and gathered into Chai’s hand. “And the hatred of a man who suffered the ultimate betrayal by the hand of the person he admired… Prodire Tenebris!” the makeup artist’s eyes were similarly fully white as dark red smoke came out of his mouth and gathered into the scorpion villain’s hand. Doctor Octopus, unwarranted, produced a tiny key, and used it to open the box, activating the device. The spirits began screaming in agony as the artifact inside began to affect them and Chai added the dark energy into it, feeding it. He heald the box above his head, a pillar of darkness glowing out of it, the spirits, which were white and blue, turning black and orange-ish red. The tornado became smaller and smaller before they all mixed in together, morphing the Notre Dame slowly, but surely, into a large creature. All Parisians began to flee screaming! A creature that could only be described as the most terrifying incarnation of the devil stood before them: a large head with sharp teeth, hundreds upon hundreds of horns, the upper body covered in lizard like skin, and sporting eight arms, the top pair having pincers instead of arms, while his lower half resembled that of a goat, with inward bending knees, fur and hooves and It had three scorpion tails along with a pair of wings made out of nothing but fire. The monstrosity roared as it began to wreak havoc across the city, breathing fire and destroying buildings like they were made of cardboard, killing indiscriminately. The heroes were trying to save as many people as they could when Lady Monarch called on them to retreat.

“Are you kidding?!” exclaimed Chat.

“We cannot just let these people die!” agreed Kabujin.

“More people will die if we don’t stop that thing! I need you all here!” Begrudgingly, the heroes fled to their base of operations, finding Lady Monarch and Plume Bleue II down there.

“What are you doing here? We should be out there fighting that thing and protecting the people.” asked Captain Chelonian.

“And how do you propose we do that?” asked the peacock heroine.

“Well, by ourselves we would not be capable of much I believe. With my lady’s help however.” as Kaujin said this, six small pillars sprung from the ground, each with a lever to hold.

“That’s why I asked you here in fact. When I said we would be helping everyone, I meant it. Now, you all know how my home was created by my hand as our secret base of operations, fronting as my place of residence in Paris.”

“Of course we do. What’s so important about that? We’ve literally got hell next to our front door.” asked Chat.

“Well I never mentioned how I created this place…” trailed off the butterfly heroine.

“This house is sentimonster.” explained Plume Bleue II simply. Everyone was shocked.

“And in case of emergencies, I made it so that we can combine our powers to form a stronger hero that can take on anything. That’s why I pulled Captain Chelonian out of retirement.” Everyone walked towards a pillar and grabbed it, following Lady Monarch’s example.

“What about the sixth one?”

“That was supposed to be for Lila, but we can do it with five as well. Now prepare to turn that thing into bits. We’ll rip and tear until its dead!” Lady Monarch flipped her cane open and her Fay flew towards the sixth pillar, entering it. In the city, the devil-like creature already burned half of everything when it saw bright yellow light. This yellow light emanated from the home of Marinette Melodie-Dupain-Cheng. This light turned into a pillar of red fire and from it walked out a giant man, head to toe covered in green armor. To further make it focus on them, the man began blaring rock music. Not that he needed it, as his presence alone summoned fear into the heart of this demonic entity of Doom, for it knew, He was here to slay him. The Slayer charged at his enemy and generated fire in his left hand, shaping it into a combat shotgun, beginning to rid the monstrosity with bullets. Their anger summoned, the monster tried to attack as well, their four-armed punches blocked by the slayers arm as he continued firing bullets. The demon punched its opponent straight with its other set of arms, pushing him back, before charging at him and attempting deliver a quadruple right hook, the Slayer dodging and getting behind them. The scorpion tails had no chance, but they attacked anyway, the violent hero grabbing them all and the delivering a kick to the demons back in order to rip them off with a satisfying squelch. He summoned a ballista and plasma rifle in each hand and shot them both at the creature at the same time, the demon tanking them as it charged, jumping the last part of the distance. The Slayer, unsummoned these weapons and punched his opponent straight in its ugly eyeless face, causing it to fall to the ground. It got up however, and the violent hero was right there to pummel it, delivering punch after punch to its torso and head, before grabbing said head and bringing it down on his knee, a satisfying crunch. The demon roared, the Slayer shooting it with a chaingun, causing it to stagger back. The monstrosity grabbed the ground and lifted it to act as a shield, the Slayer seeing that light emanated from the demon behind it as the sound of swelling coupled with bone breaking and heat intensity being heard, before destroying its own shield. The demon grew more monstrous, its chest and upper pairs or arms growing incredibly buff, while two more pairs of wings grew. The monstrosity, with frightening speed, grabbed its opponent, and took off flying. The Slayer attempted to struggled but he couldn’t get through. His growing fury growing, he unchained it, growing red as he went berserk, his strength magnifying a hundred fold, pulling himself out of the demons grasp and managing to grab onto it and pull himself on his back quickly ripping off one pair of wings, the sound ripping skin and broken bones music to his ears as he went on to pull the second pair, unbothered by the demon’s attempts to shake him off. Finally he pulled the third pair and the demon landed face first into the ground, the Slayer jumping off it and letting it get up so he could finish it off. The monstrosity once again charged at him, the violent hero this time intercepting a pincer attack with his fist smashing it to pieces, summoning a chainsaw and tearing through the other top arm with its own pincer, splashing him with demonic blood. The demon opened its mouth to breath fire, the Slayer reshaping the chainsaw into a rocket launcher that he used to fill the hole, not hesitating even for a second to pull the trigger and blow its head off. The monstrosity staggered back, but it still wasn’t dead and the Slayer waited. From the creature’s chest, another monstrosity ripped itself out, this one with a single pair of arms, buffer than his, four skull-like heads and a body covered in a strong looking chitinous hide. That was not going to be a problem as the Slayer summoned the Biggest Fucking Gun in his arsenal and charged a shot. The demon charged at him and he shot it with a giant blast of FUCK YOU TO HELL DEMON reducing the monster to about half his thickness. Now it was the time…

The remaining survivors of Paris watched in awe and horror this battle of titans, hoping to be saved from this nightmare. Not just them however. The entire world had their eyes on the Slayer, prying and begging for his victory. The Slayer summoned forth all this hope into a powerful sword, charged at the creature and, with a mighty swing, carved it in two, a fountain of blood and spirits flowing forth from this now dead creature.

Everyone cheered in ecstasy at the prospect of being safe, the Slayer of Doom resting his blade on his shoulder and turning to look at this now dead creature as its body melted, all spirits escaping it, from it, the man seeing a few something surface: Lila Rossi, looking completely out of it, Doctor Octopus, and Chai, the latter immediately opening his eyes and running off before the violent hero could do something. Today’s battle was one, but not the war. Even so, now Chai could no longer win the way he had attempted to today, the heroes having learned from this experiences…

Chapter Text

“So, before I leave, I would like to set a few ground rules.” said Gabriel, sitting with the back to his desk, facing Adrien, the blond boy also sitting on a chair pulled up from the dining room. Also sitting on at an equal distance between the two Agrestes and facing them both, was Nathalie. Usually she would have stood up, ready to walk out the door the second the discussion was done, but she seemed extra tired today, even with her attempts at hiding it. Tikki was sitting on the boy’s shoulder at attention, ready to absorb everything the father was about to say like a sponge to dote over Adrien later.

“Alright.” The rich boy himself was apprehensive, not really expecting there to be many rules. Then again, he was basically going to have just as many people he had during his birthday party, without his father in the house this time though.

“First and foremost: nobody is allowed to wander the mansion unsupervised and, more importantly, nobody must enter my office. If you want to show them around then I will be alright with that, as long as nothing in this house is broken.”

“Okay.” So far this seemed doable.

“Secondly; no fast food. The moment you buy, everyone, yourself included, will gorge on it. They might not need to watch their weight or worry about their complexion, but you do.” That rule didn’t really sit well with Adrien, but it did make sense. He was a model. I’m regretting being a model now. Why did I even think it was fun…? Oh yeah… mom did some modeling for dad’s company for a short while… “Third of all: no late night television. There are some adult programs during that time.”

“Alright. I’ll—”

“Disregard that last rule. You and your friends are not allowed to stay awake past midnight. I have already made mention of your complexion already in regards to the fast food, bit it applies here too; additionally, you are planning to hold a two-day party, which will be followed by school days. An adequate amount of sleep means you will have enough energy for the second day of activities as well as the coming week of school… That would be all. Any questions, son?” Gabriel had thought long and hard about these rules (except for the last one obviously). He knew that Emilie, when she was a teenager, had sleepovers, while he spent most of his evenings alone at home or in his balcony, drawing fashion designs to his heart’s content. He wanted Adrien to have a nice and non-dangerous sleepover. It’s the least she would have wanted.

“No questions. Thank you again dad!” Nathalie cleared her throat.

“We shall be calling you about half an hour before midnight. Have a wonderful weekend.”

“Thank you! I hope you have a good weekend in Milan too!” Gabriel sat up with a sigh.

“Doubtful. Audrey Bourgeois is attending as well.” Nathalie didn’t sit up at the same time, looking like she was doing breathing exercises. The experienced fashion designer gave her a hand, the blue haired woman accepting the help to stand up. They both left shortly, the bodyguard driving them to the airport, leaving Adrien momentarily alone with his thoughts…

“I’m not really sure it’s a good idea anymore.” …and Tikki.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I remembered how one of my previous wielder’s described a ‘fun evening with friends’.”

“How did they describe it?” Tikki went to his ear and whispered (a useless gesture considering they were alone in the mansion). Adrien’s face went red and he jumped back, holding his arms up as if to block punches coming from some enemy.

“Nonononononononononono! We aren’t doing anything like that! My dad would have my head! Plus we’re all like what? Fifteen? Sixteen?”

“Humans used to live far shorter lives back then. At fifteen one was practically a young adult.”

“Who was this wielder?”

“His name was Frederick. We did not work together for long. A powerful artifact with time manipulation abilities was broken, forcing the last week into a time loop. The Order of The Guardians, which existed before Frederick’s time, broke its rule about Guardians not donning Miraculous, the Celestial Guardian using the combined power of the Snake and Bunny to travel into the loop without destroying the universe. Sir Frederick and his cousin, I believe he was Sir Benjamin, received our Miraculouses and together we all sent time back to its rightful course, destroying the artifact as well.”

“Wow… that sounds hardcore… I hope I won’t have to deal with that.”

“You probably won’t have to. We’re just dealing with a rouge Miraculous user is all. He has the Miracle Box too, but I don’t think he knows how to operate it properly.”

“That’s a relief… well, until evening comes and my friends get here, how ‘bout some nice patrolling? I get to stretch out my legs, keep Paris safe while I’m at it too…” Tikki was about to respond when the gate bell was heard. “Huh, that’s strange… Who do you think it is?”

“Perhaps your father forgot something and has come back to get it?”

“Maybe.” Adrien walked over to the security room and went to look who was at the gate, seeing through the corrected image the fisheye lens captured that it was almost every single one of his classmates, barring Chloe, Sabrina, Juleka and Marinette. In front of the short crowd sat Alix.

“Hey blondie…” the girl sounded a little out of breath. “… got everyone here… mostly…”

“Yo man! Hope you don’t mind us crashing early.” greeted Nino.

“We’re here to PARTY!” exclaimed Kim.

“Alix mentioned we should come earlier to maximize our time spent together.” added Max

“I brought some rock music with me. Nothing too hardcore though.” mentioned Ivan.

“I also made cupcakes for everyone!” said Rose.

“Aw you guys~! Alright then! Let’s start early! I’ll call Chloe and Sabrina too and someone has to get Juleka and Marinette.” said Adrien, the boy opening the gates for them. The blond teen showed Nino how to work the gate as he went to call Chloe, figuring Sabrina will be with her. It took a hot minute for the call to be picked up, the boy hearing someone gasping for breath. “C-Chloe? You there?”

”Yeah… ‘m here. <Shhhhh>!”

“Is Sabrina with you?”

“I’m… here…” said Sabrina, also out of breath.

“Why are you two breathing so hard?”

“Huh? Aaaah… um… Me and Sabri’ were training!”

“Oh! That’s nice!” Sabrina snorted and snickered over the phone, Chloe shushing her while trying not to laugh herself, succeeding only partially. “Oooook… I… called about the sleepover.”

“Oh, don’t worry Adrikins. We’ll be there.” reassured Chloe.

“Yeah, we’re having it early. Alix got almost everyone here; you, Sabrina, Ma-Dupain-Cheng and Juleka are the only ones missing.”

“Right… we’ll be there early then… Don’t have too much fun without us.”

“Alright. Bye!”

“Bye!” Chloe ended the call very quickly.

“What was that all about?”

“Adrien, do you have a place where I could put the cupcakes? They’re for later.” said Rose, getting his attention.

“Yeah I can place them in the kitchen fridge… Wait, I even got a better idea. Everyone!” exclaimed the rich blond, getting all his classmates’ attention. “How about I show you around? We’ll do like a little tour of the mansion.” All teens cheered and, thankfully, nothing was broken during the tour. It got close with a vase that Ivan accidentally knocked over. Adrien’s hero instincts had kicked in though and he sprinted most of the distance before clearing the last couple of meters by throwing himself to the ground, catching said vase. That impressed everyone, and someone said he was like a superhero (he didn’t know who, but it sounded like Alya), so he fumbled with the lie that he had been working out, using the excuse that he had PE as part of homeschooling on top of practicing fencing. They thankfully took it, Alix  coming to his rescue by pointing out how he looked pretty fit when he had promoted some beach wear one time.

Sometime later Chloe and Sabrina arrived at the mansion, followed by Juleka, who had been brought over by rose, and finally, without needing to make a call, Marinette had arrived. Everyone was here now! And thing were already going sour! Alix had fallen asleep already, which wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t until Kim put one of Ivan’s songs on blast did things take turn for the worst.

“Dude! What the hell?! Are you trying to get someone to call in a noise complaint?” asked Alix, her voice louder than the music, as she walked over, before turning it off.

“Ah come on party pooper!” Kim turned it back on, to the exact same volume. Alix growled and from there two sides of the class were head to head on whether the music should be on or not. Thankfully, Marinette arrived and fixed the issue.

“That was a freebie. Next time use your backbone. I know you have one.” the blue haired girl replied, jabbing a finger in his chest. She yawned and stretched, puffing out her chest a little as well. He had no idea if she realized she did that or not, but judging by her behavior she was probably too tired. Everyone chilled for a little bit during this early afternoon. A different melody, much calmer, was chosen by Nino, the rock reserved for later. Marinette and Alix slept away, regaining energy. Eventually they woke up and everyone started to grow bored, until Alya and Nino came to the rescue.

“You must have something fun to watch right? Look at all those shelves!” exclaimed the blogger.

“We could play some games too!” added the young DJ. For the next three hours everyone jumped from watching some of Adrien’s anime and cartoons he had, to playing some games: there was Alley Brawlers, Super Maria Sisters, Crafters ‘n’ Miners, Sanic the Blue devil, Myth of Link: Timeless Ocarina, Kick-In, First Reality, Fight Frogs, Termoid, Mecha Strike III as well as I, II (Marinette’s wishes). They all agreed on the rule that if one was to die or finish a level, they would hand over the controller to someone else. If they were bored, they would either switch games or watch something. Adrien did particularly well at most games, Alley Brawlers being his best due to how much time he had sunk into it when he was younger, Nino did well at Sanic and Kick-In, Alya played Termoid and Myth of Link: Timeless Ocarina amazingly, Rose and Juleka were incredibly good at First Reality, Chloe and Sabrian got in on the fun too with Fight Frogs, the two sharing the controller, Mylene had fun with Crafters ‘n’ Miners and Marinette had competition with Max on Mecha Strike III while absolutely demolishing everyone on Mecha Strike II and especially I.

“I didn’t expect you to be so well versed in the older version of this game.” said Max, most others preferring to watch the two teens duke it out in the game rather than play themselves at this point.

“Yeah, well, my dad wanted to have some special activity we would do together since my mom was teaching me Chinese. He had some Immortal Konflict games, which are pretty gruesome, so when he saw Ultimate Mecha Strike he bought it. I’ve put more time into this game than ever.”

“I honestly haven’t played much of these older versions, besides this one—”

“That Ultimate Mecha Strike II is my favorite actually. It’s got the best mechanics!”

“What about Ultimate Mecha Strike III Block-counter? It was inspired by the second game’s ‘Tick-block’ glitch discovered by the professional players.”

“Well yeah, but that required actual skill.” argued Marinette. As if to illustrate her point, she performed the glitch, Max’s hit landing and interrupting the blocking animation while also dealing no damage, allowing Marinette to land a hit while Max’s avatar was still dealing with his attack’s short end lag, stunning it. “The tick speed in this game is insane, not to mention the fact that attacks don’t really have long animations compared to other games. Combined with the fact that interrupting an attack stuns your avatar, it basically means that you might still miss the window of opportunity if you don’t react fast enough after blocking.” Marinette performed the glitch again, and this time didn’t follow up with an attack, Max managing to move out of the way. “See? Ultimate Mecha Strike III’s version is just a glorified grab, plus you can actually get hit way too easily if you fail and there’s even a prolonged animation. In II, if you fail it usually registers as a normal block and you get minimal damage.”

“I suppose that is a fair judgment. I am more used to the third games mechanics however. Perhaps when the forth one comes out the Block-counter will be upgraded.”

“One can only hope those cash grabs will do it. There’s a reason why most sequel changes were expanding the roster, the maps and the robot upgrading system. They’re too afraid to mess with the formula, and now that they did and got beef for it, they might go back to the old mechanics.” someone’s stomach growled, stopping everyone.

“Sorry… I’m a bit hungry.” said Ivan.

“You sure you didn’t bring a whale with you?” the blue haired girl asked, making a whale sound, Ivan’s stomach responding. Kim and some of the others laughed a little.

“Hey, let’s have some of those cupcakes!” said Kim.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea to eat just cupcakes. We should probably have some actual food too.” mentioned Rose.

“Maybe… some… pizza…?” mumbled Juleka. Adrien stiffened a little.

“I’m sure I could get the chef to make us something!” the blond boy said, getting up to walk out the bedroom. Nino caught onto the implication immediately.

“Dude… don’t tell me your old man banned junk food!” the rich boy felt very awkward.

“Uh…”

“How much could your chef even make?” asked Kim.

“Well—”

“I am curious. Did you stock up in preparation for this sleepover?” asked Max.

“I—”

“Probably not. It’s his first time. We could be a little patient though.” offered Alix.

“We—”

“Pizza’s not really junk food though. It’s just Italian food.” interjected Nathaniel. Chloe ran up to Adrien’s side.

“No worries! I’ll call my daddy and we’ll get some fine food from the hotel’s restaurant.” Alya noticed an evil smile form on the young fashion designer’s face.

“Aw, that’s too bad~!” she said. “I thought this was a sleepover, not a soiree.” she snorted, holding in a snicker. “But, if you want, we could get some posh delicacies such as: frog legs, ox tongue, veal stomach, snails…” everyone looked progressively disgusted with the list of options Marinette listed, so the decision was already made.

“Pizza it is!” exclaimed Adrien, everyone cheering while the blue haired teen laughed.

Chapter Text

Red Beetle dodged Chai’s tail swipe, before getting blasted from the side by Shocker. Volpina predicted his trajectory and ran in front of him, ready to bat him back to shocker. While this was happening, Chai made a run for the fist sized white cube sitting atop its pedestal in the middle of the cave room, he crystal hooked up to some device that fed it electricity.

“Timecore, go catch Red Beetle! Steelcore, block Shocker and Doctor Octopus! Megacore, bubble Chai and make sure it hurts!”

“On it!” said the three Champions simultaneously. Ivan, as Steelcore, retained his usual Champion appearance, only being a darker metallic color, lacking shine. He grew in size enough to block the progress of the two villains that were here with Chai, Doctor Octopus’ managing to get past by detaching two of the tentacles the Champion had caught, the newly added ‘eye’ set in the claws of said tentacles shooting lasers at the Champion as they writhed about, the champion dropping the tentacles and said tentacles spinning their claws so fast they helicoptered towards the robotic villain. Nino, as Megacore, had his appearance change from his usual colors to various shades of blue, white and red, a long, yellow ponytail now shooting out the back of his head. The champion shot an orange bubble filled to the brim with attach-a-bombs, Chai getting engulfed by it. He began to float away as the bombs began to stick themselves to him, their claws digging into his body, before going off one by one. The villain screamed, from pain or anger while Doctor Octopus continued his approach. Timecore, unlike Playback, looked a lot different, all futuristic elements replaced with more sporty and fashionable oriented ones: first, she wore a dark purple leather jacket, zipped up, along with matching leather pants, the purple shinning green under certain light conditions; her helmet resembled the one she had gotten from her father on her birthday, except for the fact its visor glowed a neon green; around her waist and neck she wore neon green scarves and she had black, leather gloves. Finally, she wore knee high, metal skates with exhaust pipes and rugged, small wheels. To top it all off, she also had a pair of blasters which would shoot green blasts of energy capable of slowing down her opponents for a short while. The Champion intercepted the blue vixen, shoving her into a nearby wall, and catching the Ladybug hero, shooting Volpina to slow her down for good measure. RB immediately used his yo-yo to grab one of the two unattached tentacles that followed the octopus villain, swinging it towards Volpina, the appendage immediately coiling around her as she stopped being slowed down.

“Does this tentacle your fancy?” asked the hero, getting a hiss from the fox villain. Timecore didn’t stick around, rushing to Doctor Octopus, dodging one of his three remaining tentacles as it tried to swipe at her after seeing her and sending a high speed kick right into his back.

“Aaargh!” It didn’t hurt him of course, but he still let out an exclamation of pain out of habit. I have to improve the reinforcement of my back for highly kinetic projectiles. the robot told himself as only one of his tentacles remained working. Unfortunately the kick also sent him close to the pedestal and left Timecore without any more fuel in her skates, the villain managing to grab the white cube from it.

“Lucky Charm!” called out Red Beetle, getting a… “Juice box? Seriously?!” he exclaimed before running towards Doctor Octopus.

“WISH FOR THE MIRACULOUSES TO BE GONE NOW!”

“I’m trying! How does one operate this blasted contraption?”

“YOU DON’T OPERATE IT STULTUS! JUST THINK THE WISH!” Shocker struggled in Steelcore’s hands before he managed to shoot a blast of sound at Timecore. The Champion was sent flying forward and once she turned around she saw Red Beetle open the juice box and squeeze some of its contents right into the fissure her kick had created in the robot villain’s back, causing him to throw the cube into the air, which got caught by the hero’s yo-yo. Alix placed a hand in her jacket’s pocket and pulled out her Miraculous, calling to Fluff’s power before disappearing in a portal. The Rabbit’s burrow trembled a little and she shook with frustration, before letting out an ear piercing shriek as she dropped to her knees, the few Time Windows that gave her access to various points in time flickering as they sent the sound across time. Alix let out a sobbing groan as she dropped to the floor into the fetal position… She had been at this for literal years! The one time that the villains needed to neither win nor lose and it wasn’t happening. Every single time this battle occurred Adrien would always get his hands on that thing, which would react to his wish of having a perfect weekend and reset the day! She couldn’t do this anymore… she needed to find a solution or else she was going to go insane.

“It’s definitely magical but… I’m not sure what exactly caused it…”

“Throw a guess, I don’t care.” spoke the girl a bit urgently

“A Miraculous? There is something else mixed into it though.” The blue haired teen sighed. Alix hadn't heard this particular part of Marinette’s preparation for today’s sleepover. She had no idea why that ended up being shown, but she didn’t care. Tears in her eyes, Alix ran to the circle and rewound it back. That was Marinette… with the Butterfly Miraculous.

“She’s Lady Monarch?” Alix had no idea this was the case, as Lady Monarch, no matter how much she prodded, would always manage to safeguard her secret. A few years back in this time loop she had combed through every single possible person Lady Monarch could be and Marinette had been crossed off the list very early on because she didn’t find any Kwami near her or in her room (Unknowingly to her, Nooroo had slept in the Garden on Saturday). As such, seeing her on this Time Window was a godsend. Alix began laughing. The one aspect that she never managed to change during these loops was Lady Monarch, so if she could do just that, then maybe there was a chance for this loop to be finally stopped.

Alix stepped back into the timeline, at exactly where she was in the morning. For some strange reason her presence was uniquely anchored into this time loop, making it impossible to meet herself. Still. At the very least her miraculous had slowed down her boy’s aging. If her current height growth was to continue, someone would be bound to notice; no flat foot shoes were going to save her soon. From the moment she entered the world the first thing she did was stop her alarm clock, which had gone off two seconds ago. Then she made her bed, yawning, Fluff mimicking her action before settling on her shoulder.

“Wake me up… next winter afternoon.”

“Please don’t repeat yourself too. Starting the day over is already bad enough.”

“Sorry… <yawn>” the pink haired girl sighed and patted the Kwami’s head with her left pointer finger before walking out of her room. Her father had left early for some important work at the museum, Jalil going with him since he refused to take time off on medical leave. His trembling hand was already worrying, so she had asked her brother to notify her of anything else. The pink haired girl had no clue what she was going to do about it, but that’s how worrying worked. Now she was just glad she had told him to keep an eye on their father before the loops started. It conveniently left the house to herself. Another thing that was convenient was that she didn’t need to buy a new baby carrot bag every time now. She just pulled it out of the fridge and tiredly set it down on the table, putting Fluff in it and letting the Kwami eat to her heart’s content. It was going to be hell breaking this habit, but for now she didn’t have the brain power to focus on that. Alix grabbed herself some lukewarm coffee and chugged it down like water. She then went to eat some pretzels before stopping. She had a better idea in mind.

“Fluff I—”

 “This is sooooo good! It reminds me of Mister Carroll whom I will meet a few centuries before you… he was always so late to everything.” the little rabbit laughed as she munched on her carrots.

“Wait, Carroll as in Lewis Carroll? Guy who wrote Alice in Wonderland?”

“Who will write… no, who wrote yes. You are right. He is long dead by now.”

“Never mind!” said the teen before grabbing her Kwami and putting the bag of carrots, half empty, into her jacket’s pocket. “Fluff, I’ll get you a slice of carrot cake from the bakery.” The teen explained and held up her watch. The Kwami got the implication immediately and, without a need for the magical command, she flew in all by herself, powering Alix up, the girl forgoing a transformation sequence… She got tired of that long ago. Now transformed, the pink haired girl went sent a group message to everyone, urging them to get to the sleepover early. She would have done it herself, but she preferred to break the monotony in order to do what she hoped would accomplish. It was obvious to her that she was essentially going to pawn the problem off to her, but that was the nature of the circumstances as well as her powers. Lady Monarch was going to fix this. She always managed to win somehow… even if that win had casualties. Not to mention that she had been the only one seemingly altering her strategy in accordance to how the villains changed theirs, seemingly without having prior knowledge of it beforehand. That was either an oversight on the cube’s part, not deleting her memories completely when everything reset, or she was just that good at reading people to the point she could make an educated guess on their plans simply by looking at them.

Alix landed in a nearby alley and dropped the transformation, a sense of anxiety washing over her while walking over to the bakery and entering. She waited for her turn, as there were a few other customers, then greeted Mister Dupain.

“Hello there Alix! Marinette’s upstairs if you wanted to talk to her. Until then, how about some of our chocolate cake? It’s the one with the vanilla cream which I know you enjoy.” The girl shook her head with a smile.

“A slice of carrot cake please.”

“Oh! Alright then… having trouble sleeping…?” he asked and Alix was a taken off guard. This was what made her affraid. Not the question itself, but the fact she did not expect the question. She didn’t talk much to Marinette’s parents in the loops, so all this was new to her. She had been on the precipice off knowledge and safety, and now fell into the dark pit of unknown. She had no idea what the ‘correct’ answer was. “Don’t worry, I won’t get on your case about it.” he let out a little laugh. “Marinette herself has some problems with that… do you two still hang out?”

“Uh, yeah! We still hang out.” Alix was fully panicking. She had spent so much time in these loops she began to forget stuff like this. The pink haired teen needed to get her watch to Marinette so she could fix this mess. Or, maybe, I could first try to fill her in on everything? The time traveling girl asked herself.

“Here you go! Is this alright?” asked Tom. The slice was pretty big, double the thickness compared to usual slices. Alix nodded.

“Thanks… is Marinette upstairs?”

“Yup. You can go say hi if you want.” The pink haired girl went to leave before Tom stopped her. “One more thing… I know this is a little sudden, but Marinette’s been down lately… we haven’t seen her friends come by, nor has she really talked about them… uhm.” Tom was a little fidgety, which looked pretty funny considering his size. This interaction, as scary as it was, also happened to be really refreshing (the newest thing in years technically), so Alix was incredibly attentive, her senses fired up to eleven and her mind working overtime as she soaked up every little detail like a sponge, processing it all. With a smile she said what the man felt embarrassed to express as she continued towards the stairs:

“I’ll go see what’s up.”

“We’d be really grateful. Our daughter doesn’t really share her problems with us as much anymore. Oh, one moment, Let me put that in box.” The pink haired girl received the slice of cake in a box then, with a thumbs-up, walked up the stairs. When she arrived at the living room, taking a bit of a pause to hide Fluff into the small box, she saw Marinette and her mother embracing.

“Thanks mama… I really needed to hear that.”

“I’m always here dear. But— Oh, you have a visitor. Greetings Alix.”

“H-Hi Miss Cheng. If you guys want I can wait downstairs—”

“Moment’s already ruined. What are you doing here?” asked Marinette sharply, getting up and limping over to Alix, looking more tired than annoyed.

“Marinette!” began Sabine, her tone promising a scolding for being so rude. Alix got ahead of her.

“I haven’t been here in years and that’s the warm welcome I get? Thanks…” her voice carried a of that mature disappointment, which made Marinette flinch, her face expression barely twitching.

“You’re right, sorry. Wanna talk in my room.” The time traveling teen nodded, walking at a slower pace to match her friend. The two now in the young fashion designer’s bedroom, Alix placed the box on the chaise-longue and made some small talk with her, or at least tried to, the pink haired teen seeing this conversation instrumental to making sure Marinette would actually be capable of actually fixing this mess.

“So, I’ve been playing this game, forgot what it’s called… anyway, it’s got a lot of choices and I keep getting stuck at this one part.”

“Your first visit in years and you came to talk about videogames… Aren’t we going to broach the subject about why we haven’t really talked as much, or are you forcing me to pull out the ‘Welcome, now get out’ card?”

“Sorry! Do you want to talk about that?” asked Alix.

“… Your father’s a grade ‘A’ jerk and, technically speaking, a thief.”

“I have no idea what happened to him that day honestly. I’m, not gonna excuse the fact he wanted to take your book, but he was a little snappy that day. Sorry…” a tense silence filled the room and the pink haired teen could feel worry that was not really her own permeating the air.

“…Apology accepted.” replied the blue haired teen awkwardly, surprising Alix.

“Wait, just like that?” Marinette was avoiding eye contact, her left hand grabbing her right arm.

“Mhm… I’m trying to… be less cold. More forgiving.” From there the tension seemed to dissipate and the two girls tried some small talk, the conversation slowly going back to the first question:

“So how many options are there?”

“…A lot! I feel like I’ve tried any combination I could think of.”

“How about ones that you haven’t thought off?”

“What?”

“Like something you wouldn’t normally do. Choices are bound by a person’s moral compass, personality, likes and dislikes, etcetera. Maybe you need to get out of your comfort zone. When you have the chance, play the game and try doing the opposite of what you normally do with those choices. Get back to me on how it turned out.”

“Sure thing! Thanks a lot!” Alix ran out of the room as quickly as possible, Marinette noticing she left her box as well as her watch.

“Wait! You forgot your…” the young fashion designer trailed off, having limped over to grab the pocketwatch that Alix had left behind.

“<Burp> Oops! Please excuse me.” Marinette stopped moving, slowly turning around, seeing the box open on its own, the contents replaced by a small rabbit, light blue eyes and light blue on the interior of the ears confirming this wasn’t an animal.

“Hello! Good evening!” the fact it just talked left no shadow of a doubt: This was a Kwami.

Chapter Text

Moni Monarch Lop ran through the city of Paris in broad daylight, some people taking note of her hero apparel, modified after fusing the two Miraculouses now in her possession. The Cube. She knew where that was, as, in another time, when she was younger and in less pain, she had seen it… interacted with it. It was the cause of all this mess which resulted in the current predicament. The teen heroine mentally kicked herself for leaving it there. Somehow the villains figured out a way to power it up in order to ask for a wish. Her mind was racing as she considered everything she had been told. About the time loop, about how much Alix spent trying to fix everything. It felt like a bad fever dream:

“Start again…”

“Alright-y! It all started yesteryear in the future… Adrien Agreste will have a weekend long sleepover with you and everyone else in class, except for Lila, who had been in trouble. Everything went wrong on the Saturday when, after some fun, the electricity in all of Paris will be turned in order for the Mansion security systems to not trigger. You are all attacked, but instead of focusing on you, the villains go about breaking through the floor of the mansion. First they find Em— Uh, and empty repository, and then they reach the cave where this white cube is. What is that by the way? It’s super strange. Anyway! Doctor Octopus connects the cube to some energy source he carried on him to power it up, then, after Red Beetle, Ironheart, Megamaster and Playback defeat them, Adrien gets the cube and unintentionally makes a wish when he says all he wanted was a fun weekend.”

“So then the loops starts.”

“Mhm! All loops will start from there. Now, they all start from the beginning of the day, and reset when the cube gets in Adrien’s possession again.”

“Did Kubdel try stopping him?”

“Yes. His Lucky Charm ensures he gets the cube.”

“Did Kubdel try stopping him from using his lucky Charm I mean?”

“Many times. It has been a few long decades… I think.”

“…Decades…?”

“Yeah. We didn’t try to do something every reset though. Sometimes Alix needed a break. We hid on a plane and went to America once. It was really fun!” Marinette smiled for a second before looking down.

“… Did you time when exactly they cut the power?”

“Yes! But better not to go there.”

“Why?”

“Chai stole my Miraculous for a while. He eventually gave it back when he realized he couldn’t leave the loop.”

“WHAT?!”

“He eventually gave it—”

“Nonono! Not that part! What do you mean you can’t leave the loop?!”

“All other tunnels don’t work in the time loop. You can only travel anywhen inside the loop, but not before it began or after it would end.”

“I… was that you and Alix that caused the thing to appear in my bedroom?”

“What thing?”

“The white dot and the shriek.”

“Oh, yes, we will have causes that. Yes.”

That was the last part of the conversation she had with her, before she decided to time travel and begin the day anew. That conversation also took place technically last month, even if it didn’t feel like it. Moni Monarch Lop was now running around desperately trying to follow Doctor Octopus, who made his way towards Paris’ power plant. The robotic villain jumped inside and, as he did so, the heroine saw Shocker assaulting the building itself. She was not intimidated however (her attempt at stopping them had lead to Fluff being kidnapped by Chai, before being returned to her). She had tried myriad of ways to stop the Lucky Charm from allowing Adrien to gain The Cube. Every single time however it seemed that blasted magical item had been one step ahead of her, including her meddling into the solution. She tried being more proactive with her Champions, which resulted in the complete destruction of the Agreste Mansion, along with the death of at least everyone of her classmates, Adrien included. She had tried to let the villains into the mansion and then stop them from powering up The Cube; that resulted in either the explosion of the power source, or complete failure, the villains managing to get the cube. The one time Chai got his claws on it, he wished for the destruction of all Miraculous, which apparently forced another reset, this one making her and Alix forget about all others, the pink haired girl going through the same resets before once again pawning off the watch to the experienced fashion designer. When Fluff told her the last part, she had a nervous breakdown. How many times did things reset in such a way because of her, Alix reliving the same hell over and over until making her relive the same hell. There was one reset where Marinette stood inside the Burrow, curious about what happened in the time loop from this specific perspective. Moni Monarch Lop saw Chai about to make the wish that would hard-reset the timeline, but was unable to stop him, the tunnel not letting her go through. That resulted in her getting stuck, all tunnels turning to static…

“Let me out! LET ME OUT! YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME! PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME STUCK IN HERE! PLEASE!” Marinette shouted and pleaded, trying every single burrow in the white space. She cried herself to exhaustion and when she woke up she started her pleading and shouting once again, eventually turning to Fluff for help.

“How do I fix this!”

“Marinette calm down.” said Nooroo, sensing that maybe she could maybe see reason after the earlier sleep.

“CALM?! HOW CAN I BE CALM! MY HOME IS GOING THROUGH A NEVER-ENDING LOOP AND I’M STUCK OUTSIDE OF IT! I CAN’T DO NOTHING! THERE ISN’T EVEN A WATCH IN THE TIMELINE ANYMORE SINCE I HAVE THE ONLY ONE! SO ARE YOU GOING TO SAY SOMETHING OR BE USELESS?!” the blue haired girl shouted, making Nooroo fly off in tears. Marinette realized what she did too late… “W-Wait, Nooroo…” she wanted to go after him, but Fluff stopped her, looking particularly angry. There was promise of pain behind the little Kwami’s eyes, and considering they were creatures as old as the concepts they represent, Marinette took that promise seriously.

Marinette lost count of how much time had passed. Technically no time passed inside the Burrow, as it was a place outside of time and currently, outside of reality too. Thanks to that her Playerboi never ran out of power, so she was able to spend most of her time playing the game she had on it… and nothing else. The girl was going insane of boredom, the initial shock and fear eventually dying down, the only feeling remaining being emptiness and sadness.

“Nooroo, I’m sorry! Please forgive me…” The young fashion designer was sitting in the middle of the ‘room’, dropped to her knees and with her hand on the ‘ground’. She was practically begging to be forgiven, but she was getting nowhere.

“Don’t listen to her! If I knew how she treated you, I would have told Alix. This Marinette does not deserve you.” said Fluff, Nooroo remaining quiet.

Time kept on not passing inside the Burrow and eventually, Marinette began to notice some… side effects. At first, it was the lack of actual tiredness. Of course, if she did exert herself, then she would require sleep, but otherwise she was fine. The very next thing she observed was the lack of hair and nail growth. And it was at that moment she understood her body was essentially frozen in time. She was not growing older. Marinette began to experiment. First she threw her Playerboi to the ground and stomped on it several time. Nothing. She booted it back up and it functioned just as well as it always had been. She attempted to rip her coat and, no matter how much she pulled, it would not come apart. It did stretch while she pulled thought going back to its original shape right after. The blue haired teen had a needle on her, and decided to use that in order to test if things had actually been frozen in time. After all, her portable gaming device functioning proved there was some level at which point things weren’t frozen. Heck, the fact she was moving proved it even more. The needle didn’t even puncture the coat. Said needle didn’t bend as the girl tried forcing it through the cloth. Both remained intact. It seemed that the time-freeze kept an object in whatever state it was in upon entering the Burrow, maintaining any function it had and rendering it invincible to any form of harm. Considering this, Marinette decided to take it a step further. First she tried pricking herself and it didn’t work. Then she tried to break her left pinky finger, which worked! She panicked, before setting it back in, but she could no longer feel it. That was… peculiar, as she could still move it. The main function of the nerves was still there, allowing her to move it, but the secondary function, to detect pain, was ‘turned off’… Marinette stopped experimenting on herself, the sensation of a finger she could move but not feel there being disturbing. She made several more attempts to apologize to Nooroo, but she got no reply. Fluff was particularly headstrong, and the young fashion designer considered more than once renouncing the Bunny Watch, never going through with it out of fear that the Burrow will disappear and she would die. Instead she turned her attention to the circular holes that showed nothing but static, picking one at random and using the Playerboi and needle as a makeshift hammer and chisel. There was no way this place wasn’t physical in some way. Otherwise how could make physical contact with it. Marinette kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it.

Fluff was gone… Alix had looked for her and the watch everywhere! It made no sense. Fluff always stayed by her side. That was the rule. Not only that, but apparently she also took the watch with her. Did she actually leave. The pink haired teen tried to think of something she did or said that might have upset her… nothing! The pink haired girl was incredibly worried. Fluff was a smart Kwami but she wasn’t… always there mentally. There was always sometimes off with her, the fact she always referred to time wrong being proof of that. Sometimes though she would even use wrong verb tenses, or talk as if things were yet to happen or have already happened. Alix always suspected that a being that governed time will experience it in a completely nonlinear fashion, but she had no clue. Still, Fluff always told her when something big was to happen, and the fact she didn’t announce her leaving was incredibly frightening.  What was she to do though? Nothing. She could only hope and wait for her Kwami’s return. In order to relax, the girl decided to go out skating. It was a slow Saturday, with few people here and there. Alix was way too energetic for this usually, but now she was in the mood to people watch. Her skating took her all the way to the Trocadero and she paused there, relaxing and drinking some water. As she did, she noticed a girl with slightly discolored neon orange hair, wearing a brown leather jacket over an orange hoodie, along with a pair of white-gray jeans with pink highlights and black boots. The girl was taking photos, so she looked like a tourist, but the lack of a bag told her it was not a tourist. Alix thought for a second, remembering she had seen neon orange hair before… Lila! The sporty teen immediately skated over to whom she thought was someone she knew and when she got close the girl noticed her turning to face her. There was no doubt about it. It was Lila’s face. She saw her back at the library and she was here again.

“Lila…?” the girl panicked and blushed a little fiddling with her camera.

“Uh…” she looked to the left and right before looking back at Alix. “Hey…” with an awkward wave and a quick flash of the camera, Lila greeted, getting a photo of the pink haired teen as well. Alix invited the girl to sit down and talk. She revealed right off the back she knew she was Volpina, now Multifox, and after a little bit of denial the conversation started going places.

“…She was clone. I have no clue why she called me sister. Anyway, now I’m actually working for Lady Monarch now. I’m on a solo mission today!” said the Italian girl with bravado. Alix raised an eyebrow in doubt.

“And what’s that? Taking photos of Paris.” Lila became embarrassed.

“T-That’s not… I’m just… waiting for something to happen! Red Beetle is busy this weekend so I’m holding the fort.”

“Wait, did Red Beetle get his Miraculous from Lady Monarch?”

“I think?”

“So… Lady Monarch knows the whereabouts of all Miraculouses?” asked Alix. It was a bit of a long shot, but it was possible Fluff knew who the butterfly heroine was and went to talk to her.

“You ask a lot of questions~!” stage-whispered Trixx in Alix’ ears, startling the pink haired teen.

“Trixx, no!” Mullo flew out of Lila’s jacket and tried to pull the fellow Kwami back into their shared hiding place. The two flew around, making the Italian teen panic, as people seeing them might make the connection, so she quickly caught both and shoved them into a pocket.

“Were those your Kwami’s?”

“Yeah! Sorry about Trixx. She’s really mischievous…” replied Lila with an embarrassed smile and an awkward laugh… a few seconds later her smile melted into a frown. “How did you know they are called Kwamis?” asked Lila seriously, her eyes sharpening and looking straight into Alix eyes.

“That’s my girl! Call her out; There can only be one sneaky fox here.” encouraged the fox Kwami.

“Try not to scare her though. Remember to be gentle.” Alix gulped. Without a Miraculous, she was powerless, and considering she wanted help, she might as well share with her the situation. But Lila was scary nevertheless in this situation.

“Okay-okay, please stop soul reading me! I… had a Miraculous too…” the sporty teen explained the situation and Lila somewhat understood. She didn’t need to be told too many details to know Lady Monarch could be notified of this. The Italian teen grabbed Alix and the two went into an out of the way alley. Lila transformed, combining the powers of her two Miraculouses and cast an invisibility illusion on her and Alix, the girl taking the other to Marinette’s house via parkour. When they arrived, the pink haired teen was out of breath from screaming like one would do on a rollercoaster. “That was way more intense than I thought it would be.”

“Wait, you never actually transformed?” asked Lila as she dropped the transformation.

“Nope. Fluff forbids it. She apparently says things need to happen a certain way, so I usually do what she says because I don’t want to break time.”

“That is very responsible of you.” noted Mullo.

“And boooooring! Come on, not using the power to time travel is one thing, but you can’t even enjoy the increase in physical prowess? I’ll need to talk to Fluff about loosening up.” said Trixx. The two girls walked into the bakery, Tom, greeting them warmly:

“Hello there Alix! Who’s your friend? I don’t think I’ve seen you around?”

“Oh, she’s—”

“—Milena. Me and your daughter worked on something together via phone.”

“Ah, then you never had any of our amazing pastries. Pick anything you want! It’s on the house. You too Alix.”

“I actually came here before.” pointed out Lila.

“Could I have a slice of carrot cake?” Tom gave her the slice and the three of them made some small talk before the two girls walked up to Marinette’s room… which was an absolute mess. There were open drawers, the contents of her wardrobe were thrown everywhere, there were a few open boxes, the chaise-long was upturned and there seemed to be a wooden platform hanging from the ceiling by a rope. Marinette herself looked to be in great distress as she checked what looked to be a small safe hidden behind a painting consisting of a younger self along with her parents.

Marinette’s arms grew tired, so she ‘broke’ them, all sensation of pain leaving her. She had no idea if she even made a dent into the Time’s Eye, as she elected to call it. Along this endeavor she renounce the Butterfly Miraculous, considering it wrong to attempt using it in her current condition. She took a leap of faith and renounced the Bunny Miraculous, Fluff’s uncharacteristically mean comments doing nothing but distracting her. Nothing happened. Or at least nothing seemed to happen for a while. Eventually however, the pain in her leg, which had slowly accumulated ever since she arrived here, was too much to bear… She could not more or think, her actions limited to groans and screams of pain. She had no medicine to stop it, and eventually she didn’t even fall unconscious due to the overload of pain on her already taxed brain. In a moment of lucidity, the blue haired teen found only one solution… Marinette snapped her neck.

All pain was, miraculously, gone. Not just her leg, but everything. The lonely outcast, forever stuck in her bubble outside all forms of known existence, laughed for the first time in a long time. Her laughing broke degenerated further and further as tears flooded out of her eyes. Desperation and need for survival mixed in with hope and relief, her sins when alive now crawling on her back, weighting her down. She was going to fix it all. She was going to fix her Mistakes. Getting back to work, an unknown amount of time didn’t pass as she hit away at the Time’s Eye. Eventually… a crack! Rainbow light was seen through it, breaking the monotony of white and grays.

“Yes…!” whispered the lonely dead girl, her lifeless eyes feeling with more hope than anyone in the whole world. She broke through, her mind flooded with clear visions and knowledge as the light blinded her. There was so much… so many versions of her, so many versions of anyone she ever knew or never met. All fighting their own enemies. She was going to fix it all. With heavy, trembling feet, she walked through, all the knowledge going quiet as she was faced with a black void, the only source of light at its center. She could not move herself, as she was floating in place, as if she was underwater. The lonely being at The End and Beginning Of It All tried to swim but seemingly failed. She stood still, thinking of ways she could gain ground on the light. Was it moving in synchronicity with her? Or was she the one not moving at all. She began to loathe her decision to shut off her sense of pain, now needing it more than ever. As she considered the possibilities she had, the light began to move closer. Focusing on it, the light stopped moving. A little bit of experimentation later and the being found out she could ‘move’ through will alone. So that was what she did, finding her prize in the form of a blue gem. She grabbed it, and it reshaped itself in the form of a coffin, a silver ring materializing around it. She put the ring on her left ring finger, and her body flooded with power! Her clothes changed to metallic black armor, silver additions to it as well, a long, blue, ethereal cape made itself apparent. Her head was covered by a helmet with silver horns, her body changing, growing larger, her fingers and fusing with her nails, forming claws, while her legs had only two toes, both sharp, the armor obfuscating her style female shaped body, making her look like a man. The blue ring glowed dimly all the while and she looked at it, her eyes seeing an ancient description on it, one in a language she couldn’t understand. But somehow, she knew what was already written, as she read aloud, her voice deep and empty:

“Now and forever

Your body shall not wither

Now and forever

Your body shall not die

For Time has become your servant…

May nothing stand in your way, my liege,

For you are Lord over all you can see. ”

Chapter Text

The Lord was in a mostly empty void still, the only exception being herself and her ring… her ring…! With the power of time at her command! She looked down at the blue gem and thought back to the Burrow. That blasted place would push almost any being to the brink of insanity, Kwamis included, when disconnected from a universe with time. She thankfully wasn’t affected, her mind intact, and with it she was able to deduce that a ring with the power to control time would allow her to reconnect to the looped universe in absence of a Burrow. She held her left hand forward, the ring glowing, multiple circles of blue light forming before finally peering into the looped universe.

