Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Art by solodrafts

Introductory

It has been two years and three months since Ladybug and Chat Noir first appeared on the streets of Paris to combat the Akumitized supervillains controlled by the nefarious Hawk Moth. 

Gabriel Agreste, Holder of the Butterfly and, more recently, the Peacock Miraculous, has been slowly losing his sanity after hundreds of successive defeats, lurking on the cusp of total madness as he tries desperately to heal his dying wife Emilie of the mystical sickness keeping them from reuniting. In one last ploy to finally take the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous from his hated foes, Shadow Moth used the combined abilities of the Akumitized youth Risk and Sentimonster Strikeback to cause mayhem across Paris on Christmas Day, certain this time that total victory over Ladybug and her team was just within reach. 

However, due to the unforeseen temporal interference of Pennybug and her new ally Flairmidable, both Risk and Strikeback were swiftly defeated, ending in another spectacular failure for Gabriel. Now at the end of his rope, Gabriel was prepared to give up his mission to capture the Miraculous until Flairmidable, revealing himself to be Gabriel’s nephew Félix, approached him with knowledge of his identity as Shadow Moth. Using this information as blackmail, Félix made his uncle a one-time offer: he could give Gabriel access to all of Ladybug’s Miraculous from her Miracle Box and the unusual wedding ring he’d previously stolen, all in return for the Peacock Miraculous to use as he wished. 

Still hungry for power and a newfound chance to take revenge on Ladybug, Gabriel hastily accepted. As promised, Flairmidable used his power of Adoration to steal Ladybug’s yo-yo, giving Gabriel direct access to all the Miraculous she had just collected from her team. Fortunately, Félix and Gabriel’s intense animosity towards each other, plus Gabriel’s secret desire to retain possession of the Peacock, slowed the looting just enough that a properly composed Ladybug was able to retrieve her yo-yo before Gabriel could pillage any more than five Miraculous: the Fox, Tiger, Rooster, Horse, and the Ox. Outraged to only have a handful of Miraculous rather than the entirety, Hawk Moth attacked Flairmidable to take both his Dog and Peacock Miraculous and finally rid himself of his meddling nephew for good. 

Unfortunately for him, their scuffle was heard by Ladybug and Gabriel’s son Adrien, who just happened to be upstairs the entire time and came rushing down to investigate the commotion. To their mutual astonishment, they discovered a furious Hawk Moth about to deliver a lethal blow to a wounded Félix, but when the two pairs noticed each other, Félix blurted out Hawk Moth’s identity in an effort to save himself. Momentarily stunned by the horrified expression on his son’s face at hearing this revelation, Hawk Moth was unable to stop Félix from re-transforming and escaping with the Peacock, as well as a currently unknown number of the other Miraculous. 

In a state of panic and indecision, Hawk Moth likewise fled from the Agreste manor with the rest of the stolen Miraculous, leaving Ladybug to console a distraught Adrien who, unknown to the unsuspecting heroine, had just learned his own father had been his alter ego’s mortal enemy for the past two years. 

Since then, neither Hawk Moth nor Félix have been found, and the knowledge of who possesses which Miraculous remains a mystery. But all that is about to change; the final battle between longtime heroes and villains is about to begin, and the outcome will be nothing short of―Miraculous.

Marinette couldn’t believe this was happening.

She’d imagined it many times before, of course. The final battle against Hawk Moth―or Shadow Moth as he’d been recently calling himself―that would decide the fate of Paris and perhaps the entire world in the process. She’d run through thousands of scenarios in her head, each one more difficult to contemplate than the last: necessary strategies and tactics, possible victories and defeats, and what they might have to sacrifice in order to finally prevail.

She hated thinking about it, but as the Guardian of the Miracle Box and leader of her team of Miraculous Holders, it was her duty and responsibility to decide what they would do when the day ultimately came to face him for the last time. And when that moment arrived, she needed to trust she’d be ready for whatever Akumatized victim or sentient-monstrosity Shadow Moth threw at them with all the brutality and malice of a man out for blood.

