Chapter Text
When Zuya Hamiki was twenty-two, she fell in love for the first time. He was a giant of a man, and at first, she thought he would be either a great brute of an enforcer or a smart but cruel man of hidden agendas, but he turned out to be sweet as the cakes he sold for a living. She was rather disappointed, really, because her entire life was death. See, Zuya was a part of an ancient, hidden order of living weapons called the League of Assassins. She had left their temple in Tibet on a mission to Paris, France. It was supposed to be a simple mission, in and out before anyone noticed anything amiss, but he was there. When she first saw him, she ducked back and promptly began remaking her plans, certain that he had been hired to protect her target or elsewise was a competitor hoping to eliminate the target. She pulled back to watch from a distance for several days. She was suspicious when the brute left and did not return, but she completed her mission easily enough and that should have been the end of it. But it wasn’t. She found herself curious, and though she cursed herself many times, she found herself seeking out that man. Zuya tracked him to a small, secluded bakery across Paris. She watched him for days, certain that this was some sort of ploy, a front of kinds. When watching failed her, she became a loyal customer, always entering at exactly 3:02 pm and ordering a medium black coffee, cold, and a blueberry scone. And slowly, the assassin came to realize that this man wasn’t hiding anything. Anything. He was exactly what he seemed, the most honest man she had ever met. And before much longer, she found herself looking forward to her daily visit. His scones were a slice of the Heaven she didn’t, couldn’t, believe in, and though cold, the coffee warmed her whole day.
She stopped going. She had to. She was compromised. She wouldn’t let herself go back to the bakery, back to Tom – and when had he become Tom instead of Monsieur Dupain? – and yet she found herself unable to return to Tibet. And so she watched him once again, and she found the ice in her chest melting into a heart.
Eventually, she had to return to the temple. Ra’s Al Ghul did not take kindly to deserters, and she had long ago finished the simple mission, so she returned. She made her apologies, her excuses. She accepted her punishment and paid her penance, but her mind and heart stayed always on Tom. The Daughter of the Demon noticed soon enough, Talia had always been rather receptive, and for a time Zuya had been her most favored handmaiden, so she knew when she was bothered, distracted.
“Speak.” She said, and Zuya did. And when she finished, Talia watched her with eyes nearly devoid of emotion, only the smallest flicker of grief in the depths before she was completely blank, and she released her handmaiden of her service to the League. Zuya left in the night, taking with her only the clothes on her back and a necklace bearing a charm of twin crossed daggers, one of emerald and one of sapphire, with blades of the purest diamond and silver.
When she reached Paris, she spent many days watching him from afar. He seemed sadder, somehow than when she had left all those months ago. Then, one day, at exactly 3:02 pm, she walked in and order a medium black coffee, cold, and a blueberry scone. His eyes snapped to her face and she swore he became the sun, he shone so brightly through the smile he adorned upon his face. She smiled at him warmly and held out her hand,
“Sabine. Cheng.”
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When Marinette was very young, her mother had begun teaching her basic self-defense which quickly became more and more advanced as she took to fighting like a bird to flight. She was learning how to flip before she was learning how to walk. She learned how to take down a full-grown man before she learned to read. She learned to wield a knife before she learned to measure water in the bakery. By the time she started school, she was fluent in French, Arabic, English, Spanish, Chinese, and was starting Russian.
When Marinette met Alya, she suddenly became a lot more involved in her class and community. As a daughter of the best bakers in Paris, she had always been social and she was known around the circles as a sweet, eager to help and please, budding designer, but she had never gone out of her way to help unless she felt the offer necessary or was asked, her mother’s training drilled into her very core. When she met Alya, she quickly realized that this was a person who was going to get close to her under false pretenses in the hopes of connections and free goods and services, so she quickly fell into a new roll, carefully crafted late at night on the rooftop with her mother, her father sleeping unknowingly below.