“Yes! I am back!” The Lord exclaimed into the nothingness as she flew ‘walked’ over to one of the holes, noticing it was a little small for her to fit in this state. She tried to at least reach an arm through, being rebuffed, her right hand touching a barrier of energy, like the glass of a window, or the water stream of a waterfall. “No… I am still stuck! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO FIX FROM HERE!” The Lord slammed both fists into the Time’s Eye, accidentally starting to play its contents. She looked on sadly, seeing… herself ravishing her room while Vixen and History-child entered it?

…Marinette’s room… which was an absolute mess. There were open drawers, the contents of her wardrobe were thrown everywhere, there were a few open boxes, the chaise-long was upturned and there seemed to be a wooden platform hanging from the ceiling by a rope. Marinette herself looked to be in great distress as she checked what looked to be a small safe hidden behind a painting consisting of a younger self along with her parents.

“Did a tornado just go through here? What’s going on?” asked History-child, looking around as she walked further in, avoiding stepping on anything that was on the floor.

“Wow, this place is beautiful! This exactly the kind of decorating I am trying to get you and your mom to adopt!” said the fox Kwami.

“Wait, that’s Trixx’ voice… You let Alix find out who you— Of all the incompetent—!”

“Wait, I have a Miraculous too!” said History-child. “Or rather, I had one, since I lost it. If there’s anyone to call incompetent, I suppose that’s—” the Lord froze time.

“That’s not right…” looking on her person, the being found the two Miraculouses. “Right... Even if I knew how to get these back, I would have no clue as to how I could remove all the history imprinted on them. Those Kwamis will tell them everything and that other me might figure out a way to pull me out before I managed to fix everything… Unless…” The Lord held her left hand over the Miraculouses, the ring’s gem glowing anew. She had no clue what she was doing, but hoped her desire to reset the events of ‘her loop’ were enough instruction as a circle of blue light appeared and two hands belonging to aclock began to move in the wrong direction. “Alright, now how do I…?” The Lord held a Miraculous in her left hand, approached it to the Time’s Eye, and instead of pushing against her, the opening rippled like the surface of a lake as her hand pushed through. She pushed her whole arm in, the barrier stopping her head from entering. “Figures… at least I can reach far enough to place these things in their pockets.” The Lord did just as she said, giving Alix and her other self their Miraculouses back. Now it was time to watch and wait. Perhaps there was still something she could do, even with her limits.

“That was strange…”

“Yeah…” Both Marinette and Alix agreed as the blue haired teen kept her brooch in her pocket, not wanting her guests to see the butterfly wings growing for it.

“Good afternoon!” said Fluff, breaking the monotony.

“It’s morning…” said Marinette.

“Don’t mind her. She doesn’t experience time the same way we do.” explained Trixx as she flew around, stopping at the young fashion designer’s whiteboard and turning around, revealing her list of potential Champions. “What’s this?” Marinette let out a long yip as she sprinted to the board and flipped it, causing it to spin and launching the fox Kwami into a nest of clothes on the floor.

“That’s part of my secret project.” she said, Trixx understanding immediately and no longer asking anything, something which Lila noticed.

“Speaking of secrets… care to explain where you have the watch? Lady Monarch didn’t give it to you, or otherwise I would have known about it.”

“Wait what? I thought you said she gave it to you?” asked the Italian teen, Alix looking pretty awkward.

“That’s because I’ve had for a while. My family had it for a long time. Nobody knows about Fluff though. Promise.”

“Very well. I’ll notify Lady Monarch of this information. She might call you, so be prepared. Now… Lila, I’ll need your report.”

“I’ve already been through this. Skip.”

“… so I’ll have to keep watch alone?” asked Lila.

“I could help her, if you want.” offered Alix.

“That’s not really… you know what? Sure. I’ll tell Lady Monarch of this. You’ll have to miss the sleepover though.” said Marinette

“Wait, then I-I can do it on my own. I don’t want you to miss your friend’s sleepover.”

“No prob. I’ll just say something came up. Besides, Fluff isn’t saying anything, so I’m free to do it. I’ve been waiting for this.” The bunny Kwami looked thoughtful before speaking.

“To be honest… I cannot really say anything because I cannot see ahead. For the first time in my existence, I don’t know what’s supposed to happen. Dominion of time is not fully within my control…” The Lord smiled under her helmet, looking down at her ring.

“Just another thing for me to look into, I guess.” said Marinette tiredly. Today was going to be a loooong day she figured. The blue haired girl shooed her guests away for the time being and had her breakfast with her mother, preparing waffles. She considered the idea of partially telling Sabine of her plight and eventually caved in as the air of awkwardness started to feel apparent. Her mother encouraged her to take it easy, to stop, relax, and let the solution come to her. So that’s what she did. Leaving the house, she went over to see what Melodie was doing, limping over to Quantum Café. She greeted Miss Melodie, who told her that Allegra was up in her room playing music, something which could be heard all the way from down here thanks to an ingenious system of brass pipes Marinette herself designed (it was, and still is, her greatest achievement outside of fashion). The young fashion designer left and came back with her violin, limping up to Allegra’s room with the instrument in tow. “Hi…! How is my most favorite person doing?”

“Mari!” Allegra ran up to her girlfriend and embraced her, getting then pulled into a passionate kiss which lasted for a while, the blond teen feeling Marinette’s hot breath on her lips whenever they parted momentarily. “I’ll… never get used to this.” she said when they finally pulled away.

“Good… I’m glad that out of everything, I got addicted to this.” The Lord felt a tumult inside her shred of a soul. Her very being yearned to be next to Allegra and lived this moment through her counterpart, yet she hated her all the same, for she was unable to hold and kiss the beautiful girl herself. The lonely Lord placed her left hand on the Time’s Eye, feeling no resistance as her hand pushed through, time stopping inside Allegra’s room. The Lord pulled her hand out and time resumed. It was strange, earlier she couldn’t interact with the world.

“What changed…?” she asked herself, looking between her left and right hand… “The ring! Only the hand which governs time may pass through the barrier! Clever…!” she returned her attention back to the Time’s Eye.

Marinette and Allegra were singing a beautiful duet on their instruments, the young fashion designer feeling the need to let out her voice as well, the customers below (along with Nooroo) delighting in the show, even if it was short lived, only lasting about ten minutes before silence fell once again upon the café.

“Is everything alright sweetie?” asked Allegra, noting how her girlfriend messed up a few notes on her violin. Marinette struggled to reply, as always, but relented when she noticed the shimmer in the kind blond’s eyes tremble with worry.

“… I’m really, really tired of… this whole situation. People hate Lady Monarch right now. They don’t trust her.” Melodie let Marinette rest her head on her lap and, as an added bonus, gave her a nice head massage, which helped the blue haired girl with the headache she riled herself into having after searching for the brooch (Marinette made a mental note to be even more careful of where she places it).

“Something will come to you… You always manage to figure out a solution, even if it takes you a while. I AM CHEERING YOU ON!”

“Volume!”

“Sorry!”

“And thanks… it’s nice to have someone in my corner.”

“You know, You could always make me a Champion again my love~” said Allegra sweetly, the young fashion designer laughing.

“We could always await for public opinion to change. We have a small selection of Champions to choose from, and they will always be loyal.”

“Mh…”

“Oh, so now you decide to try and be encouraging. Where was this solution on MY turn, huh? HUH?!” The Lord grumbled as she had enough and decided to skip, finding herself on a different scene entirely. “Wait… what?” she rolled back then once again skipped, this time more slowly. Yup. It seemed like she only had access to part of the discussion with Allegra, almost as if that was a cutscene and that’s all she got to experience. “Strange…”

“Fluff! Clockwise!” called out Alix, the magical words, compelling the Kwami to circle the watch counterclockwise before entering it. Magical energy flared forth from the Miraculous, covering the pink haired girl’s hand before crawling up her arm and beginning to hug her body. The teen swiped the back of her hand over her face, creating a mask, before pulling rabbit years out of her head. Once the transformation was finished, Alix looked down at herself: a light blue, skintight jumpsuit covered most of her body with the monotony of color broken by elements of white; she wore elbow length white gloves made out of a sturdy yet smooth material, white rubber-like boots with black soles, a white belt hanging loosely and crookedly around her waist, worn very lowly (Alix realizes with horror the reason for that is a small, fluffy rabbit’s tail she has), as well as a white corset with pockets as well as black string holding it nice and tied with a bow at the front. Alix couldn’t decided on whether to like the outfit, or be embarrassed. Whenever she envisioned her hero self, she always imagined herself wearing a corset in order to bring an anachronistic flare to her outfit (she sometimes envisioned herself with a pirate hat too, but didn’t count on it). Now however, looking at herself… she felt wrong.

“Something wrong?” asked Multifox, Trixx and Mullo transforming her without the magical words to prompt them. Alix looked at Multifox outfit and noticed that it was just as uncomfortably liberating looking as hers.

“Don’t you feel… I donno, exposed? Naked?”

“Oh, all the time! I love it though, since I can move however I want, and I feel the wind blowing while I’m up there. And the best part of it is that it comes with the added bonus of not really getting hurt as much. So it’s like I have nice layer of elastic and thought skin.”

“How come my outfit always felt like a stuffy, pompous suit?! I could move around in it, but it definitely didn’t feel liberating! Stop complaining and accept it!” commented the Lord, eaten away by envy as she continued watching.

“Okay…?”

“Come on! Let’s go patrol!” Multifox grabbed her bunny heroine friend by the hand and jumped, launching both of them into the air, the two of them landing on a nearby roof. Alix let out a breath she didn’t know she held, feeling incredibly light. This was different than when she was carried by Lila… a lot different. “What are you doing?! Come on! Use that umbrella of yours if you don’t feel confident about your balance!” exclaimed the vixen heroine.

“Umbrella…?” mumbled Alix, discovering she had an umbrella hanging at her back. Her weapon was an umbrella. Great… what am I gonna do with this, block the rain pouring on my enemies?

Alix shook her head and ran after Lila, jumping from the roof… and being amazed at the incredible height she just reached. She was a bunny, of course her jumping was going to be even more enhanced, but the fact she was able to reach a point that was about five times higher than what Multifox reached earlier made her feel extraordinary (even if a little scared, this fear leading to the discovery that her umbrella can help her glide). The two continued on their patrol, splitting up for a bit to search the two halves of Paris, in a similar way to how she, Chat (now Red Beetle) and a Champion would split Paris three ways. The sporty teen made sure to be very attentive on her go round, stopping a couple of guys from breaking into an apartment and not much else. In spite of her thorough patrol, she still finished early, deciding to go into Multifox’ side and help her finish with her patrol… only problem was she couldn’t find her. She pulled out her umbrella and tried tapping anywhere on it, being told by her Kwami at one point that the Miraculous tool also doubled as a communication device in this modern age. Eventually, the tip of it began projecting a small hologram, allowing her to check a bunch of different options (like a touch screen phone), eventually discovering a GPS option that was giving her directions to where the vixen heroine was. She followed them, wondering why Lila decided to hide in an alley, and immediately found out why: Chai, Shocker and that new villain, Doctor Octopus, were together in that alley, the first doing something to Multifox, or at least trying to.

“We got company fellers!” exclaimed Shocker, blasting the bunny heroine out of the sky. Doctor Octopus followed, sending one of his tentacles disconnecting from his back and flying towards Alix, pinning her to the ground.

“My readings indicate a strong energy flux emanating from the Miraculous. The frequency pattern of the energy indicates first or second use.”

“’ight, but where is the blasted energy comin’ from?” asked Shocker, watching Doctor Octopus go and grab the Miraculous from Alix’ left pocket.

“Right here. Now, let’s see—”

The Lord froze time, rewinding it back to a couple of seconds earlier. There had to be something that could be done. Maybe she could change Shocker’s aim or catch that tentacle midair. Perhaps she could move Time’s Child out of harm’s way… “Ugh! This is so frustrating! If only I had more power, I could just make changes from here!” The lonely being resumed time, but noted a difference.

“We got company fellers!” exclaimed Shocker, shooting at Bunnix and missing, the heroine dodging midair, using her umbrella to slow down her descent before closing it. Doctor Octopus ran into the fray and launched one of his tentacles, making it fly towards the heroine. Using her umbrella, she perfectly timed batting the offensive appendage away, dodging another blast from Shocker before landing.

“Strange… Readings indicate she hadn’t used her Miraculous for long, yet it appears as though she has some level of fighting experience. Be wary Shocker and most importantly… try to surprise her!” exclaimed the octopus villain by the end, the one tentacle he sent after Bunnix returning and pinning her on the ground, attacking her from behind.

The Lord once again rolled back time, wishing to test out a theory that formed inside her head.

“Wait, am I doing this…?” asked Alix aloud, finding herself back at the start of the fight. Shaking her head and thinking maybe her time powers were more automatic than manual, she once again jumped into the fray. “You’ve got company fellers!” she called out, Shocker immediately aiming at her (and missing), before Doctor Octopus launched one of his tentacles at her, this time the bunny heroine grabbing it and swinging it around, throwing it at Shocker, the claws of the tentacles beginning to strengthen their grip around his head as they grabbed on, the villain falling to the ground.

“Doc! the hell you doin’; Get it off me!”

“Don’t let her get any closer!” called out Chai, the villain trying to hold Multifox still, the teen hero struggling against his grip. His order went unheard and unfulfilled as Alix immediately used her incredible leg strength to make a long jump, hitting the scorpion straight in the back and jostling him slightly. That momentary lapse in grip and concentration was all Multifox needed, pulling an arm free and throwing the meanest punch she could straight to Chai’s mandible, knocking him slightly off balance, thusly managing to free herself. The vixen heroine immediately ran away, Bunnix following suit. Chai’s rage filled roar could be heard from the distance, followed by him tearing through stone and cement before he appeared in front of both girls, hitting them back into the fray of battle. Bunnix was caught by two of Doctor Octopus’ tentacles while Shocker grabbed hold and used his suit’s powers, vibrating like a massage chair, and trying to turn the poor girl into a milkshake. Chai walked straight over to Lila and ripped her Miraculouses away, turning her back to human. Shocker let her go at that point, not even him having the guts to hurt a defenseless kid. The scopionic monsters had no such reservations, and pounced on her, opening his mouth before clamping down, the Italian teen putting her hands up and managing getting one of her pinky fingers bitten off for her troubles. The villain stopped however, grabbing her and throwing her into a wall, the girl feeling blood begin to drip down from the back of her head, a sharp pain drilling its way into her back as well.

The Lord stopped time and contemplated. Liar had caused her much grief when she became a villain, and even if she did turn to the good side, who said that she should be done in receiving consequences. Who said if she paid her debt in full… she did. There was nobody else. The Lord, who could stop time and make small alterations. Even with these limits, she was still more powerful than everyone combined, simply by the virtue of being able to freeze them in a single moment forever, or for however long her ring allowed her. The Lord took the Miraculouses from Chai’s right hand and gave them back to Liar, prying open Doctor Octopus claws as well. Vixen was not getting a rewind, but for now she suffered enough…

Chapter Text

Time resumed and everything went about as well as it could have been expected with such minor alterations. Lila, discovering her two Miraculouses were now back in her possession, put them both on and her Kwamis transformed her without any need for the magical words, Chai immediately puffing through his nostrils in anger.

“What? When did you…?” called out the robotic monotone of the octopus villain, Bunnix landing on the ground and instantly springing into the scorpion monster with her legs of steel. The strength, combined with the short distance and singular second of traversing the distance caused Chai to be knocked to the side a couple of meters away, enough time for Multifox to create a complex illusion capable of making the two heroines invisible while also creating perfect illusions of themselves.

“Let’s get out of here!” said Bunnix, jumping away and her illusion jumping the complete opposite way, the vixen heroine and her illusion doing the same. What ensued was a long chase, the villains quickly realizing they were following illusions and managing to change course and chase the heroines until they hid. Lila and Alix were breathing heavily, hiding together inside a random apartment, having snuck in by forcefully opening a window. Their Miraculouses were currently turned off, the two teens realizing while they kept running away from the villains that Doctor Octopus was somehow able to track the energy release when their jewels were activated (Bunnix’ herself was apparently a ‘beacon in the middle of a dark, foggy and cloudy night’ as Doctor Octopus so eloquently explained to Shocker).

While this was happening, Marinette prepared for what she would want to be a nice weekend, however she felt like something was wrong. She couldn’t really shake the feeling that she was being watched. She had no idea why, but she somehow sensed a strange yet familiar presence that was not supposed to be there, making her feel somewhat uneasy. She chalked it up to a false alarm however, figuring she was just too tired and stressed. After all, how could she not be stressed knowing she was one step away from the public demanding she be considered a danger to Paris (if any more people were hurt and more buildings were destroyed on her watch, then she absolutely would get the hate mob going). She just needed to relax and let her head cool off or risk melting her brain. When she got a call from Adrien saying some of the others got here early, she grabbed her bag of things and left for the mansion, limping a short distance since the buildings were somewhat close (she had lived near Chat Noir all along, which was quite funny now that she thought about it). Arriving at mansion gate, she pressed the doorbell button and waited, the camera appearing to check who she was.

“Whoth art thou foolish mortal, whoth awaketh me frometh mine slumber…th.” said a deep voice. It was none other than Nino’s, the teen probably getting access to the camera system somehow.

“That’s a terrible impression of D’Argencourt. You could have just told me to leave.”

“Nah, Imma let you in. ‘Specially since this being a sleepover means you’ll actually have to, ya know, sleep. Thee shall not escapeth slumber.” The gate unlocked and Marinette smiled.

“Now you’re just challenging me to not sleep.” she replied. It felt strange to see Nino joke with her, but that was probably because they were older friends (plus Adrien probably put in a good word for her). She limped into the estate, the detail attentive part of her brain noting how it was almost perfectly repaired since the last time, a tiny irregularity in part of the wall remaining testimony of the battle, specifically the dragon’s ‘laser breath’. She could probably use her powers as Lady Monarch to amplify Multifox’s abilities back to creating reality, but she wasn’t completely sure if the corruption was fully removed from the Fox Miraculous, so the blue haired teen decided to play it safe for now. Marinette was greeted by Adrien and Nino. They were already dressed in pajamas, the blond wearing a Red Beetle onesie, while the young DJ wore a baby blue shirt with a white vinyl record symbol and a pair of white shorts with a pattern of black music notes. The musical motif of the shorts reminded the young fashion designer of her girlfriend, and she began to weigh her actions. I could tell them all… there will never be a better occasion… No. They’ll just laugh and never take me serious again. ‘You mean to tell me the cold hearted leader has a soft spot for girls?’ ‘Aw~! Marinette that’s sooooo cute!’… I need none of that!

“You’re here! I almost thought you weren’t going to show…” admitted Adrien. He wasn’t wrong in his assumption. The blue haired teen didn’t exactly leave the impression of being a person who would enjoy sleepovers.

“You’re kinda late actually.” added Nino

“It’s four in the afternoon…”

“Alix got us all here via calls actually. She was super exited to be here with everyone.” said Nino.

“She sounded somewhat anxious when she called and said she’s got a family emergency… I hope it’s not too serious.” added Adrien.

“Don’t worry, she’s—” began Marinette, the young fashion designer cutting herself off.

“Hey Nino! Come see—” Alya came into the foyer, running from the direction of Adrien’s bedroom, where everyone else was probably at. She was dressed in purple pajamas, with white butterflies, which was incredibly awkward for Marinette. She needed to fix things. Now! The young fashion designer opened her mouth to speak, but the blogger was faster. “Hi…” she greeted, awkwardly. Her face was stoic and her voice was cold and calculated, with a little awkwardness bleeding through. Marinette felt guilt, anxiety and the sensation of the ground pulling her down as she clammed up harder than a mollusk. It was the same as when Nino and Alya found out about Melodie. This sense of not really being in control terrified her and she looked down rubbing her right arm, almost massaging it as if her arm was tired of her leaning on her cane. The distraction helped somewhat.

“Hey…” Marinette came off as tired and that’s probably because of the hectic morning she had, first waking up because of a nightmare before searching like a madwoman for her Miraculous. She tried not to care. The blue haired teen went to change, coming back to somewhat loud music in Adrien’s bedroom, an atmosphere of party permeating the air. It somewhat reminded her of the blond boy’s birthday, only this time nobody was gonna ruin this nice relaxing time since she had heroes out on the prowl. Maybe after this I should summon everyone and implement some sort of system. I could move back into the shadows a bit, promote Alix’ hero self and probably even tailor the team based on availability and situation. Marinette thought to herself as she took a seat somewhere to relax her leg. She opted to use a nice compression pant to her leg, since for some reason it helped, plus she needed to go without using her cane sometimes in order to avoid further muscle weakness. The sleepover started nicely enough, Adrien offering everyone a group tour of the mansion. Nothing was broken thankfully, but it got close with a vase that Ivan accidentally knocked over. Adrien pulled a Chat Noir and he sprinted most of the distance before clearing the last couple of meters by throwing himself to the ground, catching said vase.

“Wow! Adrien I didn’t know you trained to be a superhero.” said Alya, having gotten that on him. The blond teen panicked, trying to push out a lie, before Marinette came to his rescue.

“He sure did! Probably prepping for that hero line fashion line photo shoot of his dad’s. Or maybe you’re looking for a job application under Lady Monarch?” the perfect cover, dubiously perfect coming from the blue haired teen, but the sarcastic and lightly mocking tone of her delivery dispelled any suspicion for both of them. From then on everything went on as normal, everyone settling to do their thing. Nathaniel got some asks for portraits from some of the girls and guys, others simply chatted (the music was changed to something more relaxing at Marinette’s request), others decided to get one of Adrien’s movies going, and others (Max and a couple other classmates, the former bringing his gaming laptop and two controllers) played some games. The young fashion designer was a bit isolated, seeing as her group of friends was broken up. She couldn’t even slither her way into a conversation with Chloe even if she wanted to, seeing as the blond was clearly preoccupied making googly eyes at Sabrina, who had her own smitten expression, the two girls sitting together.

“Did she… noooo…! Dammit! HOW THE FUCK DID SHE GET ACTION BEFORE ME?!” The Lord raged, watching the scene unfold.

Marinette struggled to find a group to stick to, so she decided to read some of Adrien’s spicier manga to pass the time, before shimming over to watching whatever some of her classmates, along with Adrien, were watching on his TV. Eventually she offered the idea of everyone playing some games and, consequently, everyone had some fun playing the myriad of console games Adrien had, the young fashion designer letting her blond friend borrow the one rare Playerboi game she brought with her, the rich teen playing on a new save while everyone played games on his console. The blue haired teen were having an intense discussion about the different mechanics in Ultimate Mecha Strike II and III when Ivan’s stomach growled, everyone stopping whatever they were doing and looking at him:

“Sorry… I’m a bit hungry.” said Ivan.

“You sure you didn’t bring a whale with you?” the blue haired girl asked, making a whale sound, Ivan’s stomach responding. Kim and some of the others laughed a little.

“Hey, let’s have some of those cupcakes!” said Kim.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea to eat just cupcakes. We should probably have some actual food too.” mentioned Rose.

“Maybe… some… pizza…?” mumbled Juleka. Adrien stiffened a little.

“I’m sure I could get the chef to make us something!” the blond boy said, getting up to walk out the bedroom. Nino caught onto the implication immediately.

“Dude… don’t tell me your old man banned junk food!” the rich boy felt very awkward.

“Uh…”

“How much could your chef even make?” asked Kim.

“Well—”

“I am curious. Did you stock up in preparation for this sleepover?” asked Max.

“I—”

“Pizza’s not really junk food though. It’s just Italian food.” interjected Nathaniel. Chloe ran up to Adrien’s side.

“No worries! I’ll call my daddy and we’ll get some fine food from the hotel’s restaurant.” Alya noticed an evil smile form on the young fashion designer’s face.

“Aw, that’s too bad~!” she said. “I thought this was a sleepover, not a soiree.” she snorted, holding in a snicker. “But, if you want, we could get some posh delicacies such as: frog legs, ox tongue, veal stomach, snails…” everyone looked progressively disgusted with the list of options Marinette listed, so the decision was already made.

“Pizza it is!” exclaimed Adrien, everyone cheering while the blue haired teen laughed. So the blond teen called a pizza place and ordered a ton of pizza, so much that nobody was sure they could finish it while also being certain that their friend and host went overboard. At least there was a lot of variety though! All teens ate as much as they liked from the pizza, Adrien determined to get all his money’s worth as well as to feel each special taste of all pizzas, eating at least one slice from each variety he bought. The food somewhat energized everyone, but as the sun began to set from a day of having fun, all began to feel a little sleepy, Kim seeing it as the best time to drop the question:

“Do you guys want to play spin the bottle?” The rules were quite simple actually; someone would spin a bottle and then would have to hug the person the bottle pointed to. If they already hugged, then they would be forced to kiss. It was one of those games, where not agreeing to play meant you were a chicken and playing meant you would have to suffer through the awkward situation of kissing a classmate and then moving on with life, trying to burry that in order to forget about. “Look, to show that I’m a good sport, I’ll spin it first!” said Kim, chugging his own bottle of soda (Adrien bought soda with the pizza, the refreshment going wonderfully with Rose’s cupcakes) and then placing it down to spin it, the plastic container pointing to Ivan. “Okay then! Bring it in bro.” the two guys had one of those manly hugs, which turned halfway into how hard they could squeeze the air out of each other. Yeah… these two obviously didn’t like each other very much. Next up came max, who hugged Nathaniel, then Mylene had to hug Juleka and Ivan Rose, the pink loving girl then hugging the Goth, who, when it came her turn to spin the bottle, landed on Rose once again. “Well that’s early! Alright look, I’m not heartless, so it counts if you do it for just a second. You’re still doing it though! Otherwise the rest of us who do do it are allowed to come up with a punishment.” There were a few murmurs of disagreement, but nobody actually rejecting this. The only one who had the courage to do it was stuck in her own little world of problems. Marinette could not kiss any girl (well, she could, but she wanted to be loyal); as such, this early evening was going to be dangerous for her, especially if she ended up getting Chloe twice. Of course, problem was that she couldn’t really use her cultivated authority alone to contest Kim’s decision, especially since she didn’t object from the beginning. Additionally, contesting now would need a really new excuse, and a normal ‘I care about my classmates’ would not work here because her authority stemmed from her seeming lack of care, and any deviation would attract suspicion. Rose and Juleka shared a little kiss, most everyone noticing it wasn’t as awkward as it should have been, before the Goth gave the bottle to Alya. Now here was when the fun truly began, for when the bottle stopped, it pointed to Marinette. Alya immediately looked frustrated and the blue haired teen sighed before looking around the room. She wasn’t prepared to do this, but her sense of theatrics combined with her quick thinking paved way for this:

“From the moment I arrived here I assume you all noticed that I wasn’t really hanging out with Alya and Nino, even though they are the only ones outside of sunshine boy who can tolerate me. Well… there is a reason for that.” Marinette pause for dramatic effect, stealing a glance Alya’s way, noting the blogger was curious, but not much else. “Some days ago we were all hanging out when it happened: we had a dispute on something that, I confess, seemed important, but, in retrospect, was nothing more than my childishness trying to combat common sense.” Everyone looked surprise at hearing that, and now they were all hanging on every word. Even Alya was starting to show hope, thinking that Marinette would confess to her shortcomings. “It was on the matter of my lacking self-care, mainly about my chaotic sleep schedule and my stubbornness in trying to rest when possible. And I was wrong.” Marinette said, putting up a front while hugging her arms in an attempt to hide their shaking. That was the scariest part, which she got out of the way, and now it was time for the worst part. The young fashion designer got up and limped over to Alya, who also stood up. “I am… incredibly sorry…” Marinette said sincerely, hugging Alya, the blogger shocked her friend actually apologized. “From now on I’ll try to take care of myself. But if I don’t please don’t give up on me. Goodness knows I need someone to kick my stubborn ass back in line.” Finished the young fashion designer, Alya hugging her back.

“Don’t worry. That’s why I’m your deputy, remember.”

The Lord slammed her right hand on the Time’s Eye, letting out a frustrated scream. “THAT WASN’T ABOUT JUST SELF-CARE. IT WAS ABOUT YOUR FREEDOM! HOW DARE YOU ALLOW THAT TRAITOR TO ORDER YOU AROUND! IF SHE WAS TRULY YOUR FRIEND SHE WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED YOU NO QUESTIONS ASKED!” she yelled, slamming both hands on the Time’s Eye at the same time a couple of times until she cooled off, sliding her claw-fingers across the opening through which she peered, creating an ear piercing noise similar to nails on a chalkboard.

The other classmates cheered, some saying that they were happy they found out what was going on and that the two of them were now friends again. After that moving speech things went back to a relative calm, Nino spinning the bottle and hugging Nathaniel. After that it was Marinette’s turn to spin it, so she did and the bottle… landed in between Alya and Nino, leaning towards the blogger. She leaned away from it.

“It’s Nino!” exclaimed both girls along with Adrien, the young DJ also agreeing.

“Nuh-uh! That’s clearly Alya!” interjected Kim. “What’s wrong, you chickening out? <Bwok, bwok, bwok, bwok, bwok, bwok, bowk, bwok>!” teased the jock.

“That’s not the thing!” said Alya.

“It’s not that I don’t want to kiss Cesaire. It’s just that I can’t.” added Marinette.

“Yeah, dude! D-Cheng has her reasons!” pitched in Nino. That got everyone curious, and they all started to question Marinette. The girl felt overwhelmed, trying to come up with a good lie before realizing it was pointless and blurting out the truth.

“I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!” she yelled. Unbeknownst to her, the Lord tried to move the bottle, not being able to reach despite her arms being longer than ever thanks to her increased size. She cursed her luck and watched on, feeling powerless. Upon hearing the truth, everyone was silent and Marinette, along with the Lord, were sure that her reputation the respect that she cultivated was destroyed… then Chloe spoke up:

“I do too!” said the rich blond, grabbing Sabrina’s arm. “Me and Sabrian are together and there’s nothing wrong with that!”

“Yeah! We love each other and that’s all that matters!” added the bespectacled girl. Rose placed a hand on Juleka’s trembling one, getting the tall girl’s attention. The pink loving teen nodded and they both spoke up as well:

“Me and Juleka are also together.” said Rose.

“W-We’ve been f-for a while… and there’s n-nothing wrong with that e-either.” murmured Juleka a bit more loudly than usual.

“W-Wait… everything is fine? I thought for sure they were gonna…” The Lord watched on as everyone accepted this new truth about Marinette, her fear of rejections proved to be exaggerated. Thankfully, it turned out that the only one who had initially rejected her was the overly-sheltered Adrien, his attitude probably stemming from lack of experience on the subjects. The fears she and her counterpart had were apparently poorly founded. And the Lord was thankful for it!

“So who’s your girlfriend?” asked Kim shamelessly. If Alix were here, she probably would have asked the same thing.

“Oh, uh… u-uhm, well, u-uh…” Marinette could feel her face get warmed by the second. If she didn’t get her tongue under control she would end up dying from embarrassment. She needed to speak, now! “… S-She’s not from o-our school if that’s what you’re wandering!” the blue haired teen managed to blurt out.

Chapter Text

The Lord watched on as her other self attempted to explain who her girlfriend was without really giving anything substantial away. Tons of non-answers basically, which was pointed out by the little toy robot that Brains had. This lead her other self to open up even more:

“… guys I’m… not ready to talk about this… I’m not ready to talk about a lot of things actually… that’s why I come off as distant and cold… It’s just…” Marinette took a shaky breath, hugging herself. This was clearly stressful for her. The Lord watched on, frustrated. “I know about it too, since I overcompensate by trying to solve all your problems.” Marinette said, letting out a shaky laugh. “I can’t share my problems! I can’t bring myself to care because it hurts! There! I said it! The reason I don’t get attached to you is because all this is temporary and I’ll be alone again after that!” This time Marinette let a few tears to go down her face as she sniffled. All her classmates were moved by this it seemed, since they all hugged her.

“I’m glad you could share that with us!”

“That’s how you’ve been feeling all this time? What kind of friends are we?!”

“We’ll try to help you through this, no matter what!”

“If you need anything from us, we will help. It’s the least we can do to pay you back!”

To the Lord all of these children’s voices merged together into a sea of unimportance as they all expressed similar platitudes and offered the same empty promises. The Lord was well aware of the harsh reality: once this year ended and they finished school these children would keep in contact for a month, maybe two, before they would start thinking about their own futures and go their separate ways. After some time they would find the old phone numbers and question who they belonged to before deleting them, not that really interested in finding out. Marinette was going to be alone in the end…

“If only I could just fix this… If I could get my hands on The Cube… but how could I get it… Maybe…?” The lonely being decided to skip a little bit into the future, stopping at the fight. The Cube had been hooked to some kind of custom large battery that was created by Doctor Octopus, the villain in question standing next to it as Shocker and Chai, kept the Champions and heroes at bay, the villains at an advantage because the cave they were all in was unstable, the heroes and Champions being afraid of the ceiling falling on top of them. Somewhere, not exactly in the middle of the cave, there was a somewhat large device that looked like an oversized laser blaster, big enough to be carried by the scorpion monster. That was probably how they got in. The Lord went back and forth through this loop to see if she had the opportunity to change something, and she did make a discovery. The discussion between her other selves and the rest of the class cut off at one point, the scene changing to the villain’s lair. The position of the sun was quite curious, and it took the timeless being but a moment to realize what was out of the ordinary:

“The sun’s in the same position as before. This is happening at around the same time the kids were having pizza! Am I… Am I experiencing time non-linearly?!” Before she could ponder this any longer her attention was captured by what the tentacle villain was doing: pieces of metal scattered everywhere, some already molded into shape, while others were still waiting to be used. The ‘drill head’ (more like a device that could probably fire something) of the machine was already complete, a thick metal cable coming from its back side, which would soon be inserted into the body of the digging machine.

“You sure this’ll work doc? Cuz we’ll have ta drill all the way down ta… where didja say we had ta drill again, Chai?” asked Shocker, the man looking over to the silhouetted villain.

“We will drill through the ground floor of the mansion and through a few tens of meters of stone in order to reach the cave.”

“Yeah, there. An’ last time we tried it, we almost failed.”

“This is of no concern gentlemen. I am utilizing the finest metal we have in our possession at the moment. My only concern would be the drill’s recovery at the end of the mission and possible loss of resources in possibility of failure.” commented Doctor Octopus, awakening Chai’s fury.

“We won’t fail! As long as you follow my leadership, we shall be fine! Any more moral degrading comments and our contract will be broken… permanently.” warned the villain, turning into his monstrous form. The buzz of one of Shocker’s gauntlets was heard, the villain having grabbed one of them and pointing it at the monstrous partner’s head.

“You don’t wanna do that bucko… Maybe yeh don’t like it, but the doc can make some nifty gizmos. We’ll kiss bye-bye ta our tech if he croaks.” Chai puffed some air through his nose as his monstrous face showed even more anger, the octopus villain salvaging the situation. Doctor Octopus placed one of his claws on Shocker’s arm, lowering it, placing another on Chai’s shoulder.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen. There is no need for hostilities. Our illustrious leader does have a point: it is counterproductive to our mission to be negative and I apologize if my words were misconstrued in such a way. I was only asking if there were any contingency plans drawn out in the small possibility that the heroes somehow manage to locate and enact their usual shenanigans.” A third arm moved forward, bringing a backpack-sized battery to the two villains’ eyes and attention. “Besides; if our leader is one hundred percent correct, then we do not need to request our wish on the spot, no matter how strategically advantageous that would be. Once we gain access to the cube we could charge it and flee.” The Lord raised an eyebrow in suspicion before frowning. Her vantage point did not allow her to push an arm through the Time’s Eye and grab the device, however there had to be something she could do. She once saw, in a movie, a time crystal that could be used to manipulate time on a singular object, shifting time forwards and backwards through it. So, raising a hand in front of the Time’s Eye, she concentrated on the battery or, more specifically, on the interior elements of the battery. The Lord’s ring began to glow a soft blue as time stopped inside the Time’s Eye and a blue aura formed around the battery. A circle of runes appeared in front of the Lord’s palm and she stood there. Tentatively, she moved her hand towards the left and felt how time turned the pieces inside into the raw materials they were comprised of. She then moved her hand back to the right and then continued on, feeling how the inner elements began degrading and rusting. After a little bit of fiddling, the Lord adjusted the erosion of the inner elements to ensure that charging the cube with energy was going to take a long while.

“Let us see how your assault on the Agreste Mansion will work now Doctor.” said the Lord, because if she learned anything in her time spent in the loops is that the scorpion villain was the acting leader, but his robotic subordinate was the technical leader. The lonely being tried to use her newly learned trick on pieces of the drill, however, due to little knowledge about the ring’s proper function or simply the ring loosing energy, she was unable too, the blue light of the gem flickering unsteadily. She continued on watching as the villains prepared, Shocker getting his upgrades, Doctor Octopus finishing the drill and Chai coming back with the cat ring and Plagg.

“Just a precaution.” said the silhouetted man, showing a moderate amount of wisdom. The Lord racked her brain to try and remember if he had ever used the Cat ring during one of her loops, but the years spent in the silent mind-eroding, insanity-inducting Burrow ate away at these memories, leaving nothing but feelings and only a few important moment, mainly spent with Melodie as the blond comforted her when she revealed (during a dozen or so loops) that she was repeating the same moments over and over again. Skipping around the looped timeline, she sees how eventually Chai changes his mind, thinking that, if the heroes were to somehow succeed, they might also manage to capture the ring. As the villains continue on with their preparations the Lord watches on, bored out of her mind but unwilling to skip around too much in fear of missing important details. If only I had something to write on… the timeless being thought to herself.

Eventually the villains were done with their preparations and moved on with their plan, beginning with shutting down the entire electric system of Paris. It was only now that the Lord understood the real reason why the villains chose to do it in the first place: the Agreste Mansion had a semiautomatic security system which required electricity to run. Consequently, now there was nothing that would stop the villains from simply barging in. That’s why they fought so hard there… I see. realized the Lord as she watched on. The villains were parkouring through the city towards the mansion, calmly making their way without really watching out for anything as Chai carried the digging device and Shocker was having fun with his new upgrade while also trying to get used to the sound wave, feet mounted, blaster. Doctor Octopus was the only one trying to look out, noting something.

“This is annoying. It’s one thing to be evil, but I will not stand competency.” said the Lord, annoyance clear in her voice, rewinding back to the first moment she could find with a newspaper that was within reach. She grabbed that then went back to the villains parkouring. As she brought her newspaper holding hand to the Time’s Eye, its edges began to release energy, intermittently flashing green. “Oh shut up! Don’t you dare stop me!” the timeless being plunged her hand through and covered the robotic villain’s face.

From outside, this would have looked as if a blue light summoned a newspaper in front of the doctor’s face, covering his vision. The villains cursed before removing the newspaper, looking to see if what he had seen was still there. Chai and Shocker noticed he stopped and they naturally stopped as well.

“What’s up doc?” asked Shocker.

“Why are you stalling?” asked Chai, angrily.

“Gentlemen, perhaps we should… reschedule?” offered the multi armed villain as he scanned around, turning to look at his fellow evil doers.

“Why?! We just—” Shocker was cut off, letting out a grunt as Bunnix seemingly flew in, kicking him so hard he went flying into Chai, the scorpion monster barely flinching as the man hit him in the chest, then dropping on the ground. Multifox jumped towards Doctor Octopus from the side, the villain barely catching her in his peripheral vision and using one of his arms to catch her, the ‘Multifox’ turning into orange smoke as the real vixen heroine launched a surprise attack from behind, landing on his back and hitting his head. Unfortunately for her that was the most reinforced part of the villain’s upgraded body, resulting in her flute strike bouncing off back into her face. Doctor Octopus managed to grab her and pin her to the roof with one of his tentacles. Note to self: Upgrade hardware for superior reaction time and begin analyzing Multifox’s illusions in order to discover a method for counteracting them. thought the villain among other things. Meanwhile Chai decided to test out the drilling machine’s capabilities turning it on with a hum and beginning to fire a thin laser. Bunnix jumped low and far, landing on the other building, upon which Doctor Octopus stood, and then jumping by him.

“Wait! Do not!” called out the robotic villain, before being forced to let go of Multifox and jump away to avoid getting sliced by the laser. Swiftly Bunnix landed on the edge of the roof and from there managed to jump straight towards Chai. Her aim was a little off, but, because of the scorpion’s tremendous size, she hit her mark, launching them both off the roof and towards the nearest building’s window.

“… S-She’s not from o-our school if that’s what you’re wandering!” the blue haired teen managed to blurt out.

“There is nothing to worry about Dupain-Cheng. If you do not want to share, we won’t push.” said Max.

“Wait, hold on! What if—” Kim was cut off as Adrien’s window was smashed in, Chai and Bunnix landing in the room and cracking the floor. All occupants were going to run any which way in panic if not for Alya, Nino, Ivan, Nathaniel and Chloe directing them outside. Adrien, through the initial confusion, managed to run out of the room first, calling out his transformation as he ran and jumping out of a window to swing around through the broken window of his room, while Marinette quickly limped to the bathroom. Bunnix limped off Chai before the villain could nail her with his laser, the machine being hit a little, but weathered the land quite well. However its resistance was once again tested as it was grabbed by the wire of a yo-yo before being then pulled towards a wall, slamming into it.

“Twice in the same year? Man Mister Agreste should charge you for all the destruction.” As he said that, Chai got up and, from the ceiling, Bunnix bounced down to a wall then into the villain, causing him to be launched towards the black spotted hero, who jumped out of the way, dodging in the process a blast of sound that came from Shocker, who, together with Doctor Octopus, were outside on the edge of a tall-ish nearby building.

“Uh… ups.”

“I’ll see what I can do in terms of an aim aid. Perhaps some type of zoom option, or a digital crosshair HUD similar to my own vision.”

“Yeah, sorry. Usually used ta different angles… hand guns an’ some such can’t really be shot from roofs.” said the yellow clad villain awkwardly as he launched himself towards the mansion, his tentacle partner following closely.

Meanwhile all the teenagers hid in the only place they knew where: Mister Agreste’s office. The electricity was still cut so even Nino, who had a vague idea of how the security system worked from what Adrien told him, was unable to activate the system. It was in this panic that everyone waited with baited breath. Would Lady Monarch send a Fay for one of her trusted Champions? Would she instead send a new Champion to save the day? (There was little chance of that happening, considering the general state of things.) Or perhaps she didn’t even know this was happening, more preoccupied with the complete loss for electricity. Little did they know she was freaking out in civilian form in Adrien’s bathroom.

“They’re ALL here! We are soooo screwed— we don’t have the manpower for this.” Marinette was trying to keep a cool head and think about this rationally, however her own worries, combined with the fact fighting was occurring right outside the door, and at any moment anyone or anything might crash in, made her panic.

“C-Calm down. We have Multifox and Alix on our side. They balance this out… r-right?” replied Nooroo, trying to reassure her but being influenced by his mistress’ panic and concern.

“Allow me to remind you that Chai can fend off Multifox, Red Beetle and Melodie at the same time; Shocker managed to hold his own against Red Beetle, Multifox and Markov; and Doctor Octopus managed to strategically defeat Nathaniel, his magical creations and R.A.I.D.! Not to mention the Multifox is less powerful than in her corrupted form and Alix is green as fuck. Her first timer luck is about to run out sooner or later.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah…”

“Logically speaking, she’s not wrong, and fighting them at the same time would be though, but maybe she could use the lack of teamwork between these guys to her advantage… Or maybe I will.”

“What do we do…?” asked Nooroo, as the sound of fighting began moving out of the room. Marinette massaged her temple in thought, arms crossed.

“’…reborn in their shared desired image, enacting their master’s will in exchange for a godly blessing…’” the blue haired teen mumbled, reciting a short section of the tome’s page on the Butterfly Miraculous. It takes her but a moment as an idea floods her consciousness. “In the tome there is an image showing a Butterfly Miraculous user with multiple Champions behind them. Is that artistic interpretation or an actual ability that I could have access to?” asked the young fashion designer.

“Ah… well… the Butterfly Miraculous can create a Champion and then you could multiply the Fay. It would create multiple copies of the one Champion though.”

“… Like, multiply the Fay after it’s powering the Champion?”

“Yes.” the little Butterfly Kwami nodded.

“What about doing it before? Has anyone ever tried to do it before?” asked Marinette.

“Nobody ever tried to do it before… Do you think that is possible?”

“Only one way to find out! Time to make history! Nooroo, Fairy wings rise!” called out Marinette. The Lord watched on as she transformed, reminiscing about when she had made this monumental discovery. Now it was stolen from her by, well, herself.

Chapter Text

Christmas! One of the most wonderful times of the year. A beacon of happiness in the debatably gloomy winter season. Originally a more religious holiday, now being a time where families come together to just be happy. There is something magical about Christmas, and it’s not Santa Claus giving good kids presents. People act differently during this holiday. They are more forgiving, generous and generally kinder. There has never been any holiday besides Christmas able to cause a (temporary) ceasefire during a period of war. The fact that there is great food too is also awesome! Christmas is beautiful… Of course, such a momentous occasion does have a big drawback: there needs to be a lot of preparation, as well as security, in order to ensure that everything went well. For someone like Marinette Dupain-Cheng that meant a lot of non-stop work. It was Christmas Eve and she already felt like death was upon her, pretty much how she felt every time the winter holidays rolled around. Currently she was on a mission, monitoring the situation using the Peacock drones that the elder Agreste provided for Team Miracle Makers’ use, directing her Champion with the cameras mounted on the drones, along with what she could see directly from her Champion’s eyes. While she did that she was all having an audio meeting with the annoying investors of her fashion company. When Albert would find enough dirt on them she was going to sue them economical consequences be damned. Then she’d just leverage the charges in order to take away their shares and redistribute them to people she actually trusted, like mayor Bourgeois (ironic considering they started out on not the friendliest of terms when they were younger).

Chai managed to get his grubby claws on some kind of ‘all powerful weapon’, or something of the sort. Of course, Marinette pretty much doubted it, and was more than willing to call his bluff. Still. He definitely had something if he thought that it was so powerful. The question was what.

“Careful Hypermaster. I gave you some bonus stealth wise, but you’re still noisy.” said the butterfly heroine. The Champion just ran across a short distance, his metal feet clanging on the stone ground. He was currently inside the new tunnel system underneath Paris, made some time ago by that annoying octopus villain to act as a safe haven for whatever low life wanted to enact an ‘evil plan’. Its vast network meant that the police never could clean it out thoroughly. Plus there was some sort of corruption preventing a huge raid on the place, something that Marinette had been looking into with little success. Hypermaster was right now equipped for stealth: His entire metal body was dark blue and black, emanating a soft yellow light of power through a visor and through slits in the plates to allow for joint movement as well as protection against kinetic attacks, all the armor made so that it would break when impacted with enough force, just like a bicycle helmet. This was all made so that he could move faster and more stealthily at the cast of high offensive and defensive capabilities. And that was intentional. The plan was to smoke the scorpion out of hiding and have him chase out. A direct confrontation would definitely result in a cave in and since last time ended up with the entirety of Paris competing with the Tower of Pisa everyone in Team Miracle Makers wanted to avoid any damage bills regarding this situation.

“Miss Melodie-Dupain-Cheng, we are aware this meeting concurrently with this mission of yours, but please do not interrupt.” spoke one of the board members. Lady Monarch inwardly scoffed, maintaining a composed façade.