Ever since she’d become the Guardian and Hawk Moth became twice as dangerous, she’d had several separate meetings with Chat Noir and Rena Rouge―as heroes and best friends after she revealed her identity to Alya―where they shared and discussed their best ideas. Chat, to no surprise, kept suggesting they try to lure Shadow Moth out of hiding by using himself as “irresistible” bait, as if wearing their Miraculous in broad daylight wasn’t already a large enough incentive they granted on the daily. He always smiled when she turned him down, saying she was “Over-protective of her precious kitty,” then laughing if she got flustered or began pouting.

Meanwhile, Alya had been trying to locate Shadow Moth's lair by tracking akumas as they appeared, but predicting Akuma attacks was challenging in a city of two million people, and it didn’t help that Shadow Moth had started using the sewer systems to release his akumas and amoks all across Paris.* There were too many passageways and small pipes for either Ryuko or Polymouse to navigate reliably, and Alya had asked to stop going down there after telling Marinette Nino kept calling her “Rena Fur-mentative” whenever they would hang out.

As for Marinette, she’d started having trouble imagining a world where Ladybug and Chat Noir wouldn’t be the necessary protectors of Paris they had been for the past two years. So much of who she had become was shaped by their experiences together battling Hawk Moth that she’d been unsure of what to do once he was gone. There was still half a semester left of school, of course, and she was still waiting for her university applications to be accepted so she could pursue her dreams of fashion design. But all that was a part of Marinette’s life, so what about Ladybug’s? What would be left for her once she was no longer needed?

The more she considered it―in the moments where she actually had time to do so―the less she wanted to keep thinking about it. It wasn’t just that it was difficult to imagine, but the idea also made her feel…sad, like a raincloud was forming around her heart and blocking out the sunlight that let her experience the same freedom she felt while swinging over the city streets on a beautiful day. Deep down, a big part of her wasn’t ready to give up that thrilling experience for anything, even Shadow Moth behind bars where he belonged.

But as soon as such thoughts surfaced, she would immediately push them back down and scold herself for even allowing them breath in the first place. Who was she to even think like that? It was her duty and responsibility to stop Shadow Moth once and for all, so how could she ever consider a world where he still remained to cause more chaos and despair? No, he had to be stopped for good first, and that was worth anything, even her own personal happiness.

Besides, just because Shadow Moth would be gone didn’t technically mean she had to stop being a superhero. Sure, she’d be out of any supervillains to fight, but there were still plenty of reasons a big city like Paris would need protectors with special abilities, like when she and Chat would stop runaway buses or falling helicopters. Being a hero was more than just punching bad guys; it was about saving lives, and they didn’t need big scary villains showing up on a regular basis to do that. And as long as Grandmaster Su-Han agreed with her on that (not that she could think of anything reasonable as to why he wouldn’t), Ladybug, Chat Noir, and the rest of the team would remain active for as long as they were needed.

Yet wherever her thoughts drifted, she always came to the same conclusion: one day, maybe tomorrow or a decade from now, they would fight Shadow Moth for the final time, and there wouldn’t be any more chances or re-tries after that. When it finally happened, only one side would be left standing by the end of it all.

But no matter how many times she had envisioned it, she never could have imagined it would be like this. 

Gabriel Agreste, the Gabriel Agreste―her longtime fashion idol and father of her mega-crush for the past two years―had been Hawk Moth this entire time.

When she first heard the words, “Hawk Moth is your father!’, she wouldn’t let herself believe them. How could she? Félix was almost as good a liar as Lila and acted just as selfish, and there was no way she could take his word for anything after he had just deceived her by pretending to be Adrien so he could steal her yo-yo and the Miraculous within. From the look she’d seen in his eyes, he was probably desperate enough to say anything if it meant he could slip away.