When Marinette became Ladybug, she told her mother immediately. Tikki had been extremely against the idea but could not deny that it was a good idea the first time her mother went out on the rooftops with her. It was then that her mother spoke of her past for the first time. She said very little, but she explained that she had been part of an elite group of warriors, and she had left to marry Marinette’s father and she had never told him of her life before him. The night after Stone Heart was defeated, Sabine Cheng donned the black leather attire of the League for the first time in a decade and a half. Marinette quickly transformed: her suit a deep, blood-red on her torso below the chest with a flaring skater skirt. Large black dots scatter sporadically across the red, and black covered her chest and arms, all the way to the tips of her fingers, though the index and pinky were deep red till the second joint, giving the impression of having been dipped in blood. Black boots went to mid-thigh, with blood-red stripes up the outer leg that looked as if she had dipped her hands in blood and run her clawed hands up. She wore a deep red domino mask with three spots, one on the bridge of her nose, one just below her left eye, and one just above her right. A black hood cast her masked face into shadow, making only her mouth and chin easily viewed in the darkness of the night. Should she decide to pull down the hood, her hair would be seen tied back in a tight, intricate knot on top of her head, two blood-red ribbons woven through and sticking out like antenna. A black katana was strapped to her back and a deep red, black-spotted yoyo wrapped around her waist. She had been disappointed by the yoyo, her disappoint heightened by her mother’s clear amusement at the childish object. Together, Ladybug and Night Shadow set out across the rooftops together for the first time. In the shadows of the Parisian night, mother and daughter fought petty crime and set the beginning of a new era for Paris.
When Marinette met Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale and promptly became honorary niece for the former and little sister for the latter, her future was secured. They tittered over her designs and both decided they would perform in nothing that was not a Marinette original. Fans began begging for the name of their mysterious, anonymous designer, and so Jagged and Clara began begging Marinette to join them at a press conference, to be introduced to the world. Sabine sat her daughter down during an evening patrol, and again later with the artists at the Grand Paris. They settled on a compromise. A week later, Jagged Stone let slip that he was excited for the new jacket his personal designer, Zubin Hamiki, was making. Not much longer after that and Clara Nightingale’s Chitter account was full of posts about how much she adored ZH Designs. Marinette created a website for commissions that could only be accessed only by those given the link by previous customers or Marinette herself. And that was how Zubin Hamiki, daughter of ex-assassin Zuya Hamiki was born. It wasn’t long before Marinette and her mother had managed to create an entire persona for Zubin, a personality that let Marinette be herself, however, she wanted to be. They created a backstory and Sabine used old connections and skills to create documents and had them filed retroactively. That was when Zubin came to be, but she didn’t get to come out yet beyond her online commission work. Not until Lila Rossi. When she came, that was when Zubin Hamiki was truly born.
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When Lila Rossi first came to College Francoise Dupont, she brought with her wonderful tales of fanciful adventures and grand connections and an enviable life. Her classmates who had so long claimed to be her friends were quick to turn against her for this shiny, new connection. Lila promised them the world, and they went after her like a flockless goose in winter. With her arrival and their subsequent abandonment, Marinette was able to slowly slip more and more into who she had been before Alya, more and more into Zubin. Before long, she was able to weed out the toxic people from her life and future. Chloe stuck around, having been just as isolated under Lila’s rule. Chloe had been a good friend, even before Lila. Marinette had made the mistake of glaring at Alya’s back where Chloe could see, and she approached later to question Marinette. They struck up a secret friendship.
When Ladybug needed an ally after Chat Noir began to fail in his duties as a hero, she was quick to turn to her secret friend. Queen Bee’s uniform was similar to Ladybug’s and yet completely her own. It was a dark golden yellow leotard covering the entire torso and down her arms and fingers. She had a thick black stripe across her stomach, and two thinner ones halfway between her wrist and elbow on each arm. She wore three-inch, sharpened, black heeled boots that went just above her knee, three golden stripes wrapped around the leg just below the knee. A long black skirt fell from her waist, reaching about two inches below the knee. The skirt was nearly sheer and had slits running the full length in the back and on either side. It was cut out in the middle of her front, leaving a couple of inches free below her stomach. Her mask was a dark golden with a thick black stripe bordered by two thinner black stripes running across the entirety horizontally. She, too, wore a black hood shadowing her face, though it had two golden triangles on the edge, one on either side of her face, each a couple of inches from the top of the hood. Her hair was an elaborate, curly bun, two black ribbons woven through and forming antenna, the bee comb tucked into it. A pair of crystalline wings adorned her back. The first time she activated the miraculous, her weapon was a top on a string, but after extra training with Marinette and her mother, it changed to spear strapped across her back.