“Apologies for my rude interruption. I will change my settings back to ‘push to talk’ if you don’t mind.” Honey was her voice, no malice to be heard. If she weren’t so preoccupied with her current situation she might have noticed the frustration on their faces. Now with the microphone turned off she once again had free range to speak as she pleased. “Hypermaster, anything yet?” she asked as she pulled up a digital map of the area, using her powers to get a sense of where he was in reference to said map.

“Nothing yet my lady.” she heard his voice in her head. Her champion cleared approximately forty five percent of the tunnels without finding that damned scorpion. He did however find some thieves, drug dealers and other regular criminals that he froze, bubbled, or stuck to the walls with gluey purple slime. The butterfly heroine started to have second thoughts about a lot of her decisions: first, she could have had Kabujin and Chat Noir leave before reporters showed up to film them live (Chai had announced he was seeing them through the use of the internet); then there was the fact that she should have sent in more Champions from the beginning instead of thinking about it later. Now if she wanted more than one Champion she would need to take away Hypermaster’s power, activate Impetus and only then she could benefit from the power to make as many Champions as she wanted. However she couldn’t get Impetus because she was stuck in this ill-timed meeting. And Chai had given an ultimatum that if his demands weren’t met in about three hours everyone could say ‘Goodbye to your stone and metal monstrosity you call a city.’ as he so nicely put it. About an hour and fifty minutes passed and no sign of him yet. There was no way for her to stall until the meeting was over, since the rich bastards didn’t care about what was going to happen. How did I end up with the scum of Earth as my investors...? If only my internet would crash so I could— Wait, that’s it!

“INTERNET!” shouted Lady Monarch, blasting Hypermaster’s ears.

“What’s with the internet?!” asked the Champion, confused.

“We can track him through it!” said Lady Monarch, walking out of the video camera’s vision, something which was observed by the investors, who smiled.

“Miss Melodie-Dupain-Cheng, are you there…?” asked one of them.

“It seems she left the meeting.” said another.

“Well then gentlemen, I believe—”

“You called me?” asked Lady Monarch, now visible once again on the screen, holding a small black octopus with green stripes resembling circuitry.

“Uh, yes! I wanted to ask if there have been any change in plans for the Christmas and New Year events. We know how… difficult you are sometimes.”

“Perfection requires sacrifice and hard work. With that aside, there are no changes: on the evening of Christmas Eve I will have the fashion show for the Christmas line take place as part of the charity for children suffering from cancer, with all the winnings going to it. Then, on New Year’s we’re bringing back one of our best lines, with small changes to make them even better, as part of ‘Nostalgic Winter’. Would that be all, sir?” replied Lady Monarch as she didn’t look at the camera, her hands out of vision doing something (she was typing, but they had no idea).

“Yes, t-thank you. Although you should probably keep your microphone off. If you don’t respond we might think you left the meeting and are not interested. And if that is the case, we would take our money to someone who actually wants to listen to us.” replied the man and, with a quick hand movement, she turned off the microphone again, ignoring his advice. The butterfly symbol appeared in front of Lady Monarch’s and Hypermaster’s faces as they reestablished the mental connection. A red dot appeared on the map the heroine was looking at.

“I just used my Pixie friend to connect to the internet.”

“I still don’t understand why they’re called Pixies, but ok.”

“People used to confused the feathers with creatures, especially since a person that was targeted would, in their eyes, speak with something that wasn’t there. Combined with the fact Duusu was occasionally seen during those times in history and she looked the same as the feathers, they made up the idea of a tiny, flying, magical creature. Anyway that’s not important right now. What is important is you getting to Chai. I’ll send word to Chat and Kabu to prepare.”

Through the psychic connection Hypermaster saw where on the map Chai was and went straight there, making sure to be as quiet as possible. Eventually, he came to a corner, and walked even slower than normal in order to avoid making any noise. When he looked around, he noticed that the scorpion villain was holding a small phone in between the tips of right hand’s claws. In his left hand the Champion noticed the weapon: a small metal cylinder, mostly red, with silver around the bottom and top.

“Yes, stay there… Do not move a bit. Unless you want your precious Paris to crumble.” he spoke to himself, chuckling.

“Now my darling Hypermaster! Ice Shot!” commanded Lady Monarch. He obeyed, coming out of the corner and aiming his blaster at the hand holding the device, freezing it.

“DAMMIT, NO!” shouted the villain, running straight at the Champion. While this was happening, Lady Monarch announced Kabujin and Chat Noir, the two heroes going on the move. Chai attacked Hypermaster with his frozen hand, the Champion dodging backwards and leaving himself open for a strike with the tip of his tail. That attack hit him straight in the chest, the armor plates cracking easily, through the cracks a yellow light emanating. Hypermaster was silent and unmoving. “Huh… I thought you learned Lady Monarch. What possessed you to make a Champion that can die…? Still, I said that if anyone tried to attack me, there would be consequences.” spoke the villain to himself as he transformed back to his corpulent human form, the ice disappearing. He was with his back turned to Hypermaster as he looked over the cylinder, a single green button on one of the ends.

“Who said I could die?” asked a robotic voice from behind Chai, just as he was about to press the button. The villain jumped forward, turning midair to face Hypermaster, changing back into his scorpion form, just as the Champion, summoned orbs of pure yellow light and sent them flying into him, seeking him out and nailing him with explosions of yellow light. Hypermaster looked nothing like he did before: He was floating, his legs and base replaced with a downward pointing cone, almost like the head of a drill; he no longer had arms, a pair of very large claw hands floating near his shoulders; his helmet looked like it had a crown and horns incorporated into his design and on his back, or rather floating behind it, three pair of large wings made out of yellow energy resided; his entire armor changed color as well, being mostly white and blue with yellow highlights, no more visible splits in the armor, like his previous form. “Say hello to Hypermaster X!” another set of villain seeking explosions and Chai let go of the device in pain, a floating hand going to grab it, only for Chai to use it as a lift for him to  escape. Hypermaster X immediately pulled back, but the villain already jumped off and went to grab the device, only for it to be snatched by a yo-yo.

“GIVE THAT BACK NOW YOU FILTHY HUMANS!” shouted Chai, looking up to see Chat and Kabujin, along with a few dozen police men dressed in heavy gear, with pretty sci-fi looking guns, some sporting energy shields.

“Don’t you mean give that back ‘meow’? And what’s with the cat-titude? Did you not have your cat-puccino this morning?” the scorpion villain growled as he looked behind himself, seeing Hypermaster X blocking the way, some orbs of light flying around him in circles, his ‘arms’ open in a ‘come at me’ pose. Chai took a moment to observe the other side with the heroes and the police, seeing the cylinder magically sticking to Kabujin’s waist and what looked like the former turtle hero’s shield on her back, only red and black instead of shades of green. Chai smiled and ran towards Hypermaster X while the people on the other side began to shoot, Chat and Kabujin running after him.

“Chat! Now!” ordered Kabujin, giving him the shield. The cat hero threw it towards a wall while his ladybug partner jumped in the air, the shield bouncing off into the other wall at an angle, before bouncing off that one and towards Chai’s legs. He expected that, of course, and jumped a short distance, grabbing the shield before jumping again, holding it in front of him as the ladybug heroine wrapped her yo-yo’s wire around him, realizing her mistake too late. The orbs hit the shield, sending Chai, and consequently Kabujin, flying backwards, the latter losing her grip of her yo-yo and freeing the villain, who immediately jumped at her, ramming her with the shield and grabbing the cylinder with his tail.

“And once again, intellect defeats power, in this case the power you have in numbers.” said Chai with a distinct smirk, pressing the button on the cylinder and opening it, letting its contents fall into his large clawed hand: a small ring with a silver band and a coffin shaped gemstone, glowing purple. He threw away the container, everyone scrambling to attack him as he put on the Ring, purple energy releasing out of him in ways, lighting up the tunnel and making it seem longer than it actually was, before the light dimmed and in Chai’s place stood a massive armored, his body shaped like that of a muscle-bound, yet lean man, his dark brown armor seemingly organically fused with said body, two shoulder pads coming out of his shoulder’s like giant long fangs colored the same dark brown, a row of fangs where his abdomen was, metal looking boots that also seemed to be fused with the feet, growing like fangs, an open, oval hole where the sternum was emanating purple light sharp teeth seemingly holding the hole open. A ragged dark purple cape flew behind him and his head… well! His head looked like a helmet shaped like Chai’s head, his maw open to reveal another small, human shaped head inside, covered by a metal mask, with white glowing eyes, a pair of incredibly large bull horns, the mandible part of his head turned into downward pointing horns that came out of the ‘cheeks’ belonging to the face mask. Finally, instead of his one tail he now had three thinner ones. From this figure purple light emanated as he began to laugh, before laughing louder and crazier, before erupting into an insane laughter.

“Konichiwa…?” a timid yet strong sounding voice was heard from behind the villain, the heroes looking around while the man himself fully turned around. Behind stood a relatively tall teenage girl, dressed in casual wear, with dark red hair, parts of rid shinning a fire red under the dim light of the tunnel. The surprising element was her eyes, which were a fire red, but her pupils were both yellow and shaped like four pointed stars, with the tip of the points being round. “Anata wa warui otokode wa arimasen yo ne?”

“Oh, but I am a bad guy.” replied Chai(?) before launching the fastest punch in the world. With humongous strength he pushed the girl’s head into the ground, cracking it. But when he lifted his fist expecting blood…

“Ryokai… Yoroi!” the girl glowed red and the villain tried to stomp on her, the stone ground cracking some more.

“How are you alive?! I have the strength of a god right now!” asked the villain, realizing she was still not dead.

“Oh hey, I actually understood that…! Wait… you mean my defense is that good?! I’m so glad I did all that extra grinding then!” she said with a smile and a sunny disposition, the villain’s foot sitting upon two small, red kite shields that were strapped to her forearm’s length, their tips just over her knuckles, the rest of her body covered in armor of the same red color. This entire strange situation, combined with the fact the villain was doing no damage by his own admission allowed the heroes and police to regain their senses and push past their fear to attack, the police beginning to shoot into his back. Kabujin used her yo-yo to grab one of Chai(?)’s wrists, trying to pull him towards her for the purposes of taking the Ring. However, his strength was too much for her and she ended up getting thrown herself. Hypermaster X flew straight towards him, all of his wings fusing into one feather shaped sword that he tried to slice him with, the villain grabbing it with a bare hand and, with a strong grip, breaking it to pieces. On top of the Champion however stood Chat, who hopped towards him.

“Cataclysm!” he called out, destructive energy coming out of his ring.

“HYPERMASTER! GET EVERYONE OUT OF THERE NOW!” shouted Lady Monarch, distress clear on her face on the video where her investors watched, no longer interested into the work, but on what they could gather from the butterfly heroine’s expression. The villain grabbed Chat by the neck, the hero using his power on said hand, to no effect, struggling against his grip.

“<Sinister chuckle> Do whatever you want. My hand won’t let go. And now that I have a power which almost transcends your own, it means I can actually crush you in my hold.”

“CHAT!” shouted Kabujin, throwing herself at the villain, who, with his other fist, backhanded Kabujin into the wall.

“I can’t… move…!” said the teen struggling against the villain’s foot.

“Once I kill these pests I’ll find out what makes you so special.” The teen’s expression, which showed worry for the people around her and frustration at her current inability to move shifted into one of a absolute confidence, her thin eyebrows furrowing in anger, yet an easy smile resting on her face.

“Kill, you say?”

“What? You think you can do something against me? You’re just a stone beneath my foot…!”

“That’s what you think! Hands of Armageddon!” she exclaimed, the kite shields, as well as the metal armor covering her forearms, glowing a soft yellow for but a second before she pushed, the villain feeling an opposing force against his leg.

“But how?!” the teen pushed him off her, the villain letting go of Chat as he almost lost balance, taking multiple steps backwards in order to prevent that from happening. As he did so, the red haired girl got up to run towards him, and although she looked to be moving really slow, she did get within melee range of the villain and her glowing yellow right forearm, which was held back in position right before she was near, flew towards him, the straight punch connecting with his gut, the yellow energy flowing into the attack and pushing sending him flying, the entire scene looking like she used a comet to punch him. She once again ran after him, at the same slow pace as before.

“Wait, I should have pulled back to not do knockback!” she chastised herself. The villain, seeing how slow she was, began to speak anew:

“Your power may be great, yet it is useless if you cannot move as fast as me.” He laughed an evilly as he held up his hand with the Ring, which glowed purple, a cloud of the same color coming out of it and enveloping it, before getting succeed into the light emanated by the Ring, which flicked out of existence the moment that was done, leaving an empty space where the villain once sat.

Once the meeting ended, which happened to be shortly after Chai managed to teleport away, the police began with their usual proceedings, pulling back the people and checking them over to see if anyone was hurt and then going about questioning everyone involved, including civilian witnesses, and among those was the red haired girl:

“Name?”

“Star-Fall. I’m a bit of a new hero.” Said the now named Star-Fall, a fitting name considering her eyes.

“Uh… are you a one of the Champions?” asked the policeman.

“No. <Light giggle> Why would I be part of a German hero team? I’m from Japan. I can show my provisional license if you’d like.”

“That explains why you were speaking Japanese earlier.” said Kabujin, walking over after giving the rundown of the situation for another policeman. “Koneko o tasukete kurete arigatōgozaimashita.”

“You’re welcome. And by kitten I assume you’re talking about him?” asked the red haired heroine, pointing to Chat Noir, who was a bit further away, talking to another policeman.

“Yes, that’s him~” replied the ladybug hero, her voice blissful and relieved. “Anyway, you mentioned something about a license.”

“Yes, here it is.” Star-Fall held forward her hand a small red flame erupted in her palm, quickly extinguishing itself and leaving behind plastic, glossy card that looked like and ID. “It’s in Japanese, but you know the language so you can read it I assume?” Kabujin grabbed the card from the teen’s hand, looking at it with furrowed eyebrows. It wasn’t that she couldn’t read it, in fact what was written was plenty clear, however she struggled to match this card to any official ID in Japan.

“What did you say this was again?” asked the blue haired heroine.

“It’s my provisional license. Is something wrong with it?” replied the red armored teen, Kabujin ignoring her question and turning to the policeman.

“She’ll have to come with me and Chat. She demonstrated magical abilities down there.”

“Is she responsible for that big crack?”

“Only indirectly. That guy with the horns and tails tired to cave my head in.”

“Who was that person, did he give a name?”

“It was Chai. With one of The Rings.” Interjected Kabujin, the policeman, who up until know looked calm as he took notes, shifted his head to look straight at the two, his face contorted into an expression of worry. “I’m sorry, but we can’t answer any questions right now. We have urgent business.” the ladybug heroine excused herself, motioning for Star-Fall to follow. A few seconds later…

“Wait that’s way too fast!” Kabujin looked back to see she had put quite a considerable distance between her and the teen.

“Please hurry, we need to speak with our team leader.”

“Okay, okay, but I can’t move that fast. My speed stat is one.” she said as she slowly ran, managing to reach her. Her speed stat…? thought Kabujin before she grabbed the teen by the hand.

“Perhaps you could remove your armor.”

“My speed would still be the same… Sorry…” said Star-Fall timidly, looking down and tapping her pointer fingers together. She’s like an anime character… realized the ladybug heroine.

“And there’s no way you can fix that.”

“Well, technically I could use my Icarus’ Boots, but then I won’t be able to use them until tomorrow. I’ve already wasted Hands of Armageddon, so I’m not all that exited to do the same with these.” She clinked the heel of her left metal boot to that of the right to emphasize what she was talking about.

“Hi!” said Chat, making Star-Fall jump. “Finally got done with the report. So how’s our one hit wonder?”

“One hit wonder?”

“We need to get her to Lady Monarch, but she is incredibly slow. I’m going to carry her there, you go ahead. Also, is your neck alright…?”

“Carry me?! I can walk finem even if I’m slow! Just point me in the direction you need me to go and I’ll be there in two hours tops!”

“Don’t worry. There’s nothing wrong with being carried. Besides, I’m a cat. Cats are purr-dominantly awesome!”

“Except for the ones that like to use you like a scratching post... No thanks, I’d rather walk.” replied the red armored teen. A short melody was heard, both Chat and Star-Fall turning to Kabujin, who just answered a call on her yo-yo. “So that thing’s a phone too…? Cool support item. Does your uh, staff do the same?”

“You bet! It can also lengthen to whatever size I want it.”

“No way, that’s so cool!”

“Please keep it down.”

“Sorry about that my lady.” said Kabujin over the phone. Marinette was currently using a hands-free to talk, Melodie resting her head on her lap, sleeping comfortably, while she was rocking their baby in her arms. The little troublemaker was not going to sleep at all.

“It’s fine. Anyway, about that girl…” whispered the experienced fashion designer.

“Yes… uhm, why are we whispering my lady?”

“Allegra got tired exhausting Hugo, so it fell onto me to put him to bed and I need to whisper so as to no wake him up. I have no clue what you’re doing. No can you get a move on. I thought I told you to come here straight away!” whispered the blue haired woman harshly, looking to see if her son was still on his way to Sleepville. Thankfully everything was fine.

“Right! Well, apparently the girl’s name is Star-Fall and there is a problem: she’s incredibly slow.”

“I don’t doubt it. That armor must be heavy.”

“She says the armor has nothing to do with it.”

“… I’ll get a portal open. Over and out.” The call ended and Marinette sighed. She put Hugo in his little bed, covering him with his blanket and giving him his bunny plushy to hold. The experienced fashion designer patted her loving wife before slowly carefully, moving her off, putting her head under a pillow and leaving, turning the security system to maximum in the room before doing so. A quick walk towards her office and she went through the secret lift down to the .

“Ah, Marinette. What do you wish to speak about on this pleasant day?”

“Nothing much this time. I just need to make a quick portal: Kaalki, full gallop!” with the magical words spoken, the transformation occurred, Marinette using the Horse Miraculous’ power to create a portal from Kabujin’s position to the base.

“You have someone with a teleportation quirk as part of your hero team?! You guys are amazing! I didn’t know there was anyone in France with a teleportation quirk!” said Star-Fall a she walked through the portal, hoping backwards through it, then hopping forwards back into the base. “I don’t even feel anything when I walk through. It’s just like walking through a door!” the red haired teen prepared through the portal again, Marinette closing it as she did so. Kabu and Chat turned back to their civilian identities.

“Enough! Who are you? How did you get here? Where did you get the power to rival one of The Rings? And don’t you there give me any bullshit, got it?” spoke Marinette harshly as she stomped up to the girl, who backed up, intimidated.

“I-I-I don’t know. Since it’s Friday my friends invited me to karaoke. I was just talking when poof! I was in that tunnel.”

“Sounds like a student. She looks about year two or three as a senior.” said Kabu.

“Yeah definitely.” added Plagg.

“Karaoke a regular thing over there?”

“Somewhat. I didn’t go much with my friends since my mom insisted I train.”

“… Sorry if I hit a sore subject.”

“It’s fine.”

“Right… You got transported to a Paris filled with magic ala isekai.” The experienced fashion designer noticed Star-Fall’s eyes slightly widen at the word magic. “So you got experience with the mystical forces?”

“Uh… well… Kind of…? My uh… body is made of magic.” At that both Marinette and the other two got curios.

“Wait, like pure magic?” asked Adrien.

“Okay now this is interesting!” exclaimed Plagg.

“I thought you said only Kwamis are made of pure magic.” said the blue haired woman.

“I did and I think she’s lying.” said Tikki.

“I-I’m not lying! I swear I’m not! I died and was brought back to life in this boddy by Tikki, the Goddess of Creation and Life.” A tense silence enveloped the room, like a giant cloud of smoke, fire and ash, stifling the air.

“This is freaky.” whispered Plagg, before flying over to Tikki. “Have you or your wielders ever made something like that?” Tikki shook her head.

“No. I don’t know what’s going on...”

“Kaalki I renounce you.” said Marinette calmly, turning off her transformation. “Please follow me. I’ll make some tea. Get rid of that tacky outfit while you’re at it.” The blue haired fashion designer walked towards the elevator, the doors opening automatically and her walking inside. She waited for the rest to follow. First Adrien and Kabu joined her, before Star-Fall called out ‘Armor Off’ as she walked, proving true what she said about her speed: She was still just as slow without it. The lift ride was even more tense Star-Fall standing straight like a soldier, Adrien and Kabu being a little confused, and Marinette having the most relaxed posture of them all. After that, she lead them to a parlor and asked them to wait for the tea. So, they made a little small talk, Kabujin and Chat introducing themselves as Kagami and Adrien Agreste respectively. Kagami had been curious about Japan and through this she learned a few things, all contributing to the fact that Star-Fall did not come from the Japan she knew: the red haired girl talked about her home town which was apparently very large (and nowhere Kagami could pinpoint on a map), being the place where the ‘Best hero school in all of Japan’ was; that was where the teen trained to become a professional hero, because, apparently, heroing was professional occupation, these people being kind of like state sponsored mercenaries that helped the police in capturing dangerous criminals while also saving civilians, some heroes even specializing in the latter, being known as rescue heroes (or rescue experts). There was also one word that she kept repeating, that being ‘quirk’; from what both adults could gather, this was a term used to define the powers some of these heroes possessed. That concept wasn’t too hard to grasp, since everyone knew powers outside of magic were real (America being the chief example), however Adrien and Kagami had no idea the Japanese began having an upsurge in people with para-scientific powers. Before they could ask for further elaboration Marinette came with a tea set, along with a woman around her age, her hair blond and cut short,.

“Good afternoon! My name is Allegra Melodie-Dupain-Cheng.”

“My wife.” added the blue haired woman with a certain level of pride clear in her voice.

“And you must be Star-Fall, right?” The teen nodded, now acting a lot more subdued, but seemingly a little more at ease than when there was only Marinette. The two women sat down and the tea was served with some snacks, Marinette beginning anew with questions, acting a lot more calmly than earlier.

Inside an underwater compound the sounds of battle raged. Mainly the sound of laser beams and scorching flames, of screaming in pain and, occasionally, of bones being crushed and flesh being ripped.

“You dare stand before Lord Chai and refuse to kneel? I have butchered most of your fellow men and women and yet you still oppose me!” said the villain, the men and women shooting at him with lasers, various small clouds of purple opening and closing in quick succession around Lord Chai, teleporting the lasers back at the attackers, some of them piercing their force field projecting armor, while using others to melt open holes into the base, forcing water in before the walls quickly mended themselves. The villain advanced, using brute strength and his tales to literally break and tear through the people. Blood splattered the walls and floor as he went on with the massacre towards his goal. If he was lucky, he was going to get the Ring he needed. If not, he might get another Ring, one that would make him dangerous enough that the people keeping the others would send troops to attack him. Either way, he won. That was the nature of The Rings. Having one made a person dangerous. Having two made them nearly invincible. And oh he was going to enjoy every little drop of that power.

As Lord Chai continued on walking he couldn’t help but find that he lacked any stimulation. Now, of course he enjoyed using his immense force to murder the obstacles in his way, but the lack of an actual challenge began getting to him. How could that Lord X live without getting excitement out of fighting was beyond him. As if his desire made the Ring respond to it, as he rounded a corner he saw a man clad in white armor. With a blue cape and a jousting lance on his back, his helmet sporting an impressing set of three horns, two on the side and one in the front, making him look like a unicorn with an additional pair of horns. The thing that interested Lord Chai the most however was what he held in his hands: a red cylinder with both ends silver, on one end being a button. The villain chuckled.

“I believe that belongs to me.” he spoke calmly, moving his ringless hand forward, into a portal that made it so he didn’t even need to walk towards the knight looking man. For his part the man jumped back before running away. “Potentially another pest. Smarter though. He knows running away is the best course of action. Well, time to end him and collect my prize.” said Lord Chai as he pulled his hand out of the portal and made another one leading around the other corner, appearing in front of the knight looking man. Once again, the armored man surprised the villain: instead of stopping he sped, and with reflexes that couldn’t have possibly been anticipated he pulled out the lance from his back and slashed at him as if it were a sword, using its tip to deal the damage. Momentarily stunned, he turned to run the other way. I actually felt that… just like the other one… could it be… that guy is in league with the red haired girl? Lord Chai asked himself as he watched the mysterious fighter run around the corner. “You will not escape me!” exclaimed the villain holding his hands up and then waving them around, causing the corridor, which turned, to look like a straight line, while also making it spiral and having the two ends actually connect, meaning that in actuality, this now straight spiral corridor was something more akin to a Mobius loop. “There. Now, no matter where you run, you will always arrive back to me.” said Lord Chai as he walked on the ‘ceiling’ towards the ‘floor’ on a circular path, now the two technically indistinguishable from one another. To the knight however, who had a hard time sitting upright, the sensation of gravity became incredibly wonky, because his brain was having a hard time processing where his center of gravity actually was. “What’s wrong? Having problems figuring out where ‘up’ is? Allow me to help!” exclaimed the villain, pulling back his arm for an uppercut. The mysterious opponent jumped backwards, but instead of moving back in  straight line in the air, his body spun along the path in midair, landing on the ‘ceiling’ a few meters away. Lord Chai ran after him and bending space around him in order to move in a straight line towards the knight. However, that was the biggest mistake of his life, as the moment he did it the knight moved even faster and sliced his body multiple times. He didn’t seriously injure him, far from it actually, but it sure hurt. Lord Chai grunted rather loudly from the pain.

“I think I’m starting to understand. You can change the way this room looks, but in the end it’s still the same gravity. You’re just bending space, isn’t that right?”

“I will kill you for that!” said the villain, looking at him with murder filled eyes. The knight advanced. This time he began applying his powers differently, bending space and making the hallway seem longer, or shorter, making it look like it zigzagged, or making it a vertical straight or a vertical loop. Despite all that the knight managed to keep a steady advancement, landing multiple slice and stabs at the villain. Eventually, the scorpion warrior realized he could actually use the water surrounding the submarine base much more efficiently: he created portals that lead straight to open water, multiple geysers of water being sent straight towards the mysterious opponent.

“Frigid grave!” he exclaimed, all the water turning into ice, freezing over even the portals themselves. “Pheonix Sunder!” The mysterious knight’s cone shaped lance glowed a hot orange as he sliced multiple times in near instant succession. The ice was cut up to pieces, and even lord Chai felt several burning slices on his body, making him roar in pain. “Oh gods, hear my call. Bestow upon me your gift of power…” Glowing golden wings appeared on the knight’s back. “May I never stray from the path of justice… And may my lance pierce through evil incarnate: Empyrean Decree! Celestial Pierce!” his entire armor turned golden and glowed as his lance generated a white light around its ‘blade’. The holy warrior moved with impressive speed towards his opponent, pushing his lance forward… the corridor reverted to normal as the power of the Purple Ring stopped taking effect on it, and blood began to pool on the ground. Lord Chai laughed. The lance and most of the knight’s hand had plunged into a portal in front of the villains chest, another portal just under it, he lance piercing the holy warrior’s own chest as blood poured out of it. The villain grabbed the man’s arm and put a hand on his should as he pulled him closer, pushing the lance further through the portal and, consequently, further into the man’s chest.

“I was itching for a proper fight. I cannot believe what I will say but… thank you. At least you died being useful, unlike everyone else here.” The villain closed the two portals, slicing the knight’s arm clean in half. Lord Chai surveyed his surroundings for a moment before he saw what he was looking for, slowly walking towards the cylinder and picking it up, pressing the button to open it and get the Ring. It wasn’t the one he needed… but he would have to make do.

The evening upon Christmas was calm. In spite of the earlier attack Parisians were without a care in the world. The police had suggested Marinette cancel the Christmas Fashion Show for safety reasons, but her investors said otherwise, and aggressively so (strange, considering the fact they were usually against it). This time however, the experienced fashion designer recorded them. Not my problem that they slipped. If this goes south I can finally get rid of them and put people I actually can trust in position. Thought the blue haired woman as she watched the show from a balcony above, along with Allegra…

“This is the first time I’ve actually worn a dress. I gotta say, it’s kind of like a long skirt, or like wide-leg pants, but more free. Although… it’s really embarrassing having no sleeves. I thought a halter dress would be cool…” …and Star-Fall. The red haired girl looked absolutely adorable in Marinette’s and Allegra’s opinion, wearing an ankle length red dress matching her eyes, with a pair of red ballet slippers, her hair pulled into a bun with two sticks holding it together, her ears adorned with a pair of small cylinder earrings.

“Don’t worry dear, you’ll get used to it.” encouraged the blond woman.

“You reap what you sow kid. Live with it.” added Marinette, looking down over the crowd carefully, ready to transform in case there was someone with bad intentions that managed to pass the increased security tonight. She was so focused on this that she did not notice the lack of noise from the party behind her.

“Uh… Mari…? I think we might have a situation.”

“They look completely mind controlled!”

“WHAT?!” The experienced fashion designer turned around and saw that the party guests looked straight at them with fish eyes, their pupil glowing green.

“Lady Monarch.” They spoke in unison. “Does this bring back memories?” came the voices of the crowd from the ground, making Marinette turn to look down at them, Nooroo entering her Miraculous and transforming her. “Last time you had to contend with all the rings. But now, I will destroy you with just two, along with a little ingenuity.” The crowd upstairs began to make their way towards the balcony, while everyone at the ground gathered under the balcony. “On Christmas Day I shall come, removing all the joy from this wretched holiday of yours. You have two options: surrender and accept your end, or resist and perish.”

“What happened with wanting the Miraculouses. Sounds to me like someone is being a little hipocrete.”

“Uh, guys… the balcony is getting a little cramped… What do we do? S-Should I try to push them back without hurting them?” asked Star-Fall, holding up her arms in a protective stance, her forearms sporting the armor plating and little kite shields from before.

“Hm. You can call me whatever names you want. I will have my revenge, erasing you and everyone you love off the face of this rock! Then, there will be nobody left to oppose me. I will rid the world of the insufferable pests that dared to stand in my way.” said everyone in unison before collapsing. Allegar immediately jogged over to the nearest person to have fallen, Star-Fall already kneeling in front of them.

“They’re all fine as far as I can see… That was really scary. Since when can that guy mind control others?” asked the red haired girl, looking back at Marinette.

“He must have gained another ring.” said Nooroo, responding instead of the blue haired woman, who was on the phone.

“Who’s she calling? I don’t think this is a good time to be on the phone. We need to uhm… come up with a plan, yeah!”

“Mistress Marinette has friends in high places.”

“Finally connected— YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOTS! WHY DID YOU NOT FUCKING ANNOUNCE ME CHAI ATTACKED THE PLACE WHERE THE GREEN RING WAS KEPT?! IN FACT, WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THE GREEN AND PURPLE RINGS WERE THE ONES IN MY POSSESSION THIS TIME OF YEAR?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THE SHIT WE’RE IN BECAUSE OF THIS?!” Marinette ended the call quickly sighing in relief.

“They don’t sound like friends at all…”

“Mari…! We spoke about this… Being rude like that won’t solve anything! You didn’t even let them explain themselves.” scolded Allegra, walking over to her beloved, who was massaging her forehead.

“I know it’s just… if there was ever a time to unleash my rage it would now. A fuck up like this can mean the destruction of our entire universe.”

“Also language!”

“Sorry… please forgive me…” The blond woman turned her back to Marinette, folding her arms.

“I’ll consider it.”

“Oh… o-okay…” the shift in emotion almost gave Star-Fall whiplash, the experienced fashion designer, who had earlier shouted bloody murder, was now hunched with her head down, voice coming out in pathetic sobs.

With the ultimatum spoken, there was only one thing that could be done: prepare. Nobody was going to bend to the wishes of a lunatic obviously, and considering the level of power he had, Lady Monarch was certain her strategy was going to prove most effective. Due to the magnitude of this mission a few older members of Team Miracle Makers were pulled out of retirement: the second Ladybug of the team, Coccinelle, along with the Turtle member Captain Carapace, Kagami taking her old spot as the Dragon user. About every possible Champion available was activated, making up a small army, and all Parisians were placed in special buildings with absolute security since there wasn’t enough time to get them out of town. The night of Christmas was the scariest time of this year, something that would surely be remembered for the end of time. As the clock struck early dawn and the sun just started coming up… a small purple cloud appeared on top of the Eiffel Tower, dissipating to reveal Lord Chai, a black lance in his hand.

“I see you chose the second option. I was hoping for that.” said the villain. The moment his voice was heard the aerial units moved in to shoot at him the monstrous villain jumping down, both purple and green rings glowing as he created portals to send all the projectiles back to the senders. Meanwhile, in the buildings, purple clouds rained equipment down at the fished people of Paris, another portal opening soon enough after, this one like a circular doorway, green clouds at the rim, a man with a mysterious allure in front of it. The champion shot the people with an electric attack, causing them to become incapacitated, taking away Lord Chai’s biggest advantage. The villain realized this immediately and, as he was falling through the air, he saw a huge Steelcore running full force at him, pulling his fist back and then sending it forward. The villain opened a portal that would have send the Champion’s fist into his own face, were it not for a green portal opening and sending the same fist into the villain’s side, sending him to crashing the ground. The ground troops rushed the villain, who got up and forced his powers to his absolute limits, putting his entire concentration, hatred and intent into his counter attack, slicing, kicking, punching and teleporting the attacks of his enemies straight into the their faces. He was taking out of commission Champion after Champion, but their sheer number was still taking a toll on the villain, who was desperately moving, not a millisecond afforded to take a breather.

“THAT’S IT MY DARLINGS! KEEP THE PRESSURE! DO NOT ALLOW HIM TO GATHER HIS BREATH AND COUNTER YOU!” commanded Lady Monarch. “I think it’s about time you went in too.” she nodded to the other heroes, who immediately went on the move. Ryuko took point, followed by Chat, Coccinelle helping Captain Carapace with getting there faster. Lord Chai was right there in the middle of all Champions, attacking with the most powerful attacks possible since he now had very little chance to attack at all, mostly dodging and using his portals to fight off most of his surrounding enemies.

“Lightning Dragon!” called out Ryuko, turning into pure lightning and blasting Lord Chai to absolute hell. She immediately turned back into her normal form and jumped towards him for an attack as she had seen him weakened. His Purple Ring suddenly lit up however and purple mist emanated from his purple glowing body.

“Time to fight seriously!” he called out, moving so fast he practically blinked into existence in front of Ryuko. The heroine leaned back, his slice moving faster than light and launching her backwards screaming in pain. The Champions, who had no opening to add their attacks to Ryuko’s, went on the offensive as the other heroes were nearing. Lord Chai moved straight to one of them and plunged one of his tails into their chest, a green glow running through it. A second later that Champion and all the other Champions for that matter were screaming as green electricity ran through them and blots of darkness began to cover them. The period of time this took place was about two or three seconds, but in these seconds all these Champions, all these people were in torturous pain, like hell brought to life, every nerve in their magical bodies shrieking, their souls seemingly skipping straight to the afterlife, leaving behind still moving, twitching shells, like toys running on residual energy, their batteries empty.

A chunk of rock was sent straight into Lord Chai’s back, the villain turning around only to have two more striking him and pushing him back. As a follow up, a long staff hit him hard in the side of the head from the left, a turtle shell shaped shield bashing his head, knocking him down.

“Wind Dragon!” A tornado pulled Lord Chai off his feet, Captain Carapace flying like a rocket towards him, catching his returning shield midair and ramming into him hard!

“Cataclysm!” The villain’s lightning quick descent was intercepted by Chat, decking him in the face with the full destructive power of his Miraculous, sending him back into the air. Yo-yo string caught him and pulled him down full force into the ground, the crash making a small hole in the stone and asphalt. The heroes rushed to the hole in order to lay down on him some more, seeing it empty. Within less than a millisecond they were all sliced in the back, the force of the attack sending them into the hole and deepening it.

“Finally…” he sighed in relief, hearing the vague sound of someone running slowly. No… I forgot about her… I’m almost completely spent… I need to recover. Should I retreat? No! I came so far. I cannot. I defeated that other human who stood in my way. She should be no problem with this lance I have… thought Lord Chai as he turned to face his final opponent.

Star-Fall stopped a small distance away from the villain, her eyes immediately drawn to his new weapon. Need to stall her. So I could regain my strength. Blast this stupid body. How could that Lord X guy handle the strain of using these rings…?

“I observe you seem rather polarized by this weapon. Perhaps it brings to mind certain memories? Of a certain someone you know…?” The red haired girl’s eyes slowly widened, her pupils growing smaller at the same rate.

“Photon Slicer…” she murmured. “W-Where did you get that weapon?” Lord Chai began to slowly walk towards her.

“Spoils from one of my enemies. A knight in white armor used it to defy me, thinking he could kill me. Poor thing who he was up against. In the end, I gave him a hole in his chest similar to mine. I thought it would be so cute you know, having him match me… Too bad your human bodies are so fragile though.” He spoke in dark delight as he watched the girl hung her head low and shake, not a sound coming from her. He succeeded in both stalling for time and breaking down his opponent. With quick movements he sent all three of his tails towards her head, his Green Ring glowing. The villain failed to noticed her shields and forearm plates glow yellow for a moment, the armor covering her lower legs glowing blue at the same time. The tail moved as fast as the villain could and then… they were bashed away with a force that turned half of their length into minced meat. SHE DIDN’T EVEN LOOK! Lord Chai panicked, the girl finally lifting her head to reveal tears in her eyes, her face changed into one of absolute rage as her eyes burned a hole through his very soul. One punch to the gut and he was sent flying back, even further than last time however. Considering their last encounter, he expected her to slowly run towards him. So he quickly got up in order to intercept her instead, seeing her for a moment being in the near distance and in the next being right in front of his face.

“That was my friend you speak so lightly of…” another punch, but this time Lord Chai was barely able to block, being pushed back but remaining standing on his feet. That mattered not however as Star-Fall once again closed the gap between her and him, her shields glowing a light redish pink as began hammering at him, blow after blow after blow hitting his torso, gut head and shoulder’s repeatedly, seemingly without end. “Lady Monarch was right…” she spoke harshly, her final hit landing right into the villain’s Miraculous. He felt a crack in it. NO! Nononononononononono!

“This isn’t happening…”

“You are…” Lord Chai created a portal behind him, only for a yo-yo’s wire to grab hold of his ringed hand pulling him. From the hole, every single one of the heroes were taxing their magic enhanced muscles to keep the villain from escaping, pushing past their limits to pull harder than they even possibly could in order to keep him there. Star-Fall jumped into the air the villain’s eyes widening in horror as a blinding silver light glowed from the girl’s left forearm.

“AAAAAAAAAAAA MOOOOOOOOOONSTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!”

With power that could rival that of a supernova, Star-Fall’s fist came crashing down upon Lord Chai. The ground broke and splintered as the sheer power created a crater, a column of white light piercing the heavens into the vast emptiness of space, wind picking up in a tornado as the light grew weaker. After what seemed like an eternity… the atmosphere calmed down. Star-Fall breathed heavily. And tears began to flow forth and she pried the lance out of Lord Chai’s hand, hugging it to her chest. She cried quietly as memories of her fallen friend came to her. She hadn’t even known he appeared her with her. If only she knew… maybe she could have stopped it maybe she could’ve— The sound a blade plunging into flesh and stone hit Star-Fall’s ears, the girl looking up to see Lord Chai’s hand around her head before it fell, Lady Monarch, her costume partly covered in a vile black substance, holding her cane, which was apparently her sword. She plunged her sword-cane further, the villain letting out a strangled noise before the real hell began for him.  Both Lady Monarch and the villain began releasing green electricity, the vile black substance slowly going down through her hands and sword into the villain’s body as he screamed from pain. Ten agonizing seconds passed by until it was done:

“We win… forever.” spoke Lady Monarch as she plunged her sword even further in… The wind slight picked up as silence befell the battlefield, a snowflake landing on the butterfly heroine’s nose. It had begun to snow as black mist came out of Chai and the lance, both turning back to their human and original lance form respectively. “You’re from another universe kid… so you’ll be here a while. You can cry for your friend later.” said Lady Monarch as she, body trembling, got up. “Grab a broom and start… cleaning…” her voice weakened as she said that last part, her eyes closing and her body once again falling to the ground, Star-Fall catching her.

“Miss Monarch? A-Are you—” the sound of soft snoring answered the question and the red haired girl sighed as she looked up, tears falling anew, at the sky.

The snowflakes continued to fall, as the universe itself tried to clean this torn earth with white cleanliness.

Chapter Text

The magical energy washed over Marinette, changing her pajamas into the elegant and vibrant hero outfit of Lady Monarch. In her right hand, a small, glowing tornado of purple wind appeared and the heroine sent it out, the wind beginning to expand in a single axis, covering a white glow that appeared underneath it, before it went away, a cane with a shiny purple gemstone falling into her grasp. She pushed on the gem, opening it like a cap, a little white butterfly flying out and twirling before landing on her left hand. She closed her eyes and felt out for suitable emotions, finding a ton inside the experienced fashion designer’s office.

“Ah, my darling Champions, waiting for my blessing, never losing hope. If only everyone else could see it as such…” she finished, her melodious voice turning sour. She calmed herself and covered her butterfly with her right hand, the cane held under her arm. A yellow glow began to flow forth, turning it into a Fay. For a moment, she let it fly, not issuing any commands, as she focuses on the energy between. Concentrating, she commanded the energy to split in equal pieces, resulting in the Fay multiplying into three before her mind became tired. The butterfly heroine took a deep breath, then:

“Fly forth my little Fays! May the timid artist, the blond learning kindness and the rock loving gentle giant aid us in these trying times.” spoke Lady Monarch, watching her three Fays fly out of the window as she concentrated on keeping the power split in three. A few seconds later, the sound of mechanical joints and metal hitting wood was heard, Lady Monarch managing to spare a bit of her perception to hear that and hiding around the corner, hugging the wall as the bathrooms glass doors were shattered.

“The magical signature of your Miraculous is similar to the one I read from your little cartoonist, Lady Monarch.” said a calm, cold voice as four metal tentacles with clawed ends edged their way into the heroine’s vision, Doctor Octopus walking into the surprisingly large room. He moved past her slowly and carefully, without realizing he passed her, Lady Monarch taking this opportunity to move back. She steps on piece of glass, and while he hears it, the little echo of the bathroom bounces it around enough for him to not be sure where it came from. The purple butterfly heroine, seeing the pool of glass that were once the doors, jumps over them, landing as lightly as possible on her feet. Thank goodness I pestered my parents about taking ballet classes when I was little! She thought to herself as she walked out of the room taking in the destruction: the result of the laser beam still singed walls, the stairs up to the high part of the room were bent and destroyed; the couch was slumped against a cracked wall in two big pieces, claw marks visible on it. The TV was unrecognizably smashed in and there were actually a few more cracked walls, the cracks looking like they originated from some sort of large center point, like focused concussive force. The heroine jumped up on top of the metal which made up the floor of the pseudo second floor, making a bit of noise. Immediately after that, Doctor Octopus moves out of the bathroom and looks around. The Lord had a strange feeling. Now that the robot man was alone, and her attention was only on him, she felt an interesting sensation, like something was calling to her. The green glow of his robotic body was noticeably more pronounced than it used to be, but only to her, as if she was seeing something more. Reaching a hand out, The Lord noticed how a green glow intensified around the edges of her Time’s Eye, green lightning crackling out. She pulled back her hand, noticing the green glow fade, while also seeing Doctor Octopus twitching a little, as if he developed a fault. Lady Monarch noticed the robotic man twitching, seemingly distracted, and took this opportunity right away. Smartly, the butterfly heroine grabbed one of Adrien’s mangas and threw it the opposite side of where she jumped. The villain turned toward it, allowing her to make her way towards the sound of fighting. When she entered she saw similar destruction taking place: Bunnix bounced around all over the place (But not as quickly as she was at the start… is she clutching her stomach or am I just seeing things?), using her superior leg strength to keep out of Shocker’s reach (“STAY STILL VARMINT!”) while Red Beetle and Multifox were double teaming on Chai, a scorch mark visible on the far wall of the second floor being more than enough incentive for the first to keep low to the ground as he made attempts to grab the drilling device. Any time either one stepped out of a certain distance Chai would let off the laser, forcing them to jump back into the fray, Red Beetle occasionally swing kicking him in order to stop the laser. Multifox meanwhile kept herself as close as possible and avoided tail attacks from the villain, along with attempts from him to snatch her up and use as hostage. With her in such close range, she was able to distract Chai long enough for the ladybug hero to make attacks or attempts at grabbing the device and, at the same time, the vixen heroine played songs on her flute, creating visual and auditory illusions whenever the scorpion monster lost sight of Red Beetle. Bunnix made a quick decision, hoping to catch Chai unaware and maybe have Shocker accidentally shoot him too. However the villain was more than aware… When Bunnix jumped towards him, he immediately turned, grabbed her leg and threw her towards Shocker.

“Shoot her!” ordered the scorpionic villain and Shocker was more than adept to shoot her from a shorter distance with a massive blast, the bunny villain being thrown out of the window, it shattering into a million pieces. This all took place during six seconds, and in these six seconds Lady Monarch noticed her Fays flying around the ceiling, afraid, while also figuring out a plan. The heroine ran down the stairs and grabbed a partly broken vase off the floor, stealthily zeroing in on Shocker. The villain noticed her presence too late, as she got too close to be shot, unsheathing her cane sword at the man. He quickly fiddled with a button on one of his gauntlets and activated his shield.

“Heh!” she nickered as she dropped her weapon, allowing her momentum to slide her across slippery polished marble floor, the heroine holding out the vase, which penetrated the shield with relative ease. Lightning fast reaction, Lady Monarch thrust her arms out and covered Shocker’s gauntlet which had the controls, but not before catching the off button and turning his offensive and defensive capabilities off. She then performed a backflip kick into his jaw, throwing him to the floor. Chai immediately fired his laser upon her and she ran to the left of the room, whistling as her three Fays came to her aid, the heroine jumping off the wall and the magical insects grabbing her letting her fly over to the chandelier. The laser obviously followed, and she tricked the scorpion villain to shoot at the chain that connected the chandelier to the ceiling, Lady Monarch using the rest as cover for a second while it fell, before letting go of it and kicking with both her legs, sending the improvised projectile right into Chai’s face, stunning him and making drop the drilling device, which was quickly pulled away by Red Beetle.

“Are you Lady Monarch?!” asked Multifox, shock on her face.

“Yes darling. Now cover me!” she ordered as she ran and grabbed her sword-cane and sheath, turning it back into a regular cane as she kept running, Doctor Octopus coming out of the room with his sights set on her.

“My, my! You are quite slippery, aren't you?” said the robot villain as he launched one of his tentacles at her. Immediately in his periphery he noted a bit of orange, his attention turning to Multifox or, rather, Multifoxes! A bunch of clones attacked him, using their jump ropes to restrain him for the time being. Chai ran after Lady Monarch once he regained his senses a second later, Bunnix zipping through another window and back kicking him into a wall. Shocker then recovered from his momentary knockout, the force of the hit partly absorbed by the insulation of his suit, breaking the vase, changing the settings on his gauntlets and aiming, Red Beetle wrapping his yo-yo’s wire around his arm and pulling him away, the shot missing. Lady Monarch opened the door to Mister Agreste’s office and found her Champions, the Fays flying towards them.

A Fay landed on a pin that Ivan wore, the boy standing tall. “Steelcore…”

Another Fay landed on Chloe’s sunglasses, the girl pulling them down to cover her eyes. “…Starcore…”

The final Fay landed on a crayon that Nathaniel provided. “Artcore!”

“My darling Champions! On this fine day I shall provide you with my power and in return you must stop the villains putting you all in danger. Is that an acceptable arrangement?”

“Yes, my lady!” they said in unison, light encompassing them. The door of the office was pulled off by Chai, two Multifox clones hanging off him.

“Steelcore— uppercut to the torso!” ordered Lady Monarch, the Champion moving swiftly and doing just that, sending Chai out. Back in the foyer Bunnix was bouncing all over the place as she tried to get past Shocker’s acoustic shield while the ladybug hero was on standby, seeing the Multifox clones had effectively pinned down the robot.