But everything happened so fast that she didn’t have time to consider why he would say that. Maybe if he was trying to distract Adrien, it would work. But why Hawk Moth, the one about to kill him? In hindsight, it didn’t make any sense. 

She’d been too focused on Félix lying right there, right in front of her, to even bother reading Hawk Moth’s face as they entered. But then the words were spoken, and in the split-second that followed, all she could think about was shoving Hawk Moth aside so she could throttle Félix for the way he’d betrayed her trust in him, even though it was her fault for letting her guard down in the first place. And to say such a thing in front of Adrien? How dare he!!

And then she’d seen the effect the words had on Hawk Moth; how his face had contorted as if he’d been hit with an electric shock and his eyes grew wide in a wild panic. He’d dropped the Peacock Miraculous he’d been flaunting over Félix and looked at Adrien like he wanted to cry out, “It’s not true!” 

And that’s when she knew: Hawk Moth was Gabriel Agreste. 

The moments after had been a blur, but she remembered registering her own shock as all the pieces suddenly clicked together, and she realized what a fool she’d been this entire time. It made so much sense! His reclusiveness from the public eye, the cold and uncompromising attitude he displayed every time they interacted. And his maudit fashion designs! She’d noticed that several of the pieces he’d made in the past two years were reminiscent of Akuma supervillains. She’d always imagined they’d been what influenced those designs, but it had been the other way around the whole time!

He’d been extremely efficient at covering his tracks, going so far as to Akumatize himself― maybe even create sentimonster clones as Shadow Moth―to throw out any suspicion surrounding him. Marinette remembered one of the many times she and Chat had met up to discuss Hawk Moth’s identity, and out of nowhere, Chat had blurted out, “Well, it’s not like he can Akumatize himself, right?” 

At first, the idea had seemed so ridiculous that she’d laughed it off along with Chat, but then it kept her awake all night when she realized he actually could. The effects of a Miraculous outlasted a de-transformation, so if he had created an Akuma and then de-transformed… The thought gave her nightmares for weeks. Whoever Hawk Moth was, he could have completely thrown them off the trail and sent them back to square one without them even knowing it! 

And then there was the most obvious piece of evidence: Emilie Agreste. Gabriel was a man of few emotions, most of them unreadable, but even she’d noticed how his expression would shift whenever his wife was brought up in conversation―defensive at first, but then his voice grew softer as he spoke her praises like she was the most beautiful artistry in the world, something even a master designer such as himself could never hope to replicate. That was how strong his love for her was. And so it made sense he’d do everything in his power to bring her back to him, even use all the power at his disposal for destructive purposes regardless of an even more catastrophic outcome.

And in her astonishment, forgetting those crucial moments where she might’ve been able to stop Félix or Hawk Moth from escaping with the Miraculous, she could only think of Adrien. 

No matter how appalled and upset she’d been, it must have felt a thousand times more devastating for him. As long as she’d known him, Adrien had been the kindest, most compassionate and supportive person she’d ever met. All he’d ever wanted from his father was a closer familial bond, something they’d never had, even before his mother's disappearance. If there was anyone who didn’t deserve to learn their only remaining parent was a deranged supervillain, it was him.

When Félix grabbed the Peacock, transformed, and snatched at least two other Miraculous before plunging through one of the atelier’s windows, her brain finally shook off the momentary paralysis and she’d prepared to pursue, but Hawk Moth was in her way, and she knew he had to be stopped first. She’d yelled at him to stand down and surrender, but her words went ignored or perhaps completely unnoticed as the Butterfly Holder kept his eyes locked with Adrien’s for several seconds, both of them standing completely still as if they were the only two people currently in existence and nothing else could interrupt them. 