When Queen Bee first debuted in Paris, leaping away to de-transform with Ladybug, Marinette was quick to introduce Chloe and Pollen to her mother. That night, Queen Bee joined Ladybug and Night Shadow in their secret patrols through the city. After a few nights, Marinette and Sabine began teaching Chloe Arabic and having her join them in sparring, honing her skills. Asub Amari soon was introduced to the world as the best friend and process model of Zubin Hamiki.
Chloe was not her only friend, however. Luka and Kagami had stuck with her. Marinette had tried dating Luka for a time, but he decided he was completely gay quite quickly into their relationship. They laughed over it and remained easy friends, as neither had been looking for a long-term relationship. Kagami and her had started off on the wrong foot, but the Japanese girl began to realize that Marinette was actually quite similar to herself the more time they spent together and confronted the petite-girl about it. When Chat Noir stopped showing up to Akuma attacks nearly altogether and Hawkmoth increased the rate and strength of his victims, Viperion and Ryuko joined the team. Their costumes were both inspired by Ladybug’s as well. Viperion wore a dark sea-green full-body bodysuit patterned to imitate a snake’s scales. His suit looked to be melded to his body, and it seemed as if he wore no shoes, the entirety of his suit being just one piece, his miraculous being the only thing that stood out, wrapping around his left wrist. His mask was matched the bodysuit, as did his hood. His weapons were two long, white, curved daggers, reminiscent of a snake’s fangs. Ryuko wore a short, maroon dress that clung to her body. It ended midthigh and was sleeveless, covering her neck completely except for a notch in the front. Her dress was patterned to look like a dragon’s scales. She wore black knee-high boots and elbow-length gloves. Her mask matched the dress, she wore no hood, though a headband patterned after the dress and adorned with a single sapphire, amber, and smoke gem rested in her shoulder-length hair. She wielded a mahogany Bo staff in battle and had a knife strapped to her right thigh.
The first day Marinette brought Luka and Kagami home after Viperion and Ryuko were witnessed in battle, Sabine watched them from a distance. A week later, they joined the darkened patrols and began their lessons in Arabic and sparring sessions. Not too much later and Rodaina Ba and Shabin Seif joined the fashion scene at Zubin’s side.
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After a year of Chat’s flakiness, her team cornered him after one of the few battles he’d shown at. She stood a good distance away and watched dispassionately as he cowered, but a week later Chat approached her on his own and apologized. She could tell he was sincere and truly beating himself up about it. She gave him about a month to sweat about it before approaching him as Adrien. He quickly joined them in their lessons and nightly outings. He remained at Lila’s side under pressure from his father and as an insider. He declined joining their fashion circle but accepted the offer of another identity and became Ahon Amari. With the completion of their team, they began having gatherings and bonding sessions outside of sparring. Sabine insisted on it, saying just because they were superheroes, didn’t mean they couldn’t be, shouldn’t be, regular teens. Before long, they began adding languages to their list, as everyone became proficient in Arabic. Kagami taught everyone Japanese, and Marinette and Adrien taught Chinese. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Luka and Adrien began dating. They had to keep it secret so Adrien’s father wouldn’t find out, but they managed to have a happy, relatively healthy relationship.
A few months after Adrien and Luka’s relationship was born, Ryuko stopped a mugger in an alleyway from killing an elderly man with a rather peculiar turtle-themed bracelet. Ladybug showed up shortly after, and the look in the master’s eyes promised a rather lengthy chat later. In the end, Master Fu bestowed upon her the title of Great Guardian earlier than he had planned. In celebration, her mother gave her a beautiful necklace. The chain was aged bronze and iron, the pendant a set of twin crossed daggers, one of emerald and one of sapphire, with blades of the purest diamond and silver. Her mother explained that it was a gift from a dear friend, and to be very careful with it and keep it out of sight, for it could have drastic consequences if the wrong people caught sight of it.