“Doc! Stop yer squirmin’!”

“What ‘squirming’?! I COULD NOT MOVE EVEN IF I TRIED YOU IMBECILE!”

“Well ye turned into a sweetheart real quick.” mumbled the villain as he jumped out of the way of both Red Beetle’s and Bunnix attack range, switching off the shield function and turning up the juice on his one gauntlet, firing off a shot that broke the stairs and cracked the wall behind Doctor Octopus, succeeding in loosening the clones’ grip on him while also breaking the lenses of his goggles, destroying his sound sensors and temporarily scrambling his systems. The moment that the robot villain hit the wall a large surge of green energy, forming itself into lightning, was generated by the rim of the Time’s Eye, pushing the Lord back, the lonely being letting out an involuntary grunt of pain in spite of her lack of it.

“Why is this happening now?! Everything was fine before!”

Lady Monarch noted through her Champions eyes how each villain responded to the situation, adapting her strategy: Steelcore's Chai-sized, steel form went for the scorpion himself; Artcore was allowed the opportunity to have his rematch with Doctor Octopus, while Starcore, decked out in a platinum blue armor with red lights, took Shocker outside, Red Beetle following. All the while, Lady Monarch issued out commands and Alya recorded everything she could.

“Steelcore, lean back— counter right!” The Champion did as he was told, avoiding an attempt from Chai to slash with the tip of his tail, following up with a strong straight right that stunned the villain for a second. “Don’t get your left pinned!” warned the heroine, saving her golem Champion from getting grabbed by his opponent. Doctor Octopus disconnected two of his arms, using one of them to clear away some of the Multifox clones, and the other to capture the artistic Champion. “Artcore, make cover.” He complied, using his pencil to materialize a turret wall with tank treads, which began to shoot at the tentacle, forcing it back. “Try focusing on unique creations since Multifox is backing you up with numbers!” Artcore once again listened, creating a wind spirit which looked like a human shaped tornado, a man with tons of book floating around him using the pages from them to create origami shurikens, and a fluffy, large, bipedal red monster, with a flat pink face, white eyes and two short horns which was extremely huggable. “Starcore, turn on your sound absorbing feature!” ordered Lady Monarch to her armored Champion, who was currently flying around Shocker firing laser beams at him, not attacking with any rockets in fear of accidentally murdering him.

“I have that?! My lady you’re the best!” she exclaimed, plates on her armor opening like flip caps, revealing dark gray, loudspeaker like patters which actually absorbed the attack Shocker shot her way, her red lights growing brighter as the vibrations converted into energy. “Now use your concussive blast.” The plates closed and a single red beam was fired from a round red gem on the forehead of the armor, Shocker putting up his shield, but the attack moving right through and hitting him in the chest, pushing him back, Red Beetle following up with tying him up with his yo-yo’s wire.

“Clever trick… Why didn’t I think of that.” commented the Lord.

Lady Monarch continued issuing orders to every single Champion, managing to keep her attention on everything seemingly flawlessly, not showing any strain on her face. Red Beetle and Starcore had Shocker pretty much under control, while Steelcore continued to be a relative match for Chai, his upgraded durability and density going a long way to keep Chai from toppling him. Artcore and Multifox had a similarly good time, the big huggable monster slowly crushing Doctor Octopus with its love, pieces of his armor having been cut up by some of the shurikens, and two of his tentacles being swept up into a tornado created by the air spirit, the vixen clones mostly standing by, prepared to block any attack that could harm the artistic champion directly. Doctor Octopus struggled as much as he could failing to escape the strangling grip of the hug, before going limp and using the remainder of his barely functional hardware to make sense of the software that was his mind. And it was at that moment when he had an epiphany: the gem that was currently stored in his head was capable of not only converting his mind into software and copying it, but it also seemed capable of creating its own independent AI and also boosting his intellect (and knowledge in some areas, such as mechanical engineering). So this begged the question: Was this more than just a strange gem capable of bridging the gap between human thinking and artificial intelligence? Even if it was, what could I even do with this information? Confuse them to death with excerpts from 10th century Chinese literature spoken in the Chinese of that time? No… But what if… If this gem can amplify and copy a mind, then how far of a stretch would it be to assume that it deals with all aspects of the mind…? Doctor Octopus focused, he eyes glowing green, before he exerted his, sending a telepathic command to Artcore.

“Release me at once!” he ordered, the Champion, along with all others and Lady Monarch, reeling from the mental attack, all of their eyes glowing green for a second. Chai took this opportunity to grab the digging device and shpt the laser in a circle around him, creating a relatively big hole through which he fell. The robot villain followed, recovering the two tentacles he had lost. Shocker took advantage of Red Beetle’s temporary distraction with Starcore’s pain to turn his shield function to maximum, pushing off the yo-yo’s wire, along with the hero and Champion, before running off to the hole.

“My lady, are you alright?” asked Alya, the blogger noting that the butterfly heroine was leaning on her cane in a familiar manner before, magically, the thought dissipated.

“Not quite… That was a brain blast; quite literally in fact: a command heard by the ear was interpreted as a directive in the frontal lobe instead of a sound in the temporal lobe.” Lady Monarch looked at Alya, noting the girl looked a little bit lost, so she clarified. “The frontal lobe deals with movement, while the temporal lobe helps us understand sound.”

“Are you a doctor by any chance?” asked the future reporter, holding up her phone, which had been filming this whole time.

“Not yet.” replied the heroine before running towards the hole, Starcore catching her and flying her down. RB and Multifox (reconstituted into a single being once again) jumped down, Artcore and Steelcore making it down using a flying carpet. Once down, they first saw some sort of repository, another hole leading further down in a crypt where Doctor Octopus hooked up a battery to a white crystal Cube sitting atop a pedestal.

“COME TO MAMA!” shouted the Lord in excitement, running to the Time’s Eye, a green energy blasting her back. “Oh! Come. On… How could he be powerful enough to push me back without even knowing he was doing it…? He was able to mess with my counterpart’s powers too… plus he never runs out of energy…” the Lord looked down at the blue gem ring she had, lonely without any other gem to accompany it. The timeless being looked at the scene unfolding, feeling as if she was pulled towards the robotic man or, rather, something he had, in spite of the fact she could not get closer to her little window into that world.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” whispered Lady Monarch, recognizing this place she was in. The heroine was not expecting this be connected to the Agreste Mansion, but now it all meant that she needed to search public records about the Agreste Mansion in order to be sure of whether or not Agreste knew of this place. More work! Exactly what I needed! “Artcore, cover us! Steelcore advance on Chai! Starcore, go for the Cube! Multifox and Red Beetle, go for Shocker and Doctor Octopus!”

“Yes my lady!” they all replied in unison. Artcore drew a liquid, almost jelly like, barrier, Chai immediately starting to use the drilling device to shoot at the heroes, the laser immediately getting absorbed into the substance, making it glow before it expanded in volume. Steelcore did as he was told, Chai moving back and using the ranged improvised weapon to slice the Champion, the laser bounding right off his shiny, dark grey, metal skin and into the walls and ceiling, leaving ‘slices’ and scorch marks on said walls and ceiling. This took the scorpion villain off guard, resulting in Steelcore having the opportunity to backslap the drilling device out of his hands, resulting in the two going back to ducking it out the old fashioned way. Meanwhile, Starcore, Red Beetle and Multifox went for the pedestal, where the two technological villains were as well. The ladybug hero jumped at Doctor Octopus, spinning his yo-yo rapidly to shield himself from a tentacle attack, then grabbing on to said tentacle and using it as a platform to propel himself behind the villain, throwing his yo-yo and wrapping its wire around the robot villain’s leg before pulling him away from the pedestal. Shocker immediately walked as close as he could to the pedestal and cranked up his shield function to max, any attempts at attacking him or trying to take the Cube being blocked. Multifox, who multiplied into three, tried attacking the sound generated force field in three separate spots at the same time, before trying to focus all attacks in a single point, both attempts failing to breach Shocker’s defenses. Starcore was having a similar issue, a constant laser aimed at a single spot not being able to break through. Shocker was not fairing much better either being metaphorically backed into a corner.

“Mind givin’ me a hand here? You’ve got like six of ‘em!” called out the villain, looking over his shoulder and observing how Red Beetle keeping the tentacle villain occupied, being extremely defensive until Doctor Octopus made a move towards the pedestal; that was when the hero would use his yo-yo to pull him right back, even slamming him against a wall. On a couple occasions the villain managed to trick Red Beetle into blocking or dodging one attack, leaving him open for another, the latest, pinning him to the ground the hero shifting his head and body to dodge attempts made to rip the earrings out of his ears.

“Well, it seems I have all hands full unfortunately! You do not even require my help however. I equipped your suit with superior batteries anticipating a more liberal use of your leg mounted vibration cannons! All you have to do is wait until the Cube is fully recharged.” explained Doctor Octopus while he struggled with the spotted hero. Of course, that was obviously heard by everyone present, Lady Monarch herself having an idea of how to fix that issue.

“Artcore, could you make me a bow?”

“Of course my lady!” The Champion drew that instantly, the bow looking as if it was made of sapphire, with an extremely thin, almost invisible, string. The arrow was similarly made of sapphire, but it also sported a ruby tip. “Would you like anything else?”

“For me, this will suffice. If you could offer support to Steelcore that will make me even happier.”

“Understood my lady.” replied the Champion. “Pudding go!” ordered Artcore, the slime that acted as cover slithering on the floor like a snake before arriving at Steelcore and Chai, the scorpion villain having the upper hand after landing a tail strike, even if the tip hadn’t gone through fully. ‘Pudding’ then reshaped himself into a big hand, grabbing Chai and not letting go, restricting his movement even if the scorpion monster was slowly ripping himself out.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Lady Monarch positioned herself for the shot, maintaining a relative distance and remaining in the shadow in order to avoid standing out.

“Lucky Charm!” exclaimed Red Beetle, a swarm of ladybugs coming out of the yo-yo and overwhelming Doctor Octopus, before constituting into some sort of remote. The hero recovered it and moved back, seeing that it only seemed to have a myriad of buttons. “I’m not into channel flipping mood, but ok.” with his mind’s eye Red Beetle had the remote light up, before Shocker’s gauntlet did as well, in his mind making the connection that this was a universal remote control! Concurrently, Doctor Octopus’ scanner vision highlighted in green the Lucky Charm and Shocker’s entire costume, arriving at the same conclusion. Lady Monarch pulled the arrow back and took a deep breath, pushing all the noise of the battle from her mind, her concentration solely on maintaining the multiple Champions as well as on the aim. The robot villain immediately went about trying to grab Red Beetle’s remote, an arrow being shot by the butterfly heroine, almost missing but still hitting its mark, nailing Doctor Octopus straight in the neck, disrupting the flow of data and commands by cleaving through wires, the robotic body falling face first onto the cold stone of the crypt. The green energy around the Time’s eye immediately dissipated, the Lord making her way closer. Red Beetle pressed the on/off button on the remote, turning off Shocker’s suit, Multifox, once again a single person, kicking him in the stomach while Starcore made a grab for the Cube… Time stopped… From the pit of everlasting darkness a temporary fissure into the universe was created, a metal clad, claw fingered hand reaching out and grabbing the Cube.

“Finally! You are now mine! Nobody will ever make nightmarish wishes with you under my protection.” said the lonely being with a smile. Not a moment too soon, the Cube began to glow, its glow intensifying little by little, before an explosion of white light and energy RAMMED into her… The Lord landed on the nonexistent ground before slowly, very slowly and painfully, pushing herself on her butt, catching glimpse of the Time’s eye closing just as little rainbow stars began to appear in the darkness. No longer feeling the ‘ground’ exerting ‘force’, the Lord found herself floating into an upright position, her eyes seeing the most beautiful visage: creation itself; countless universes laid before her eyes, all shaped like a sphere, all showing events taking place in them, some distant, some not, all showing differences even though the ‘actors’ seemed to be the same (other counterparts of her and her acquaintances)…

“I wish this weekend had been perfect…” thought Red Beetle absentmindedly as he grabbed the Cube, a white light erupting from it in response. The light dimmed, everyone finding themselves in the same crypt, in the same moment, except realizing that these events had transpired how many more times, in a loop, everyone remembering the details of each loop only slightly.

“Gimme that!” ordered Lady Monarch through Timecore, snatching the cube out of the hero’s hand. Chai grabbed a battered Doctor Octopus and left with Shocker through a tunnel that had, up until this point, been the only means of access for the crypt. Red Beetle threw his Lucky Charm (which wasn’t a remote control) in the air and called out Miraculous Ladybug, cleaning up all the mess this battle had made.

Chapter Text

That Sunday the sleepover was canceled for obvious reason. Everyone remembered everything that had taken place in painstaking detail. They all remembered the repetition, the little change. Everyone! This entire time loop was now a known worldwide phenomena! Scientists everywhere banded together in just a few hours in order to make sense of this mess. The fact that time was no longer just a coordinate in physics was quickly accepted, the only other theory (that of a collective worldwide dream) being rejected. From there were the obvious questions: Why did it happen now? What were the factors that lead to this temporal anomaly? What was the mechanism by which time kept looping? Why was only one day repeated and not multiple? All these questions went unanswered, and this trend would continue as such. All events were put on hold for now, including the one Gabriel Agreste had to attend to. On the outside, in order to maintain his image and status, he complained about the injustice of it all, and how he had wasted his money on a plane ride only to come and do nothing. Inside he was incredibly thankful, for he dodged one of the most narcissistic of bullets. Everything was not sunshine and rainbow’s, as all the mental stress from experiencing years of loops had its toll on Nathalie and, combined with her somewhat poor health, she entered a vegetative state. So, she had to be hospitalized, meaning they had to stay there more. Usually, Gabriel would be angry if forced to do something by circumstances out of his control, but now he was only miserable and regretful. As he stood in the hospital room on a chair, at the feet of Nathalie’s bed, he thumbed the peacock shaped brooch that was to blame while Duusu slept in the blue haired woman’s hair, having wept quite strongly moments. The Kwami was not to blame for this, but a part of him still wanted to just throw the brooch out the window and pass this accursed jewel off to whatever ignorant fool dared pick it up. But he couldn’t! He would not abandon Duusu like that...

“I have no clue how to figure out any of this… If only you were still here Em’. While I dealt with the company you always knew how to solve our problems… How did you do it?” Gabriel asked himself.

“It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that much.” The experienced fashion designer swiftly turned to Nathalie’s bed, seeing the Peacock Kwami was awake. “Also she wouldn’t wake me up so rudely. Don’t you humans have a mind voice?! Use it!” she added and angrily, flying over to pout, her cheeks and forehead glowing red.

“Apologies...? I did not mean to wake you…” replied the blond man, befuddled by the Kwami’s behavior, somewhat miffed as well. Dussu angry face shifted from anger to shock and then sadness, looking like she was on the verge of crying.

“I-I’m so sorry… I d-didn’t mean to s-snap at you. Please forgive me!” she sobbed before bursting into tears, weeping loudly, Gabriel needing to snatch her from the air and place a finger over her mouth to quiet her down. He looked over at the door, listening to the slight buzz of activity outside, then let out a sigh of relief. Nobody heard us… he thought to himself before he felt a slight pressure on his finger, looking at the Peacock Kwami, her eyes closed, a serene expression on her face.

“A-Are you nibbling my finger? What are you Plagg?!” He shook her off, before looking to see if there were any marks. Thankfully there were none. “Is it just me, or are you acting weirder than usual?”

“Perhaps I, perhaps I’m not. Who knows?” replied the little Kwami, beginning to fly around the room, giggling. “My head is like the sky. After a rainy night now I’m a bright and shiny mor...ning…” as quickly as her energy came so it went, Gabriel watching her slow down and losing altitude, eventually ending up on the floor. That’s where he picked her up from, seeing that her face looked pained and tired, her entire body shaking and cold to his touch. He heard a soft gasp and looked, seeing that Nathalie was making a similar face, her body also shaking as sweat pooled at her face. He looked at the back of the Peacock Miraculous, seeing one of its cracks growing, before he ran into the corridor:

“Help! Something’s happening!”

The nurses and doctors came in soon after and the experienced fashion designer was pulled out, with no explanation as to what was actually happening other than that it was urgent. A few minutes later the hospital staff that helped came out and Gabriel found out… that they had no idea what happened:

“What do you mean you don’t know what occurred?!”

“Well, sir—”

“Get out! OUT! Useless!” exclaimed the elder man as he walked in, slamming the door behind him.

“… Gabe…” he heard a weak voice, followed by coughing. Gabriel hurriedly walked over, seeing Nathalie had her eyes open, squinting. “…bright…” Gabriel ran to the light switch, turned it off, then ran over to the window and closed the blinds.

“Better?” he asked, kneeling by the bed.

“Mhm <Cough>… Water… please...”

“Oh, that should be easy enough. Now where is the remote… aha!” Gabriel exclaimed as he found the bed’s remote, a bottle of water in hand, pulled out of a bag. “Uh… is this it?” he asked himself. Pushing a button and seeing the edges of the bed bending downwards. “Wrong button!” he pressed another one, reversing the motion, and then pressed another to stop it once he thought that Nathalie had been elevated enough. He opened the water bottle for her and brought it to her lips, letting her drink.

“Thanks…” she sighed.

“Eugh… this place smells like Camembert…! Wash your blazers once in a while Gabe!” said Duusu, her head sticking out of Agreste’s left blazer pocket.

“Oh I washed them… however once Plagg’s stench gets into my clothes, it’s easier to just burn them.”

“You got a point. I mean, come on! Can’t he eat something that doesn’t smell like it’s decomposed?” replied Duusu angrily. Nathalie let out an amused hum.

“You’re… getting along… again.”

“… I wouldn’t really call it getting along…” said both of them at the same time.

Ever since Emilie’s last trip to Tibet Gabriel threw the Peacock Brooch into the safe behind the painting and never looked back. But in a short period of time, right before doing so, he allowed Duusu to wander around the mansion, and even talked to her. Her mood was not as unstable as it was now, however she did say weird things and, at times, even stupid things. It was during this time that the Kwami revealed the Peacock Miraculous was broken, which was the cause of Emilie’s mysterious illness. Gabriel had been furious! How could a creature so adorable be so cruel as to allow a person to waste away using the exact thing it knew was killing it? How could Duusu not oppose Emilie, try to reason with her, dissuade her from using the Miraculous? The situation was not helped by the fact that, with the Miraculous broken, Duusu was not in the right state of mind to take this anger, talking back to the experienced fashion designer and accusing him and Emilie of things:

“If you say you love her so much, then you would have taken me away! You humans are all the same: stubborn like mules! You think I didn’t try to stop your ‘Sweet Em’? I did, but she wouldn’t listen to me!”

Now that Duusu was more or less active, the few times they talked were only business related, maybe a tiny bit of light banter in between, but nothing else. Neither went out of their way to interact with one another because they simply didn’t want to. Duusu had a better relationship with Nathalie, in spite of the fact that Gabriel would take the brooch away from her after every transformation in order to ensure she didn’t hold on to it and didn’t start overusing it. In spite of this precaution however she still ended up here. Or maybe the whole time loop thing was only to blame. Now that he thought about it, the mechanics of this event seemed very chaotic. If time stopped looping, but people still remembered the loops, that meant the loops happened, which automatically meant that time passed. Yet nobody grew old. Shortly before he threw the broken brooch in the safe he learned that the Miraculous was slowly, imperceptibly, breaking further, the end result being complete destruction and the disappearance of Duusu from this plane of existence, so the fact he saw the brooch crack further meant that time did pass. But nobody aged even a bit. Which meant that time didn’t pass. A complete paradox. Before the blond man could continue running his mind in circles, which would have inevitably lead to a headache, his phone rung and he saw that it was Adrien, his son calling. I completely forgot about him! WHAT KIND OF PARENT AM I?! he asked himself, accepting the call.

“Adrien, please don’t be scared. I know it is difficult to come to grips with the fact you’ve done a whole day of activities over and over and over again without change, but—”

“Actually dad, I called to tell you we’re at the center of this.”

“Pardon…?”

“Yeah and uh… it’s technically my fault…” the elder Agreste heard a feminine voice on the call, which came closer.

“…Once again I reiterate: you had no clue you were causing this mess. Not even I realized I was in the loop.”

“Who’s that?”

“That’s Lady Monarch.”

“Good morning my good sir! Me and your darling son are currently exploring the cave system that seems to travel under your mansion as well. It is the focal point of the time anomaly. The ‘eye of the storm’, if you will.” Gabriel was listening intently to every word the woman spoke as this was a one in a hundred opportunity; if he could get a read on her through her speech, he might convince her to become fully fledged allies (not too hard considering she lent Adrien the Ladybug earrings) then he could help her manage the PR disaster that took place at the Grand Paris. Not to mention that he might negotiate security services from her. Right now, however, it was equally important to know how his son is apparently directly responsible for time looping.

“This time anomaly you mentioned. My son says he was the cause of it. How come?”

“I would say he was the means by which it happened rather than the cause… The situation is as follows: an ancient artifact of mysterious magical origin resided in a cave slash crypt, the room with the artifact in question happening to be several hundred feet under the Agreste Mansion, which Chai knew. Now this artifact can grant wishes to whoever touches it; your son unintentionally wished for a perfect weekend, but since the artifact lacked the necessary raw power to trigger such a change and since Chai wanted the artifact, the end result was a continuous state of looping with the end goal of reaching the desired outcome of  your son’s wish. Now, Adrien here had no idea of the exact mechanism by which a wish is granted, so I consider him not to be at fault. This is especially true in regard to the fact that the whole issue could have been resolved if I simply took the precaution of relocating and securing the artifact.” Gabriel was immediately struck by Lady Monarch’s way of speech, the heroine framing her idea in a verbose but not too obtuse manner. He might have called it pompous, except for the fact her whole tone turned from honeyed to analytical.

“What was this artifact doing there to begin with?”

“Well this is a crypt, so maybe it was like a cult thing.” offered Adrien.

“It definitely had some religious value, but I don’t believe it is one of human origin.”

“Wait, are you suggesting aliens are involved in this?”/ “Wait, are you suggesting aliens are involved in this?”

“Red Beetle can you photograph this wall and send it over a message?”

“Sure.” A few moments of silence passed, followed by a click and then the experienced fashion designer receiving a photo of a wall with strange intricate symbols: circles of various sizes, all having a certain number of lines in certain positions on circles’ rim, each tangential to the rim at one end of the line, an every single one at an angle that seemed somewhat arbitrarily chosen.

“This, Mister and young Agreste, is not just an artistic statement. If you compare the circle near the center to the one in the bottom right area you’ll notice one of the lines is at the exact angle even thought it seems to be in a different position. That can’t be coincidental, and since it resembles nothing we have seen human society produce, it stands to reason that it is of alien origin. Now, in reference to what this is exactly, I am unsure: it could be anything from a way to measure time to a form of elaborate art or even symbols with purpose similar to the one we attribute to magical charms. My theory however, due to the rigid structure that make up these symbols as well as instances of lines that repeat at certain angles is that of a language. I cannot decipher it obviously, since it presents the same challenge as Egyptian hieroglyphs in that the form of expression is too abstract and there are no visual cues or use of any other languages to serve as comparison.”

“So it’s an alien cult!” said Red Beetle confidently.

“Why would aliens hide something that could grant wishes on Earth?”

“First of all, there is a very fine line between a reasonable religious institution and a cult, darling. In response to your question Mister Agreste, I am going to say that I don’t know. There are many different factors that would make aliens chose to hide it here. Perhaps humans weren’t a thing when the aliens put the artifact here; Perhaps they were forced to by circumstances such as war or something similar; Perhaps it was a matter of convenience. All these factors can give a completely different answer. What I do know is that this artifact was significant enough to be hidden. From what, or whom, I have no clue… Anyway, that just about sums up why I asked your son to call you. Have a good day sir!”

“Wait! I need to tell Adrien something!”

“Lady Monarch just walked away dad…” replied the blond hero with an airy laugh. “What did you want to tell me? Was the conference okay?”

“About that… the conference was shut down and Nathalie…”

“D-Did something happen…?”

“We’re in the hospital right now. Nathalie is stable, but not feeling too well. We’re forced to remain here until she’s at least in a state where she can board a plane.”

“W-W— But s-she was… Nathalie wasn’t f-fine… she—” Adrien tried to speak through the tears, but the blond man couldn’t take it, so he cut him off.

“She was not fine before we left, I know…” Gabriel looked down at the Peacock Brooch in his hand, before closing his fist around him. “…this was caused by the Peacock Brooch… you know those few times Nathalie helped you, right?”

“Y-You said that it was dangerous to use that power, b-but you never explained why.”

“That’s because I did not have the strength to do it; Because it meant I had to give up on being selfish… Son. I have not been completely honest with you. I do not seek forgiveness when I say this either. Just know that when I do return I will tell you everything.”

“There, there…” said Lady Monarch, her voice soft and caring as she patted the blond boy, his head resting on her lap. “Loss is part of life. It’s normal to feel the way you do. However, the best thing you can do is hold your head high and keep going!” said the heroine, her words having no effect. She made a displease face. “How about a nice archaeological study to lift your spirits?” she asked enthusiastically. Still no effect. Lady Monarch leaned her head to the wall she had he back to. Come on! It’s like this damn crybaby wants to annoy me… How would Allegra deal with this? she asked herself, before it hit her. “Nathalie is really important to you, isn’t she?” that seemed to get a reaction, Red Beetle’s cries slowing down as he turned to look at her, Lady Monarch schooling her expression into a sympathetic one.

“S-She’s <sniff> she took care of… for m-most of my life a-after… a-after mom…”

“So she’s like a mother to you…” Adrien let out a small noise of agreement.

“Well, guess what? Outside of raising you, I imagine that Sancoeur did a lot more than just raise you, being your father’s secretary.”

“I-I guess…”

“That means she’s strong. She’ll get through it, okay? She’ll come back to Paris, I promise.” That seemed to have helped thankfully, as Red Beetle finally moved to sit down next to her, wiping away his tears. Could use some work… at least I got him to stop.

Chapter Text

A short while passed after the entire fiasco with The Cube, Marinette keeping it locked in a safe behind a wall mounted photo of herself and her family, one where she didn’t have the cane. The blue haired teen still had no clue how to exactly deal with the current situation regarding her popularity (or, more accurately, lack thereof), but at least it didn’t eat away as much at her, especially since she knew Team Miraculous(?) had saved the entire world from a time loop…  since she knew The Miraculers saved… since she knew Miraculous Protectors… I need to come up with a better team name than that. Regardless of whatever hatred was thrown her way, she was just going to keep her head high and continue. The ‘archaeological expedition’ was unfortunately a failure, with no real change present there since last time. There was no clue as to how Chai knew about this, so the experienced fashion designer decided to chalk it up to the possibility of the scorpion Kwami knowing this information. Nooroo had been strangely quiet when she had brought that up, but maybe it was only because he was scared about the Kwami’s safety, or something similar. Things were relatively quiet, or as quiet as it could be with the whole time loop crisis that took the entire world by storm. For the first time in the history of humanity psychiatrists were swamped in work, a ton of people having undergone a mental breakdown after having who know how many loops worth of memories dumped into their minds all at once. Marinette was doing fine, thankfully. She did feel incredibly drained by it all through, time seeming to pass way too slow after having literally years of information popping into her brain. She just felt like she wanted to sleep all day. Thankfully, there were no objections on the part of her parents and so she was free to either have Melodie over or go to her place. Allegra told her that in one of the loops she had been upset about something, but that her memories were fuzzy, and that she had her head on her lap as they talked about whatever upset Marinette. They were eager to do a repeat of that, especially since the young fashion designer knew Allegra liked to pat her hair and that she herself like being pat (though she would never admit it to anyone of her friends). The villains seemed to have taken a vacation as well, which was quite welcome for a change, since it allowed everyone to slow down and relax. Of course, Marinette was still not fully going to let things go, considering the possibility of them keeping a low profile in preparation of some other big move. At least the Miraculous Ladybug fixed the electricity situation. Now there would be a need for more security there, the hope being that R.A.I.D. would get right on that, similar to their performance at the Louvre. The blue haired girl still felt guilty over what had happened there, but she was certain collaborations were going to be much smoother going forward.

The blue haired girl was finally getting back into a good rhythm with some of her fashion work, turning a lot of her drawings into actual clothes and posting them on social media. She also made a bit of headway with portions of the tome, particularly in the ‘uncrackable codes’ section, so that was a relief (of course, she can’t exactly tell the American government that a section of Kryptos was about the Bunny Miraculous). As she settled into normal activities again, Marinette was paid a visit, her ears picking up the little creak of her trapdoor. Of course, the young fashion designer figured it was probably her girlfriend.

“You’re right on time sweetie! I have a few outfits you could try on.” said Marinette with her back turned

“Uh… Mari?”

“Yes?” asked Marinette, now looking over and seeing the top of Alya’s and Nino’s heads peeking through the trapdoor. Their scrutinizing eyes were locked onto her, making her feel a little embarrassed, because she was only wearing her pajama pants and a sport’s top. The blue haired girl quickly grabbed her pajama hoodie. “Hi… Haven’t seen each other in some time.” she said greeted, her eyes slowly sliding over to her girlfriend, who was standing next to the trapdoor.

“They asked if I could get them to talk with you…” explained the kind blond.

“You haven’t answered our calls.” said Alya.

“We also sent you dozens of messages and emails.” added Nino. Shit, I forgot I made up with them in the last timeline. thought Marinette, her face not betraying her inner thoughts.

“I’ve been so busy I forgot to recharge my phone.”

“Wait, really? Is that why you always came over and never phoned?” asked Allegra.

“Yep.” Yes baby! Your covering my ass without even knowing I’m so glad I fell in love with you.

“What about the emails though?! You should’ve seen them!” argued Alya, frustration clear in her voice. Let’s see… Last time I ghosted Alya she was pretty angry, but not like this, so it’s clearly been more than three days this time.

“You’ve been sending emails for five days straight, right?” asked Marinette.

“That’s right! Wait, how’d you know?” asked Nino.

“My internet’s been down for five days.”

“How convenient…” said Alya.

“Are you guys just gonna stand on the leader? Because if so I’ll drop the door on you.” replied Marinette, her playful smirk giving away the fact that it was a joke. The young fashion designer limped through her room to get the little mess she had in order as Alya and Nino walked inside, closing the trapdoor behind them, the teens sitting down to talk.

“So… the reason we’ve been trying to get a hold of you… me and Alya realized something… something big.” spoke Nino, a seriousness in his voice that brought heaviness, in comparison to his usual light hearted tone.

“We realized that there is more to what happen that people know… we need to tell the world! Otherwise we might all be in danger of this happening all over again!” said Alya. The blue haired teen gave them a curious, yet somewhat frustrated look, her face changing to confusion when she felt arms wrap around, Melodie’s head snuggling into her shoulder.

“Why does this sound like a calamity is coming?” asked Melodie.

“Get to the point, please. Why are you being cryptic anyway?” said the young fashion designer.

“To make sure you guys are listening to the most important thing you’ll ever hear.” said Alya.

“And that is?”

“Saturday didn’t always repeat the same way!” exclaimed Nino.

“Me and Nino were talking about the whole time loop thing when he pointed out that in the one loop that took place before escaping the time loops we had pizza.”

“And from there we thought back and remembered how a lotta things are different! Like a ton!”

“Sometimes we were early at the party, sometimes not. Alix acted very strangely as well. As if she knew what was going on. Even you began acting strangely, but my memory’s a little blurry on that.”

“So… what you’re saying is that we are somehow at the center of this mess?” asked Marinette, feigning ignorance.

“Does it have to do with the attack at Agreste Mansion?” asked Allegra.

“Wait— how do you know about that?” asked Nino, suspiciously.

“I filmed part of it and put it on the app.” clarified Alya.

“Oh… Sorry Mel. Bit paranoid.”

“It’s alright, I forgive you.”

“Anyway, you think that it had to do with what happened at the mansion? By the way, where is blondie; shouldn’t he be part of the conversation?”

“Oh, right! We also came here to tell ya Adrien’s dad is coming home.” said Nino. As he said that, the teens heard the sound of someone whooping through the air, Marinette looking out the window and seeing a fast departure from Red Beetle.

“I think the time loop is somewhat related to whatever Chai was searching for under the Agreste mansion.” said the young blogger.

“So?”

“So! Me and Alya went to the local library and found and old map of one of Paris tunnel systems!” exclaimed the young DJ, Alya pulling out the aforementioned map and showing it to Marinette and Allegra.

“We’re gonna go check that place out!” exclaimed Alya, a smile on her face.

“How about we wait for Agreste junior to come with us? I bet he’d love it there!” offered Marinette.

The Lord was floating around through the once black void, once again surrounded by the beautiful rainbow of colors that she had seen open escaping the Burrow. She had no idea how much time she spent in there, floating around, turning her attention from one universe to another, watching, rewinding, changing things here and there to make this better. It was around her fifth universe where she finished solving problems when she realized… she was on the fifth universe… and there were countless more. And the most important part:

“Where in the hell is my universe?!” All the universe she had ran into seemed to be easy to solve while the ‘protagonists’, as the lonely being called them, seemed to be other version of Adrien and Marinette, who often ended up in a romantic relationship. “What’s even happening with this disgusting flow of events?! Why haven’t run into any version of my darling…” The Lord grew quiet, before looking back at the universe she just inched along, seeing Marinett and Adrien being all lovey-dovey.

All of these universes are about Agreste senior using the Butterfly Miraculous in order to remake the world with his wife in it. If I had the cube could just wish for her to just be fine again, and none of this relationship shit would even be happening… AT LEAST USE THOSE STALKING SKILLS FOR SOMETHING USEFUL! thought the timeless being as she continued looking… until a thought crossed her mind as she began to rewind. At every opportunity she could she made things harder for the heroes, using objects to block their vision, giving them reasons to separate in battles, making each of them look completely unreliable to one another, even going as far as to make it seem like they were throwing pot shots at one another when they had their backs turned. All this meddling eventually lead them to lose trust in each other, and when a owl themed Akuma managed to capture the two, they gave up their Miraculouses without fuss. Hawk Moth managed to make his wish and remake reality, his wife brought back to life. At the cost of Adrien, who slowly faded away.

The Lord felt remorseful for her actions, seeing how much pain she had to deal in order to get the ‘villain’ to finally win. She was tempted to go back retrace her steps before she looked to the future of the universe and saw how Gabriel and Emilie, now cured, had another baby, how Marinette managed to move on from her crush’s death, find new love with the artist kid in her class and become an amazing fashion designer working for the Gabriel brand, eventually taking over, with the Agreste daughter becoming a famous model. All this pain they had to endure and yet… everything seemingly turned out better than her other attempt. Which meant she now had to go and change all those other universes. But there was still one question:

“Am I… fine… with this… I mean, sure, things turned out alright, but I still got that kid killed…” The Lord thought back to her universe. Gabriel Agreste had the Cat Miraculous and his wife was dead. Why hadn’t he tried to get his hands on the Ladybug and wish for his wife to be alive? Considering the eternal being had seen up to six universes, five of which had Agreste senior abusing Nooroo for his own ends. She considered the possibility that it was the Butterfly Miraculous that was the problem so she grabbed a universe at random (all the universes were shaped like soft looking spheres for some reason) and found the earliest moment she could steal the Butterfly Miraculous. She then fast forwarded and paid close attention. “Nope, that’s not it!” she said to herself as she watched Agreste die as a result of using the broken Peacock Miraculous repeatedly. She immediately returned the Butterfly to the moment she took it from and left the universe be.

“Why is every single universe here riddled with issues…? So frustrating… especially since I’m the only one smart enough to figure the solution for every single one of them… Plus my universe is somewhere within this mess…” the Lord fell silent as suddenly, an insane idea popped into her head: One universe with one set of problems, all within her grasp. But how could she even go about accomplishing such a goal. It couldn’t be just as simple as mashing two spheres together, since they just moved through one another. The lonely being looked down at her ring and thought back to the experience she had before being forcefully ejected from her universe. Both Doctor Octopus and the Cube seemed to have some sort of effect in relation to her ring’s power… was it perhaps… because…? “No… can’t be…” she continued looking at her ring. “But… the Cube is not a Miraculous; plus it’s made of crystal. Like this ring.” The Lord thought back to the message that came attached to this power and somewhere, from the deep dark reaches of her subconscious, she remembered that she had already known how to read it. As if she had been exposed to something alike the Ring before. The lonely being looked in front of her, staring at countless universes.

“If there are more rings… I will have them! That’s why you were the first one I found, the one who froze the sand in my hourglass— right Frozen sand?!” asked The Lord, looking at the ring. A moment of clarity settled over her. “Great, I’m talking to fucking object. I should probably get back to looking for my home universe. Shouldn’t be a problem if I solve a couple thousand of them on the way there. Besides, if I get the Cube and I can use it to fuse all these universes, then I might as well enjoy sightseeing as much as I can.” The Lord grabbed a universe at random and looked into it, seeing quite the strange sight: it showed a familiar Paris, one where Marinette Dupain-Cheng had a cane and the butterfly Miraculous; one where Adrien Agreste was Chat Noir and they were fighting Volpina. Intriguingly, there seemed to be a little yellow gem hidden away in one of the ‘scenes’ of this universe, one that glowed much like the Cube.

“Did I seriously hit jackpot already?! Awesome! Come to mama my darling…” said the Lord as she moved her clawed hands towards the gem. When they were close enough yellow energy began to permeate out of the sphere in the form of sunlight, pushing her back. The lonely being was only slightly pushed however, greeting her teeth and slowly fighting the resistance. “Not this time! I was expecting you to defy me! But you should know…” The Lord plunged her hand into the sphere. “…nobody get’s in my— Ugh!”  The Lord suddenly found her arm being pulled instead of her whole body being pushed. So she instinctively began pulling away. “Why… what…?” she said, her voice sounding strained, before she screamed as the sphere grew and swallowed her.

The Lord found herself in a vortex. Her destination? Home.

Chapter Text

A sunny day arrived. Less cold than others, with the people of Paris being relatively calm considering the whole time loop mess, and with the villains of this city being nowhere in sight. It was a more than perfect day for the planed expedition to the tunnels underneath Paris. Marinette was at home, looking over the map of the tunnels that she had made and comparing it to the one she borrowed from Alya and Nino. It looked very… badly taken care of? It was as if the people who held it beforehand were completely disinterested in it, something that the blue haired teen asked Alya about over the phone:

“Yeah, I know. It seemed really weird. Actually, now that I think about it, they didn’t even remember that they had something like that.” explained the blogger.

“Were they young?” asked the young fashion designer as she looked over the map again, noting a small, partly faded seal in one of the corners.

“I guess…? What does that have to do with it?”

“Figures. You could show those people hieroglyphs and they’d call them emojis. Go ask them about a fashion magazine and they’d probably quote that shit front to back. Young people have no place in a library.” said Marinette as she grabbed a magnifying glass, looking at the symbol for a moment before going to grab the tome.

“That’s rich coming from someone who wants to become a fashion designer. And I’m pretty sure they were adults so, they were definitely older than you or me anyway.”

“The knowledge of how surface-level, arrogant and stupid people can be is what fashion designers profit off of. How could I possible kick away that chance when I’m naturally talented at that? Also some people can live more in twenty years than others do in an entire lifetime. The former are who should be running libraries.” Thought I’ve seen this before. This symbol is used to ward off curiosity, kind of like a perception filter in sci-fi stories. Since it’s faded, it lost its effectiveness though.

“Fair enough I guess. I don’t really get libraries as much as you do.”

“Your more about news so that’s understandable. Speaking of news; today is a nice day to go. I’ll call Allegra and we’ll meet you at the entrance.”

“Yeah, about that. I realize that this might be a little physically taxing and, you know… it might be best if you didn’t come. You know, with your leg and all.”

“…You almost sounded reasonable. I guess it must be time to take my meds then.”

“I’m being serious! You remembered what happened when Volpina attacked during Adrien’s birthday, right? Your leg is very fragile!” Alya heard the loud shaking of pills from Marinette’s pill bottle.

“Mhh… yummy! Anyway, you need me. I’ll keep the why a secret for now, but if it keeps you at ease Allegra is strong enough to help me walk.”

“Can you not tell me that why now…?” asked Alya innocently.

“Are you even trying Cesaire? And no, I’ll tell you when we meet up. See you soon. Tell Nino I said hi.”

“<Sigh> When you make up your mind about something you sure don’t give up.”

“That’s my most endearing quality.” joked Marinette.

“Bye!”

Marinette got Melodie out of the café (after the girl went took a few more orders) and the two of them walked towards the place where they knew the tunnels resided, sending a message over to Nino and Alya to meet there.

“D-Cheng that you?!” exclaimed Nino from the distance. Marinette looked over to him and grimaced: the young DJ wore a green track jacket over a black T-shirt and a green flat cap. That outfit was the exact same one he had worn back then, down to the track jacket which had patch on the left pectoral, something that Marinette had covered up for him with a white cloth in the shape of a badge shield.

“Wow! Dupain-Cheng… You look like a movie archeologist.” added Alya. It was kind of true, as the young fashion designer’s current outfit was mostly brown in color: Marinette wore a brown leather jacket over a brown vest over a light brown shirt, a pair of dark brown pants tucked into brown boots; she had an old looking, leather messenger bag too; her hair was tied into a low ponytail and the most she sported her purple brooch, standing out immensely as her collar’s second (from the top) button among all the brown. Marinette was not looking at any of them.

“Hey guys! You’re pretty surprised we actually knew where this place was, right?” asked Melodie.

“We already figured you guys were here before.” replied Nino.

“But how did you guys find out about this place?” asked the blogger.

“By chance I suppose. Mari found them as she was walking around Paris. It was early on when she could walk a lot more.” explained the kind blond, looking to her girlfriend, who was looking towards the distance, away from everyone.

“Oh, come on D-Cheng! Is it cuz of my clothes?” asked Nino.

“But they’re just the things you were when… Ooh! Marinette are you seriously going to be petulant about that?!” asked Alya, realizing that Marinette was upset Nino was wearing the clothes that reminded her of the past.

“Mari… Nino didn’t do anything wrong, remember?”

“I guess…” said Marinette.

“What even happened in there?” asked Alya, pointing to the entrance to the cave system that lead to the crypt.

“I might as well tell you. I’ll do it on the way to it though.”

The cave’s mouth was large and imposing, light only penetrating the interior up to a few meters, leaving the rest as void of darkness. The wind was blowing harshly, making the cave sound as if it was whistling due to the strong wind. In front of it stood five people, all wearing winter clothes, as the weather was quite cold: a bespectacled blue haired girl stood at the front of the group wearing a brown winter coat along with other brown articles of clothing, a purple brooch sitting as top bottom of a shirt, and a bag around her, filled to the brim with equipment and paper, a notebook in her hands and a camera hanging around her neck, over a small Chinese charm. A tall and muscular boy stood out among them, dressed in a leather jacket under which he wore a blue flannel shirt, holding an axe. Another boy, this one with slicked back, blond hair, was dressed in all black, having both a black turtleneck and a black coat. Another stood out for a completely different reason, that being the huge, thick, green winter jacket, along with a thick and fluffy knit cap and scarf, along with snowboard goggles. Finally there stood another girl, blond as well, her hair in a braid, this one wearing a purple knit vest over a very thick, very fluffy, white turtleneck, wearing a short, purple winter skirt and white thigh high song, along with purple winter boots.

“Isn’t this exciting?! We’re like archaeologists!” exclaimed the blue haired girl.

“B-but it looks r-really scary Mary… What if t-there’s a bear i-in there…?” asked the blond girl, shivering from fear, not cold.

“Don’t worry Allegra! If any bears appear just get behind me! I’ll split its head open with my axe!”

“Nooo! Don’t h-hurt the bears Allan! They’re just trying to hibernate in peace!”

“<Muffled speech>”

“What was that Nino?” asked Allan. The boy in question pulled down his scarf.

“I said, that bear would totally trample you before you use that axe dude.”

“No way, is that a challenge dude?”

“Allan please don’t kill any bears if we run into…” mumbled Allegra.

“Ugh! How did I end up surrounded with stupid people… There are no bears in Paris!” said the blond boy as he walked ahead of everyone.

“Felix wait up! There might be traps!”

“Didn’t you say you checked the place out beforehand?” asked Felix.

“Well, yes, but I didn’t go to deep. That’s why I asked you guys to accompany me.” explained Marinette. “Also can you correct people without insulting them? It’s rude.” she whispered.

“M-Mari, Felix, wait…!” called out Allegra, running after them, Allan and Nino as well. When they got inside Marinette and Felix pulled out flashlights, before suddenly, a really bright light came from behind the group.

“<Muffled speech>”

“What’s that? You’d rather be unintelligible than bear a little cold?” snarked Felix as he looked over at Nino.

“I borrowed this heavy duty flashlight from my dad! You can say thanks now.”

“Thanks Nino.” said Felix, sounding the least bit thankful.

“F-Felix is everything okay…? You seem upset.” noted Allegra.

“Just ignore him. He’s doing that tsundere thing where he’s happy to be with us but doesn’t want to show it.” said the young fashion designer.

“Sure! Because I absolutely wanted to spend an entire day in a damp cave instead of at my cousin’s house with a hot chocolate.” replied the grumpy rich blond.

“This is a crypt actually.” said Marinette.

“Whatever.”

“Welp, whoever gets to the end last is a rotten egg!” said axe wielding boy as he took off running.

“Allan w-wait! Mari s-said there might b-be traps!” and Allegra took off after him.

“Were there any early traps, I forget…” mumbled Marinette consulting her notes. Meanwhile, Felix noticed a small square portion of the ground that looked like a tile.

“WAIT YOU IDIOTS, THERE’S A TRAP AHEAD!” both teens stopped, but it was too late, as Allegra’s foot touched the tile, which sunk a little bit. From the right wall came a giant axe, Allan dropping his own axe and tackling Allegra, saving both himself and her from being sliced in half, the axe sinking into the left wall.

“THE MURAL!” screamed Marinette.

“You guys ok?” asked Nino.

“I’ll go ahead and check for other traps.” said Felix.

“Don’t stray too far.” Ordered Marinette as she walked back towards the rest of the group, axe in hand.

“T-Thanks for saving me Allan…” said the kind blond.

“You’re welcome!” beamed Allan, blushing a little.

“No! Don’t thank him Mels! If he didn’t run this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

“O-Oh… I suppose you’re right.” replied Allegra as she got up, letting out a pained sound and falling back on the cold ground. Marinette was in front of her immediately, pushing Allan away and ordering him and Nino to go after Felix and make sure he didn’t get himself killed. With some mumbled disagreement the two did as they were told, the blue haired teen discovering Melodie sprained her ankle due to Allan’s roughness. She bandaged it and then covered the kind blond’s leg back up with the sock and boot, pulling her up in princess carry.

“You’ll have to take the photos and notes for me, alright…”

“Y-YES! I-I’ll definitely d-do a-a very g-good job!” said Allegra as she grabbed Marinette’s camera and notebook.

And so, the five teens walked through the crypt-cave tunnels. Allegra took diligent notes of everything that her blue haired friend mentioned while also taking photos of every single inch of the walls. Felix surprised everyone because he had a bunch of various tools he used to break some of the traps, like hedge clippers and screwdrivers and stuff like that, the blond teen even using them to help solve some puzzles that this crypt apparently had. Nino continued illuminating the path forwards and Allan used his strength on some of the puzzles that needed force, occasionally stealing some glances at Marinette and Allegra, noting with jealousy how the blond girl was blushing, smiling, and looking so comfortable. In Marinette’s arms.

Over the course of the journey the teens bickered for a bit as well, Felix being denied holding the heavy duty flashlight since Nino didn’t want to have it break down (or else his father would have his ass) and Allan wanting to hold Allegra and let Marinette’s arms rest, the blond girl dispelling the argument by eventually doing a bold move and hugging the young fashion designer, the strong teen getting miffed. Eventually, they all arrived at an end, finding themselves in a large room. This room looked like a place rituals or veneration might take place, a pedestal in the exact middle of it supporting a white, luminous cube. The light of the cube was enough for them to no longer need flashlights, as well as enough to see that the walls were covered in the same strange circular symbols with the lines tangential at certain angles.