Adrien was the first to break the cursed silence. “Father?” he’d managed to say, but his voice was so quiet that it was barely a whisper, yet full of so much raw emotion that it impacted like the roar of a Cataclysmed sentimonster, filled with a tremendous pain and anguish that couldn’t be quantified. Hawk Moth had looked so…defeated hearing them; his head dropped as he clenched his fist, and it trembled so violently that Ladybug thought he might try to attack her, or even Adrien.

But that didn’t happen. Instead, Hawk Moth looked up at his son with one of the most pained expressions she’d ever seen, even with his mask on, and simply said, “I’m sorry, son.”

Just as she’d been about to grab the Butterfly, Hawk Moth swung his cane around with tremendous speed, smashing her against the wall before she could react. As she’d lifted herself out of the debris around her, she witnessed a flash of purple as Hawk Moth leaped through the broken window, the remaining Miraculous now missing from the room. 

Ladybug wanted to chase him. She should have chased him. But then she saw Adrien fall to his knees as the initial shock of the moment finally wore off, and this new reality collapsed right on top of him. She’d rushed to his side, her heart breaking when she saw Adrien’s beautiful green eyes swell with tears as the realization took full effect, and she knew she was witnessing a part of his being―the part that thought he knew his father and understood why he chose to isolate himself from everyone around him―crumble into dust right in front of her. 

She didn’t know how much time passed after that, maybe just minutes, maybe longer, but she stayed with Adrien, holding him as he wept uncontrollably over her shoulder, her own tears falling to the group as she mourned the loss of his innocence and the kwamis she’d failed to keep safe. 

And now, a week later, on New Year’s Eve, she was still crying over her desk, the furious winter thunderstorm outside her bedroom paling in comparison to her inner turmoil. The Miracle Box sat next to her, now emptier by a third, while the rest of the kwamis floated around her head, attempting to comfort her.

“Marinette, you need to stop blaming yourself over this,” Tikki pleaded, still trying to reassure her Holder, even now. “You did everything you could to try and stop him; you were just caught off guard.”

“But I shouldn’t have been, Tikki!” wept Marinette, pulling her legs closer to her chest. “When I had the chance, I froze . I gave Félix and Hawk Moth all the time they needed to escape with the Miraculous because I wasn’t fast enough! If I hadn’t hesitated….”  She trailed off, then let her face sink further down between her knees as she continued sobbing.

The kwamis looked at each other gloomily, like they wanted to disagree with her assertions but couldn’t bring themselves to do so, or maybe just weren’t sure how. Tikki shot them all an intense glare, prompting some to speak up.

“If I may suggest so, Master,” began Wayzz, helping Tikki’s glower to fade, “your initial shock at the revelation of Hawk Moth’s identity was not unwarranted. Had the circumstances been more…favorable, I’m certain neither he nor Félix Fathom could have escaped with Duusu and the others.”

“The circumstances don’t matter, Wayzz. As Ladybug and the Guardian, I have to be ready for any situation, regardless of how tout à coup it is.” She raised her head back up, revealing wet eyes as red as her magic suit, burdened with guilt and disgrace. “You are my responsibility , and I’ve failed in it. I failed to keep you all safe.”

Sass was the next to speak. “Masster, I realizsse it may sseem like everything dependss on your individual actionss,” stated the Kwami of Redemption,* “but you shouldn’t hold yoursself to ssuch detrimental high sstandardss. You have only been Guardian of the Miracle Boxss for a few short monthss, yet in that brief period, you’ve achieved sso much for a young woman of your age. In the entire lineage of the Guardianss, only a handful could genuinely compare themsselvess to you and your accomplishmentss.”

“Yeah!” squeaked Mullo encouragingly. “If anyone is gonna get our friends back, it’ll be you!”

A slight twitch in the corner of Marinette’s mouth was the only indication those words of reassurance had made a meaningful impact, however brief. 

Slowly, she began to relax her body, letting her legs reach back down to the floor as she leaned back in her swivel chair, breathing out a deep sigh of wistfulness. 