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When Marinette was sixteen, she stumbled across a once in a lifetime opportunity: Bruce Wayne was offering a full-expenses-paid trip to Gotham to a single class, the winner of a competition. The objective of the competition was to find the class who had done the most for their community. Marinette may not have been on speaking terms with her class, but this was a chance she could not turn down, and she knew they had a decent shot at it. Mlle. Bustier’s class had done a great deal for Paris, especially in the wake of the Akuma attacks. They had volunteered at various events raising money for Akuma response programs geared towards protecting the people during an attack and getting the victim the proper psychological treatment afterward. They had also been a part of other programs, whether for a class or not, like when they assisted at a research laboratory as a science field day or when they spent the day picking up trash along the Seine because they felt like being helpful to the environment – even if that was because Lila had done so much, clean up for a day was the least they could do. Marinette spent two and a half weeks typing all of the class’s accomplishments into the perfect application before sending it off. She shrieked when she received the confirmation email. She knew they had a good chance, but the confirmation still surprised her. Her friends, family, and the kwamiis all congratulated her – at this point she’d been Ladybug for four years, they’d long ago told her papa everything – and they all went out for dinner together that night.
The next day in class, Mlle. Bustier informed the class of their win, and Lila immediately took the credit. Her newest tales placed her in Gotham, assisting the Bat and Birds as an invaluable asset, dating the youngest Wayne and an honorary Wayne herself, the daughter/sister they never had. Lila claimed to be childhood friends with ‘my darling Damiboo’ and that Bruce Wayne had rigged the competition so that Lila and her friends would win. She claimed she had overheard ‘Damiboo’ talking with his father about proposing last time she visited – conveniently when she claimed to be in Achu, not that anyone noticed – and she just knew that he wanted her to be able to show off the city she would soon live in as COO of Wayne Industries. She went on and on about how ‘her Damien’ just sooooo sweet, but he was really shy and so she couldn’t show them any pictures, and he’d probably pretend not to know her if they encountered him in Gotham, but it was unlikely because he was going on a business trip to England with his father, and the class just lapped it up like starving kittens.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and Marinette and Chloe were sitting in the corner of the lobby of the hotel they were staying in while in Gotham, Chloe tapping away on her phone while muttering angrily in Russian and Marinette working on a new design for Kagami’s next mandatory Tsurugi gala. Sabine Cheng, the only chaperone besides Mlle. Bustier on the trip, stood across the room, watching impatiently as the class huddled excitedly around Lila. Mme. Cheng had not been pleased when it was announced no chaperones other than the teacher would be accompanying the class to Gotham and had bullied her way along using her old connections as well as her new ones, her daughter being friends with the Tsurugi and Bourgeois heiresses. Mlle. Bustier was arguing with the check-in clerk, who looked to be mostly ignoring the incompetent teacher, and Lila was loudly spouting off some story about her childhood with Damien Wayne.
“Really, how idiotic can they be?” Marinette murmured. “It’s common knowledge that Damien Wayne only came to live with his father when he was ten years old, they can’t possibly be ‘childhood friends.’” Chloe snorted next to her, watching Adrien shift uncomfortably in Lila’s grasp.
“You know, for someone so devoted to her ‘future husband’ she sure does hang on Adrien a lot,” Marinette smirked in response, turning her attention once more to the design she was sketching out. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Tikki and Kaalki shift in her purse as she absentmindedly pulled out and fiddled with the pendant her Maman had given her while chewing on the end of her pencil. As Mlle. Bustier approached the group, looking worn to the bone and pure exhaustion evident on her face but holding keycards, Marinette tucked the pendant back under her shirt before closing her sketchbook with a snap and shouldering her purse. She half-turned to her female blonde friend and raised a single, sculpted eyebrow before sauntering over to their teacher and plucking a set of keycards out of her hand, tossing one to Chloe on the way to the elevator.