“This has to be a language of some kind.” said the blue haired girl excitedly.

“That’s some weird language if you ask me.” said Allan.

“No stranger than Nyctography or logographical languages like Chinese or Japanese.” replied Marinette.

“Yeah, well, to us ‘mere mortals’ that is weird!”

“Wa— excuse me?! How dare you compare my behavior with Felix’ high and mighty attitude!”

“Don’t drag me into your squabble!” piped up the rich boy.

“U-um guys…”

“He started it! His pride got hurt because I know more about languages than he does!”

“G-Guys...”

“Allan! Marinette! Cut it out already would ya? You’ve been at each other’s throats this entire time!”

“P-Please don’t fight…”

“NOBODY ASKED YOU!”/”NOBODY ASKED YOU!” shouted both teens at the same time.

“PLEASE STOP FIGHTING! We’ve done nothing but fight all day!” sobbed Allegra.

“Look what you did, you made her cry!” said Allan, less angry than before. Marinette just grunted in anger, deciding to no longer entertain the strong teen’s immaturity by blaming him back and starting another argument. The young fashion designer walked her blond friend over to the pedestal. Pulling out a napkin she cleaned up Melodie’s face, which was a whole mess of tears and snot, before giving it to the girl to blow her nose.

“Move your back a little.” said the fashion designer, the kind blond doing so and getting wrapped in a blanket.

“Mari… d-did you make this?”

“Yup! It’s pretty cozy right?” asked Marinette, her face lighting up, a slight blush on her cheeks, her voice sweeter than honey.

“Y-Yeah… Thank you.” Melodie was blushing as well.

“How did you fit all that in your bag?” asked Felix.

“The bag is made out of some more elastic, yet firm material, meaning it expands the more you stuff it. I have a lot more stuff actually. Earlier you mentioned something about hot chocolate, right?”

“You’re kidding.” replied the rich blond. The young fashion designer pulled out a thermos in response, along with four cups and some mini-sandwiches.

The four teens took the time to rest. It was the calm before the storm after all, The Cube waiting patiently upon the pedestal, sitting there… giddily.

Chapter Text

“All right, that’s all well and good, but how in the world did I forget about that and you didn’t?” asked Nino.

“I’m curious about that too. If this is what broke you guys up, then I bet Nino would have remembered it.” argued Alya.

“I was getting to that.” replied Marinette, annoyed at the interruption. “Go three left and two down from where you are.” The blue haired girl instructed Allegra, her girlfriend pulling out a screwdriver from a keyhole sculpted into a small square tile into the wall, and moving to another square, inserting the screwdriver and turning the lock. With the resounding harsh sound of stones rubbing, the stone wall split in two, opening like a doorway, leaving the path forward for the teens to progress.

“Done. I still don’t know how Felix did it though.” replied the kind blond.

“I bet he just brute forced it.” said Nino.

“He did the complete opposite actually. Felix and his fucking microscopic vision—”

“Swear jar!” called out Allegra.

“—noticed how some of the keyholes had friction marks around the edges. He used those to determine which tiles to choose.” as Marinette finished explaining she pulled out her wallet as Melodie pulled out a literal jar from her purse.

“Wait, you’re actually doing that?” asked Alya as she witnessed her friend depositing fifty cents into the jar. As Melodie was about to put it back, Marinette stopped her and put in another coin.

“Why…?” asked Melodie, confused. Marinette completely ignored her, replying to Alya instead:

“When it comes to this habit, I need a reward punishment system, kind of like a dog. Problem is I’m a stubborn bitch.” The blogger and DJ burst into laughter.

“Marinette!” Melodie made an angry, yet adorable face, puffing her cheeks.

“I gave you the fifty cents.”

“Yeah, but you’re not supposed to give me the coins, you’re suppose to stop swearing!” she whined. Nino laughed harder. “It’s not funny.”

“Well <laughter> it kind of is… Now that I think about it, the old you would never get angry.” The young fashion designer brought a hand around her girlfriend’s waste and pulled her close.

“Love makes you feel all kinds of emotions. Besides, it was her choice to break out of being shy. She asked me out.”

“Wait, really?” asked Nino.

“Yeah.” replied Melodie, cheeks red.

“Well, it had to be her; Dupain-Cheng was too preoccupied with hating everyone that could walk.” said Alya.

“Hey!”/ “Hey!” said the young fashion designer and kind blond, both looking offended.

“Sorry. I am just stating the facts.” replied the blogger. “Also, why are you offended, you were the one that first told me we couldn’t be friends because I’d ‘leave you behind to limp’, or something like that.”

“Yeah I did…” Mari’s face became darkened in sadness as she looked at the ground. “Anyway, back to my story.”

“I didn’t actually expect to find actual technology here… OOOOH! This is so exciting!” said Marinette as she looked at the Cube sitting on the pedestal, before crouching down to pull something out of her bag.

“We’re gonna be famous!” said Nino.

“I-I don’t think I want e-everyone to know me. It’s already really a-awkward when I-I help mom at the café…” added Allegra sheepishly.

“I’m already famous, mostly due to my family though. This however could be a good chance to impress my father.” mumbled Felix, barely audible due to the acoustics of the crypt.

“What is this thing anyway?” asked Allan, the boy going to grab the cube as a strong buzz came from a small device in Marinette’s hand.

“ALLAN DON’T!” shouted the blue haired teen, but it was already too late, as the strong teen touched the Cube, causing it to release white light. In the confusion everyone pulled away from the pedestal, Marinette grabbing Allegra and putting some distance as the light began dying down. “That thing emanates radiation.” Said the girl as she turned to look back at the cube and saw… herself? A white, almost holographic, being was sitting on the edge of the pedestal, it’s only defining features being its missing right forearm, and a head that looked like it belonged to Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

“Sorry about that everyone. I’ll turn down the radiation.” said the as she made a lowering motion with her hand, the radiation measuring device falling silent.

“W-W-W-Who a-are you…?!” asked the shy blond.

“She looks like you Marinette.” mentioned the rich blond.

“Shouldn’t she look like me since I touched the thingy?” asked Allan.

“What happened to your arm dude?” asked the young DJ.

“You’re not human technology… are you…?” asked Marinette. The being flashed them a serene smile as she looked at each of them.

“Apologies if I frightened you. I am a display with the purpose of easing interaction with you all. My form takes after the smartest one among you.”

“Hey! Are you calling me stupid?” asked the tall teen.

“That’s insulting! I’ll have you know, I’m being tutored by one of the best tutors in England currently, and I am worthy of their praise!” added Felix. The being laughed, covering her mouth with her right hand. Allegra hugged Marinette close.

“Don’t worry Mels, she’s not hostile.” said Marinette seriously, causing the being to look at her with an appraising eye and playful smile that made the girl’s skin crawl.

“Very astute. My designation is Light Ordered into Readable Data. I prefer L though.”

“Are you the Cube?" asked Allan.

“Obviously. She said she’s a display, and the only thing that can display here is…” trailed off Felix.

“Correct. Now that you have all been registered, please ask for your wish.”

“Wait, wish…?” asked Nino as Marinette let Allegra down and power walked over, grabbing the Cube from the pedestal.

“You look like you are crystal all the way through. There are no circuits, nor anything resembling wires, a power source, nothing.” The others walked closer as well, Allan taking the cube.

“If you can grant wishes, then can you make us superheroes? I always wanted to be a superhero!” said the muscular teen.

“Wait, hold on Allan. I know I said it’d be cool to be heroes, but I wasn’t actually serious. I still want to become a film director.” said Nino, Felix immediately.

“You can play hero all you want in your dreams Allan. I’d rather cure my father.” said the blond boy.

“W-Wouldn’t it be better i-if we wished for all problems to be solved…? A-As in all of them…?” offered Allegra, the girl’s eyes shifting to the white being, noticing a wickedly satisfied grin on her face. Allan snatched the Cube from Felix’ hands.

“T-Those eyes l-looked… dead; it was l-like looking i-into your eyes after… b-but worse… J-Just like in my nightmares…” spoke Allegra, terror clear in her voice. The girl’s knees had buckled and she would have fallen if not for the blue haired teen, who was currently hugging her tightly, patting her head and whispering for her to calm down, but it wasn’t quite working. Nino and Alya just stood there, not knowing what to do.

“Water!” suddenly exclaimed Alya, as she pulled out her bottle of water, breaking Nino out of his stupor as well. The young DJ immediately crouched behind Marinette and met Melodie’s unfocused gaze.

“Hey, look at me. That thing’s not here. We’re here. Come on… Take a deep breath like me.” Nino took a deep breath, Allegra copping him a few seconds later. “Then let it out…” and the kind blond did so. The two teens repeated this until her breath became more even, at which point Alya offered some of the water.

“Mels look into my eyes… the face‘s the same, but not the eyes…” whispered Marinette as she cupped Melodie’s face into her hands. The girl placed her right hand on hers and slowly nodded, a wobbly smile on her face.

“C-Can you say it again…?”

“What?”

“Mels… you haven’t called me that since…”

“Anything for my beautiful Mels…”

Everyone sat down in silence, Nino’s borrowed heavy duty flashlight providing the light necessary for them to see. The young blogger and DJ eventually turned away when the two girls began making out, feeling like they were intruding. Alya however had enough when she heard a little moan from the blond:

“Okay, can you two maybe not have sex in the creepy dark cave?”

“A-Alya!”

“We’re in the last year of middle school Nino. We’re not—” Alya cut herself off as she received a karate chop to the head from her fashion designer friend.

“I will never have my first time with my future wife in a cave!” exclaimed Marinette furiously.

“Duly noted… you didn’t have to do that though.”

“Anyway, the fact that you still remember that part Mels proves my theory on magic.” said Marinette as her girlfriend hugged her from behind, cheeks red and eyes sparkling with love.

“Theory on magic?” asked Nino.

“My theory is as follows: magic and science are two sides of the same coin. Both use words and numbers to change reality. Science bases itself mostly on numbers, as well as logic and understanding of the mechanism through which reality functions. Magic, on the other hand uses vast vocabularies, allegories, allusions, rhymes and bases itself into words, emotion and belief. That’s why, historically, witches were said to get their powers from the devil. Satanism, is unanimously historically regarded as a belief in the devil: a belief. Just like how believing in God or another force is a belief.”

“Why did this turn into religion talk…?” asked Nino, beginning to massage his forehead.

“Because science and magic have one thing in common: they are anti-religion.”

“Can you go into more detail on that? Just so I know what to say in case you do something that gets you in jail in the future.” said Alya with a serious face, a notebook and pencil in her hand.

“Okay, first of all, I’m an atheist, not Satanist. Now the reason for science and magic being anti-religion is that belief in God encourages ignorance, while belief in Satan encourages anarchy. Science is opposed to the ignorance that religion praises, while actual magic comes from the belief of human will merging with natural, cosmic power. A godless, self-evident universe that is ruled by natural law, and fueled by star power. Why do you think wizards have stars and moons on their robes half the time? Not to mention the ‘science’ of astrology, which is actually an attempt at magic.”

“You seem pretty familiar with magic.” nonchalantly mentioned Alya.

“That’s because of this.” Marinette pulled out a small Chinese charm. “This is called a Yansheng coin. Ménshén to be precise: protection against bad luck and evil spirits. This is what kept my head safe from The Cube’s meddling.”

“Dude, this is just like in the movies. Make a wish and it’ll blow up in your face because ‘be careful what you wish for’, or whatever. If we’re precise with the wish, nothing bad would happen.” Marinette snatched the Cube from Allan’s hands and the rich blond immediately tried to pounce on her.

“Felix?! What the f… what is wrong with you?!”

“I’ve got the chance to save my father Marinette! I’m not letting you waste that wish!” Nino got in between Felix and her.

“How ‘bout we don’t wish for anything?”

“Out of my way Lahiffe!” the two teens began to fight, the young DJ keeping his blond adversary away from the young fashion designer and the Cube. Marinette took that moment to look around her, seeing the shy blond on her knees looking at the ground and shivering, Felix’ frenzied look, her eyes catching a glimpse of the white being’s face. For a moment she thought the face was smiling creepily, but when she looked again, the expression was neutral, if not a little curious. Suddenly Allan roughly pushed both boys to the side.

“If we don’t make a wish someone else will find this place and will.” said Allan, his eyes burning with naked greed. Marinette slowly backed away, maintain a stable stance as her fight or flight told her to prepare knocking him on his ass with a spinning kick to the face in case he charged at her. “Give it me Marinette. You may be the leader, but that doesn’t mean you’re making the wish.”

“There was never any leader here, we’re all on equal grounds, but if you want it like that, then as leader I’m telling you to stop: You’re being an idiot!” That was all it took for Allan to try and attack, the blue haired teen getting in close and ducking under a punch from her friend, noting in the back of her mind how her charm was slightly glowing. Using the height difference to her advantage, the girl punch Allan in the gut , causing him to bend over, before  pulling back a little and delivering a high side kick, effectively acting as an uppercut. “Wake up! As if I’d let you say ‘I wish the Quantic Kids became heroes’.”

The last thing Marinette heard after that was an ear piercing howl as the white being was sucked into the Cube, her eyes being blinded by white light before everything went black.

“Then I woke up outside the cave. Everyone else was gone, but Allegra was still unconscious, so I carried her home. She got a pretty high fever from being in the cold too long and her dad chewed me out pretty hard… If there’s anything I regret about that, is the fact that he had to die hating me.” The kind blond kissed her girlfriend on the cheek.

“It’s okay Mari. He’s probably watching over me now, seeing how happy you made me.”

“WAIT MISTER MELODIE DIED?!” shouted Nino.

“Yeah… his cancer came back. You can guess the rest.”

 “Geez, I wish I’d been at the funeral at least. Dude was awesome guy…”

“Sorry for your loss.” said Alya.

“Thank you… me and mom are hanging in there… g-getting through it…” Allegra suddenly hugged Marinette. “I MISS HIM SO MUCH!” she cried as the young fashion designer hugged her.

“Ugh! This place brings nothing but bad memories. We should split before I spill the beans about what happened to my leg.” Silence and Melodie’s cries were the only thing heard for a moment.

“I don’t mind standing around here longer...” said the blogger.

“I do! The Cube probably isn’t even here. Lady Monarch has it I bet.”

The four teens eventually escaped the tunnels, coming out of the cave’s mouth unharmed, but clearly drained. Allegra herself was completely out, Marinette holding her in piggy back carry, but in the front instead of on her back, using only one arm to hold her, the other using the cane.

“You sure you don’t need help?” asked Nino.

“Look Lahiffe… Even with a busted leg… nobody is carrying my girlfriend…” replied Marinette, huffing and puffing. “Besides… she’s bi… I’ve got competition on both sides of the fence…”

“You seriously think she’d ditch you for someone else? You made out in a cave!” exclaimed Alya. Marinette let Melodie down, pulling a blanket out of her bag and wrapping her in it, the blond girl smiling as she cuddled in it, mumbling a loving ‘Mari…’

“I doubt it. But since neither of us are too keen on advertising the fact that we’re dating, if someone approaches her she won’t be able to say she’s taken.”

“Why not?” asked Alya.

“Prolly cuz she can’t lie. That still a thing?” asked the young DJ.

“She’s like a switch in that department. On is truth, off is silence. I think I like her that way though…” replied the young fashion designer as she sat down and patted her girlfriend’s head.

“Oh, wait, I just remembered: the wish didn’t go off.” said the blogger.

“Huh?”/“Huh?” synchronized Marinette and Nino.

“You three aren’t heroes.” she explained.

“Nino’s a Champion. So was Allegra.”

“Was?” asked Alya.

“Lady Monarch called on her like twice; Then poof! Nothing.”

“Right…” The teens stood around talking some more before Alya and Nino decided to leave, Marinette asking them to entrust her with getting the kind blond home. Just as they left the blue haired teens phone buzzed and she picked up a call from someone that she named in her contact list as ‘V’.

“Sing for me Melina.”

“Uhm... M-My snooping finally paid off: I think I know where Chai’s lair is.”

Chapter Text

Marinette was spit out of the vortex into the air, the girl not wearing her armor, but her ‘Frozen Sand’ still in her possession. Paris was high above her but approaching fast, as her body was careening towards the ground at an alarming pace. The timeless being was sure of one thing: she was going to die.

“No, no, no, no, no, NO! Shit how do I slow down… AND WHY AM I SUDDENLY FUCKING DEPOWERED?!” she shouted as she finally noticed her lacking armor. ‘Frozen Sand’, as if it heard her complaint, glowed blue, recreating her armor. “Much better.” The Lord said to herself as she readjusted her position in the air with the help of her cape and landed on a roof, her feet leaving indents and cracks.

When she looked around she noticed a quickly retreating blue and black figure jumping from roof to roof before disappearing. Her head leaned to the right as she looked at the now empty scenery. A sudden loud noise redirected her attention to somewhere down below, looking from her vantage point towards the source.

“Agreste Mansion…?” she asked herself, as she lightly jumped from the roof to the side of the neighboring building, her clawed hand digging into brick and slowing her descent, before hopping into a roll in a alleyway, a flash of blue light dismissing her armor and leaving her in the clothes she had been wearing ever since she’d been imprisoned in the Burrow. She walked out of the alley way, not noticing the looks she got from passer-bys, and up to the gate, a number pad by the gate itself. “…Don’t know the code…” mumbled the lonely being after putting on her reading glasses, walking a few steps back and looking at the gate itself. I could climb up no problem, but I’d need to be able to do that in less than a second to not trigger any security. she thought to herself.

Once again, as if hearing her thoughts this time, ‘Frozen Sand’ glowed blue, and everything in The Lord’s surroundings took on a shade of blue, all people stopping dead in their tracks, cars as well.

“Huh…? Everything’s… frozen. Turn time back on.” She said and time resumed, the blue disappearing. “Freeze again.” Time froze and a smile came upon the immortal being’s face. “Unfreeze. Freeze.” Time resumed then froze again, The Lord laughing. “This is so cool! Forget about the mansion. I need to have Melodie see this.” said Marinette, taking off into a run.

Time resumed with a verbal command and the timeless being felt happy because she was back home and even running, but still felt empty, as she could not bask in the sensations of the air pushing against her, her blood pumping and muscles working due to her broken, unfeeling body being frozen in time. She would have to come up with a solution for that later however. Now the girl was desperate to find herself in the loving arms of her girlfriend. A quick run by the bakery, around the corner and then just a little more and then… her eyes landed upon the café… and her face morphed into absolute sadness, her run turning into a jog, eventually becoming a walk.

“No… this can’t be happening.” The Lord’s eyes looked up and down the small-ish building: walls partly charred black, windows broken, wooden boards, the name on the sign no longer legible; and old looking announcement on the door with a phone number. “No… no… Melodie…” The Lord sobbed as she approached the door. “My Melodie… if I’d been here… no…” the lonely being slid to her knees before bursting into sobbing, her hands clenching into fists as they shook, her teeth clenching as her emptiness gave way to a sickly burning sensation.

When Nathalie heard the mansion door open and then close loudly she was admittedly scared since there weren’t other visits on the agenda for today. Then she heard the sound of wood hitting the marble floor and realized that Miss Dupain-Cheng had come back, something clearly wrong. She got up to investigate and found the teen slumped by the door with Adrien next to her and the gorilla standing there, at a loss for what to do.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng, are you with us?”

“More than I’d like … Monster headache.” she groaned.

Nathalie then noticed that the young lady was holding a bottle of painkillers in her left hand. Considering this she told Adrien to guide her to his room and have her stay there until she felt better. Miss Dupain-Cheng protested, mumbling something about how she just needed to wait a minute or two for the painkillers to kick in. Her protests went unheard as Adrien slowly guided her to his room.

“Seriously Adrien… I’m fine. Look at me! It’s already working!” said Marinette, who looked like she was a little better.

“I know that you look better but maybe you should sit down and rest for a bit.”

“<Sigh> Fine… if that will make you stop worrying for no reason…” Marinette sat down on the boy’s couch for a few seconds before promptly getting up and pacing the room. The headache I had wasn’t normal… she thought to herself as she stopped to stare out the window.

Outside everything was quiet and peaceful… until screams were heard. Adrien ran to the window and looked, seeing people running by, followed by a car being thrown and a tall, seemingly muscular man clad in black armor with a blue cape jumping on it.

“WHO DID THIS?! WHO DARED KILL MY BELOVED AND BURN HER CAFE?” shrieked the man at the top of his lungs.

“Toilet!”/ “Toilet!” said Marinette and Adrien at the same time, looking at each other, fear clear in both of their faces.

“Ladies first!” exclaimed Adrien as he took off running out the room. Nooroo took that opportunity to come out of her fanny pack as she limped to the toilet.

“Nooroo, please tell me you know who that is.”

“I-I have no idea!”

“Great!” exclaimed the girl sarcastically. Please just be an elaborate illusion of Volpina’s. repeated the girl in her mind like a mantra as she got into the bathroom. “Nooroo, fairy wings rise!” with the magic words spoken, the blue haired girl transformed, immediately looking for a Champion.

The Lord was enraged. How could this happen?! If I’m right, then I should have arrived way before I manipulated that liar to my side. thought the lonely being, her eyes seeing nothing but red as she screamed and destroyed everything indiscriminately. Once she found whoever destroyed the cafe and took away her love, they would beg her for mercy. She grabbed a car off the road and threw it at a building in rage, not even realizing the screams of the people from inside it.

Suddenly, a long metallic pole hit the ground, cracking it as it fug in deep, and a blond teen clad in black leather slid down it, arriving at the perfect height and putting up his hands. He caught the car in his hands, smashing the front of the car with his grip, the pole bending backwards a little as the car hit full force, before returning to its straight shape.

“Everyone ok in there?” asked the teen hero as he looked inside the car, seeing a family with two children. They all nodded. “And that’s why you buckle your seat belts kids! Who knows when a spooky guy may throw your car around.” joked Chat with a smile as he slid down the pole, putting the car down and slashing two side doors open. “Run over in that direction. I’ll get make sure the guy over there doesn’t follow.” he told the civilians, the parents taking their kids and running. With that out of the way, the cat hero grabbed his staff and hopped walked around the care, seeing the armored clad man putting a hand on a fire hydrant.

“Why would they even do this?! What reason could they possibly have?” spoke the Lord to herself, sadness clear in her deep, masculine sounding voice.

“Hey! Tall, dark and ugly! Catch!” The Lord rage was refueled as she heard the insult, turning around, ‘Frozen Sand’ glowing blue as everything turned into shades of blue. The lonely being raised her ring hand, holding her palm forwards, with her fingers pointing towards the left side of her body. Then she slowly slid her hand across the empty air towards the right, the car’s trajectory reversing. She unfroze time and the car headed again towards her. Effortlessly, she caught it, and ripped it in two.

“HOW DARE YOU THROW THIS AT THE LORD!” shouted the timeless being before throwing the two car pieces, one at a time, at Chat, the boy dodging.

“Ah! My apologies your grace! That just meow was a formal French greeting! Welcome to Paris!” Chat’s opponent, now named, became a glowing blue blur as he moved so fast he might as well have teleported in front of the teen hero for all intents and purposes, before sending him through the wall of a building with a single punch. “My… everything…!” grunted the cat hero harshly as he slightly pushed himself up. He looked in front of him, seeing The Lord slowly making his way over. “I could do with a little help right about now Lady Monarch…” mumbled the teen hero as he set himself into a crouching stance.

Suddenly, a red ribbon wrapped around The Lord’s throat, before pulling him off his feet and throwing him backwards. Chat saw as a Champion wearing some really colorful and extravagant clothing (red pants and waistcoat, red coat with black, fur, pulled up collar, purple shoes and gloves, light blue shirt with a dark blue tie with five white dots, and a large red hat with a single peacock feather) jogged towards him. His skin was as white as chalk, but his face was instantly recognizable to the cat hero, despite the red domino mask replacing the glasses: it was his father.

“Are you alright?” he asked, as he helped him up.

“Yeah… thanks… uhm…?”

“General Vogue.” Chat cracked up a bit.

“Nice pun!” he said before running out of the building he’d been punched through, the Champion coming behind him, summoning large needles into the air. The Lord was sitting up, his body language radiating curiosity(?) as he looked around.

“Who is this?” asked Lady Monarch through General Vogue, the yellow butterfly symbol appearing on her Champion’s.

“He calls himself The Lord. Do you have a plan Lady Monarch?”

“Not yet. Keep him occupied.” Chat nodded before rushing into battle. A beep was heard and one of the tie’s white dots disappeared.

“Chat wait!” called out the Champion before motioning for him to jump. The cat hero did so, the General Vogue sending his needles flying. Their opponent became a blue once again, but instead of becoming a complete blur both Agreste’s saw multiple versions of him stacked on top of each other, impossibly occupying the same space at the same time, each one dodging a needle, with one catching it. All other versions of The Lord fused into the one who caught the needle.

“Seriously?! Shadow clone jutsu again?” asked the cat hero before nailing The Lord with an overhead staff strike to the head.

“Why you…?” growled the timeless being before getting wrapped up in a yellow and blue ribbon this time.

“Do you see anything that stands out on him? It should be some kind of jewelry.” asked Lady Monarch through her Champion.

“All I see is a blue gem ring on his right ring finger!” said the teen hero as he got closer. The Lord immediately clenched his right hand into a fist and, using his left hand (which was still holding on to that needle) he sliced his bindings open. He immediately trusted the needle towards Chat, who hopped back. He let go of it, letting momentum do its job, and when the cat hero batted it away, The Lord once again glowed blue as he grabbed the teen hero’s head in a crushing grip with her right hand, holding him up. Another beep came from General Vogue’s tie, and a second white dot disappeared.

“Sir… this is not… how you pet cats…” said Chat Noir, trying to buy himself some time for his father to help. Before he could do ‘Frozen Sand’, at Marinette’s command, stopped time for everyone except her and the blond teen.

“You’re not my Agreste… you’re shorter than you’re supposed to be…” noted The Lord before she threw him towards the Champion, time resuming after the teen hero slammed into a frozen General Vogue, him being sent backwards as a delayed reaction. Both hero and Champion immediately got up, seeing that The Lord was completely gone.

“Nooroo, do you know of any Miraculous that is a ring with a blue gem?” asked Marinette.

“No M-Marinette… sorry…” apologized the little Kwami, self disappointment and sadness clear in his body language and voice.

“It’s okay my cinnamon roll…” The blue haired girl patted his head with a finger, before gingerly placing him in the fanny pack, where his berries were also awaiting him. “Everything is so weird though.” she said to herself as she pulled out her pill bottle from her denim jacket’s pocket, popping one to relieve the sudden sensation pain she felt after detransforming. “First that strange emotional light…”

“How was that? It must have powerful if it caused you to collapse.” Noted he little butterfly being.

“It felt… wrong, backwards, stiff, tortured… and dying. Like someone was crying out in desperation while being suffocated. Do you think it was coming from that man? The Lord?”

“It… could have. M-Maybe his powers are killing him?” offered Nooroo.

“Well, I won’t be getting more out this if I sit around. I’ll go home and check the tome.” decided the young fashion designer. So she limped out of Adrien’s room, but before she decided to ask if Adrien was alright. He told her that he needed to go to the toilet, which had been a lucky break, leaving her to Lady Monarch in peace, but still. It had been like three-four minutes since he had run out of his room.

“Ah, Adrien… is still in the toilet. His stomach is quite delicate, and stress can cause him problems.”

“Understood. Tell him I decided to leave after he finishes, so he wouldn’t worry.”

“Of course, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Have a nice day.” bid Gabriel’s PA.

“You as well Miss Sancoeur.” replied Marinette.

Chapter Text

Chai was currently in Lila’s house, reviewing the footage that she had offered him. He had watched the fight a few times now, noting how at first the armored man was angry beyond belief, and how that reflected on his ability to fight, in comparison to when he calmed down.

“This is… interesting.” said Chai, finally, noting the blue gem ring on The Lord’s right hand.

“What would you like me to do master?”

“You?! Have you been looking at another recording this entire time? This man’s a monster! He wiped the floor with both Chat Noir and that Champion!” exclaimed the silhouetted man as she threw her the phone.

“B-but…”

“But what?”

“W-We can’t just… let him roam free. He may not have taken the Miraculouses Grand Chat and Lady Monarch stole from you, but what if he gets in my way too?”

“There’s no need to worry yourself over that. After all, I’m fairly certain I know what he wants.” said Chai mysteriously as he pulled out a yellow gem from a pocket. “This is what that he wants. And whoever this man is, I know that he is powerful, attentive and intelligent. Truly a most worthy adversary…”

The Lord spit the contents of her mouth out the window after she felt it slosh around and not being dealt with by her saliva. She took a moment, before throwing it out with a grunt.

“Fuck! I can’t even eat for pleasure!” she exclaimed angrily to herself before grabbing a bottle of water and trying to drink… realizing that her throat was not swallowing. So spit out the window she did. “I can chew but my saliva won’t decompose the food, and my throat won’t swallow… Ugh… this is the worst…” she said to herself before resuming her work.

The lonely being was currently in ‘her’ room back ‘home’; of course, she figured this wasn’t her universe. She used ‘Frozen Sand’ to slow down whenever it didn’t inconvenience, so she could collect as much information in as little time as possible. This universe (which the immortal being dubbed ‘02’), seemed to have a Marinette, an Adrien, along with other classmates. Lila was Volpina; a very early Volpina in fact, since she had only contended with Lady Wifi and Ironheart. This world’s version of Marinette was also way behind on her Tome translations, but thankfully The Lord hadn’t forgotten anything. This is why she knew that even the Tome was largely the same. When she spit out the window she had resumed time. So while the timeless being lamented over her inability to eat and drink water, Marinette was right there, to witness it all. The girl had slowly got up the ladder into her room, before loudly closing the trapdoor.

“Hi.” said the blue haired teen, her body in a tortured fencing stance, her face showing pain as she put equal pressure on both legs, her cane pointed at the other blue haired ‘girl’ in the room.

“Don’t do that… You’re going to break your leg.” replied The Lord.

“Who are you?” asked Marinette looking over her surprise guest and her surroundings: black leather gloves, a pair of slim, black, pleated pants along with a classic white button up shirt, the lower part ruffled after seemingly having been tucked in before, the top button not there and the sleeves rolled up halfway. On the chaise longue a gray waistcoat and purple coat sat, thrown there.

“It got warm.” said The Lord when she noticed where Marinette was looking. Of course, that was an absolute lie. She couldn’t even feel temperature anymore thanks to breaking her body. Not that it affected her anyway. But the young fashion designer didn’t know that.

“Can you answer the question?”

“Oh, you wanted me to answer. I thought it was one of those rhetorical things we do for drama. I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng… from a galaxy far, far away.”

“Are you…? Are you seriously quoting ‘Space Duel with Laser Swords’ right now?!”

“Technically true though. I’m from another universe.”

“So why are you older?”

“Well the theory of relativity can answer that one: the reason clocks no longer align if you put one on a jet is because when you approach the speed of light you’re reaching the point of leaving your universe and arriving in the fifth dimension where time doesn’t exist. Now this is where things get complicated: all universes have a beginning and end, but since the fifth dimension doesn’t have time, they all coexist and one can travel to another universe from any point of time that they choose. Additionally, since not all universe were born at the same time, some events happen ‘earlier’ in relation to other universe, meaning that time in that sense is like the, uh, time zones on Earth, only that it’s a little more arbitrary. Finally, an outside observer of a universe will notice that, in spite of time seemingly being a straight line, there are moments that you can watch in parallel to one another, kind of like scenes in a film. Basically I’m supposed to look older because that’s how I would look in your present.” explained The Lord. For what she knew, she had mostly lied, the entire explanation (except for the part of time not being linear when perceived from the fifth dimension) being nothing but speculation and half-lies.

“You didn’t need to say all that…”

“Oh come on! Call me narcissistic, but from where I’m standing you’re the first person that I’ve ever talked to who’s on my level of intellect. Do you know how hard it is to find someone that can understand all that? Max is smart, but he’s more into programming.”

“I suppose.”

“So with that out of the way, I need some help.”

“…By the way, do you happen to know a big brute that rampaged through the city and almost killed Chat Noir?” that made The Lord grow quiet before sighing.

“I’ve had a few crummy centuries, okay?” the lonely being looked hurt and Marinette stared, open mouthed.

“You…?”

“Yes, me. Check your computer. It’ll help with the explanation.” The blue haired girl complied, not wanting to send The Lord into another frenzy. And when she checked the computer, low and behold there was a digital newspaper article talking about a fire at Quantum Café.

“I know that place. It burned down when I was five.”

“…Did you… did you meet the girl of the family?” sobbed The Lord as she sat down on the chaise longue.

“Yeah, we played a little once… Were you close?”

“I love her… I thought I was home and… when I saw her place burnt down I just… snapped.” Marinette was quiet after that. She had no idea what to say. If The Lord was telling the truth about loving that girl and about spending centuries away from her home universe, then of course her reaction would be fury. The young fashion designer couldn’t even imagine the kind of trauma that would entail.

“What can I do to help?” she asked when she noted that The Lord was calming down.

“Well… I’ll need you to help me find something that I lost when coming here. It’s a yellow gem, possibly on a ring kind of like mine. I need it to get out of here.” The timeless being removed her gloves and waved her ring hand around for the blue haired girl to understand what she was referring to. “It might take some time before we find it, obviously. You don’t need to have me over, I can find a place to stay easy. I just need an excuse to walk up to your room whenever.”

“…You made a really good comment on a post of my fashion blog’s and from there we started talking more.”

“Penfriend?”

“Sure. Got any better ideas?”

“No, it’s actually perfect. I know both fashion and I can even pull off never seeing you before. Okay, you stay here; I’ll come back in a bit and your parents will probably say something like: there’s someone here who says they know you.” said The Lord as she sat up and unrolled her sleeves before putting on her purple coat.

“Wait, we’re doing this now? I need to tell them about you first.”

“Oh come on, live a little. Besides wouldn’t it be better if I came as a surprise? That way you can say something like: ‘I mentioned to her that I wanted you to meet, but I was thinking something like a video-chat, not that she would come all the way to Paris!’ It’ll be fun. Exercize your lying muscles and your imagination a little. Plus we both know we have good acting skills.” argued The Lord.

“Fine…” With that, the lonely being walked over to the window, opening it and jumping out before Marinette could say anything.

In a few hours The Lord got busy. First she broke into multiple banks across the country and took various sums of money, using her time powers to ensure no camera managed to catch her (for anyone watching, it looked like the valuables vanished into thin air). After that, she spent some time scouring the dark web from a library computer to find someone that could get her a good fake ID. She did and paid upfront for that, remaining with just enough money to go to Le Grand Paris.

“Hello and welcome to Le Grand Paris. How may I help you ma’am?” asked the receptionist.

“I’d like to book the cheapest accommodations for about a week.” said the immortal being, offering her fake ID for confirmation of who she was.

“Very well then, that will be—” before the receptionst finished The Lord put a paper bag on the desk.

“I’ll be paying in cash.” The receptionist was completely weirded out, but complied and counted the euros from the bag.

“Everything is in order Miss… Here’s your key.” said the receptionist suspiciously. That was when the blue haired girl put her plan into motion.

“Wait, my friends said that you don’t pay for things in cash here! I’m so sorry if I offended you in any way miss. Yous see I’m from China and—”

“Ah, no, no!” said the receptionist, smiling. “No need to worry?” the immortal being sighed in relief.

“Thank you for understanding. I can go have the money returned to my account then pay with my credit card if it is a problem.”

“No problems here. Have a nice week miss.”

“Thank you!”

With that out of the way, the blue haired girl went up to her room and left a few things there, before walking out, buying a map of the region and walking towards the patisserie and looking around while pretending to go the wrong way a few times, having fun doing it too while also buying herself some time to come up with a very good story as well as a personality that would be disarming enough to trick Sabine. Eventually she made it over, before making a sho of looking up at the sign and looking victorious, the couple inside the shop noticing it. Putting her map in a pocket, the girl entered, her shirt having tucked back in, and her gloves removed, her ring moved to her left pinky to have it out of the way. Show time. thought the lonely being as she walked over.

“Nin hao furen! Nin hao xiansheng!” she greeted, doing a fist-and-palm salute, right hand on top. Sabine and Tom looked at one another.

“N-Nin hao!” replied Tom, doing the same salute, only doing it wrong, copying her and doing it right hand on top, and making a little bow as well.

“Ni hao!” greeted Sabine, doing the salute correctly, much more used to this kind of thing.

“Are you Cheng-furen and Dupain-xiansheng?” asked The Lord, speaking French with a little bit of a Chinese accent.

“Yes! That’s us!” confirmed Tom. The Lord let out an excited squeal, hopping in place and clapping her hands.

“My name is Yang Chao-xing! I’m your daughter’s… what was the word…?” the blue haired girl hesitated for a moment, looking down in thought. “Pen friend.” she finally said, leaning more heavily into the Chinese accent. The two adults shared a look while The Lord looked from one to the other excitedly, feigning complete ignorance to their suspicion.

“One moment please.” said Sabine, going up to the next floor.

“You are really tall Dupain-xiansheng.” commented the lonely being, looking up at him with faux-fascination.

“Thank you…? I guess.”

“Marinette! There’s someone here who says they know you.” Nailed it; exact words.

“Coming!” called out Marinette, mother and daughter coming to the front together.

“Do you know this girl dear?”

“Mari-meinu, it’s me, YangYang! You said you wanted to introduce me to your parents.” A moment of thought passed by, followed with realization crossing on Marinette’s face.

“Wait YangYang, as in who I’ve been talking to about fashion on my blog this whole time?”

“Yes, it’s me! My hair used to be longer and I was wearing my reading glasses— Oh wait!” The Lord pulled out a pair of glasses out of her coat’s left inner pocket and put them on.

“YangYang!” exclaimed Marinette in recognition. Sabine cleared her throat.

“Let’s talk over tea shall we?” asked the blue haired woman with a fixed smile, The Lord immediately noting she was still suspicious.

“Did I do something wrong Cheng-furen? You seem tense— I apologize if I offended you in some way!” exclaimed the lonely being, bowing and making Sabine a little flustered. If she was going to be this obvious about being suspicious, then the immortal being might as well have a little fun.

Chapter Text

It has been a few days since ‘Yang Chao-xing’ came to Paris, the girl having apparently come to put together a research paper on French culture for her University. She apparently wanted to be an ambassador, with fashion being just a hobby of hers. Sabine had really drilled The Lord (subtly and politely obviously), but didn’t manage to crack her or to catch her in a lie. Marinette was completely horrified by this, as not only was the blue haired girl capable of coming up with lies on the spot, but in the presence of her parents she was like a different person: everything from the little ticks of blinking twice before complimenting, to her energetic body language, to the excitable and overtly polite personality she put as a front.

The tea was something that The Lord had had a little difficulty with, but after stopping time and stealing a plastic bag, she managed to get through it no problem. Her act, as well as knowledge of Chinese language and etiquette managed to fool Marinette’s parents. Now she had secured a means by which to get in touch with Marinette whenever. The young fashion designer meanwhile was working on Adrien’s gift and sending Champions to make night rounds around Paris with Chat and The Lord in order to alleviate her nerves about what happened at the mansion. (None of those were actually eventful.) And with The Lord Marinette discussed about the weird feeling she got from the day they first met, dubbing that feeling ‘corruption’. In one of those nights, the one before Adrien’s birthday, Marinette bit the bullet and decided to ask Chat Noir about Volpina’s ‘presence’.

Chat had just come from the northwest part of Paris, Lady Wifi coming from the northeast and reconvening at the agreed upon spot. Lastly a blue blur came running and jumping from roof to roof, until dashing to the back, The Lord standing straight while the other two were sitting.

“South sector clear.” confirmed the immortal being.

“You know, for someone who can slow down time you’d think you’d get here first.” said the Champion.

“Oh come now, give it a rest. He’s watch might be off.” joked Chat. The yellow butterfly symbol suddenly appeared on Lady Wifi’s face, before quickly disappearing.

“…My lady is asking if you feel different around Volpina.” said Lady Wifi. The hero and Champion were sitting on the edge of a building, Lady Wifi eating a chocolate bar while Chat was drinking a sugary soda. The cat hero had offered the armored man one too, but he politely declined.

“Not really… She is a little unnerving when she gets up close and personal, but when she’s throwing anvils, bowling balls and fridges from afar everything is normal.“ replied Chat, taking a drink of his soda. “Why did she ask?”

“… My lady theorizes that Volpina’s ‘emotional light’ is wrong and that the unnerving feeling is the effect of her miraculous having undergone a process called ‘corruption’… How do you know that, my lady?” Chat’s staff suddenly buzzed, startling the both of them. The cat hero removed from his back and pressed a button, half of it moving upwards to reveal a phone screen with the symbol of a butterfly on it.

“I possess documentation regarding the Miraculouses… It’s partial information at best, but it’s still serviceable.” responded the butterfly hero.

“THIS THING’S A PHONE TOO?!” asked Chat excitedly.

“You’re like a child with a new toy… Get a hold of yourself! Also I helped a bit with the translations. Apparently the source of this ‘corruption’ is another Miraculous, the one belonging to the scorpion.” Of course, The Lord had long since discovered how this worked, but was too lazy to give this other version of Marinette the full details.

“Corruption… So is Volpina not in control of herself?” asked Lady Wifi.

”Potentially.”/ “Precisely.” replied The Lord and Lady Monarch at the same time.

“Which one is it then?” asked Chat, confused.

“If the translation is one hundred percent correct, then the corruption only amplifies negative aspects of one’s personality, but also seems to reduce the person’s will to contest the will of the Scorpion Miraculous wielder.” explained the butterfly heroine.

“Well, I argue that Volpina’s completely in control of her actions and that she is simply being manipulated. Furthermore, since a vast vast amount of time put between the victim and the Scorpion Miraculous can lessen its effects, it stands to reason that the corruption effect is not gross, but cumulative. In other words, it grows in the presence of Scorpion Miraculous, and weakens in its absence. So even if Volpina was affected in a similar way to mind control, then every time she fought there would be the possibility that she would snap out of it.” argued the immortal being.

“I suppose, but this idea is operating under the assumption that whoever is holding the Scorpion Miraculous is clueless of this and isn’t making visits to refuel the corruption. Furthermore, we have no idea what the timeframe for…” Lady Wifi and Chat watched as The Lord and Lady Monarch argued over the specifics of how the Scorpion Miraculous worked for five minutes straight. It wasn’t the first time they had arguments like this, relating to Miraculouses, the Champion and hero being quite used to it by now, and the two of them enjoyed listening, since both the butterfly heroine and the armored man were debating things cleanly, without devolving into shouting matches. Lady Wifi even felt that the two probably knew each other out of costume, as they seemed way too comfortable in their discussions for them to be complete strangers. Nonetheless, she didn’t voice her opinions.

When school was out the next day, Marinette dragged Alya to her house to present her with something. The blogger’s reaction was as follows:

“…I can’t…” Marinette’s bright smile was replaced by her usual bored expression mixed in with mock confusion, the outstretched hand that was motioning to the dress falling to her side.

“But Cesaire wanted a party dress, she said so last year.”

“Well yeah, but I have one at home already.”

“No, you don’t. Any party dress you’d like would be too expensive to buy with your budget. You didn’t take any jobs either and you would never put money away to buy a party dress. You would rather spend it on gadgets or other things.”

“… Alright fine, you got me. <sigh> It’s just that—“

“What?”

“… It’s too pretty.”

“I was expecting something like ‘It’s not up my alley!’ or ‘Red isn’t a good color for me.’ even though it totally is. It’s a good thing it wasn’t either.” replied the young fashion designer as she walked away to pick up something. Alya turned around and open her mouth to speak when Marinette showed her a colored sketch that took her breath away: it was of her and Alya standing next to each other. Marinette was dressed in purple dress and she wore the red one that was behind her. Her hair was styled differently too.

“You’re wearing the dress.” said Marinette.

“Yes ma’am…” responded Alya, still transfixed by the very realistic sketch of what she’d look like after Marinette would spruce her up.

“You sure you’re not gay?” asked another voice, startling Alya. The blogger looked to see a young woman wearing a white shirt, a purple coat and black pleated pants.

“Where’d you come from?! And who are you?” asked the blogger, putting a hand on her heart.

“Yes. I’m sure I’m not gay.” replied Marinette.

“Yang Chao-xing. Future China-France ambassador and your best friend’s pen pal.” The Lord presented herself with a bow.

“Pen pal, as in, you’re not from here?”

“Nope. I’m from China.”

“She’s staying in town for a few weeks.” explained Marinette.

“Got it…” replied Alya, looking the immortal being over. I guess she does look kind of Chinese. thought the girl.

Later, the girls arrived at the party fashionably late, the lonely being taking the fall for keeping Alya occupied with her life’s story (all of it made up, of course). When they arrived they saw that the courtyard was fitted with a dance floor and tables were set up, some of her classmates sitting and talking while others danced. Marinette and The Lord (who had a green bowtie and wore a black double breasted suit under her purple coat) spied Rossi going inside the mansion, the latter signaling that she was going to follow. Using ‘Frozen Sand’, the timeless being catching up with Lila in Adrien’s room.

“Let’s pounce.” exclaimed the girl, transforming into Volpina.

“I wonder why your weapon changes, but the other Volpina’s stayed the same when she was corrupted.” spoke The Lord, looking at Volpina’s clarinet.

“What the—?!” asked Volpina turning around and pointing her weapon at The Lord. “Who are you? How did follow me here without me hearing you?”

“Careful, you can point someone’s eye out with that.” mocked the immortal being as she began to encircle Volpina, arms crossed.

“You will do what I tell you.” ordered the vixen villain as she held her left fist up, yellow glow like the Sun’s rays emanating from a ring. The Lord stopped walking, her arms falling to her side, her eyes glowing yellow as her face went blank.

“I will do what you tell me.” she said, her voice almost emotionless. Volpina smiled.

“Would you dance to like?— I mean— like to dance?” asked Adrien, his flustered demeanor making Marinette chuckle. The two of them met up on the dance floor, and when Alya noticed them, Nino had quickly changed the music to something slower.

“It would be my pleasure.” replied Marinette smoothly, the girl then finding a little difficulty in holding her cane and trying to grab Adrien, until Alya ran in and snatched it. “Hey!”

“Marinette, it’s okay! I guess you’ll have to lean me on— on me. The other way around… ugh!”

“You sure have your words tonight.” said Marinette as she moved close. “Almost like you want to impress me...” she added, the two beginning to dance. Adrien was in heaven right now, but those words made him feel like he died again and went into an even higher heaven. This is your chance! Don’t stumble over your words Agreste!

“I do want to impress you. Because I like you.” the boy blushed. Holy cheese! I said it! Marinette leaned into him a little more, the girl stopping. He looked down, his mind instantly going over millions of what if scenarios of her rejecting him. The girl had looked down, leaning her head on his chest, before tentatively looking up, a blush on her face. Her eyes were worried as well.

“You… Y-You’re not making fun of me, right?” asked the young fashion designer.

“No… Why would I?” he asked back, confused.

“Adrien you… whoever you fell in love with is not really me.” said the girl, and the blond panicked until he actually processed the words he heard and smiling.

“Alya and Nino told me about the real you, Marinette.”

“And you… want me like this? Adrien I’m… broken! There are some things that I just can’t do that others can and being reminded of that makes me bitter, and I’ll act frustrated with anyone that happens to remind me, even you!” The rich blond smiled sweetly.

“I don’t mind that. We can make it work and… maybe I could be the one to help you through your pain.” he said softly. Marinette hid her face again.

“You are sooo naïve and… hopelessly optimistic!” she said back. Despite the fact she insulted him, Adrien could hear the smile in her voice.