“I…appreciate your support, you guys, I really do, but I have no idea where to go from here.” She stood up and planted her hands on the desk. “I spent days searching for Hawk Moth and Félix. I looked everywhere they might have gone: Félix’s penthouse, every Gabriel-brand store and office in Paris and London. I even went back to the manor to look for clues and found nothing!”

The last part wasn’t the whole truth, but she wasn’t ready to admit that, even to herself. She avoided looking at Tikki, fearing she might expose herself more than she was comfortable if those intuitive blue eyes met with hers. 

“Trixx, Roaar, Orikko, Kaalki, Stompp,” she continued, slowly at first, “they’d be here right now if I'd kept focused, not in the hands of those scheming connards !” Her voice began to pick up the pace as it did when she got really frustrated. “Maybe then Nooroo and Duusu would be safe too, reunited with you all after so long when they had only each other for decades . And now they’ve been separated again?! And Barkk―!” She stopped once more, preparing for the real cause of her distress to dramatically manifest itself. This wasn’t just about what she’d lost; it was about how . 

Tikki sensed the oncoming assault of self-flagellation and attempted to prevent its outbreak. “Marinette, you didn’t know―-”

“That’s exactly the problem, Tikki: I didn’t know! ME!” She gripped the edges of her desk so tightly that it would have shattered if she’d been transformed. “I mistook that manipulative prick for the boy I’ve been in love with and obsessing over for two years! I gave the Dog Miraculous to him, I trusted him, and he used that power for his own selfish reasons. Risk or no Risk, I should have known better!”

Anger flooded her body like a collapsing dam overrun by its own massive contents of water, and she grabbed the object nearest to her―a stack of papers comprising Christmas break reading assignments―and sent them scattering over the side of the desk, letting out a loud “GRAAAH!” as she did so. 

No one spoke for several moments, an uncomfortable silence forming as all eyes lay on Marinette where she stood in place, letting the remainder of her emotions dissipate through loud, heavy breaths. 

Gradually, her breathing began to ease up as she naturally settled into one of many meditative techniques Master Fu had shown her and Chat, allowing them to maintain their focus in combat and avoid being Akumatized when de-transformed. 

Tikki took this possibly brief opportunity to establish a more secure emotional coupling with her Holder. “Marinette,” she said softly. “I don’t think I’ve seen you this hard on yourself since you first became the Guardian, and that wasn’t your fault either. Master Fu knew what he was doing when he sacrificed himself so you could replace him, and I’m sure he knew it wouldn’t be easy for you. You still had so much to learn, and you still do, but if he trusted you to watch over the Miraculous in the first place, then I’m sure he would trust you now to get them back.”

Marinette looked up at Tikki, and this time, she allowed a small smile to stay on her lips as she expressed her gratitude. “Thank you, Tikki. And thank you all for being here for me.” She turned around to face the kwamis as she addressed them. “I realize this is a stressful time for us all, and I probably haven’t been making it any easier with my constant moping.” She let out a small chuckle that sounded more like a gasping cough, but it helped alleviate some of the tension everyone had been feeling. 

“I want you all to know I haven’t and never will give up or stop searching for the others.” Her confidence was beginning to return, and her Ladybug persona was taking full effect; her back straightened, her hands moved to her hips, and her mind began racing with a hundred new thoughts and ideas every second. “I don’t know about Félix, but Hawk Moth isn’t the type to stay silent for long. Soon, he’ll make another play for our Miraculous, and when he does, we’ll be ready.”

A cheer went up from the assembled magic creatures, and Marinette turned to look at Tikki, who smiled back at her with an optimistic grin. Marinette cupped the little kwami in her hands, kissing her on the forehead before letting her nuzzle up against her face. The other kwamis joined in, embracing their Guardian with all the love and support they could muster. Despite their small bodies and tiny arms, Marinette felt like a blanket of pure warmth had enveloped her body, and just for a moment, she let herself be at peace.