“Night, Maman!” She called over her shoulder. As Chloe caught up to her, she yawned and stretched her arms over her head.
“I’m looking forward to collapsing into bed after a steamy shower.” The blonde muttered, still tapping her phone, scowling at whatever was on the screen. Marinette snorted and hummed under her breath.
“It has been a particularly long day, yes. I was looking forward to some free running, but sleep would probably be a better idea tonight. I know that’s Maman’s plan.”
“We have to be careful, this Batman’s territory.”
“Yes. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get some help for the whole situation back home.” There was a long silence before Chloe responded.
“If the Justice League has ignored our plea for help for so long, what makes you think we’ll be able to get help?”
“I don’t know.” A pause. “Maybe… maybe because we came in person. Maybe that will finally make them realize how dire this situation truly is.”
“One can hope.” The blonde muttered, entering her keycard into the door and turning the handle. “I call dibs on the first shower.”
“Of course, Your Highness,” Marinette responded an exaggerated bow. Chloe aimed a whack at her but missed as she did a back handspring away, laughing. The blonde pouted at her, as she pulled her toiletries out of her suitcase.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” She said as she slammed the bathroom door. She smiled lightly as she heard Marinette laugh louder. Meanwhile, Marinette shook her head fondly at the closed door, pulling out her own toiletries before falling backward onto the bed. Tikki, Kaalki, and Pollen flew around the room, exploring and tittering to each other in the musical kwamii language. Marinette sighed deeply, closing her eyes and relaxing into the bed beneath her. Her mind wandered to her conversation with Chloe about getting Batman’s help.
When Marinette was still a new hero, still a child with only Chat Noir by her side, she had sent message after message to the Justice League, begging for help. She was young, inexperienced, her partner even more so. No matter the training her mother had given her and could continue to provide, no matter the help and guidance she gave late at night out on the streets, nothing could prepare her for being thrown into this war against Hawkmoth. Her partner was naïve and untrained, herself only twelve, and she suspected he was about her age. She’d had some serious words when she first met Master Fu. He had entrusted the fate of Paris – the entire world, she later learned – on the shoulders of two children he knew nothing about. Ladybug and her partner had hoped for the help, or at least guidance or advice, from older, more experienced heroes. Time and time again they were turned away and ignored, told to stop joking around. They were accused of being children playing a prank, and so, eventually, they stopped trying. Marinette hoped now that she was in Gotham, Batman’s home territory, she could get the help they so desperately needed. Even with more full-time, well-trained heroes, they were slowly losing the war. Hawkmoth was getting more and more ruthless, especially with the aid of Mayura the heroes more and more weary. It was Marinette’s hope that being able to meet with Bat and Birds in person would allow her to really impress upon them the seriousness of the situation. The entire world was at stake and they were thought a joke. A lie. Oh, how she hated liars. Being accused of being raised her hackles.
She heard the shower shut off, and a few minutes later Chloe stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in a swath of ebony silk, silhouetted in steam billowing from the room behind her. She stepped aside, gesturing dramatically to the bathroom.
“All yours, Z.” Marinette snorted.
“Thanks, A.” She said, heaving herself from the bed and running a hand through her hip-length midnight hair. In the bathroom, set her pajamas and toiletries down. Putting her hands on the edge of the counter on either side of the sink, she braced herself and leaned forward, going onto her toes. She studied her face in the mirror: eyes the color of germine-crystal, a splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose and under her eyes – like winged war-paint, full lips, pale skin. The one thing she could do without was the scar running from under her right eye down to her jaw. She had received it in a fight with a particularly nasty Akuma, the magic of the miraculous had kept it hidden until after the fight and her lucky charm had been unable to heal it. It disappeared when she transformed, but she – as Marinette – would need to live with it for the rest of her life. She carefully traced a finger down the scar before squeezing her eyes shut and pursing her lips. By the kwamii, she hoped Batman would be able to help them. They weren’t going to last much longer, and if Hawkmoth won, it would be the end of the world.