“That’s one of my charming qualities! So how about it? Will you be willing to give the birthday boy a shot at warming your heart? Unless, I’m already doing it.” He was blushing. Marinette burst into giggles, hitting him lightly, as if knocking on a door. I’m not letting him outcheese me! she thought.

“What if I were to say that your desire to have me, broken as I am, has already melted the ice that encased my heart?” she replied, looking up at him, her eyes sparkling with joy, her blush deepening and his as well. For a moment, they were alone in the universe. No sounds or people to distract them from one another. Then they both giggled, their cheeks red as tomatoes. Marinette felt a distant emotional light and gasped. Adrien heard the sound of someone jumping from the roof.

“Watch out!” he exclaimed, grabbing Marinette bridal style and jumping away, The Lord landing where they stood, his once white eyes glowing yellow. Everyone panicked and began to scatter, as the armored brute picked up a piece of the ground and threw it in a random direction. The blond boy, still carrying the girl that was technically now his girlfriend, ran towards the back of the mansion, The Lord losing the two teens in the mess of people.

“Remember Lord: A ring for a ring! Get me Chat Noir’s Miraculous and you can have your precious yellow gem!” Volpina said, the two lovebirds hearing as Adrien came to a stop, letting Marinette down, sitting down as well.

“That little traitor! Knew I shouldn’t have trusted her!” whispered Marinette angrily.

“I know! I thought he was a cool guy. He acted like that cool big brother that doesn’t like his smaller sibling too!” replied Adrien.

“What?”

“What?” said the two teens one after another, both realizing what the other said.

“Nothing.” replied Adrien.

“No, you said you thought The Lord was a ‘cool guy’.”

“Y-You said that The Lord was a traitor. That’d mean you have to be working with him.” reasoned Adrien. The young fashion designer sighed.

“Nooroo.” the girl called out, a small light-purple Kwami coming out of his hiding spot.

“Y-you’re…” Adrien stuttered.

“Lady Monarch.” the blue haired teen confirmed. Adrien smiled, grabbing his jacket and holding it partly open, a black Kwami flying out.

“Plagg!” whispered Nooroo excitedly, tackling the other in a hug.

“Hey there swirl! Nice to finally see ya again! But can you cut it out with the mushy stuff? You’ll make me throw up.” The little butterfly being giggled quietly.

“Looks like we’re both partners and lovers. What a coincidence.” said Adrien.

“Yeah…” replied Marinette before giggling softly.

Chapter Text

Perhaps they managed to hide inside with the others. I should go check. thought the immortal being as she stood ramrod straight where she had landed. The Lord, slowly, clumsily, turned around to go knock the door of the mansion down. Volpina observed this:

“What are you doing?! You will stay in the courtyard and wait for the heroes to arrive!” ordered the villainess from atop the mansion, holding her ring hand out, closed into a fist, yellow rays of sunshine emanating from the yellow gem. Marinette and Adrien, having heard, looked up to see this.

“Oh, so that’s how she’s doing it! It’s like mind control, or maybe more like hypnosis?” deduced the blond teen.

“But that doesn’t make any sense. The Lord said that her yellow ring allowed her to dimension hop, not control others...” recalled the blue haired teen.

“We can figure that out later. Right now, we kind of need to do something. How do we go about it partner?” asked Adrien.

“Right! The Lord has a blue ring on her right hand, take that away and she’s powerless. Volpina is in a similar boat with us actually: her necklace might be a Miraculous, the Fox to be precise.”

“Okay then… how about the other ring?”

“I’ll try and take it, you just keep The Lord occupied long enough for me to do it. If you have the opportunity, the slip The Lord’s ring off.” Adrien nodded at that.

“I have a bad feeling about those rings, but every time I try to think about them I feel a shiver, or lose my concentration.” whispered Nooroo.

“I think I dreamed about them before, I just can’t remember what the dream itself was.” whispered back Plagg.

“You two ready?” asked Marinette, the two Kwamis turning and nodding.

“Be careful.” advised the butterfly Kwami.

“Try not to get your head popped like a grape kid.” warned Plagg. Adrien nodded.

“Plagg! Claws out!”

“Nooroo, fairy wings rise!”

Annoying thing! If she could just let me break down the door I could get the two kids while they’re not transformed! Who knows how long it will take until they manage to slip away and transform. thought the lonely being, annoyed, her yellow glowing eyes starting to occasionally blink back to white.

“I heard that there was a party here! Where is everyone?” asked Chat Noir as he landed on the mansion wall.

“Get him!” called out Volpina, using her clarinet to create multiple illusionary clones of The Lord. Of course, the sad thing about them was that the actual Lord moved near instantly, Chat managing to jump away before the wall got smashed, and knowing exactly which enemy was the real one. Of course, the others weren’t pushovers either, their reaction being much faster than that of the actual armored brute, who seemed be moving a little awkwardly for some reason.

While Chat kept the timeless being and vixen villain occupied, Lady Monarch jumped onto the roof. Keeping her focus on Volpina, she noticed that her emotional light would occasionally flicker back to normalcy, at which point she would be open to Championification. Before the butterfly hero could free her little butterfly from her inside her cane, Volpina noticed, the villainess, jumping away and manifesting rockets.

“Dammit!” exclaimed Lady Monarch as she pulled her sword from the cane’s shaft, beginning to cut the illusions to bits.

“A little help here!” called out the vixen villain, The Lord, holding Chat by the head, pausing, the two remaining illusionary clones having gone completely still.

“Not me problem. I give you this ring, you give me mine.” replied the timeless being, her eyes flickering between yellow and white. Hello…! You’re fighting the mind control, aren’t you? Chat thought, as he smiled. He was incredibly happy because he was going to break the spell with the power of friendship.

“My Lord… It’s me, Chat Noir… your friend.” said the hero as he kept moving his hand out of the lonely being’s grasp.

“Don’t care.”

“Of course… you care. You admonish me… like a big brother sometimes… you know?”

“Can you stop moving your hand? I’m trying to get your ring.”

“Come on… man…! You can do this… you’re being mind… controlled…!” The Lord threw Chat head first into the wall around the mansion.

“HELP ME!” screamed Volpina, struggling against Lady Monarch, the heroine using her flute to her neck, in attempt to take away her breath long enough to slip the necklace off, her sword-cane having being hit out of her hands.

“Shut up and help yourself bitch! I’m busy!” snapped the timeless being. Despite being dizzy and barely able to push himself back to his feet, Chat did hear that short discussion, the hero getting an idea.

“W-Wait, wait!” he requested, crawling away from The Lord, who pulled him back by his fake tail. The immortal being then grabbed his hand. “WHY TAKE MY RING?! TAKE HERS!” he shouted, scared. The Lord’s pointer finger and thumb, who had grabbed his ring stopped, her eyes flickering faster. “You clearly don’t like Volpina! Why listen to her?” asked the blond hero. The Lord turned to look at the villainess, who was rolling around the roof with Lady Monarch, both of them struggling against one another, the butterfly heroine trying to go for the yellow gem ring now.

“Damn you! Get OFF me!” ordered Volpina, trying to use the ring’s power on Lady Monarch, her hold on the immortal being vanishing. She let go of Chat and, with incredible speed, her body glowing blue, made her way to the roof. Volpina just managed to push the heroine off her, just in time for the armored brute to land and begin beating down on the villainess. Punch after punch after punch, all hitting her head, in a flurry of blows.

The roof was cracking under the force of the blows, Chat jumping up on the roof, next to Lady Monarch, who grabbed him and held on for dear life, looking away and clenching her eyes shut, each instance of the sound of cracking making her jump as it reminded her of her accident. The cat hero, however, had his eyes glued in horror to what was happening. Before she could punch Volpina’s head through the roof, The Lord stopped, her white eyes squinting as she waited to see if the vixen villain would wake up. She didn’t, so, the immortal being slid the yellow ring of her finger before removing the Fox Miraculous. Lady Monarch finally looked again, a few moments after the sound had stopped.

“Here’s your thing.” said The Lord calmly, the necklace hanging from her outstretched hand by its chain. Hesitantly, the butterfly heroine reached out her hand, before quickly taking the necklace and pulling back.

“Cata—”

“No Chat! This is a Miraculous! We’re not breaking it!” ordered Lady Monarch. The cat hero’s expression could only be described as ‘awkward-guilt’.

“S-Sorry… I’m ah… a little bit rattled.” said the boy, suddenly, both turned to The Lord, who was standing tall, looking at her Yellow Gem ring, sitting on her right pointer finger, chuckling darkly. “Uhm… partner, not to alarm you, but someone who’s laughing like that is not a good guy!” whispered Chat nervously. The Lord jumped down.

“From now on, from this point forward

Your spark is bound, you have my word

Your control over essence has become like no other

And all around you feel bound by the words you utter

For Soul has become your servant…

May nothing stand in your way, my liege,

For you are Lord over all you can see.” spoke the immortal being. Shivers went down the two teen heroes’ spines.

“Uh… big bro Lord?” asked Chat, thinking that a little joke might lighten the mood. The Lord turned to them.

“Don’t call me big bro... Now if you excuse me; I have what I came here for. I shall take my leave!” said the lonely being, turning her back to the two heroes and holding her right hand up to signify goodbye.

“Wait! You lied to me!” called out Lady Monarch. “You said you needed thing to travel from one universe to another! But that’s not what it does! It controls others!”

“Not quite. Based on my experience as well as the way the message on it is worded, I’d say it more influences than outright controls. It brings into focus the… ‘Unspoken Desire’… in us. Kind of like hypnosis. Also I never lied about needing this to leave your world. I just lied about why I needed it. You see, this little gem here was the reason I was pulled her in the first place, and my desire to have it was what kept me here. Now I can leave.”

“Are you really a good guy? Because you’re starting to sound like the overpowered manga antagonist.” mentioned Chat, before kicking himself as The Lord chuckled. He’s totally a bad guy!

“You misunderstand… I’m not here to cause problems. I am here to solve them. And solve them I shall. I don’t need to spend my tim in your universe when all I need to do is leave and manipulate things from the outside.” The Lord turned around, holding her right hand up, her ‘Frozen sand’ glowing as a part of the air in front of her turned blue, a white light expanding into a circular portal.

“What did you say?” asked Lady Monarch, secretly empowering her butterfly, her fear producing a silver Fay, instead of the usual gold/yellow. The Lord turned around partway, her left side facing the two heroes, the Fay flying outside of her periphery.

“I said I will be manipulating things from the outside.” repeated The Lord, the Fay entering her yellow ring. The butterfly symbol didn’t appear, as Lady Monarch was near and wouldn’t need to communicate directly in her mind. Nor did she need to alert the immortal being to the Fay’s presence. She just needed it to help make her argument more convincing.

“Listen, by manipulating from outside you mean like… a puppet master, or what?” But first, she needed to understand what The Lord was saying. The heroine also made sure that her partner was quiet, giving him a look that he immediately understood, the boy grabbing her hand and squeezing it to affirm his support.

“I can time travel. I’ll just rewind as many times as I need until I get the result I want.”

“The result you want? What about our wishes and decisions?!What if others made decisions for you? Don’t you think that you’re playing God a little too much?” asked Lady Monarch, the lonely being looking her, one of her eyes twitching.

“I suppose you do have a point…” said The Lord, looking down. The two heroes shared a look, Chat beaming at Lady Monarch, who smiled back at him. The Lord felt the tiny increase in happy emotions inside of her, which were completely at odds with her current state, the timeless being’s eyes widening before turning to the two. “You little WORMS!” she spat, as she held up her right hand, before clenching it into a fist, her yellow ring blasting the Fay out, the butterfly heroine shrieking in pain and dropping to her knees, Chat Noir holding her. But that didn’t last long, The Lord moving instantly and punching him away, the immortal being grabbing Lady Monarch and holding her up by her lapels, pulling her arm back to punch her.

“Don’t… please…” whispered the heroine, eyes closed, tears rolling down her cheeks from the pain.

“Did you seriously think you could trick me using a Miraculous I know inside and out? Shame. And here I thought you were actually smart.” said The Lord with disappointment in her voice. “Perhaps you’d make a good test subject for Unspoken Desire instead.” said The Lord gleefully. But before she could even follow through Lady Monarch flashed pink and literally vanished from her grasp. The lonely being’s eyes widened as a nameless fear gripped her heart, the lonely being rushing to her portal, going through it then slamming it shut behind her.

The Lord stood in silence in her universe filled void, waiting for something. Even she didn’t know what; perhaps she was just waiting for her panic to go away. Placing her had where her heart could be, she tried to feel, but couldn’t, her heart frozen in time, her ability to feel broken by her own actions. What was that? She had just disappeared, why did I feel like I needed to run? the lonely being questioned herself.

“Perhaps the fear that someone would hurt you in retaliation for your actions made you run.” said someone behind The Lord, the lonely being slowly turning around.

“Melodie…?” Before her floated Allegra, her body translucent and glowing yellow, the girl wearing only a simple white dress with thin straps. The ghostly girl shook her head.

“Not really. You probably realize that too though.” The Lord looked down sadly.

“Yeah… My leg trauma, combined with my constant stress from being Lady Monarch and topped by isolation that I suffered in the Burrow probably broke something up here. I assume Unspoken Desire has something to do with it as well?”

“You did not name it as unspoken for no good reason, after all.” confirmed the ghostly Melody. The Lord remained quiet. “That other version of you had a point, you know. Overseeing a world’s story from beginning to end; learning secrets that should never be learned, acquiring forbidden knowledge; changing the world and the people in it as you see fit, deciding even who lives and who dies. Is that not playing God?”

“It is my responsibility… I didn’t get stuck in that Burrow by chance. I didn’t get to see the beauty of the Multiverse by chance. I did not find Frozen Sand by chance. If I won’t use it to repair problems, then who will? Not to mention, Unspoken Desire sucked me into its world for me to retrieve it. And just like it, there are probably other gems out there. I need to find them all and, once I have that power, I will make a single world, with a single set of problems… It will be so much more manageable.”

“And what about your love? We both know her better than anyone: she would be so enraptured by the beauty of so many different words that she wouldn’t want you to squeeze all that into a single world. And what if you change along the way?”

“What are you talking about?! I haven’t changed a bit!”

“Haven’t you already?” The Lord squinted before floating past the ghostly Melody.

“Once I find the other rings I can do anything. If I change along the way I’ll just reset myself back to who I was.”

“That is, if you will want to.”

“Lady Monarch it’s okay. I’m here. You’re safe.” said Chat Noir as his partner sat her head on his lap, the cat hero patting her softly as she cried.

“Sorry about our late save. We screwed up the temporal coordinates.” said a voice that sounded like Marinette’s.

“Don’t you mean you screwed up the temporal coordinates? You were the one who did those.” spoke another voice, also sounding like Marinette’s.

Lady Monarch sat up, her head still heavy, but she wiped away her tears at the sound of a cane hitting the floor. She looked up to see someone that looked like The Lord, but with a few key differences: her hair was pulled into long pigtails. Her coat’s color was indigo; she wore a classic black button up shirt, a pair of slim, grey, pleated pants and the heroine noticed that she wore a purple brooch, like her own, under a silver-blue, fan-shaped pin that acted as her top button.

“So, you’re supposed to be Lady Monarch?” asked the older looking Marinette, the teen raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

“What do you mean ‘supposed to be’? She is! And who are you?” asked Chat. The Marinette smiled before turning around, beginning to limp away.

“Come with me. Me and Ironbug here will explain the situation. Buckle up, because you’re part of ‘La Resistance’ now.” she said, beckoning the two to follow. The two heroes looked to see another woman in the room, this one covered in what seemed to be a metallic red and black armor, with golden streaks, pink and light blue lights glowing in certain parts, as well as what looked like a small circle disk with five black spots, resembling a ladybug, at the center of her chest.

“Nanobug. As in nanobots; the thing which make up my suit.”

“Ironbug sound cooler. You’re Ironbug.” said the limping Marinette. ‘Ironbug’ sighed.

Lady Monarch and Chat Noir shared a confused look before they decided to follow.

Chapter Text

When the doctors were finally sure that Nathalie was good to go, a week had already passed. The experienced fashion designer made sure to send messages to his son to make sure he was alright, and also gave the bodyguard a premium in exchange for not leaving the mansion premises and making sure Adrien stuck to his schedule, which the man happily took, doing his best to ensure the blond teen did just that. Gabriel had decided that it would be best for him and his personal assistant to board a train instead of a plane. It would take longer, but the blond man was afraid the change in altitude might aggravate Nathalie’s condition. After a long journey on a sleeper train, the two managed to make it home alright.

Apparently someone recognized them on the train, or somewhere in between leaving the hospital and boarding, because Gabriel had seen through a window that there were reporters. Damn vultures! thought the man as he pulled on a coat, put on a hat, added a scarf and replaced his glasses with colored contacts for good measure.

“Disguise yourself Nathalie. There are vultures outside and I’m not in the mood. We’ll pretend to be a couple from Italy or something and mix in with the crowd.”

“S-Sir…?” asked Nathalie, and if he had paid attention he would have noticed the blush on her face.

“Call me Herberto. You’ll be uh… Emilia. We should probably speak Italian when we get out as well.” Nathalie stopped questioning everything and, with an exited smile, she did as she was told. When the two of them got out, she grabbed on to his arm. He looked at her quizzically.

“{This way we will really look like a couple and the ‘vultures’ won’t notice.}” the blue haired woman spoke softly in Italian. He nodded. Was it wrong of her to milk this for what it was worth? Probably. But Nathalie didn’t care. She was going to make the most of this moment, even if it was just pretend.

As the two adults walked through the crowd, Gabriel occasionally threw a glance at what he was sure was a reporter, occasionally quickening his pace when he thought one was a bit too near. Nathalie felt incredibly amused by this. Gabriel Agreste, the fashion mogul, also known as the ‘Frozen Hearted King of Fashion’, really, really, really hated dealing with people. But while everyone knew this as a disdain for human beings, the personal assistant knew the truth: Gabriel suffered from crippling social anxiety. He was really good at masking his emotions of course, Emilie had thought him acting after all, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still there.

Under the guise of the business savvy, creative and no-nonsense Gabriel Agreste was a mess of a man who often worked extra hard on trying to anticipate what other people would think in order to write pages upon pages of pre-prepared answers that he would then memorize to near perfection and regurgitate during business meetings. But sometimes, he would need to look at his notes, which was why he preferred video conferences, where she would sit outside of the camera view with prompts, almost as if he was helping him shoot a TV show.

Nathalie had found this side of the man quite endearing. Seeing the mess of nerves he was every time he was about to handle business related matters, only for him to smile at her once she calmed him down made her heart flutter. She knew he was only smiling in relief and to show gratitude, nothing more, and that he was also too oblivious to realized her feelings for him, but she didn’t care. Nathalie was just happy for him to be happy, and would never destroy their friendship and business relationship over her own feelings. Especially not when Gabriel still wasn’t over his wife and looked for ways to bring her back. Without realizing, the two walked pretending to be a couple almost all the way to the mansion. When Gabriel realized, he walked towards a side alley and had them change back to their recognizable appearances, Nathalie having the bodyguard come pick them up and ride around the block before entering through the secret entry point.

“Dad! Nathalie!” exclaimed Adrien as the two adults came up through the hidden lift. The blond boy ran and hugged them both.

“He really missed you.” said Tikki.

“Are you alright?” asked the blond teen, looking between Gabriel and Nathalie, more towards the latter though.

“I’m alright Adrien. I was just a bit sick.” Adrien and Tikki shared a look before the former looked to his father. Nathalie turned to look at him too.

“I told him about the Peacock Miraculous.” explained the experienced fashion designer, grabbing the left side of his suit jacket and pulling it back to reveal the offending brooch. At the same time, a blue blur flew out of his right pocket:

“TIKIIIIIIII!” cried Duusu , tackling the Ladybug Kwami in a hug, the two spinning in the air a bit. “I MISSED YOU SOOOO MUUUUUCH!” sobbed the Kwami, hugging her friend for dear life. Tikki smiled fondly.

“It’s okay Duusu, I’m here now.” she patted the Kwami, before shooting a worried look at the three humans in the room.

“This is not how she normally acts.” she mouthed to Adrien.

“…Everyone please follow me.” said Gabriel as he walked out from a room left of the foyer. The experienced fashion designer lead them to his atelier, where he walked up to the painting of Emilie and pressed a combination of buttons that not even Nathalie knew about. Suddenly, the floor under them began to move down, Tikki and Duusu floating down along with them.

They all arrived at an underground repository under the Agreste Mansion. The place was beautiful, sunlight coming over a small garden, the electric lamps turned off. In the middle of the garden green light emanated from a cryogenic pod where Adrien and Duusu saw Emily, sitting in suspended animation. Both of them rushed forward, tears threatening to pour out of Adrien’s eyes as the Peacock Kwami was already crying, mumbling ‘little peahen’ occasionally. Gabriel placed a hand on his son’s shoulder, the boy turning to look at him:

“Is this… really…?” he asked, his voice weak. His father nodded.

“I’m sorry…” That broke Adrien’s damn as well, his tears being just as strong as Duusu’s if not more so. Gabriel and Nathalie ended up needing to pull him away, as he had started to hit the pod with his fists. After a little bit of time where Tikki peeled away from her Kwami friend enough to console Adrien, the blond boy spoke again:

“Why…? Why didn’t you tell me…? Why did you leave me in the dark?!”

“Because I was weak…!” said Gabriel, looking away, frustration directed at himself clear in his voice. That stunned Adrien silent. After all, his father never admitted a negative quality about him every day. Sure, she had mentioned he did not have strength the other time, but not the word ‘weak’. “I thought that I could bring her back, but… then this whole mess started: I gave you my Cat Miraculous, you lost it, Nathalie made use of the Peacock Miraculous to help you; Lady Monarch entrusted you with the Ladybug Miraculous…” Gabriel fell silent.

“What happened…?” asked Tikki eventually, seeing that neither Agreste had the voice to speak. Gabriel’s face looked pained as he clenched his eyes shut.

“The same thing that is happening to me.” admitted Nathalie.

“W-What…?” asked Adrien.

“Is there something wrong with the Peacock Miraculous? Because I know Duusu; she’s emotional, but not like this.” said the Ladybug Kwami. The experienced fashion designer nodded.

“I don’t… know, exactly. The Peacock Miraculous was like this when Emilie found it… She used it… as a hero. Plume Bleue in France, and she was named Phantom Peacock in England. Most people don’t know about the former though.”

“A-And m-mom is…?” asked Adrien.

“Not dead. Her condition is worse than Nathalie’s though… If I were to open it up, she’d wake up… but she wouldn’t last too long.” confirmed Gabriel. Adrien turned to the Ladybug Kwami.

“C-Can… Can you f-fix it…? You’re… the Kwami of C-Creation… right?” Tikki nodded.

“Yes, but I can’t fix it. The Guardian can.”

“Who’s the Guardian?” asked Gabriel.

“Lady Monarch. She’s not an official Guardian though. Apparently, in the last few centuries, the people in charge of keeping me and the other Kwamis safe disappeared. The Butterfly Miraculous, which is in her possession, was a family heirloom. You somehow found the Cat and Peacock Miraculouses—”

“Emilie did. In Tibet.” Gabriel cut in.

“Alright… And the last Guardian’s fate is… unknown to me. The Last Miracle Box, which contains my Miraculous and many others, is currently in Chai’s possession.” The room was quiet after that. For a long time. Adrien sobbed a little more, quietly, before he grew tired. Duusu fell asleep on top of the pod. Nathalie and Gabriel sat down next to the blond teen, his father placing a tentative arm around him in a half-hug, Nathalie doing the same, only a little more confidently. Tikki grabbed Duusu and moved her to Gabriel’s right suit jacket pocket before flying over to rest on his shoulder.

Everyone was quiet for a long while, only the soft homing from the pod filling the fragrant air, Duusu snoring occasionally being heard, along with some sleepy mumbling. Gabriel was thoughtful and Nathalie felt like sleeping too, but kept awake. Adrien wanted to sleep, but couldn’t. Tikki was wide awake, thinking over everything.

“Have you informed Lady Monarch of the situation?” Gabriel asked the Ladybug Kwami.

“Yes! I just remembered as well: The Ladybug Miraculous was damaged when the yo-yo had been destroyed back when that hotel was also destroyed. Lady Monarch fixed it. If you can get in touch with her, she might be able to help you fix the Peacock too.”

“Would that help mom…?” asked Adrien, tired.

“I will not lie and say that it will, because I don’t know. Lady Monarch might know more.”

“Great…! Our one chance is the most notoriously camera shy hero in existence. We’d have more luck mailing the brooch and the pod to her than bringing her here.” groaned Gabriel, causing Adrien to snort before breaking down into rambunctious laughter.

“…The postman drops a giant box on her doorstep…” said Adrien in between all the laughter. Tikki, Gabriel and Nathalie imagined that for a moment before they began laughing as well. It wasn’t really funny as much as it was ridiculous. When they finally calmed down Tikki spoke again:

“There is another alternative. Lady Monarch has someone on the civilian side to help her.”

“You mean like a ‘guy in the chair’…?” asked Adrien.

“Uh…”

“Forget about it. It’s a show thing.”

“What shows are you watching?” asked Gabriel, suddenly realizing he never bothered to check what kind of entertainment his son was exposing himself to.

“That’s— Okay! The guy in the chair is person that gives the hero logistical support, or may provided tools or something of the kind. They can also be called mission control. It’s what you do dad. You know, with the drones and also occasionally giving me instructions.”

“Oh! I think I understand.” said Tikki. “And no, it’s not like that. If anything, Lady Monarch is the ‘guy in the chair’ for her Champions. No, she has a friend that helps her with other things.”

“Who?” asked Gabriel, putting away the idea of checking his son’s list of entertainment products.

“Before I tell you, you have to promise to not reveal their identity, especially you Adrien.” said the Ladybug Kwami.

“Is it someone I know?” asked the blond teen, and she saw his gears begin to turn in his mind. Tikki smiled, dropping a hint:

“You’ve meet her every day since the start of the year.”

“Marinette?” asked Adrien, a metaphorical light bulb turning on.

“Yes! How did you guess though?” asked his Kwami excitedly.

“Wait, Miss Dupain-Cheng works for Lady Monarch?!” asked Gabriel, shocked.

“She has a book with codes and some pictures that kind of look like Miraculouses. I saw it when… uh… when I learned she had a girlfriend.” explained Adrien.

“That’s Lady Monarch’s book on Miraculouses. Marinette helps her decrypt some of her pages.”

“It should not be too difficult to ask Miss Dupain-Cheng to come over. I can schedule a short meeting tomorrow at lunch, or perhaps even today if you wish sir.” mentioned Nathalie, both Agrestes looking to see she had a tablet in her hand.

“Where did you get that…?” asked Gabriel, the experienced fashion designer trying to recall where his assistant could have gotten a tablet, and remembering they went through his atelier… where her desk was.

“How about tomorrow? Right now she might be with her friends.” mentioned Adrien.

“Very well. Tomorrow it is. However, Nathalie, considering the state that you are in, I would like it if you took it more easy.”

“… I could do as you ask sir, however there are three different business meetings you’ll need me for this month alone.”

“That’s alright. I will employ another assistant to fill in part of your job.” explained the blond man. Nathalie looked at him as if he had stabbed her. Adrien noticed this and squinted.

“Dad perhaps you could maybe cut down on the meetings instead.” said his son, giving him a knowing look. Gabriel didn’t get the hint at all.

“I cannot unfortunately. Even with this whole time loop debacle, life still goes on, money still flows, businesses still run. I can’t lag behind or the company will fall to ruin. Now, I will be going back to work. I have a lot of things to catch up on. Adrien, if you ever feel the need to come down here, I’ll show you the buttons you need to press.” said the blond man as he sat up, dusted himself off, and walked towards the lift.

Chapter Text

Doctor Octopus was working outside into the open air along with the fellow genius in the midst of all these crooks and idiots. Both of them apparently liked the moon, and since the robotic villain had cobbled together a working telescope, they could both look at the stars. Currently though, they were both working on their own little projects.

“Soooo… How’s the army of supervillains thing going?” asked the doctor. The robot’s tentacle arms, two of which were currently working with soldering irons, while other two were working with some kind of fabric, stopped. He turned to look at the man, pulling up the goggles with his actual hands.

“It is slow going. Chai is very demanding, and while your superior is helping me have the time necessary for work, materials are lacking. I am almost finished with my third new equipment for a new villain. I call it the Galvanic Rig.”

“You’re trying to weaponize galvanic cells?” asked the doctor.

“In a way. This started off as another upgrade for Shocker, one with the purpose of fixing the glaring flaw that is the lack of automatic vibro-shielding. Considering Chai’s impatience, I repurposed it into a special suit capable of weaponizing electricity. The galvanic cell, which will be on its back, will provide the power.”

“How will you feed it electricity though? Add a plug?” asked the doctor jokingly. Doctor Octopus glared at him.

“No, Connors. The suit is capable of absorbing energy as well as releasing it. What about your project?” asked the robot, looking at his mess that served as his chemistry set. The doctor walked over to his work and pulled out a metal box, something moving inside it, rattling it.

“Get ready to catch.” said the man. Doctor Octopus immediately pulled down his goggles, as Connors opened the box and out jumped a little green thing, the robot villain catching it in one of his claws.

“Hello…!” he said, bringing the creature closer. “It’s a lab mouse… mutated into a lizard hybrid.” The doctor tapped his box, the robotic villain putting the creature back in, because it was once again trapped inside. “I think I understand what you are working on: you wish to recover your missing right arm.”

“That’s correct, but for now this…” he tapped the box again. “Is all I can manage.”

“Perhaps I could assist you with that. What concentration did you use to induce the mutation into the rat?”

“0.01 moles per milliliter, with the substance being two milliliters. Problem is, if I reduce the administered volume, or the concentration, then it has no effect.”

“So the minimum amount is too reactive, and anything less elicits no reaction.”

“Yes! And this equipment doesn’t let me fine-tune concentration more!”

“Perhaps it’s not quantity that is problematic, but reactivity.” said Doctor Octopus, using her tentacles to walk to the chemistry set. He looked over it, his tentacles then setting of the process to produce the substance his fellow genius wanted to make. Adjusting the concentration to about half, he moved quickly, using the maximum amount of heat to cause a reaction and mix the substances as fast as possible. Once finished, he had one of his tentacles retrieve the Galvanic Rig, along with a glove from the suit. He connected the glove to the battery via a cable, and then put it on. Connors watched as the robot villain zapped the moss green substance turned emerald green and sparkling.

“What did you do?”

“I applied current. Since current in DNA triggers proton transfer, it can lead to modifications in its structure, also known as mutations. This substance uses lizard DNA, so when you inject it, you should be able to make it reactive to your own.” explained the robotic villain.  He grabbed a window and jabbed Connors, drawing a tiny bit of blood, before placing it on the man’s microscope, adding a little bit of the green substance to it. “Take a look.”

“P-Please don’t do that without permission.” advised the man, more scared than anything else. Connors walked over and looked through his microscope, seeing his blood cells mutate a tiny bit. They were still human, but now had lizard in their composition as well.

“Y-YOU DID IT!”

“Of course I did it, I am the most intelligent human turned machine on the planet. Now can I have my thank you?” asked the robot. The doctor hugged him.

“Thank you… This had been something that I’ve worked on for years. If my arm grows back, then Shocker will let me leave!”

“And you believe him?”

“He is a man of his word. He promised to help me get out of Britain when I needed him, and he also promised that his men left my kin’s business alone.” explained Connors as he prepared the substance to inject himself with.

“I see… I hope you will find happiness then. I will also make sure to leave your kin alone.”

“Thank you…!” said the man before injecting himself. Connors decided he was going to turn in early tonight. The robotic villain accepted it without complaint.

After the man left their open work space, one of Doctor Octopus’ tentacles gently went and grabbed the microscope slide. He shook it a little then placed it back. Looking through the microscope again, he saw the cells change again under the stress.

If Doctor Octopus could smile, he would have…

Curtis ‘Curt Melodie’ Connors was a good man. He really was. The man used to be a Bio-chemistry and Genetics teacher at an university, being one of the leading scientist in the latter category. He had been the first person to manage to successfully program animal stem cells with human genes for the purposes of growing human organs. The process was costly of course, but he had been working on it.

Then, tragedy struck. During one of his classes, a student had decided to be ‘smart’ and play around with some chemical combinations that were forbidden due to the dangerous nature of the mixture. As a result of that there was an explosion, he managed to protect the student, but his right arm was damaged beyond saving, and it had to be amputated. Ever since then he changed the course of his research to lizard DNA. Not only would his work be able to recover his lost arm, but it might even be better than what he had been doing previously.

Lizard-human DNA integration… What if we could regrow any part of our bodies after accidents? No more need for transplants, people who lost their limbs or ended up paralyzed might heal…!  he had thought. But in his feverish search for the Holy Grail of medicine he was impatient, he pushed for fast results and he cut corners. This resulted in the ‘British Gecko’, one of Connors’ patience (because goodness forbid he did the tests on himself) turned into a lizard. It had been temporary, human cells winning out against lizard DNA and returning the man’s body back to normal, but that didn’t mean he was not taken accountable. That was when Montana came in: a crime boss stationed in Britain at the time, working an American-French-British drug trade and other ‘services’. The man had promised to save him from the law, and provide him with resources. The doctor knew that such a thing was pretty bad… his brother, the chief of the criminal department of police, as well as a detective and very intelligent man in his own right, had told him criminals never really held up their end of deals when making them. But he had no choice.

Now though? Curt was free! After his arm grew back (he still occasionally pinched it to make sure it was real), Montana had congratulated him and left him to go on his way. He did offer him a possibility to continue work, but Connors declined. He promised not to rat him out, but nothing more. He wanted to live a normal life again, to move in with his brother’s family. To meet his niece. If they would accept him, of course. If not he’d probably take a GED and get back into teaching. He was probably going to have someone post his work posthumously, for obvious reasons.

Curt grabbed the door handle of Quantum Café with his right hand (he was going to be giddy to use his right hand for the rest of his life). The ding was heard, and while Cadence didn’t hear, her usual habit of checking the door allowed her to see him. She looked at him for a moment, at first not recognizing him (his blond hair had turned gray and he wore a five o’clock), but then looking shocker. She walked over and hugged him, the doctor hugging her back. She pointed towards his niece, who was sitting at a table with four other teens. He noticed that Allegra placed her head on the blue haired girl next to her, and looked at each other lovingly. He walked over.

“{‘ello there C major!}” he called out in British English, Allegra looking at him.

“{UNCLE CURT!}” all but shouted the girl in British English, standing up, her chair clattering to the ground as she ran and tackled him in a hug. He laughed, holding her up with both hands and spinning her once. She gasped. “{Your arm’s back!}”

“{Of course it is! I told you I’d get it back!}” he replied as he put her down. Marinette looked at the man: he was old-ish, the age of an uncle; he looked fit, so he probably exercised. Other than that there weren’t any distinguishing features… if the comment about the arm wasn’t to be taken into account that is. Her girlfriend had told her about ‘Uncle Curt’, but this was the first time meeting him. The man apparently was a bit shady, if what her father said was true, and the two men weren’t on good terms for years without the kind blond understanding why.

If he’s shady, that means he’s done something illegal. He totally looks like a normal person, and kind of has that teacher aura about him. Curious glint in his eye, dressed in a simple coat with a white shirt and a knitted vest, wearing glasses… wait the arm!

“I didn’t know Allegra was British? Do you think she’s been to Britain before? What’s her father like by the way?” asked Alya as she turned to look at the two, the teen struggling a bit to understand what they were saying.

“Yeah she’s British. And no I don’t think so: her parents met in France and she was born here.” explained Nino. The blue haired teen abruptly sat up and walked to Melodie.

“{This is incredible! Your arm feels completely normal—!}” exclaimed as she was feeling his right arm. Marinette pulled her back. Curt looked at the young fashion designer, noticing her glare and shrinking a little.

“Get away from him Allegra. He might turn.” said Marinette. The doctor groaned, pinching his nose as he crossed his arms.

“’Turn’? What do you mean ‘turn’?” asked Melodie.

“I am not going to turn young lady. You can relax. My serum is safe.”

“S-Serum? Uncle what are you talking about?” asked the kind blond, confused and a little scared. Marinette walked in front of her.

“Curtis Connors. ‘British Gecko’.” she whispered.

“You sure like reading old newspapers.” whispered Connors back, frowning.

“If you’re here to cause this family problems, do not forget that this is a country with heroes. They will stop you.” threatened the young fashion designer, continuing to whisper.

“I am not here to do that.” he admitted.

“Marinette, you’re scaring me… what is going on?” asked Allegra, the girl hugging her girlfriend from behind and letting her head rest on her shoulder. Connors’ frown softened.

“We should talk about this upstairs.” offered the man.

“You’re Curtis Connors?! Like the guy who made that lizard man?” asked Alya.

“Dude! You’re like a crazy scientist!” added Nino.

“I’M NOT—” began Connors, shouting, his body tense and his fist clenched. Marinette could have sworn his irises became thin, but it was too short of a time span to be sure, the man closing his eyes and cleaning his throat. “I’m not a crazy scientist. That was a mistake. I was just trying to make the world better.”

“You mean grow back your arm? You wanted to revolutionize medicine.” reasoned Alya. His face brightened.

“Yes. There we go! It’s true that my main motive for doing this was to regain my lost arm, but it’s not like I hadn’t already done work to change the medical field. I just wanted to make it less expensive.”

“… Lizard DNA cocktail. Make people grown back their limbs, organs, their everything.” finally spoke up Marinette.

“Yes! I can even help with bones and nerves…” he trailed off, looking pointedly at her cane for a second. “It could even heal your leg!”

“What about viruses that affect lizards?” asked the young fashion designer.

“Sorry?” asked Connors.

“Or about the differences in human and lizard physiology? What if this serum causes lizard genes to grow more powerful over generations? Humanity might start to lose their intellect and become more animalistic.” she reasoned.

“I am not going to force seven billion people to take my serum. Just for the people who need it.”

“Okay. Let’s say that’s the way we go. If the people who took the serum have children, then what will the children be born as? DNA is unpredictable when it forms an offspring, so what if that child comes out with a lot of lizard DNA from daddy or mommy? What if both parents have taken the serum? That means their child will become even more likely to be more lizard than human. Also how do you know your serum is safe? What if it’s not and you’re slowly turning into a lizard?” asked the girl.

“I’m not turning into a lizard!” replied Connors, a bit of amusement in his voice. “Leave me a few days and you’ll see. I promise you nothing will happen. My niece and your girlfriend will be fine.” Marinette got up to leave. Melodie was quietly looking at her legs before she spoke up.

“Where did you leave…? I-If the British government wanted you… Who took you in?” asked the blond girl.

“If I answer that… we’ll all be in danger.” admitted the man.

Chapter Text

In Doctor Octopus’ room, there was noise. The robot hated noise. It was the only reason why he chose to become a hacker (that and the money, of course). The worst part was that the noise was directed at him this time. Apparently the Shocker was none too happy that he removed his drug making guy from his money equation.

“If you wish him back, then have your men get him.” advised the robotic villain.

“Ah can’t ye bucket of bolts! Sum of us actually keep their promises!”

“Funny that you mention that. One of the reason I allowed your good doctor leave was because his serviceability was starting to degrade.”

“Huh?”

“Count the list of ‘products’ Doctor Connors made in the last two months compared too before. You’ll notice a significant drop in numbers.”

“My men told me nothin’ ‘bout such things!”

“Not all drugs sell. Perhaps Connors made enough to refill the stock, but he assuredly did not make a whole new one.”

“That li’l’ traitor…” grunted out Shocker.

Suddenly, a pigeon flew through the window and settled on Doctor Octopus’ work table, pecking at a little thing. The robot sighed as one of his arms went to catch it so he could twist its neck… but it missed. The pigeon flew away quickly thereafter, leaving the robot concerned.

“Shocker, follow that thing.”

“Why?”

“The reaction speed of my arms is ten times faster than that of a human. I should have caught that thing.”

“Fiiiine…! Darn sky varmint…!” said the villain as he walked towards the window and climbed out.

The pigeon continued its trajectory, flying quickly until it reached its destination. It landed on a man’s arm. The man was wearing a knee length, gray, wool coat over a dark grey turtle neck and black pants. He also wore a gray fedora and his hands were covered by black leather gloves, his ankle length boots also made of leather, around his neck a simple silver whistle. The main attraction however was the multicolored mask that he wore: in the shape of a large bird face, with a big beak, large round holes with black lenses for eyes, blue for most of the mask, yellow orange and red mixing together at the beak. The mask looked a little Mexican.

“Welcome back my dear hen! How was it? You look a little scared.” said the man, his finger going to pat the pigeon’s head. A yellow butterfly symbol appeared in front of his face as someone sneezed.

“Bird Whisperer, darling; I do agree that pigeons are wonderful, but could we get the information first?” asked Lady Monarch.

“Of course, my lady.” The sound of someone sneezing was heard again as the pigeon started cooing.

“Gould I dage a zdeb bag?” asked Red Beetle before sneezing again, his nose overflowing with snot, tears in his eyes. Multifox pulled out a handkerchief from a glowing hole in her flute.

“This is the place, my lady. ‘A big shiny metal thing with spaghetti on his back along with a yellow man with a single green eye’ says my wonderful hen.”

“Guys, I hear Shocker heading in this direction!” said Melody, the Champion using her new power of hypersonic hearing to keep a lookout. The butterfly symbol appeared in front of her face.

“Tell everyone to scatter, and begin playing notes to nullify their noise sweetie!”

The Champion followed her lovely’s command, everyone hiding out. Shocker began to look around for the damn bird for about an hour, Lady Monarch sending messages to everyone to leave for their homes. The heroes and two Champions of Paris scattered to the wind, Mister Ramier getting a goodbye from his lady, the man promising to be of service again.

Marinette woke up with pain. Nothing new for her though, the teen taking pills. It’s been a couple of days since Connors had appeared, and he was… okay. The man didn’t really show signs of becoming a monstrous, man eating reptile, but his nerves seemed to be a little on end. The young fashion designer began to consider the possibility of using her Lady Monarch persona to cure the doctor, but decided against it. Suspicion between her connection with Lady Monarch had to be kept out of the hands of the enemy, and Marinette was pretty sure he had some connection.

After the previous night, the blue haired teen was pretty sure that Curt was working under Chai, or Shocker, or the villains in general. Multifox’ information was correct. It would be pretty easy for Lady Monarch to just storm the place with her strongest hitters, along with Red Beetle, Multifox and Bunnix. Thinking of that, Marinette realized that she didn’t talk with Alix. Like at all. And by ‘she’, the blue haired teen meant Lady Monarch.

“You called?” asked Bunnix, the heroine walking through a hole she created through the space-time continuum. Marinette was startled, the girl, who had just finished affixing her brooch to her shirt, falling to the ground.

“Called? What do you mean called?!”

“You were thinking about me.” replied Bunnix nonchalantly, a beep going off in her pocket.

“How did you…?” asked Marinette, trailing.

“You were mumbling.” explained the bunny heroine. The blue haired teen groaned.

“Your Kwami gave you the all-clear to fuck with the timeline, didn’t she?” asked the young fashion designer.

“More or less. I was supposed to do it later, but, since the timeloop, Fluff told me when to use it.”

“Okay then. That pretty much solves the whole problem I wanted to talk with you about— Oh! One thing though: how much information are you allowed to give?”

“Cryptically, or literally?” joked Bunnix.

“Both.” replied the young fashion designer seriously.

“Well I can tell you that Adrien would soon learn you are Lady Monarch’s ‘guy in the chair’.” Marinette frowned. “Also, you should ask your girlfriend out.”

“I already hate you…” said the blue haired teen coldly.

“Don’t shoot the messenger!”

“Fine! What about Chai’s ‘cave’?” Bunnix looked thoughtful, crossing her arms and looking down, tapping her left foot.

“…It has cracks in it.” she said mysteriously, looking serious. That got Marinette’s gears turning for about a moment, before she nodded in understanding.

In the weekend Marinette decided to ask Melodie out. One thing lead to another and, eventually, Marinette, her girlfriend, Adrien, Alya, Nino and Doctor Connors went out to a movie, the latter there to ‘supervise’. He was more there because of curiosity, and since Adrien was without his father, he needed another adult (outside of his bodyguard), so Connors offered to come as well.

The teens had chosen a cheesy romantic film. Melodie’s choice and Marinette couldn’t really say no, since it was Allegra, and the kind blond having the blue haired girl wrapped around her little finger. The movie was fun, or at least half of it was, as that’s what they saw when the cinema was attacked. The villains of Paris stormed the place and were casually hurting people on their way to whatever their objective was, but not going out of their way to hurt everyone, just those in the way. People started evacuating, while others hid, Doctor Connors, the bodyguard and the teens being amongst those who hid.

The villains walked further inside the building, Marinette cursing her luck at Allegra’s uncle being with them. She couldn’t just transform in front of him, not to mention that Doctor Octopus, who was capable of somehow detecting her magic. Adrien, who managed to hide out somewhere else with his bodyguard did not have any of these problems, the teen transforming and trying to sneak near them.

“Ah, delighted to make your proper acquaintance Red Beetle. Last time we didn’t quite have the time to talk.” said Doctor Octopus, the robotic villain turning to look straight at him, his tentacles coming out of his arms, something wrapped in paper held in his real arms. Shocker immediately turned and shot at the ladybug hero, who jumped from his vantage point and began swinging, avoiding Chai’s launching himself at him by jerking his body out of the way, before getting shot with electricity, Red Beetle screaming in pain as he was launched backwards.

“Boss I got him!” called out a voice that RB didn’t recognize. His body felt twitchy and prickly, he felt as if he was burned and his heart was acting funny. But after a few seconds these symptoms began to dissipate, the hero opening up his yo-yo and sending a quick ‘HELP!’ message along with his location. Someone probably saw the news and they were coming, so they would surely see the message.

Red Beetle began crawling, trying to get away, one of Doctor Octopus’ tentacles grabbing him by his back before wrapping the tentacle part around him, trapping his arms in the process.

“Who’s the new guy? Bug-zapper?” joked the ladybug hero as Chai walked forward, his attempts at stalling not really working.

“Boss, can I zap him again?” asked the new villain.

“Patience boy. Ye can burn him after scorpion gets his earring thingies.”

“That’s not chivalrous at all! Haven’t you heard of ‘pick on someone your own size’?” asked the ladybug hero, using his little bit of free movement to lean out of the way of Chai’s hands.

“AARGH! Keep him still dammit!” ordered the scorpion villain.

“YOWL! Easy on the ribs!” called out Red Beetle, managing to grab his yo-yo and preparing to flick it in Chai’s face.

Suddenly, a portal opened behind Doctor Octopus.

"What's up, doc?" asked Bunnix, wearing a black metal vest over her usual outfit, the heroine slapping the back of the villain’s head with something. She leaned back inside her portal, which closed, as a deactivation hum came from Doctor Octopus, the villain falling to the floor, his tentacle’s grip on RB loosening. The hero hit Chai in the face, the villain getting stunned more from shock than anything else. Red Beetle jumped back, avoiding an attack from Shocker and his electric partner. From the side of the room, Bunnix landed next to him.

“Got your message. Is one of Lady Monarch’s Champions around?”

“No. Thanks for the save earlier.”

“What save?” asked the heroine. Doctor Octopus’ body hummed, turning on after Chai removed and crushed the little device that had turned him off.

“After them!” ordered Chai, beginning to charge the heroes, RB beginning to swing away while his bunny partner jumped low, far and quickly, her feet hitting the floor as she almost seemed to bounce, managing to keep well ahead of everyone. Doctor Octopus seemed to separate from everyone.

“You teleported behind him and was like ‘What’s up, doc?’ before you slapped the back of the neck with this thingy!”

“Please don’t tell me I actually said ‘What’s up, doc?’...!” groaned Bunnix.

“You did! Also you were wearing some weird vest, where did that go?”