...

After cleaning up the mess of papers from the floor and taking a much-needed shower, Marinette returned to her pull-down chart, sipping a fresh cup of coffee as she reviewed every bit of data and useful information she and Alya had gathered over the past week, searching for a new angle or a clue she might have missed before. As she’d half-expected, she found nothing. 

“Ughhhh, why does Alya always make detective work look so easy?” she groaned exasperatedly. “I swear, it’s like she can just glance at a problem and immediately come up with a solution.” 

“Isn’t that supposed to be your superpower?” giggled Tikki, munching on a bright pink macaron, her third of the evening, and letting the crumbs drop all over the floor. Thankfully, kwamis were much more efficient waste removers than a vacuum and those who had already finished their own snacks dove hungrily after the tasty sugar fragments.

“Ha ha, very funny little miss messy eater,” smirked back Marinette. “Maybe if notes and graphs were supervillains after my Miraculous, I’d have solved this mystery a long time ago.” 

She took a brief sip from the mug, letting the caffeine rush provide her the mental energy she needed to keep herself from shutting down completely. A lack of proper sleep had left her feeling utterly drained for days, and only this miracle drink had kept her moving for so long until she would pass out for bed.  

“What I could really use right now is another brain and an extra pair of eyes to help me with this,” she said, sighing briefly. “But Alya’s too busy preparing for her date with Nino tonight to help out, and after helping me gather all this even though I… even though Trixx was taken, she deserves a real break.”

She groaned, hoping her friend was having a more exciting evening than she currently was, then paused to consider her options. Only one idea came to mind: the one she had tried dozens of times already with no success. Still, she’d just made a whole speech about not giving up, so why should anything be different with this? She needed her partner. She needed to find Chat Noir. 

Turning around to face Tikki, Marinette asked the dreaded question again, hoping there might be a different answer this time. Instinctively though, she knew it would be the same as before. “Tikki…are there still no new messages from Chat?” 

Tikki swallowed the last bit of her pink pastry before offering only a somber face of regret, confirming Marinette’s suspicions. “I’m sorry, Marinette, but I’ve still heard nothing from Chat Noir, or Plagg for that matter. This is really unlike either of them; I’m starting to get worried.” 

Marinette turned back to the chart, a disquieting sense of unease she had become very familiar with over the past few days creeping up along her spine, forming goosebumps and causing the hair on her neck to stand on end. She’d been having this feeling on and off since learning Hawk Moth’s identity and had attempted to contact Chat so he’d be up to date and could help her track down both the stolen Miraculous and their captors. When he never answered, she began to get worried, but she didn’t have any time to waste and left him a voicemail, telling him to call her as soon as he was active again.

The call had never come. There wasn’t even a text message or any indication he had seen her communiqués. It was as if he had disappeared from the face of Paris entirely without so much as a warning. 

If her attention weren’t required elsewhere, she would already be out looking for her partner even in this fierce downpour, no question. But beyond her more pressing issues, Chat wasn’t a child she needed to constantly manage like the actual toddlers she’d looked after before (not that he was far off in terms of childlike behavior). This wasn’t even the first time he’d gone radio silent for days at a time, though he would usually try and let her know ahead of time if he could. 

But this time was different; there were too many factors in play for this to feel like just a coincidence, and she had these terrible intrusive thoughts telling her both Chat and Hawk Moth’s disappearances were somehow connected. She didn’t understand how, though, but speculation wouldn’t get her anywhere, and unfortunately, with even less to go off of than she did with Hawk Moth or Félix besides her own intuition, there was no point in trying to track him down. All she could do was wait and hope her partner would reach out if he could, whenever he needed her by his side.