“Time travel! That was probably me from the future.” explained Bunnix as they found a nice open space to fight in.

Doctor Octopus was searching for something. Or rather, someone. He needed to find Doctor Connors and see if his theory proved correct. The robotic villain had long since activated his genetic scanner, trying to find the lizard DNA that the man pumped in his body without hesitation, his scanner beeping when he observed a person hiding out somewhere in a bathroom.

“<Chuckle>” the robot let himself down, retracting his tentacles, except for his upper right one, which he used to break down the door.

“Hello Connors. Long time no see~!” sang the villain, his voice still somehow monotone.

“No! You promised to leave me alone!” exclaimed the man, his eyes

“Knew it! You should have left us alone.”

“Uncle! You worked for them?!” asked Melodie, sounding horrified.

“’Uncle’? Now this is rich.” said the robotic villain as his arm went and grabbed Allegra, the girl screaming in fear before getting spun around, the tentacle wrapping around her more securely than it had been for Red Beetle. Marinette paled, freezing up.

“LET HER GO!” snarled Curt, running towards the robotic villain. His lower left tentacle sprung from his back and the claws bent inwards, punching the doctor in the face, a sickening crack being heard as he broke his nose.

“UNCLE!” shouted Melodie, Doctor Octopus tightening his grip around the girl, causing her to scream in pain. Curt looked up at the man, snarling, his teeth becoming slightly sharper, his nose reforming into shape as green scales began growing from the spot where it had been snapped, blood no longer pouring from his nose.

“You’re not hurrying up with the lizard are you? To think her pain means so little to you that you aren’t more rattled. You really are a selfish man at heart… Oh well~!” sang the robot condescendingly before launching his free tentacle at the doctor again, this time his claws pointing forwards and touching their tips as he impaled the man’s right lung, causing him to scream in pain before coughing blood. Both teen girls were terrified, Melodie crying silently. Then…

Curt coughed up all the blood in his system as the hole Doctor octopus closed, the man twitching in weird positions with a snap crackle and pop, grunting from pain. His hands began to make cracking noises as they grew in size and his nails became claws.

“No! You said it was saAAAAAAAAHHHH!” screamed Connors in pain as his back forcefully bend downwards and forwards, a large set of scales, similar to that of crocodiles, growing from it. From his lower back tendrils grew out, shaping themselves in the form of a tail. The man’s eyes became fully yellow as his head began to change shape, flattening, the man opening his mouth once as his teeth grew, before he opened it again, forcefully unhinging itself more as his scream turned into a reptilian shriek and a crocodile-like maw was now his visage. Doctor Octopus chuckled.

“Who told you that it was a good idea to trust a villain’s word, Lizard?” asked the robot. The Lizard looked up at him and squinted, before, from his kneeled position, he launched quickly to him, the villain second lower tentacle coming out of his back and using both of them to push himself up, the reptilian human hitting the corridor war behind. “Now follow me! I have some nice food for you~!”

Chapter Text

Marinette fell to the ground, her ears ringing, and the young fashion designer feeling like her lungs were tight, like she wasn’t getting enough oxygen. Not even the cold floor could help her snap out of it, as memories of the loss of her leg’s use combined with what was happening now flooding her brain. Her vision grew dark and she was trembling… She wasn’t of any help at all, just like back then. She would get hurt again, just like back then. Her leg would get crushed again… Just. Like. Back. Then.

“…rine… Mar… nette… MARINETTE!” came Nooroo’s voice, sounding as if he was underwater. “Marinette no dissociation! Come back to me! Can you hear me? Twitch your pointer finger if you can hear me.” The blue haired teen did so. “Okay! Concentrate on my voice. Not on the ringing! On my voice! I’m here. You’re here. Not back then. Here! You can do this Marinette.” Marinette took a big gulp of air, not helping much with her hyperventilation.

“Good.” Nooroo settled on his mistress hand, the touch giving something else to focus on. “You can feel me on your hand right? Concentrate on me. Not the trembling. On me. You can do this!” Marinette trembling grew slower, her hyperventilation still there. “Okay, now try to take biiiiig gulps of air! Like me!” He took in a lot of air and then he let it out. “Come on! In for five… out for five…”

Marinette breathed deeply, holding the air in her burning lungs for five seconds, before letting it. She repeated the process until she felt the ringing stop and her vision returning. Slowly, the girl began to cry as she tried to sit up, Nooroo trying to catch her eyes before she hit her head on the floor, letting out a cry of pain.

“FUCK!”

“W-Why did you do that?!” asked Nooroo, frightened by the fact his wielder willingly hurt herself and seeing the little trickle of blood from her forehead.

“I don’t have any time to waste crying! I need to get out there…!” said Marinette, determined yet tired. Nooroo knew where his mistress was coming from, but he couldn’t possibly let her do that.

“But you can’t! You’re in no condition to make a Fay. A-And Doctor Octopus will detect you if you become Lady Monarch. He’ll know it’s you.”

“If I can’t… make proper Fays… then I’ll use them myself…” said the young fashion designer, a little woozy.

“But—“

“Nooroo…fairy wings rise…” she mumbled. Her Kwami resisted at first, before he was sucked into the brooch, creating her suit. Some of the tiredness and wooziness went away, but not the emptiness, the jitteriness. Trying her best to push them away, she flicked her cane’s top open and let out her white butterfly, which flew to her hand. Lady Monarch closed her eyes.

What if Doctor Octopus killed her…? He wouldn’t, he needs her to bait Connors. But if Connors’ mind goes, then he might not recognize her and attack her too. What if he just feeds her to that… monster. Dammit I knew I should have gotten rid of him…!

No matter how hard she tried, Lady Monarch couldn’t will her dark thoughts away. And so the little butterfly in her hands felt as dark energy began to suffuse into it, making it angry and worried just like its mistress. From Lady Monarch’s hands flew out an Akuma.

Doctor Octopus, who had grabbed Bunnix by the foot, threw her towards Shocker, the villain shooting his sound blast at her, the heroine managing to open her umbrella and block it, getting launched into the ceiling. With practiced ease, almost like a reflex, she closed the umbrella, spun it around, and used its handle to hang off a support beam. That didn’t save her from the electric villain zapping her, the girl screaming in pain. Meanwhile Red Beetle was trying his darnedest to avoid Chai, the villain managing to use his tail to always prevent him from going to help his teammate, but not managing to pounce on him when he was down, as he was always stopped by the Lizard at Melodie's orders. He really wanted to kill her, but the octopus said not to, at least not yet.

Suddenly, Doctor Octopus’ scanner picked up Lady Monarch and Volpina. A few moments later, Invoclustrator, sitting on a large, clockwork spider, two other animals, both looking like a cross between a bull, mammoth and rhinoceros (lots of pointy horns and the two tusks), charged as well, Shocker and his partner missing their shots as the two creatures dodged, being deceptively acrobatic despite their size. The clockwork spider tried to shoot the two with web, both of them managing to dodge, not quite realizing that the webs would not have hit them anyway.

“I just found Lady Monarch! I shall end her quickly Chai!”

“Go and get her! We can handle the rest!” ordered the scorpion villain as he rammed Red Beetle into the wall, Bunnix managing to land on him and hitting his head a few times with her umbrella, annoying him more than anything, before she hopped away, the villain getting hit by electricity, while Shocker’s shot aimed a little above him.

The robotic villain paid no mind to the angry voice of Chai, aimed at their new villain’s incompetency. The robot had wished for someone else to use the Galvanic Rig, but Shocker said the man was trustworthy, and since Chai was very impatient with about his ‘Army of supervillains’, he relented. Soon enough though, he wouldn’t need that army, as Lady Monarch would be out of the picture. As Doctor Octopus made his way to where he detected Lady Monarch, he couldn’t help but notice that he had walked here before.

“There’s the door… Oh! I understand…” he said softly, before moving quickly to catch Lady Monarch unaware. “I have you now Lady Monarch!” said the villain, pinning the person in the room to the wall. But the person did not look like Lady Monarch.

With lavender skin and purple hair pulled into two pigtails, looking like horns, her costume similar to that of a jester, short yet puffy pants with black and purple vertical lines alternating, a purple shirt with black buttons and round shoulder pads that had white inside, black leggings with pointy purple shoes, black bells at their end, as well as black belt around her collar, the Champion was pinned to the wall. She raised her head, revealed a manic grin framed by dark purple lips, irises blood red, black tear marks going from her eyes all the way down her cheeks.

“<Laughter> I was to come to you, but this works too!” she rhymed, before the villain watched her right arms stretch, her hand, which had black nails, grabbing hold of a scythe. He sent out one of his tentacles to stop her, but her retracted faster, and with a quick flick of her wrist, her scythe sliced through the arm pinning her.

“You better run. Make it more fun. Call for help too. It will be much more satisfying when I GUT YOU!” she screamed by the end, beginning to run at him.

Doctor Octopus made a tactical retreat, seeing Multifox having joined the fray, the heroine using flute to make various illusions, such as blinding fireworks, copies of herself, Red Beetle and Bunnix, making Shocker or their new villain look like meat in order to get the Lizard to attack them. He knew he shouldn’t have tried pacifying the beast with raw meat, but he couldn’t have known it would only listen to that girl. There was one thing left to do.

“Chai, kill her!” called out the villain as he rushed into the room. His upper right arm, which he had detached and had its claw hanging to the ceiling, unwrapped from Melodie, the girl beginning to fall. Chai looked up, smiling

“NOOOOO!” screamed the Champion, her legs coiling like springs and jumping to the robotic villain’s level, before sinking her scythe into his shoulder, the villain leaning his head out of the way last second, and propelling herself up. Her body elongate and flattened, before quickly wrapping around the kind blond quickly and growing spikes, impaling Chai’s hands as he grabbed on. She then used little bits of herself little bits of herself to swing down, Red Beetle swinging in front of the Champion and girl, beginning to spin his yo-yo in order to block Shocker’s and his partner’s attack.

Allegra gasped for breath after feeling what the meat in a burrito felt like, the Champion pulling her up and giving her a desperate, yet familiar, kiss on the mouth. She was dipped down for a moment as Bunnix and Multifox landed next to RB.

“My magic trinket, the one which to you I bestow, make sure to have it suspicion-below.” whispered the champion in Allegra’s ear after pulling back, the blond haired girl feeling something pushed into her pocket. It took her a few moments to realize what her girlfriend meant before she nodded.

“Don’t hurt my uncle…” she whispered back, before running off.

“Lizard, go get your niece!” called out Doctor Octopus, the villain struggling to take out the scythe. The Lizard did as told, quickly running after Melodie. The Champion stretched her left hand quickly to grab her weapon, ripping through more of the robot as she pulled it out, her right hand growing human size as she pushed Bunnix to the wall. She threw her scythe at the Lizard, the weapon spinning in the air, its blade impaling the villain’s neck and nailing him to the ground just before he was about to pounce on Allegra. The girl didn’t notice, for she didn’t look back before disappearing out of view.

“Sit there! Move and you’re dead, that I swear!” snarled the Champion with a sick smile on her face, disturbing the other heroes. All of them recognized her voice, despite its slight change in pitch.

“Marinette…?” whispered Red Beetle as him and the others were ready to jump, the villains having surrounded them.

“Feng be my designation, and Chai’s fall my ambition.” Coiling her legs like springs, she jumped into the air. “At me, scorpion, rush! It’s high time with my hand I turn you to mush!” she called out with a manic grin as she made her hands huge and brought them down like hammers, forcing all the villains to move away.

“I’m… gonna go do that thing you told me about RB. Burrow!” called out Bunnix, jumping into the time portal, which closed behind her.

“I’ll run interference!” called out Multifox, jumping to the side and beginning to play flute like mad, making it so that nobody could focus on Feng with all the little noises and bright lights, the Champion herself being turned into a blur, making it hard for Shocker and his partner to be able to aim properly, while Doctor Octopus seemed to fare a little better, but didn’t help much since he constantly eyed the scythe which pinned the Lizard. Chai went straight for Red Beetle, the hero using his yo-yo to pull himself up, shaking off the sense of foreboding he got from Marinette.

“Do you really not tire of running— sorry— crawling? We’re both not-bugs so can’t we figure something out?” asked the hero jokingly. Chai jumped to a wall and from it he went for the roof, trying to pierce the ladybug hero, who dodged and managed to wrap his yo-yo around the scorpionic villain’s tail leaving him hanging.

“Okay, okay. Arachnids eat beetles and I’m part of the Coccinellidae family, but I swear I’m no good. I mean look at me: I’m a walking stick with a bit of muscle. No fat.” Chai growled.

“Keep talking and I might just eat you human. Octopus!” ordered the scorpion, the robot turning his attention back to Chai.

“Nuh-uh~! You’re my opponent~! You fight me at the moment~!” Doctor Octopus’ right tentacle, which he had reattached, had its claw cut as Feng had pulled her scythe from a shrieking Lizard, before she casually threw it blade first into Shocker’s partners chest, the man falling to the ground. “Oops~! Used an angle more obtuse~!” she laughed, before she pulled out her scythe from the man and going to attack Shocker, the villain managing to push himself back, but not before, he got the chest part of his suit sliced, leaving him with nothing. Doctor Octopus took that moment to make himself scarce.

Multifox stopped playing, her face pale, Red Beetle looking just as pale as he dropped Chai. Even the main villain himself looked a little scared, but did not run away.

After Melodie ran for a couple of minutes and was sure she was alone, the kind blond pulled out the Butterfly Miraculous and pinned it to her shirt, the magical jewel glowing as it turned into a golden brooch in the shape of a flower, a small black pearl in the center, a silver butterfly sitting on a petal. Nooroo flew out of the jewel, stretching a little and feeling reinvigorated after recharging inside his Miraculous. Then his expression showed worry:

“Is Marinette okay? Where is she? What happened to her? Please don’t tell me she used her powers on herself!” he said it all in one breath.

“That’s what she did?! I saw that Marinette looked like a Champion, but I had no idea what was actually happening! Nooroo, something is wrong! With Marinette I mean.”

“If you transform you can stop her! Do it!”

“O-Okay! <Deep Breath> Nooroo— Fairy wings rise!” the butterfly Kwami entered the brooch as Allegra felt the energy of the Miraculous flow forth, its ‘mystical music’, as she called it, shaping her pants and boots as she walked on her points backwards, before making a pirouette as the magic went up the rest of the way. With a wave of her hand, she summoned her mask, before purple light created the cane, which fell into her hands.

Lady Monarch stood in her hideaway, wearing a strappy, skater mini dress with the Butterfly Miraculous at the base of her left strap. Her face was covered by a white mask shaped like big butterfly wings, with long, backwards bending, purple antennae, her blond hair let down and a shade lighter. She wore thigh high, white socks and purple ballet shoes with ribbons around her ankles, as well as white opera gloves with a lavender butterfly print on the back of each hand. Finally, she wore a baby purple colored cape shaped like the butterfly wings, tied with a bow. Her cane was completely white, with a brilliant, pinkish-purple gem at the top.

With a serious face, the heroine closed her eyes, not needing to swim through the ocean of emotions here in order to detect the deep dark pit of frustration, fear and fury that was Marinette. Making a connection was a bit more difficult, as the Fay was not made by her, and she lacked the training to just do it instantly.

“Feng stop!” called out RB as he wrapped his yo-yo’s wore around the scythe and pulled, preventing the Champion from impaling Chai, who was now in his silhouette form. The villain had made the mistake to stick around. They had first battled by themselves, Red Beetle and Multifox being unable to stop the clash of big fists and clawed hands, Feng managing to hammer down on him once, twice, the third time being the charm to put him down. Chai’s tail had simply bounced on her body, which, he learned the hard way, was indestructible.

The Champion let go of her scythe, shaping her left hand into a sword instead. Multifox got her flute under the Champion’s neck as she struggled to pull her back. Unbeknownst to them, people were watching them from afar, some filming.

“This isn’t you! We know you’re mad! But you need to stop!”

“How foolish! You do realize I’m not that brutish! All I wish is to cut him up; Pieces big enough to fit in a cup!” Feng made her head flat and went limbo as she slid out of the vixen heroine’s grip, before turning to her. “Get in my way again, and you will deal with my cane!” called out the Champion, her left hand lashing out at Multifox, before her right arm stretched and grabbed her scythe back from Red Beetle.

“Why didn’t you snap it?! The Fay must be in there!” exclaimed Multifox in a panic.

“I know! But I couldn’t!” argued back the ladybug hero. With a laugh, Feng spun on the tip of her feet before holding her weapon up. At that moment, the yellow butterfly symbol appeared in front of her face, fading in and out.

“Marinette don’t kill him…! <garbled noise>  PLEASE!” exclaimed Lady Monarch.

“He and the others—”

“I know… <garbled noise> it’s true! But that doesn’t mean you should kill them. You will never forgive yourself for it. Let go of your anger and let me free the Fay, please sweetie!” the butterfly heroine’s voice was on the verge of crying. Feng’s arms trembled. Shocker had eventually left the fight, the other guy had used to electricity to burn the scythe hole closed saving himself and the Lizard had regenerative abilities, so she didn’t kill anyone. “Please Mari… Come back to me!” whispered Lady Monarch. Feng let the scythe drop behind her, her arms and legs going limp like noodles, the butterfly symbol now growing brightly in front of her face.

The Champion was overtaken by a dark cloud as the Akuma left the scythe, the weapon being engulfed in the same darkness, the dark butterfly becoming white again as it flew away. Multifox noticed the cameras and played a short tune in order for people not to realize who was the Champion, both heroes dragging Marinette away, along with her cane.

Moments later, a door in the side of the corridor opened as people began to trickle in, one of Doctor Octopus tentacles coming through it and scaring them away, the robotic villain simply grabbing Chai’s body and taking it with him.

Chapter Text

After the whole fiasco with Feng, Lady Monarch’s popularity took a dive once again. It had slowly started to rise up after the Champions started to do early morning and evening patrols (they didn’t stay up too late and were on rotation to afford them proper recuperation), and people had stopped throwing dirt after the whole time-loop debacle. After the attempted murder of Chai, public opinion was once again against Lady Monarch. But that was the least of Marinette’s problems right now. She almost killed someone! And even if she couldn’t remember it (a side-effect of empowering a butterfly with negative emotions), she did learn it and saw herself on the internet. Multifox and Red Beetle seemed a little upset, not at herself, but at Lady Monarch. And since she was Lady Monarch… well…

Marinette and Allegra had gone straight to the latter’s home, Nino and Alya deciding to leave them alone after the two filmed the Lizard and the other villains battling the heroes. The young fashion designer was going mostly on autopilot, having been quiet all the way to her girlfriend’s room. Nooroo, despite wanting to help, decided to trust that the kind blond would do her magic.

“Mari…? Would you… like to talk about it…?” as opposed to Marinette, who worked on physical autopilot, Allegra was functioning on emotional autopilot, ignoring all that had happened and trying to focus on the present.

“… Did I hurt Chat or Volpina…?” mumbled the young fashion designer, using the wrong names. Her girlfriend understood anyway.

“No. You didn’t attack them. They’re okay…!” reassured the kind blond, hugging her girlfriend. Marinette began crying.

“I felt like an alien in my body… Like… I can’t remember what I did but… I remember it wasn’t me in control, it was… Feng… I was in the back of my own mind…” sobbed Marinette quietly, Allegra stroking her back affectionately, making sure she didn’t start hyperventilating.

“It’s okay now. You’re back in control… You’re you Marinette, not Feng, alright?” asked the kind blond pulling away to look at her girlfriend. The young fashion designer nodded and sniffled. Allegra hugged her again and kissed her on the cheek. “Do you want to spend the night here?” She felt Marinette nodding. Allegra didn’t feel like leaving Marinette to tell her mother about it, and worried that letting her go might result in herself starting to cry, so she just texted her mom.

The two teens spend a nice quiet dinner, some calm music put on by Cadence for the two of them. Marinette and Allegra made their way back up and, slowly, their roles reversed, the former struggling to calm the latter’s crying over the 'loss' of her uncle. Eventually, both settled in Allegra’s bed, Nooroo choosing to take a nap in a drawer to not disturb them.

In the morning, the kind blond woke up early, like usual, being met with the warmth of her lovely girlfriend hugging her. But something was different than usual… Allegra blushed when she realized what was different. They weren’t wearing pajamas. They had had sex for the first time. And she couldn’t remember it! After they had come back to her room after dinner everything had been a blur. Well… she’ll probably tell her girlfriend they will have to do it again at a later time.

The blond teen managed to snake her way out of her girlfriend’s arms, placing a stuffed animal in her grasp to hug instead. She stirred, but at least she didn’t wake up. After spending a few moments looking lovingly at her sleepy girlfriend , Allegra went to her desk and checked her emails.

“<Gasp> I actually got accepted in the middle of the semester! Go me!” whisper-shouted the girl excitedly. Apparently she wasn’t quiet enough however.

“Mels…?” groaned the young fashion designer. “Where are… <yawn> …my pajamas?” she asked, sitting up in bed and stretching her arms, her bare chest practically on display. Melodie blushed.

“We… uh… we had sex.” The girl looked down at herself, the weight of the Butterfly Miraculous suddenly heavy on her.

“Ughhh! Fuck, I don’t remember anything...!” whined Marinette.

“Language…!” scolded Allegra absentmindedly, exiting her mail account. When she turned, her girlfriend was pulling on her pants, her panties already on and her shirt covering her, but being open, part of it off her shoulder, revealing her shoulder and chest.

“Forgo the bra…” mumbled Marinette as she took off her shirt, putting on the piece of clothing she forgot. As the girl put her shirt back and began to close it, Allegra pulled off the brooch. Nooroo, feeling this, was startled awake and phased through his drawer.

“Good morning! Have a nice sleep?” he asked.

“Morning Nooroo. Yes, we slept alright. At least I think. I don’t feel tired.” relied Allegra. Marinette was quiet. Kwami and human shared a look, both worried, before Melode walked over and sat down next to her girlfriend, who finished buttoning her waistcoat. “Here.” she offered the brooch.

Marinette eyed the camouflaged Butterfly Miraculous, its golden flower shape, the black pearl at its center and its tiny silver butterfly on the side making so much easier to hide the fact it was a Miraculous. It’s as if it knows… thought the blue haired girl as her hands hovered over it… before she closed Allegra’s fist around it.

“M-Mistress?” asked Nooroo, going back to that old habit. Marinette shook her head.

“I can’t…”

“But Mari, this is your Miraculous— It’s more than that! It’s a family heirloom! You’ve had it since you were little!” argued the kind blond.

“And I’m giving it to you… Mels, I can’t be Lady Monarch anymore, I never could be.”

“What are you saying? You’ve been one of my best wielders so far! Just because you made a mistake—”

“It wasn’t just a ‘mistake’ Nooroo…! To make a Fay, one needs positive emotion, something which to me felt like pulling teeth! I’m no longer the energetic and happy girl that’s thirsty for knowledge and learning…” Marinette held her head in her hands. Allegra placed her empty hand on her shoulder.

“That doesn’t mean you should give up. Paris needs you… your teammates need you. What about Red Beetle and Multifox, or Bunnix?”

“I’ll still help how I can, just not as Lady Monarch.”

“Mistress, you can’t just pass me on like nothing! You’re the Lady Monarch. Think of all the work that you put into preparing for future Champions, coordinating the other heroes, decoding the tome!” argued Nooroo.

“And how do you know I’ll do a good job? What if I make a worse mistake than you?” asked the kind blond. Marinette smiled, grabbing the Butterfly Miraculous. Both Allegra and Nooroo though she was going to put it on, before the girl affixed it to the former’s white turtleneck.

“Whenever I transformed, it was you who I tried to copy. You, Allegra: the girl who sees good in everyone, the girl who’s kind to a fault, the girl who never bothers others with her problems, the one who keeps up a façade of perfection so others wouldn’t worry about her. All the good and the bad of who you are, mixed in with a little flare for the dramatic… So you see: Lady Monarch has always been you.”

“But I’m not as smart as you, and I can’t even lie to save my life! Also, I don’t even know how to use the Butterfly Miraculous properly!”

“Really? You passed the test during Adrien’s birthday.”

“That’s why you insisted… You wanted to pawn me off, didn’t you…?” Nooroo grumbled.

“Nobody wanted to pawn anyone off!” said the kind blond.

“True; but I did plan in case something happened to me.” added the young fashion designer.

“I-I’m only borrowing! Once you’re okay again, I’m giving it back. I won’t just take this away from you.”

“Whatever makes you accept it Mels…” mumbled Marinette, getting up and limping towards her coat. “Now I’ve got to go to school. Also…” the young fashion designer limped to her girlfriend’s wardrobe and pulled out a yellow scarf, before walking over and wrapping it lightly around the kind blond’s neck. “There. Now people won’t ask about the brooch.”

“What about your brooch? W-What about the butterflies?!” asked Allegra, realizing she had no butterflies. Nooroo was quietly sitting on the blond’s shoulder while she eyed the open collar, looking empty without the purple brooch.

“I'll just say I've put it away. Also you’ll be coming by to my place to store one of the butterflies in the cane. Unless you have a place to keep a few butterflies.”

“I… don’t…” said Melodie, finally accepting what was happening. She didn’t accept the idea of her replacing Marinette forever, but she was okay with doing it at least temporarily. Nooroo sighed.

“Do you keep things in your pockets?” asked the Kwami, looking at Allegra’s jeans.

“I have a pair of pants with deeper pockets.” she replied, realizing what Nooroo meant and quickly changing into some yellow pants. The butterfly Kwami made his way into the left pant pocket, snuggling inside and noting that the pockets were a little fluffy, similar to the ones the young fashion designer made for him.

“Marinette, did you make these?” asked Nooroo, peeking his head out. Both Kwami and human noticed she was gone. They sighed, before going downstairs. They thankfully weren’t going to be late, but Melodie still packed her breakfast and slowly ate on the way to the bakery.

When she said hello to Sabine, the woman smiled brightly and asked if she was okay. She nodded, a little worried that she’d somehow figure out she had the brooch, despite the fact Sabine didn’t know. This was what she meant when she said she couldn’t lie. She just panicked whenever she had to keep big secrets like this, and was only able to keep it at her old school because nobody really talked to her anymore. Marinette was in her room, the blue haired teen closing the cap of a jar, a white butterfly inside.

“These guys don’t listen to me anymore.”

“What did you expect? Your authority held weight because you had the Butterfly Miraculous.” explained Nooroo. “Mistress, please reconsider…! What about the plans you’ve made?”

“Wait, you made plans? What plans? I can’t do this if I don’t know your plans.” argued Allegra, hoping she managed to convince her girlfriend.

“Don’t worry; I’ll catch you up to speed after school today.” Nooroo and Melodie sighed again. The kind blond turned into Lady Monarch, observing Marinette smiling, a small brush on her face (probably because of the mini-skirt and let down hair), and also how the butterfly began freaking out, its wings beating rapidly before he was released, the little insect flying happily around her. Lady Monarch looked down at her cane and tried to open the top, struggling to pull it open. The blue haired teen sighed and walked forward.

“Push, don’t pull.” she instructed, placing a hand on her girlfriend’s and making her push. A small click was heard before the top opened by itself and the butterfly, remembering what the others usually did, entered the cane, shrinking a little to fit. “Now just turn back.” Allegra did so, and Marinette turned to her desk, pulling out a small box of black berries out of a drawer. “For Nooroo.”

This was happening… It was really happening… The fact Allegra was given his favorite food made Nooroo realize that his mistress really was giving up. With a quick kiss on the lips, the young fashion designer bid her girlfriend goodbye as well as good luck at school. Melodie thought about the email she received.

“Don’t worry Nooroo. She won’t be able to ignore you that easily.” said the kind blond with a seriousness so alien in her voice.

“Wanna talk about it girl?” asked Alya. The blogger had immediately noticed that her friend was upset, as well as the fact her family heirloom was missing (Marinette said she put it away for safekeeping), but the girl wasn’t sure if she was going to open up to her.

“We were in the same room… when he turned…” said Marinette. She wasn't ready to tell her friend about being Feng, but she did want to process the Lizard situation

“Oof...! You didn’t get hurt, right?” the young fashion designer shook her head. Alya stroke her back awkwardly, hoping it was okay to do that. It was.

“Well… If It’s any consolation, you were right all along not to trust him.” Alya had no idea what she was doing. Marinette smiled, happy that she wasn't the only person who sucked at being comforting.

Suddenly, the door opened and Miss Bustier walked in, a strange occurrence. Strange because there were still a few minutes before class started, and the teacher was known to arrive perfectly on the dot, not before or after. So why was she here early?

“Everyone; there will be a new classmate joining us from today onward.” announced the woman.

“Isn’t it the middle of the term?” asked Alya. The others asked similar questions, even Adrien, who had been thinking of how and where to tell Marinette about his mother without making people suspicious.

“It is, but this is a bit of a special case. Your new classmate was in a toxic environment before, and while she seems not too affected, it is our hope that, if there are problems, you could help her feel welcome and allowed to open up.” explained Miss Bustier.

Why does this sound familiar…? Marinette asked herself, take a swig of water. A moment later their new classmate walked in, the click clack of her yellow kitten heels echoing in the room. The young fashion designer did a spit-take, before beginning to cough.

“You?!” she asked in between her coughs, her voice hoarse.

“HI MARI!” called out Allegra loudly, waving with her entire right arm, giving her a thousand-watt smile, everyone feeling a giant wave of happiness and love coming from Allegra, the latter of the the two emotions entirely focused on the young fashion designer.

“You already know someone Allegra, this is wonderful!”

“That’s your girlfriend, right?” asked Alya, loud enough for everyone to hear. The blogger knew what she was doing.

“She looks wonderful!” exclaimed Rose. Juleka waved to the kind blond with a smile.

“You sure got a type Dupain-Cheng!”  said Kim, everyone remembering that the blue haired teen managed to get Adrien to like her.

“Hey, don’t you think that’s rude dude?” asked Nino.

“She really was from another school…” said Alix.

“You can feel welcome here!”/ “You can feel welcome here!” exclaimed Ivan and Mylene at the same time.

“Hello. I hope we can get along.” said Sabrina.

“Hi, Melodie.” added Chloe a bit awkwardly. The ex and the current were going to share a class. A little robot flew over to Allegra.

“Hello! I am Markov; Max’s best friend. Welcome to our class.”

Miss Bustier got her material ready, allowing her class to gush and calm down before the course began. Allegra was allowed to have the seat next to Marinette, Alya moving next to Nino and Adrien taking the spot next to Nathaniel. Nobody was against the new arrangement.

The young fashion designer was happy about this, she really was, but a part of her knew she was going to end up babysitting Nooroo, or having him badger her to take the brooch back. She really hoped that her girlfriend wasn’t going to accidentally blow their cover.

Chapter Text

Now that Melodie was finally in the same class as her girlfriend (Hooray!), the blond girl finally understood what Marinette meant when she said she couldn’t get close to others. Nobody really talked to her, outside of hellos and pleasantries, or if they wanted to talk about something specific, the young fashion designer only talking with Max or Alix outside of her main group of friends. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought… thought Melodie.

“Try to concentrate in class.” whispered Marinette to her. Everyone looked at her, even the teacher of that course. She laughed awkwardly and then everything went back to normal.

After morning classes were done for the day, everyone wanted to talk with Allegra and Marinette, all curious about how the blue haired teen’s heart was warm enough to allow love. So they all went together towards the cafeteria.

“Could we join you guys? You know as fellow Champions and all that…!” asked Aurore, referring to herself and Mireille. The kind blond noticed the bandaged wrist and right hand of the blue haired girl, her blond friend had a white patch covering her left cheek.

“Are you two okay?” asked Allegra, giving them her full attention. Everyone felt the dark cloud of worry cover them, the emotion emanating from the kind blond. Even Marinette took note of this.

“We’re fine! Just a little hurt.” assured Aurore.

“What happened to you?” asked Alya, curious. Ivan, Nino, Chloe and Nathaniel were at attention.

“W-We were attacked…” whispered Mireille.

“I’ll talk with your class representative after school today…” said Marinette, putting two and two together.

“Of course you can join us! Nobody messes with one of our own! Point me to the ones that did it and I’ll get daddy to talk about them to the principal.” offered Chloe, everyone a bit surprised to see her willing to do such a thing.

“I don’t think we need to go that far.” said Melodie. “Is there anyone in your class that you are friends with?” asked the kind blond.

“We’ve only had each other. Everyone else turned out back on us.” Allegra bit on her lip.

“Then maybe try to uh… keep low? Just don’t bring too much attention to yourselves. I’m sure I— I’m sure that Lady Monarch will fix this.” Melodie stumbled a little over her words. Marinette smiled. A Butterfly Miraculous user needs to be compassionate… needs to find ways to help their kaleidoscope in the now, not just the future. The young fashion designer told herself. Suddenly, Marinette felt her phone buzz and, taking advantage of the fact that everyone was focused on the other girls, she looked to see who the massage was from and what it said. She gave a pointed look to Adrien, raising an eyebrow. His eyes looked pleadingly, so she accepted.

“… maybe you could also talk with the school counselor, he might understand. Back in my old school the counselor let me have lunch there, since I didn’t really have anyone to have lunch with… uhm, you could also…”

“Mels?”

“Yes sweetie?”

“I just remembered I left something in the art room some days ago. I’ll be back in a few minutes. You go on ahead.” said Marinette.

“O-Oh, okay! Good luck Mari~!” the weather girls were shocked to see this new girl call Marinette Dupain-Cheng with a nickname. Even her classmates still couldn’t get over it, despite knowing the two were girlfriends.

Marinette limped slowly to the art room, inhaling sharply when her leg gave a jolt of pain. Leaning on a wall, the blue haired teen pulled out her pill bottle and downed the last three pills that were in it. She had no idea if it was her imagination or not, but her pain seemed a lot more intense than usual. After waiting a few moments for the medication to start kicking in, the girl limped the rest of the way to the art room, where Adrien was waiting, the blond managing to peace out from the crowd earlier than her.

“What do you want Agreste?” Marinette almost flinched. That came out way to harsher than she wanted it to. Adrien did wince.

“I-I just wanted to ask you something…”

“Go on.”

“Uh, well, you see…” Adrien began, not really knowing how to bring up the subject now that he seemingly annoyed Marinette. Tikki flew out of his shirt. “Wait, Tikki!” whispered the boy, grabbing the Kwami.

“Hello Miss Dupain-Cheng.”

“Hey Tikki. Superhero crap?”

“There is a problem… yes.” The Kwami eyed Marinette’s missing brooch, leaving her collar open. She tapped the place on her little body where the bruuch would be to notify her of this. Adrien just stood there, hands no longer holding Tikki, completely frozen, having no idea how to deal with the fact that his friend knew. The blue haired teen pointedly ignored Tikki’s silent question, trying not to be rattled.

“So what does my lady need to know?” she asked the blond boy.

“You know?” he couldn’t help but ask. Marinette groaned.

“Who do you think helped with fixing the Ladybug Earrings? I was the one who discovered the process of repairing a Miraculous.” Tikki gave her a pointed look. Adrien suddenly remembered what he asked the blue haired teen here for.

“I need help with the Peacock Miraculous and my mother.” said the rich teen.

“…Sorry… what?” asked Marinette.

Everyone from the class took a seat at multiple tables, all adjacent so they would hear one another. Melodie’s new classmates were all incredibly interested and curious about her, happiness pouring from the kind blond into all around her, the girl happy to see so many smiling faces directed at her.

“When did you and Dupain-Cheng meet?” asked  Max, curious, beating Alya to the punch.

“Oh, a loooooong time ago. But also not too long? We first met when Mari was five, I think. Not too long after we met Nino.” Allegra looked to the young DJ, who smiled, happy to be included.

“She and D-Cheng had a soft spot for one another since back then, but they didn’t even realize it yet. When we grew up a bit more this one became way too shy to tell her, and D-Cheng confused her feelings for being friendship.”

“N-Nino!” everyone laughed, Allegra going red and her embarrassment washing over the other, making them stop, the teens feeling a little guilty.

“She’s just a friend…” he added his voice pitched up a little. Then, a spark of revenge was felt as Melodie smiled.

“Well if we’re saying embarrassing things… One time me, Mari, Nino Allan and Felix decided to have lunch at a fast food restaurant which had sauce packets…”

“Noooo… Me and my big mouth.” groaned the boy, his head meeting the cafeteria table.

“Nino wasn’t able to open the packet to get some mayonnaise, right? Allan, who was the strongest in our friend group, wanted to help him, but he refuses. They both end up fighting over the packet and they rip it open, mayonnaise splashing all over Nino’s face and glasses! Felix took a photo too!” everyone laughed.

“You’re never going to let me leave that down, are you?” asked Nino.

“You could have just accepted his help, you know? But don’t worry: when my sweetie forgets I’ll forget too.”

“Ugh! She’ll never forget!” When the class calmed down they all had one question on their minds.

“Who are Allan and Felix?” asked Ivan.

“From the way you talked about them it sounds like you are really good friends.” added Mylene.

“You’re the Quantic Kids!” exclaimed Alix suddenly. Melancholy radiated from Melodie.

“You read the newspaper?” asked Nino.

“Yeah. You guys fended off like four robbers in a shop!” Allegra smiled wide, her eyes shining, the sadness from before forgotten as she remembered that time where they got their name.

“It wasn’t that amazing. All I did was spray some paint on one of their faces. Nino won a stand-off with one of the two guys who were actually armed.”

“Oh, yeah dude was super scary! He like pointed his gun at me, and I noticed there were some Frisbees near me so I faked to sneeze down in my elbow before I grabbed one of ‘em threw it in his face! Dude dropped like a log!”

“Felix managed to trick one of them into following him around a corner before Allan snapped a baseball bat on his head. He always was freakishly strong! Oh, and Mari pretty much ran into the other guy with the gun, and dodged him shooting! It was so cool! She said she was able to do it because she ‘outpaced his reaction time, not the bullet’, or something like that. She kicked him right in the stomach before kicking the gun away. She’s so… so… MARI’S SO AWESOME!” shouted Allegra, blushing like mad, everyone in the cafeteria feeling a tsunami of affection and admiration from the girl. Were it not for the scarf everyone would have seen the gold of the brooch glow brightly.

In his pocket, Nooroo shifted, feeling the brunt of Melodie’s emotions. The Kwami was in awe. Never in his life had he met someone that could generate so much raw magic power just with their emotions… and without the Miraculous active no less. Duusu would probably fall in love with this girl. Was this what Marinette saw in her? Probably, considering that nobody would be able to reject Melodie as Lady Monarch. Her overall raw magic power would give her a huge boost in making any person agree to help her. At least theoretically. They still had to wait and actually see. And the waiting could take anywhere between hours to days.

“Wow! Dudette you need to chill. The entire cafeteria heard that.” said Nino, a little worried.

“No, she just needs me here to pull her out of fantasy land.” said Marinette, the blue haired girl taking the chair that Allegra had reserved for her. Adrien sneaked in next to Nino, the bespectacled boy not even noticing. And neither did anyone else as Marinette and Allegra shared a kiss.

“That’s so surreal…” mumbled Kim. Marinette froze, realizing what was happening.

“Can you not attract attention to that? Mari hates unnecessary attention.” The blue haired teen let out a strangled noise, Allegra puzzled as to why, before realizing what she did. “Sorry! I totally attracted attention to that! Everyone ignore what I said!” exclaimed the blond haired girl, waving her arms about. Her girlfriend was shaking.

“You okay girl?” asked Alya. Marinette suddenly started laughing, leaning her head back before slamming it on the table, letting out a long and quiet whine.

“My image is ruined. None of you guys will respect me ever…” she said, everyone hearing it.

“Why wouldn’t we?” asked Juleka.

“You’re our class rep. Plus even if you paradoxically are capable of love— OW!” Kim got cut off by Ivan slamming his elbow into his side.

“What Kim is trying to say…” began Alix. “Is that you’re still the no-nonsense ‘mess with me and your get smacked with my cane’, Dupain-Cheng.”

“Also you can be really scary if you really want to, despite being nice. You could give us nightmares if you really tried.” added Chloe. The others stared at her. “What? I’m her ex.”

“You two were together?” asked Ivan, unbelieving.

“Yep…” grumbled Marinette, her girlfriend having pulled her up into a hug.

“If you guys want to know more, how about we start with what I can say?” asked Melodie. “You did want to learn about ‘Marinette’s mysterious girlfriend’, after all.” said the kind blond mysteriously. That seemed to bring back some semblance of excitement and shift the attention away from Marinette.

Following the end of school, Marinette told her girlfriend what Adrien said, and, in the evening, the entire swarm of butterflies entered the Agreste Mansion, the two girls having spent almost all day teaching and learning about the Butterfly Miraculous respectively.

“Greetings, darlings. You requested an audience?” asked Lady Monarch, the girl under the mask doing her best to bring that flamboyance to her voice that Marinette told her about, ending up sounding mysterious instead. She was gladder that her embarrassment wasn’t apparent, the butterfly heroine feeling really self-conscious about her mini dress.

“You’re not Lady Monarch!” said Adrien instantly. Tikki was quiet and shocked that she had been right about Marinette not using the Butterfly Miraculous anymore.

“Is Lady Monarch just a code name shared by multiple people?” asked Gabriel Agreste.

“As much as I enjoy your curiosity, I think it’d be best if we didn’t get ahead of ourselves.” said Lady Monarch bluntly. Put too much Mari in that! the heroine mentally kicked herself. Adrien’s face showed he really didn’t like this, but he was willing to go along with it.

Gabriel Agreste led everyone to his atelier without another word, pressing the buttons and letting everyone down into the secrete repository. He pointed Marinette and Lady Monarch to a table, the former relieved that the table was luckily big enough to fit her chemistry set.

“It’s gonna take a while since I need to liquefy this gold.” said the young fashion designer after setting everything up. Lady Monarch looked around the humongous room, all the occupants keeping quiet, the silence only broken by the sound of flame from Marinette’s chemistry set. When the heroine turned her attention to the pod (which was closed, the glass enclosure covered by metal), Gabriel spoke up:

“What happened to the other Lady Monarch?” he asked.

“She’s indisposed. But when she gets better I shall return her Miraculous. Believe me when I say I am not happy either.” replied Lady Monarch. The blue haired teen secretly fixed her a look, the heroine returning it, just as secretly.

“Do you think you can help my mom?” asked Adrien, hopeful.

“I hope I can…! I still don’t understand what happened fully. Perhaps Miss Sancoeur could shed some light on this. I understand you used the Miraculous while it was broken?” asked Lady Monarch, looking to the blue haired woman, who nodded in affirmation.

“Using the Miraculous felt… draining. It was as if all my energy was being consumed by it.”

“Uh-oh!” piped up Marinette, the girl pulling out the tome and leafing through it until she arrived at the page she wanted.

“Something wrong Miss Dupain-Cheng? Why the uh-oh.” asked Tikki, curiously.

“How bad is the situation?” asked Gabriel, worried but trying not to show it. His son, in contrast, did show it, but couldn’t voice it.

“Please don’t say something like ‘there’s nothing we can do’. There has to be something.” added Lady Monarch.

“Do you feel the effects when untransformed?” asked the blue haired teen, looking to Nathalie, her face a little dark.

“No. I feel them outside of transformation too, but they get worse when I’m transformed.” she explained. Marinette’s face lightened a bit as she looked back at the tome.

“Dizzy spells?”

“Yes.”

“Difficulty breathing? Take your pick between: feeling like you have water in your lungs, feeling like your lungs can’t take in air, or feeling a sharp pain in the lungs and throat every time you breathe too deeply.”

“The latter.” Marinette buried her face in the tome.

“You have to be able to save my mother! This is magic! Do magic things!” demanded Adrien, on the verge of crying.

“What about the Kwami?” asked the young fashion designer, looking at Tikki. Everyone turned to her.

“Duusu… is affected too.” admitted Tikki, knowing how important this was and not wishing to lie.

“ARGH! FUCKING DAMMIT! IT HAD TO BE THE ONE WHO CAN’T BE FIXED!” shouted Marinette, slamming the tome to the ground and burying her face in her hands. Adrien dropped to his knees and began sobbing, Gabriel and Nathalie at his side in an instant, the blond boy staining her suit and turtleneck with tears. Gabriel didn’t hold the hug too long, getting up and walking over.

“Perhaps you can fix it with the Peacock Miraculous. My wife can still awaken if I turn off the life support pod. Perhaps using the repaired Peacock Miraculous can reawaken her!” argued Gabriel, grabbing the tome and shoving it in Lady Monarch’s arms, the heroine starting to page through it.

“That’s not how it works… The Miraculous drained her life for fuel.” groaned Marinette, feeling horrible for having to bring such bad news. Adrien sobbed louder.

“…transmission…” mumbled the butterfly heroine, looking at the page of her Miraculous in the tome. “My Miraculous is that of Transmission! What if I were to use to transmit—”

“You’ll just be taking her place my lady…” groaned the blue haired teen.

“If that’s what must be done…” Lady Monarch turned to the pod.

“NO!” shouted the young fashion designer, getting up and running to get in her way. “Y-You can’t do that! Paris needs you! I-I— we, the Champions, need you! Do not abandon us.”

“This will be temporary. Once you figure out how to actually undo this, you can wake me up. Until then Adrien shouldn’t have to suffer like this. Nobody should...” trailed off the butterfly heroine, realizing that Marinette will suffer without her. She will go back to the darkness, with no light to save her this time.

“If it means saving my wife and bringing Adrien’s mother back, I’ll do it!” said Gabriel.

“Dad, NO!” sobbed Adrien. Lady Monarch turned to him, a deep sadness washing over the man from the heroine. He almost felt tears appear in the corners of his eyes.

“All you would do is exchange your life for your wife’s. Net zero. Adrien still ends up with a single parent.” explained the heroine.

“What about me? I’m no Agreste. You and Emilie will be together again, and Adrien will have his family back!” argued Nathalie.

“NO! YOU’LL DIE!” sobbed Adrien.

“Adrien’s right. You’ve already been drained by the Peacock Miraculous.” said Tikki, sadly.

“And you are an Agreste, even if not in name!” argued Gabriel.

“Didn’t the Peacock Miraculous use Emilie’s life force… stuff… as fuel? Maybe we can reverse the process!” exclaimed Lady Monarch, hope emanating from her, hugging everyone in emotional warmth.

“Take a bottle of water and make a hole in the bottom.” Marinette said suddenly, giving everyone emotional and mental whiplash.

“Pardon?” asked Gabriel.

“If a bottle has a hole in the bottom, and you feel it with water, what happens?”

“The water will drain until it’s empty again.” said Nathalie.

“Replace the ‘bottle’ with the Peacock Miraculous and the ‘water’ with Miss Agreste’s life essence.”

Chapter Text

Everyone was silent. Even Adrien stopped sobbing. That did not mean that the air wasn’t heavy, and even if it would not have been, the deep dark hopelessness that Lady Monarch emanated ensured the atmosphere was heavy. The implications of what Marinette said slowly sunk in…

“The Miraculous didn’t store any of mom’s life…?” asked Adrien. The young fashion designer shook her head. The boy turned to Tikki.

“C-Could you…? Create, l-like…?”

“I can’t… I’m sorry…”

“Why?” asked Gabriel Agreste, cold fury in his voice. “WHY CAN’T YOU?! You’re the Kwami of Creation for goodness sake! Can you not create life?!”

“When I made life, some of it died, then Plagg was born.” said Tikki.

“Conservation of energy still applies…” mumbled Marinette, before laughing, but not a happy laugh. “In science, people have been able to convert energy, but not destroy or create any. That’s because there needs to be balance. So if, with magic, you can create things, then something else needs to be destroyed to maintain that balance.” explained the blue haired teen. “Same as the Wish.” said Marinette. Tikki flinched.

“What wish?” asked Lady Monarch. Everyone focused on Marinette now.

“The combined power the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses can allow someone to make a wish and change reality. But something of equal value has to be lost in order for the wish to be granted.” explained Tikki. Gabriel took a deep breath, before exhaling.

“So there’s really nothing we can do, is there?” he asked. Marinette shook her head. Lady Monarch looked down in shame, before hope washed over anyone once again, as she looked up, eyes shining.

“I’ll make you a Champion! You can heal your wife!”

“And where are you going to get the energy to do that?” asked Marinette dryly. “Your Miraculous is that of Transmission, not Energy.”

A ding was heard and the young fashion designer understood that the gold was ready. After a few moments, the Peacock Miraculous was repaired and the blue haired girl gave it to Gabriel, before going about packing up her things.

“I’m sorry…” said Lady Monarch.

“It’s not your fault…” sniffled Adrien. Gabriel walked over to the pod.

“Please make your leave.” he said. There was no fury or sadness in his voice, just… defeat. Marinette understood what was happening and began to limp away, Lady Monarch following after. It took Adrien a few more moments to understand, the beeping of the pod making him realize what was happening, before the machine depressurized its interior. Loud coughing was heard and Adrien ran to the pod, leaving Nathalie to sit there, unmoving, frozen.

“Mom!” exclaimed the boy. After the coughing fit died down, Emilie tried to sit up and the two Agrestes, knowing she wasn’t going to stop trying until she succeeded, helped her up.

“Adrien…” she smiled at him, voice hoarse. The blond boy couldn’t get enough of the maternal love that shone in her eyes, happy to see his mother once again after so much time, yet knowing this was goodbye. He sniffled. “Don’t cry… dear…” she said slowly, placing a hand on his cheek to gently wipe away a tear. “You’ve grown a little since <cough> I last saw you. You’ll turn out into a handsome young man…”

A warm hand was placed on Emilie’ shoulder. It’s firmness was familiar to her, the blond woman turning to look at her husband, her face changing to show a different kind of love, one a person would hold for their significant other. Gabriel’s face was strained. Suddenly Duusu flew over and snuggled up to her, crying silently, the Kwami having just come out of the brooch and already feeling the last of her mistress life begin to ebb away.

“Please… no tears. From neither of you.” said Emilie, in understanding. “Let out final <cough> our final <two coughs> our final moments be a happy memory.”

“How could a goodbye be happy, Em…?” asked Gabriel sadly.

“The house was so… cold without you… and it’ll be colder…” sobbed Adrien quietly. Gabriel placed an arm around his son in a half hug, making Emilie smile.

“That’s not how it looks from here…” Emilie giggled lightly, before the musical sound turned to the discordant noise of dry coughing. She took a moment, a dizzy spell following soon after. She wasn’t done yet.

“Without me… you were forced to grow closer. I can see it… The house won’t be cold if you remain close. <cough> It will be hard… <cough> without me… I know… But you’ll live. And you’ll find happiness.” Emilie took Duusu to look at her, before she looked at her husband, the man trying to smile, Adrien trying as well, through the tears, her eyes then moving to the Peacock Miraculous. Emilie smiled playfully.

“I told you I’d make it back…” she said, and Gabriel was struck with the memory of back then…

”Here.” she said, giving him her peacock brooch, an accessory she never took off, wearing it even when she went to sleep.

“Now you know that I will make it back.”

“You did come back… a giant bird landed in the courtyard… It pooped on it too, for some reason…!” He smiled, amusement in his voice. Adrien snorted too.

“Seriously?!” asked the boy, laughing a little. His happiness made Emilie the happiest person in the world.

“I needed the Jiānhùrén to use as little energy from me as possible, so I made it capable of eating…” admitted Emilie with a smile. That made them both laugh, and she laughed as well, the coughing once again getting in the way. Emilie’s chest felt tight, and she felt as if she was stabbed thousands of times in the throat. But she wasn’t finished. She looked to see that they once again see,ed worried, so she smiled, to put them at ease, at least a little.

“I really wished this wasn’t goodbye…” said Adrien. Emilie leaned forward and placed her other hand on his heart.

“It’s not goodbye… I’ll still be here.” she turned to look at Gabriel. “And there too… sorry, but you’re too tall, so I can’t reach.” The experienced fashion designer laughed, understanding.

“Duusu?”

“Y-Yes Mistress…?” sobbed the Kwami, sniffling.

“Look after those goofballs for me…” The Kwami nodded, and Emilie then locked eyes with Nathalie. “You too Nathalie… You’re free to make your move. Make sure to take the hundred Euros from our old bet back.” said Emilie with a laugh before beginning to cough. The blond woman laid back in the pod, Nathalie slowly getting up and walking over to sit next to Adrien and Gabriel. She still smiled at them though.

“Don’t tell my sister… I know it sounds… bad, to leave her out of the loop… but she’ll destroy you if she learns of this.” said Emilie, voice hoarse. Gabriel nodded solemnly.

“And Adrien…”

“Yes mom?”

“You’ve convinced your father to let you go to school, haven’t you?” Adrien nodded.

“… be happy then… Happy that you have friends… and whatever <cough> life throws at you <cough> just know <coughing> you’ll get through it okay.”

“I know mom…” he said, tears once again going down her cheeks… Emilie pulled off her ring and gave it to Adrien.

“I’ll just… go to sleep… remember, happy memory… Gabriel, don’t be a window... er, that came out wrong.” she said with a small laugh, before closing her eyes.

Emilie Agreste left this world as she came in it: wishing for others to be happy. Gabriel hoped that in her last moments she really was happy, not just putting on a show to make them less worried. The experienced fashion designer grabbed his son and his assistant and pulled them into a heartfelt hug, taking them both by surprise, before they melted into the hug as well.

Emilie Agreste was gone, and Gabriel never managed to save her… all he could do now is try to undo his mistakes. Keep the people that still cared about him close.

“Nathalie, reschedule two of the business meetings and announce Francoise-Dupont I will be holding a contest for young talents in order to get me an assistant designer. Also please start giving some of the more popular models of the brand some of Adrien’s photo shoots.”

“Yes sir!” Nathalie said with emotion in her voice.

“Additionally, I know the Peacock Miraculous is technically repaired and you were its wielder, but—”

“No need to worry sir. I would rather avoid such excitement. Thank you for thinking of me though.” she said, blushing slightly, before walking off to do as told with a pep in her step.

“Adrien, Duusu.” Gabriel spoke.

“Yes dad?”/ “Sir!” asked Adrien as the peacock Kwami stood at attention, her earlier sadness gone, replaced with happiness as she goofily saluted him.

“We will be training a lot more from now on. I never used the Peacock Miraculous before, so I need to get used to it.” explained the experienced fashion designer as he lead his son to the lift. The two of them didn’t go up all the way to the atelier though, the lift instead jolting backwards, making Adrien almost face plant were it not for his father catching him, the two continuing up until they reached the training room. With a clap of his hands the metal window opened, letting light in.

“Hello: Lord_Of_Cats.” Adrien snorted.

“My most was twenty minutes of nonstop work, and that was when I was twenty years old. I was less serious back then.” explained Gabriel, the shame hurting, but a part of him missing these kinds of interaction, the ones where he made a fool of himself. “Computer, execute command six: change name to: Paon Royal.”

“Executing_command… Command_executed! Hello: Paon_Royal.” said the computer’s feminine voice.

“So, do we transform, or…?” asked Adrien.

“Yes. What was it Duusu? Spread my feathers?” asked Gabriel.

“Yes… And ‘Fall my feathers’ to transform back…! This brings back so many weird memories…” said the Kwami, her voice somewhere between happy and sad.

“Are you alright Duusu?” asked Tikki, flying over. The Kwami nodded, suddenly hugging her friend before pulling away.

“Let’s do this! Wooo!”

“Tikki! Spots on!”

“Duusu… Spread my feathers!”

The magic words spoken, the peacock Kwami was sucked into the miraculous. The man lightly tapped his foot, making the magical energy flow from the ground up and envelop him in his magical hero appearance: his face and skin were light blue, his hair silver, a semi-transparent feather covering the upper left side his face; he wore a dark blue shirt with an up-standing collar, missing its top buttons, the Peacock Miraculous acting as its second button; he had a nice pair of blue, pleated pants, dark blue shoes with a pink dot on each one; there was a buttonless coat covering his body, black feather puff around the cuffs of his sleeves as well as covering the lapels, the ‘tail’ of the coat having five slits, separating six different pieces of cloth that almost brushed the floor, a pink oval framed by a light blue outline on each pointy end. Around his waist was a dark blue belt, affixed to it a feathered fan.

Adrien sneezed.

“Right…Your feather allergy.” Paon Royal held his hand up for Red Beetle to wait and then he went down the lift, coming back with a bottle of pills, which he threw to the ladybug hero, the teen catching it with ease. He took a pill to help with the symptoms and the feathered hero was glad he didn’t need water, but felt a bit guilty for forgetting it.

“Better! Thank you father.”

“Let us begin!” despite not having made use of his Miraculous and offering mostly logistical support, the man did not sit on his laurels, considering himself to be okay. And he proved it when he rushed the other hero, almost landing the palm strike, but RB dodging.

The ladybug hero threw his yo-yo at Paon Royal, who deflected it with still folded fan, before opening it, as he sped up again. Red Beetle dodged the swipes, with two back steps before he spun his yo-yo to make it act like a shield as the peacock hero closed his fan and thrust it forward, bouncing on the shield. With surprising dexterity Red Beetle managed to maintain the momentum of the spinning Miraculous tool and use it to smack Paon in the face, causing him to stagger back. The ladybug hero took this opening and used it to wrap his yo-yo’s wire around the other hero’s leg before pulling it from under him, causing him to fall.

For a moment, both stood still… Then Paon Royal laughed. He actually laughed. His son felt a little scared. Was this sudden happiness before they saw Emilie again, even if it was for the last time? The ladybug hero had had a small bit of happiness return to his soul, but not enough to laugh.

“I supposed I’ll be the one learning something from you, son.” Red Beetle smiled at that.

“Well I was active more, so it makes sensei I’ll be better at practice.” They shared a laugh at the pun.

They were going to be okay. Even with Emilie gone, they would trudge through life and make it out alright. As long as they did it together.

Chapter Text

The Lord was really happy (?) with herself. She’d been getting the hang of using Unspoken Desire and observed how she could change the way people reacted. The way it worked was quite complex: the timeless being could control other people’s emotions, so with little pushes here and there, she had been able to make people choose to do things that they didn’t really do. She had observed how overfeeding Lila’s ego blinded the girl to the point she was unable to realize when her lies were too big, the other members of the class actually seeing her for the liar that she is and, with a little tug, actually went quite violent.

The increase in negative emotion had also triggered Scarlet Moth and after a little bit of finagling The Lord (feeling that Unspoken Desire was telling her to do something to Nathalie), had fixed the damage to her soul that the Peacock Miraculous caused. The immortal being had really liked that, and had postponed Scarlet Moth’s victory to play around with the soul manipulation that she now understood better… Of course, using the yellow ring seemed to make that nagging voice in her head speak up more:

“Why are you even hurting Lila? She’s never even managed to hurt you, and this isn’t even your version of the universe…” spoke the ghostly Melody.

“Pettiness.”

“I thought you said you had a responsibility. But this is just you irresponsibly using your powers to persecute an egotistical and delusional girl!”

“Will you be quiet? And change your appearance and voice. I don’t need to be reminded every second of my immortal existence or the fact that I am alone!”

“You mean lonely perhaps… And I apologize, but changing is not something that I can do. I am what deep down you desire me to be.”

“I desire you to SHUT UP!”

“You know you are arguing with yourself, right?” that made The Lord groan and return to her work, making Scarlet Moth win by giving Ladybug uncontrollable anxiety and causing her to second-guess everything she did. Gabriel Agreste won, got his wife, lost his son, Marinette took over the fashion brand as an adult. Next universe to go is…

“… quite strange. This one seems to have another ring.”

“Really? Where?!” asked the lonely being excitedly. Having her subconscious to directly talk to did have some advantages, since the ghostly Melody pointed out things that she couldn’t catch herself. “Oh, here it is~!” sung The Lord, observing an indigo gemmed ring metaphorically falling in the hands of a Gabriel Agreste. Indigo began to pool out of her Time’s Eye and she jumped in.

Shadow Moth had the perfect plan! And what made it so perfect was its simplicity. He was a bit ashamed to have needed Nathalie to point it out, even unintentionally: if Ladybug always won because she never took risks, then all he had to do was force her to take as many risks as humanly possible. And with this strange new source of magic that he had been slowly getting an understanding of, he found a way to enhance his searching for a fitting supervillain, finding a small boy who wanted to take risks, the perfect prey for his Akuma.

And his plan was working. Ladybug, in her bid to stop him, took a bunch of risks, making use of just about every single one of her Miraculouses. And that’s what he had been banking on with Strike Back. The perfect Sentimonster, designed to copy the powers of any Miraculous wielder that touched it.

But something went wrong… Ladybug made no mistake! Not one slip-up! This made no sense! Every time he took risks he only gained little victories, like how his risk with Miracle Queen had resulted in the loss of the Miracle box and in the gain of knowledge regarding how to repair the Peacock Miraculous…

“How could the plan fail? Ladybug had to make a mistake! There’s no point in going on any longer! Come back home with Adrien, cancel everything! This is all futile now!”

“The thing is…”

“Ladybug did indeed make a mistake, uncle!” That new hero which Ladybug brought into play (he didn’t get his name), was sitting with his legs propped up on the desk, spinning that ball of his around. Did he just call me ‘uncle’? Gabriel asked himself, replaying the words that the teen had said after the shock of his presence wore off.

“Felix…?” Felix had replaced Adrien on the train, which means that Ladybug had unknowingly recruited Felix to help her and that his son was probably somewhere in Paris at this very moment, somewhere dangerous. But he decided to put that on the back burner for a moment and deal with it later. At least Adrien was still in Paris. He could not have gotten far.

Deciding to hear out Felix had been the best idea ever! For the past year Gabriel had not once managed to get his hands on a single Miraculous, never mind those he actually wanted the most. And now he had all the others that Ladybug used to make that little team of hers. This was perfect! He also got his ring back, and all he had to give up in return was the Peacock Miraculous. If you asked him, Felix didn’t know how to bargain. His loss though, and more of a win for Hawk Moth!

In the evening, once he had made sure Adrien was safe home, he made his big announcement. He had all the Miraculouses, so now he could use them to cause havoc and unspeakable destruction! And Paris needed to hear that. Just like his first announcement to have the city turn on Ladybug and Cat Noir, he was to do it again, deciding to exhaust the easy way first:

“People of Paris! Ladybug promised to protect you? Well she lied to you! Behold her defeat! I took all the Miraculous from her. Now I’m more powerful than ever! From now on I will be attacking you relentlessly! I would be everywhere preying on your thoughts, stealing your dreams, harnessing your deepest fears! Whatever damage I can cause, I will not stop! Unless… someone brings me Ladybug Cat Noir’s Miraculous!”

Ladybug lost! She lost big… but she still had her partner on her side. Despite how much she pushed him away, how much she kept him in the dark… Cat Noir did not give up on her, and neither did the city, as all Parisians called out her name, showing their allegiance…

That’s what The Lord walked in on. It was honestly funny, but also unprecedented. None of the universes she had manipulated the events in had a Hawk Moth who got so far. The lonely being had to give him props, but she was also going to punish him. Hurting some innocent people that were harmless and had nothing to do with this was not the way to do it!

“This should be fun!”

“Why the sudden need for fun? The responsible thing to do would be to take away Hawk Moth’s ring and return the Miraculouses to Ladybug.”

“Yes, but it wouldn’t be fun! I realized that while I searched for Unspoken Desire that I want fun! I want to feel something while I do this, because otherwise it’d boring, unrewarding!”

“You wish to enjoy yourself…” spoke the ghostly Melody with a sad smile.

“Of course I do! All that people want is enjoyment!”

“You miss your friends… and you miss being Lady Monarch, don’t you?”

“Where did this suddenly come from? Friendship is ephemeral. Once the school year ends and we all fucking grow up, we will go separate ways. They’ll forget about me… it’s not like I was open to them, or anything…”

“But the other version of you was… and you hated that. You resented her because she managed something you did not have the courage to achieve!” said the ghostly Melody, ticking off The Lord

“SHUT UP! You know nothing! When I return to my rightful place and burn those stupid bridges she built I won’t have to worry about the pain of losing these friendships! Because that’s what she will contend with. Now leave me to my devices!” The Lord jumped away and began to parkour on roofs. As if she could distance herself from her inner conscious. The ghostly Melody followed her silently, looking at her with pity in her eyes.

The Lord came across a man calling himself Su-Han and she remembered he was the one who had put unnecessary stress on Ladybug and almost caused Hawk Moth to gain all the Miraculouses when they first met. So she froze him in time and left him on a roof to gather dust, like a statue. The immortal being continued on towards Ladybug’s house, since it was where she ought be… unless those two love birds went to the Eiffel Tower.

“Of course I find you here…! Where else would you be?” asked The Lord, after landing on the tower and changing back to her normal form, putting her hands in her coat’s pockets. The lonely being did not want them to see her rings. She was going to be much sneakier this time.

“Who are you?” asked Cat, getting up and grabbing his staff.

“Jittery… Be careful not to get too angry, otherwise Cat Blanc is making a comeback.” bit The Lord, half-amused.

“Princess…? You look... older.” mentioned the cat hero after hearing her voice and actually looking at her. “How did you get here?” he also asked.

“Are you from the future…?” asked Ladybug, getting up and leaning from behind her partner.

“You do look older… You also forgot to change out of that party outfit.” said the ghostly Melody.

“Yeah…!” said The Lord with faux-sadness, then pointedly looked to the side and brushed a bit of hair behind her year, letting them both see the lack of earrings.  Ladybug gasped quietly.

“Milady? Everything alright? Is she saying the truth? This isn’t like a trick or…?” asked Cat, beginning to think a little. Hawk Moth had the power of the Fox Miraculous right now, so he could have sent this to trick them.

“She’s saying the truth…” confirmed Ladybug. “What happened? H-How did you get here?”

“Let’s just say there are more forms of magic than the ones you know.” explained The Lord.

“Wait, the Prodigious!” exclaimed Cat, smiling, The Lord's comment jogging his memory.

“I didn’t exchange numbers with Fei though… have you?”

“… no…” said Cat awkwardly.

“It’s okay kitty. We can fix this without the Prodigious.” The Lord cut in the conversation. She had no idea who that was, but she could fake knowing about them as long as it didn’t come up too much.

“’Kitty’…?” Cat Noir’s eyebrows furrowed and Ladybug freaked out silently, mouthing to The Lord to ‘say something else’.

“I don’t think she wants you to reveal her identity.” added the ghostly Melody.

“Yeah; isn’t that what Ladybug calls you? We’re good friends.” Cat Noir had a hurt look in his eyes.

“That was mean! Why did you say that?”

“Wait… You’re friends with Ladybug?!” Ladybug gave the immortal being a quick glare before Cat Noir turned to her.

“Uh… well you see… I needed someone to uhm… Remember the first interview I gave to the Ladyblog?”

“Yeah…?”

“Well I was out on a solo patrol since I couldn’t sleep and she saw me and told me. Then we kind of became friends so she could… tell me when Alya wanted more interviews. But we’ve used our contact for other things…”

“Evillustrator… Marinette called you. That’s how you knew and told me to go protect her!” remembered Cat, a smile on his face.

“Yep! That’s it!” said Ladybug awkwardly.

“Oh, and that one time with Antibug!” he suddenly turned to The Lord. “Why did you say you were Ladybug?” he asked. The timeless being shrugged.

“I honestly forgot. I think it was because you confused our voices? We do sound a little alike, Ladybug and I.” Ladybug glared at her while the lonely being smiled mischievously.

“Never noticed before.” said Cat, looking thoughtful. This dumbass! <Mental laughter>.

“You shouldn’t laugh at him… he’s only fourteen and has been sheltered all his life.” The Lord grumbled, frowning, her eyes flicking to where the ghostly Melody was, the figment of imagination sitting on the railing, swinging her legs. Ladybug and Cat noticed that.

“You okay?”

“Hm? Of yeah, totally fine! Anyway, wanna know what magic I got? You’re going to love it!”

“Wait, you got magic powers?” asked Cat Excitedly.

“Spells, not powers, but yes.” The Lord pulled her hands out of her pockets. She wore black gloves. The immortal being turned towards the ghostly Melody and spoke: “Aperiesque ostium et tempus! Ostende mihi preateritum, praesens et futurum!” she called out dramatically, carefully hiding the glow of her Frozen Sand as it created a Time’s Eye.

“Latin? They might catch onto you if you use Latin.”

“That’s so cool!” exclaimed Cat.

“Is that a portal?” asked Ladybug. The two heroes walked next to her looking to see people moving around. It was a random time since The Lord didn’t have a particular target.

“It is called a Tempus Ocullum, or Time’s Eye. It’s how I got here, actually.”

“Wait, if you’ve got time travel, then can you—?” asked the cat hero, but The Lord cut him off.

“It would be a bad idea if we did that. I’m only here because I should be here. But I can’t just do whatever.” Keep bullshitting my way through this. I can do this! Ladybug looked at her with a relieved expression. The lonely being smiled back as she closed the Time’s Eye.

“You like their company, don’t you?” asked the ghostly Melody, The Lord doing her best to ignore her, her smile turning to a frown.

Chapter Text

The Lord had obtained some money in the same way she did last time, and actually walked all the way to Italy to get some fitting clothes for her new persona. She decided to choose a look that screamed ‘Look at me!’, ending up with a white, off shoulder, belted summer dress, a leopard print robe coat and black stilettos that took a bit for her to get used to. She had finished her look with a pair of Italian sunglasses and had even died her hair brown and pulled it into a ponytail.

The persona The Lord put on was different, yet equally convincing in comparison to her previous Chinese persona. She was actually a fan of Marinette’s fashion blog who happened to have come to France for an exchange program at another school and, due to a misunderstanding, thought that the young fashion designer lived in an apartment alone and they could be roommates. With a bit use of Unspoken Desire, the lonely being was able to manipulate Sabine and Tom into accepting to have her.

“No regrets you’ll have Signora Cheng, Signore Dupain! Promise: you will not see me at all!” said The Lord as they all went to the living room, speaking in partly broken French. “Che bello~! Very French! <Gasp> You have a furnace too! Fantastico! Could I try baking? Not now, but later.”

“You can bake?” asked Tom, excitedly. That completely won him over, but Sabine was unconvinced.

“I am nothing special Signore! I know only a few recipes from mia nonna…!” said The Lord a bit shyly. She looked over to Marinette, who was still a bit shocked, but tried to keep calm and help with the lie.

“Papa, how about you and Honora do your thing after I show her my room?”

“Ah, right, sorry! Got excited!” said Tom with a laugh.

“No harm signore!” With that Marinette led ‘Honora’ up to her room.

“Since when can I lie like that?” she whispered. The Lord considered the possibility that she may have overdone it a bit.

“Well… some stuff happens in the near future, after I depart of course.”

“How old are you?”

“Thirty six.” Marinette gaped. “I know, right? The universe has been kind—” The Lord began to say as she spun around, the immortal being pointedly making sure to spin into the chaise longue and ‘accidentally’ trip on one of its legs, cutting herself off with a scream as she fell face first on the chaise longue, one of her stilettos flying off. Marinette winced.

“So… clumsiness is still…?”

“Yup…” groaned The Lord as she got up in a sitting position and began to massage her ankle.

“Is everything alright?” asked Sabine as she suddenly popped up through the trapdoor.

“All is good signora! I tripped but I live.” replied The Lord as she switched right back to the Honora persona.

“Ah… Did you get hurt?”

“Please do not worry; I am fiiiiiiiine…!” technically the Lord wasn’t lying, but she continued to massage her ankle as if it was hurt. A bit of guilt passed over Sabine’s expression.

“I will come back up with some lotion for your ankle.”

“Signora, there’s really—”

“You are our guest, it’d be bad if you got hurt and we did nothing!” called out Sabine as she left.

“It seems that all signs of doubt have been purged.” said the ghostly Melody.

Once they were for sure alone, The Lord decided to look over the electronic copies of the tome to ‘refresh my memory’. The immortal being noted the lack of the Scorpion Miraculous, as well as the fact Marinette had every single page translated. The young fashion designer and her Kwami also showed her the box, which was completely empty at the moment due to the missing Miraculouses, all the spots black. It was kind of… sad actually, seeing the blue haired teen staring at it with an empty look in her eye, and her Kwami looking at her with worry in her eyes. It reminded The Lord of how Nooroo would look at her after an anxiety attack and how he described her as ‘there, but not quite there’.

“Hey… We’re getting them back, okay? All of them.”

“What if I mess up again… you came here because I messed up… meaning that I was sure I couldn’t handle this alone.”

“Marinette…”

“I… messed up badly… really, really badly…” Marinette teared up. “Master Su-Han was right… I’m not a good guardian. I tried to control everything and look what happened…” she sobbed quietly. The Lord stared. She didn’t know what to do. Melodie handled people when they were upset.

“Hug her.” said the ghostly Melody, but the lonely being shook her head as she got up, letting Marinette’s Kwami handle her as she limped up to the balcony (she needed to keep up the act). She looked around and didn’t see Hawk Moth anywhere, but she did see an Akuma coming from the direction of the Agreste Mansion. Frowning, the timeless being pulled her right glove off and clenched her hand into a fist, her rings glowing and forming her armor.

“Let’s see if Unspoken Desire works on Akumas.” She spoke and snapped her finger, her yellow ring glowing. The Akuma stopped and a yellow shimmer overcame it, ridding it of the negative emotions. The white butterfly that stood in its place flew away in a random direction. With a shimmer of blue and yellow light. The Lord turned back to normal and popped her head into the room. Marinette was just about done, the girl sniffling and wiping away her tears. Tikki’s eyes met the immortal being’s. ‘All good.’ she mouthed and the Kwami nodded.

“If you had hugged her, the Akuma wouldn’t have flown towards here.” the ghostly Melody scolded lightly.

“Shut. Up. The Akuma would have flown to someone else.” whispered The Lord through gritted teeth.

“Here’s a thought: should we go check on Lila and Chloe? We both know what Chloe did and Lila sure was good with her powers as Volpina.”

“Y-You think Hawk Moth’s going to give away the Miraculouses?” asked Marinette.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you. Time travel interactions like these are basically me reading a script and you doing your best to remember it.”

“So you can’t warn me of anything…” said Marinette sadly.

“That’s not what I said.” The young fashion designer looked at the immortal being, who smiled, winking.

“Oh… Oh…! OH! Of course! Thank you!” said the blue haired girl as she ran to hug her, before she went to her trapdoor, Tikki waving goodbye before hiding in her purse. “I’m going out!”

“I’ll go with you. Your parents will get suspicious if you go and I stay.” ‘Your parents’… Tikki repeated in her mind. Something felt off about that, mainly because of how… distant that wording was. It sounded like the older brown haired girl was talking about Marinette’s parents as if they weren’t her own. Tikki continued to ponder this as the two girls walked out of the bakery and until they entered a side alley, where Marinette transformed.

“My turn: Mutare carnem meam ad metallum!” The Lord glowed blue and yellow as her armor formed around her, the light dimming to reveal her in all her tall glory.

“Wow…!” Ladybug was in awe. As she should be!

“Careful… You are slipping into excessive arrogance.” warned the ghostly Melody.

“Pretty cool, right?” asked the lonely being, holding her hands behind her back to hide her rings, her cape slightly flowing in the wind.

“Yeah… You— I will look awesome! But why a male voice?”

“Well… it does keep my identity secret.” said The Lord lamely. Luckily, Ladybug took it.

“Wait, you— I will lose the earrings, which means that Hawk Moth knows who I— you are!”

“Bingo.”

“This is… That will be a disaster…”

“Eh! I’m dealing with it, and once your turn comes you’ll learn to live with it. Be happy your attempt at learning Cat Noir’s identity ended up with Hawk Moth winning and Sass resetting, because now your identity can be revealed and you won’t be able to tell Hawk Moth who your partner is.”

“Back up! Are you saying that when Luka and I tried to do that thing… Hawk Moth ended up winning?”

“It was a whole thing. Future me told past you — Wait, no! Future you told past me— No… Yes…? Ugh! Time travel is so confusing…!” Ladybug laughed.

“It really is! Let’s go! We’ll hit Lila’s place first since its closer!” said the heroine as she threw the yo-yo and let herself be pulled up into the air. The Lord crinkled her white eyes in amusement before she glowed blue and seemingly disappeared.

Where the two once sat a glitch occurred… a zigzag-y shape appeared before it disappeared. Then it appeared again, this time less zigzag-y, a mess of light blue and white. Finally, the shape reappeared a third time, this time the glitch forming into an unstable person… Bunnix.

“MINIIIIIIIIBUUUUUG!” she shouted as she held one of her hands up to the quickly distancing pair. Despite screaming, her voice didn’t come out… and with a hopelessly broken expression on her face… she faded into nothingness.

Ladybug was quick to swing over to Lila’s place, the heroine seeing The Lord already there, standing atop a stack of garbage cans. That caused her to laugh, as it reminded her of that one time she climbed garbage cans to see over the tall walls of the Agreste Mansion.

“Well this brings back memories.” she said with an amused tone.

“Does it?” The Lord had no idea what was happening and let her ‘Future Marinette’ persona crack.

“Yeah. Anyway let’s see if Lila’s around.” said the heroine as she entered the suspiciously open window. Nobody was inside. The Lord, being too big, used her Frozen Sand to quickly run around the side of the building and to the main entrance, get into the apartment through the front door and into the room from inside the apartment.

“Nobody’s here…” said Ladybug as she looked around the room.

“Miss Rossi is missing too, but that’s to be expected since she works at the embassy.” replied the immortal being as she made her way into the room, walking over to the board filled with masks and grabbing one. “Cute hobby… You know, this girl could be an actor with all her skills. I never—” The Lord cut herself off as both of them heard a shrill beeping.

“That wasn’t me.” said Ladybug.

The lonely being immediately dashed and grabbed an invisible being, the illusion falling apart and revealing Volpina, a man also appearing to stand in front of The Lord and to her left. The latter person was wearing a brown costume consisting of a double breasted, nineteenth century military blazer with a cream colored standing collar, three pairs of golden buttons, the center of the chest white, with cream colored epaulets, and a pair of brown pants with knee length, dark brown boots fused into it. His hair was cream colored and combed back, a pair of sunglasses obscuring his eyes.

“Voyage!” he exclaimed and pointed two fingers at the ground, the ring of blue light around his wrist concentrating into a small ball that he shot at the ground under The Lord, who fell into it with a shout, letting go of Volpina, who ran out of the room.

“No!” exclaimed Ladybug, throwing her yo-yo to give the immortal being a chance to pull herself out. But it was intercepted by the horseshoe weapon belonging to the mystery man as he closed the portal. With a smile he threw the weapon at Ladybug, who spun her yo-yo around to block it.

“Voyage.” he said casually, creating a small portal and plunging his hand into it, the portal leading to behind Ladybug’s head, the villain ripping away one of her earrings, the heroine gasping, covering her ear as the magic of the Miraculous began to slowly remove her suit. “This will be easier than I thought, it seems.” That smile of his… it looked like…

“Shadow Moth…” muttered Ladybug, her blood going cold.

“Who else?” He looked all smug, but that expression changed to shock and pain the moment The Lord ripped open through the fabric of space-time, air beginning to be sucked out and blinding sunlight blowing through as she, with herculean strength, began to pull herself out. Hawk Moth accidentally dropped the earring, the timeless being noticing and letting go of the edges of her Time’s Eye in order to catch it. She was sucked back towards the sun. A few moments later, The Lord opened another Time’s Eye, stepping through it and casually placing the earring back in Ladybug’s earlobe, reversing the slow detransformation.

The Lord watched as Ladybug’s body was trembling slightly. She was not calm enough to keep fighting, her failure of losing the other Miraculouses coupled with the fact she almost lost her own causing her to freeze up. This can’t end well for us.

“She needs comfort. Perhaps you can get in touch with Cat Noir since you’re not willing to even try to hug her.” scolded the ghostly Melody. With a snap of her fingers, The Lord stopped time, grabbed Ladybug, and calmly walked out, continuing to walk until she was sure she was far away enough that the man could not track them. Time resumed.

“WHAT—?! WHERE—?!”

“Relax. I took ourselves out of there.” Ladybug gaped like a fish as she tried to form words, giving up and trying to get control of her increasingly faster breathing.

“…That… was Shadow Moth… You were right… He is giving out the Miraculouses…” she said after calming down a little.

“Yeah, but only to two people, or one, if we’re lucky.”

“W-We need to go to Chloe’s place!” exclaimed the heroine as she grabbed her yo-yo, The Lord grabbing her arm before she threw it.

“You are in no condition to fight. You just chocked back there!”

“That’s not going to help.” said the ghostly Melody. And it proved true, as Ladybug frowned.

“H-How I’m feeling doesn’t matter right now!”

“<Sigh> Fine…! But call your partner first.”

“Right!” exclaimed Ladybug, before opening her yo-yo to call him.

“Yes, milady? Don’t mind the noise, everything is purr-fectly fine!” said the cat hero as he was dodging robbers shooting at him. With quick movements he rushed in and took out one with a palm strike to the chest, taking out the other two with a jumping split kick.

“…Were those gun shots?” asked Ladybug.

“Well, I was stopping a robbery at a bank. I found myself with more free time on my paws. What’s up?”

“I… Can you head to Chloe’s place?”

“Sure!” replied Cat Noir as he waved to some policemen, before pointing to the unconscious robbers and his staff. They nodded and he was able to walk away. “Why though? Something happen?” he asked.

“Shadow Moth gave Lila the Fox Miraculous. And he’s using the Horse.”

“Understood. See you there bugaboo!”

“S-See you!” Ladybug closed the call, blushing a little.

“Let’s go. After that we’re taking a break… And you can talk with your pretty kitty~ about your next move.” said The Lord as she jumped away.

“H-Hey! He’s not— I-I mean he is, but— D-Don’t make fun of me!” called out Ladybug finally, cheeks red and a torrent of conflicting emotions keeping her mind from worrying too much about Hawk Moth. She threw her yo-yo to follow The Lord.

“See? She doesn’t need comfort. She just needs to have her mind preoccupied by something else to get back in the game.”

“You say that now…”

Chapter Text

Cat and Ladybug met on the way, The Lord already there due to her ‘magic power of time travel‘. Apparently they were right to hit Chloe’s place next, and for the immortal being to go ahead of them. Hawk Moth had given her the Bee Miraculous, and, since Chloe didn’t need an explanation on its function, they were all about to leave through the portal, Lila and Chloe talking to one another, before The Lord intervened. Lila had immediately ran at her, the immortal being scoffing and launching her into a wall. Chloe had been smarter and used her top’s wire to tie the timeless being’s legs together and pull her off her feet. Hawk Moth immediately used his Voyage to have The Lord fall into the sun again, this time a yo-yo being thrown into it, allowing the lonely being to be pulled out.

“You took your sweet time! Did you take the scenic route?” asked The Lord as she went after Volpina, the villainess dodging punches that formed small craters into the wall.

“We were talking about whether or not we should use the wish to recover the stolen Miraculouses.” said Cat casually as he ran to Hawk Moth. That caused him to stagger and left him open to be batted into a wall.

“…You wouldn’t dare! The Wish has a cost, one which you heroes would never dare risk!”

“Chloe give back the Bee Miraculous!” ordered Ladybug, holding her hand up.

“Never! I was a hero Ladybug! A hero! And you took that away from me! Venom!” exclaimed the bee villainess as she activated her power. Making a somewhat panicked face, the ladybug heroine began to dodge, trying her best not to be stung. And when Chloe somehow managed to corner her she thought she was done for… until The Lord threw Lila in the way, causing her to take the attack for her. A shrill beeping was heard from the Fox Miraculous.

“Using the actual Fox Miraculous is a lot harder than having dear Hawk Moth feed you powers, isn’t it foxy?” asked The Lord with murderous glee. Hawk Moth, seeing the situation that they were in, did the one thing he knew he could do: he called for help.

“Nathalie, reset!” he exclaimed and a wave of sea green light enveloped everything.

Cat and Ladybug met on the way, The Lord already there due to her ‘magic power of time travel‘. Apparently they were right to hit Chloe’s place next, and for the immortal being to go ahead of them. However, when the two heroes showed up The Lord was in an empty room, waiting for them.

“Where are they?” asked Ladybug, confused.

“Did you already catch them or something? Or did Shadow Moth manage to leave?” asked Cat, equally confused, the boy looking around to see if he could catch sight of the villains.

“Shadow Moth’s pet bird used the Snake Miraculous…!” grumbled The Lord.

“Mayura…” mumbled the heroine.

“Wait— You can still remember everything that happened?!”

“Smart kitty…! Yes, I can remember. Unfortunately this proves a problem: we don’t know where Mayura is. Even if I am capable of knowing  how to do things differently in order for us to anticipate her, she can still reset. So we’ll be stuck in a loop.”

“Like a snake trying to eat its tail!” Cat Noir supplied uselessly. Ladybug groaned, the heroine leaning down.

“This is all my fault…! If I hadn’t taken that risk—”

“—all of Paris would have been destroyed milady.” Cat cut in as he went and hugged her. “Plus you couldn’t have known that it was Felix and you were under Risk’s influence…!” Ladybug sniffled and let a few tears fall.

“Sorry for not keeping my cool, it’s just…”

“It’s okay Ladybug. Everyone has different ways to deal with loss… not too long ago I lost someone important to me and I just… shut down. I couldn’t cope. So it’s okay if you take it easy for a little bit—”

“Says the guy going full time hero?” asked The Lord, turning her attention from the ghostly Melody, who had been telling her she should keep moments like these in mind every time she killed Adrien by letting Hawk Moth have his wish, and looking at Cat Noir. “Don’t think I didn’t hear you talk with Ladybug on the phone; I was right next to her.”

“Uh… right. I just realized I didn’t ask: Who are you? I mean not that you don’t look cool, but…” there was apprehension in his eyes as he hugged his partner a little closer in a protective manner.

“That’s Marinette.” said Ladybug, and the lonely being glowed blue and yellow, confirming the heroine’s words as she turned back to her normal self.

“Wow! That looks really good actually. Italian?” The Lord raised an eyebrow, smiling mischievously.

“Why, these are Italian. You sure know your fashion Cat Noir.”

“Uh…”

“You know fashion?” asked Ladybug. She couldn’t control herself, a little twinkle shinning in her eyes and her cheeks having a soft blush.

“Well— I— That was— Uh… … … Lucky guess?” he offered with a big smiled, looking awkward as he had no clue how to cover this up. Ladybug laughed as she pressed her head to his chest, causing him to purr. Her laugh was tired, and the purr went away when he realized that. The heroine turned to The Lord, who sat down on the edge of Chloe’s bed.

“Why did you do that? Now I’m one step closer to figuring out who Cat Noir is. What if we get Akumatized?”

“Neither of you will ever get Akumatized.” replied The Lord without missing a beat.

“Wha— How could you say that when it’s already happened?!” asked Ladybug, looking exasperated. Bingo!

“That was a dirty move and you know it! Marinette wanted to keep her identity secret!” scolded the ghostly Melody.

“What do you mean ‘it’s already happened’?” asked Cat Noir, looking concerned.

“Well— You see— There was this… thing…” the cat hero frowned, but not out of anger.

“Milady… please don’t shut me out. If we’re going to win back the Miraculouses we need to trust each other.”

“YoudiscoveredmysecretidentityandthenyougotakumatizedanddestroyedtheentireEarth!” Ladybug said quickly. Cat Noir smiled before closing his eyes as he took a deep breath.

“WHAT?!” The cat hero’s expression was the picture of panic. The Lord burst out laughing, noticed by only her imaginary companion, who shook her head in disapproval.

“Why are we in Adrien’s room?” asked Chloe as she looked around. The place looked a little… empty. Lila definitely noticed that some things were missing, as she had drunk in every detail when she had been at his place.

“Because this is where you’ll be staying. Hawk Moth’s orders …” said Gabriel, making a show of sounding hurt.

“What?!” asked Lila.

“What happened to Adrien?!”

“… Kaalki I renounce you.” said Gabriel, detransforming without Kaalki appearing. He took off the Miraculouses, turning to the girls, his actually glasses handing from his shirt, the top button opened and no butterfly brooch in sight. “Hawk Moth took Adrien...” said Gabriel bitterly as he put on his glasses. Both girls gasped. Thankfully, they were fooled. In truth, the experienced fashion designer had no idea where his son was. After he told him he wouldn’t be going back to school due to ‘Hawk Moth posing a real danger’ (a pretext he set up to keep his son out of danger in order to go all out), the blond boy vanished. He didn’t even leave a note. Who knew where he was.

And the most annoying part was that he couldn’t really use his powers to find him. No Miraculous other than the Rooster Miraculous (which could create any power), could track him. But for some reason, when he did try to use it, it failed. Little did he know his son was Cat Noir at the time, and due to very specific wording (asking for the power to track Adrien), the Rooster Miraculous couldn’t accomplish that.

“He did that to get you on his side, didn’t he?” asked Lila. Gabriel nodded. “Thought he seemed weird on the train. Is there a doppelganger of Adrien running around? Like a Sentimonster?”

“Not that I am aware of. Hawk Moth cares little about me, my son and our situation. All he wants are the Miraculouses and he thinks he can control me to gain them. He thinks he can control all of us… But I believe we can do something else.”

“You’re planning to double-cross him.” said Chloe with an evil smile.

“Precisely Miss Bourgeois.”

“You want to take his Miraculous? I bet you’d be much better with it Mister Agreste.” said Lila, trying to ingratiate herself.

“Thank you, but no. We can do that after we gain the Miraculouses. We will go to his lair together and, since he will not expect it, he will be crushed by our combined forces. For now we’ll play along. Volpina, Queen Bee. You will have to assist any Akumas that Hawk Moth creates. I will be forced to return the Horse Miraculous, since he just gave it to me in order to return your rightful powers to you.”

“And he’s not giving you any other Miraculous?” asked Volpina.

“He did hint at providing me with the Snake Miraculous, but…”

“So he’s being wishy-wishy…” said Queen Bee.

“Yes. But that matters not. Whatever he decides to do, his own ego will be his downfall. Now rest for the day. He won’t be doing anything today and he doesn’t want us to make any moves either.” finished Gabriel as he walked out the door. Volpina groaned.

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to. What is wrong with this stupid Miraculous!”

“Ugh! Tell me about it! These stupid things have a time limit. Once you use your ability your power runs out. But, Hawk Moth gets to prance around with his powers all day! It’s ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!”

“You can say that again. Trixx, I renounce you.” said Volpina as she walked over to Adrien’s bed and sat down.

“Buzz Off.” called out Queen Bee, before eyeing Lila. “What are you doing over there?”

“Marking my spot? Someone has to sleep on the couch and that won’t be me.”

“WELL THAT DEFINITELY WON’T BE ME EITHER!” shouted Chloe as she ran towards Lila. The two girls began to fight over who was going to sleep in the bed.

Marinette and Adrien were laying on the floor giggling like children, his arm wrapped around her as she laid her head on his chest. The Lord watched the two, smiling and ignoring the ghostly Melody’s implied enjoyment. She was not enjoying this! She was just… finding their little love amusing since they were two weirdos.

“In my defense, I wanted to push them away… but I couldn’t… not Alya…”

“It’s okay, I forgive you. I did try to give up my Miraculous and leave you alone more than once...”

“Giving her the Fox Miraculous full time was a mistake though, even if she helped.”

“Think that Shadow Moth will try to target her again?”

“Maybe? I’m not sure honestly. We didn’t talk today at school about it since I couldn’t make myself bring it up. I should probably call her.” As if on cue, Marinette’s phone rang.

“Alya? Hey, listen, about—”

“HAWK MOTH DOESN’T HAVE THE PEACOCK!” shouted Alya, causing Marinette to hold her phone away from her ear.

“Did she just say what I think she said?” asked Tikki.

“Why wouldn’t he have the Duusu’s Miraculous?” asked Plagg. Both Kwamis were equally confused by Alya's statement.

“What do you mean he doesn’t have the Peacock Miraculous?” Adrien remained quiet, but he did lean over to put the call on speaker.

“I looked over the footage of his declaration yesterday evening, and I noticed that he had every Miraculous symbol… except for the Peacock. There was a missing space too actually. So I don’t think he has the Peacock anymore.” Marinette and Adrien shared a look. So did Tikki and Plagg.

“Where do you think it is?” asked the young fashion designer.

“Don’t know. I’ve scoured the internet for news regarding anything resembling Sentimonsters. Nothing!” The blond teen frowned.

“Felix…” he said grumpily, covering his mouth as he realized he blew his cover.

“Adrien…? Is that you?! Where have you been? You didn’t show up at school today and Miss Bustier said you went back to homeschooling!” Should I tell her? he asked Marinette with his eyes. Let’s all meet up. replied the blue haired girl with her eyes.

“Let’s all meet up at my place. There’s…” Marinette’s eyes shifted to The Lord, who looked as if she was talking to someone else. “… a lot to talk about.”

Marinette had entered the bakery through the front door, telling her parents that ‘Honora’ had other things to do and was going to come in a bit later. Adrien entered through the top since nobody was supposed to know where he is (he told Marinette that he ran away since his father was sure to fatten his schedule after taking him out of school, meaning little to no time for Chat Noir). A few minutes later Alya came up, followed by Honora, who brought in cupcakes.

“Enough for all!” said The Lord with that fake excitement of hers, before she closed the trapdoor and went back to ‘Marinette’.

“OMG…! Adrien it is you! Where have you been today? Everyone was so worried when we were told you’re not coming back to school.” said the ladyblogger, whispering. “Also what’s with you? I never knew Marinette had friends in Italy.” she added, turning to The Lord.

“Rude! But you’re right, I don’t have friends from Italy. What I do have is time travel.” Alya gasped, a giant smile on her face as she turned to the other teens and pointed to the timeless being excitedly.

“Yes, that’s future me. And there’s another surprise, so try not to scream, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll try. But I doubt you can top that!” Adrien let Plagg fly out of his shirt, Tikki flying out as well, the two Kwamis beginning to fly around and talk, giving the teens some space. Alya gaped. “You are—”

“Yes.” confirmed Adrien.

“But since you are—” the bespectacled girl pointed to Marinette. The blue haired girl smiled. “My two favorite ships have been the same one all this time!” exclaimed Alya. Marinette and Adrien looked worried as they made shushing noises and motioned for her to ‘tone it down’.

“Anyway… You mentioned that the Peacock Miraculous is not in Shadow Moth’s possession, but you don’t know where it is?” asked the young fashion designer.

“Yeah.”

“I think Felix has it.” grumbled Adrien, frowning.

“Felix… you mean your cousin that looks just like you and is an absolute jerk? No offence.” said Alya.

“None taken because you are absolutely right! He used his Miraculous in order to take all of Marinette’s, and then gave them all to Shadow Moth… or Hawk Moth… or whatever name he’s going to take now that he has every Miraculous on him!”

“Calm down Adrien. You might attract an Akuma.” said Marinette placating. The blond boy took a deep breath, calming down.

“Tempus Ocullum aperta.” said The Lord calmly, causing everyone to turn to her as she looked through her Time’s Eye, trying to find this Felix. It’s the same one! How— What?! panicked The Lord as she saw a boy who’s face looked exactly like the Felix she knew. Duusu was in front of him and he wore a silver brooch with orange gems. The lonely being, without wasting any time, plunged her hands into the Time’s eye and took both Kwami and brooch, closing the hole in time-space before the blond boy could see who took her Miraculouses.

“Not again! Could someone please stop my Miraculous from being passed around like a hot potato?” whine Duusu dramatically as The Lord let him go. Tikki and Plagg hugged the Kwami, calming him down.

The Lord looked at Marinette, Adrien and Alya with a smug smile, the three teens staring at her with wide eyes.

“Three… two… one… They should start freaking out now!” supplied the ghostly Melody, the teens starting to freak out exactly the second the words escaped her metaphorical mouth.