Marinette took Tikki in her hands and placed her against her chest in a gentle squeeze, letting the steady rhythm of her heartbeat put her friend at ease. “I’m worried about them too, Tikki. Chat Noir hasn’t been this reclusive since the Chat Walker incident*―”―thinking about another situation where mistaken identity had almost cost her everything made her cringe―“―and with the way we left things after beating Risk and Strikeback…I just hope he’s not avoiding me. We’re supposed to be partners; I know whatever this is, whatever he’s feeling, we can work it out together.”

“But what if he’s in trouble and can’t ask for help?” asked Tikki, her little arms pressing against her pajama shirt, squeezing tight despite a lack of fingers. “What if he’s been incapacitated? What if someone took the ring and he can’t find us because he’s bound to another person’s will? What if we can’t find him again?!”

Marinette didn’t fully register this was no longer about Chat Noir until she felt the little creature trembling against her chest and looked down to see bright tears spilling down the sides of her round head, thoroughly dampening her shirt. She brought Tikki up to eye level; in the entire two years they’d been together, she’d never seen her look so utterly distraught. She hadn’t even known kwamis were capable of crying; their mourning of Master Fu had been conducted together and in solitude away from others, so she’d respected their desire for privacy and asked few questions. This sudden awareness made her realize just how much she’d been neglecting the feelings of the other kwamis, even her own.

She’d unconsciously assumed they knew how to cope with this kind of loss, the absence of Nooroo and Duusu being the prime example, but seeing Tikki display such a deep-seated concern over her friend proved that she’d underestimated how emotionally relatable they really were. Who would’ve believed cosmic entities that embodied literal abstract ideas could act so…profoundly human?

I should have . 

The words bit deep in her mind, but she wouldn’t allow them to draw blood. She’d spent enough time critiquing herself over her past actions. Her friend needed her now. 

Tikki looked up at her Holder with puffy wet eyes, and within them, Marinette saw literal eons of experiences and memories materialize and amass within two brilliant blue orbs that had witnessed more extraordinary events than a mortal being like herself could ever comprehend.

 “I don’t want to lose any more of my friends, and I can’t lose him, too,” she sniffled. “Plagg and I…I know you understand what it’s like. We’re meant to be together; we keep each other balanced. Without him, without my partner…I don’t know who I’d be, what I would become.”

“Oh, Tikki…” Marinette had never felt a more pure form of love for her kwami than she did after hearing those words, and she pulled her as close as she could to her face without hurting her, kissing Tikki right on the crown of her forehead. The other kwamis joined in and, thanks to their identical proportions, wrapped Tikki in a full-body embrace, causing her to emit a humming sound similar to a melody Marinette had heard them all make together when they sang. The others quickly reciprocated the tune, launching what sounded like a mini-musical in her bedroom. It almost made her cry again, but she’d had enough of tears for one night.

When they’d finished, the area's natural ambiance felt a little calmer and much more serene than it had been in a long time. As the kwamis looked back up at Marinette, she gave them the biggest, most passionate smile she possibly could, making a couple of the more silly and affectionate kwamis giggle or blush at the sight of it. 

“We will find Plagg, and we will rescue the others. Je vous promets.” I promise.

In her entire time as Ladybug, maybe even her whole life, she had never said anything with as much confidence and certainty as she did at that moment. She believed every single word of it, and as she’d hoped, the kwamis did as well, spreading their own great big smiles of teeth and fangs, a beautiful assembly of god-like creatures with the innocence of children and the wisdom of immortals, and they trusted her to help them. 

She was so glad to call them her friends. 

Unfortunately, the moment was extremely short-lived.

A booming roar followed by a powerful flash of light pierced through the circular window on the opposite end of the room, momentarily blinding Marinette when she turned in the direction of the deafening noise. She cried out, but more from surprise than physical pain. As her eyes slowly readjusted, she noticed the blurry outlines of the kwamis zipping towards the window, peeking out through the eerily illuminated pane of glass.

Carefully steadying herself against the swivel so she wouldn’t trip or fall, Marinette noticed the city skyline outside her adjacent window overlooking the school was completely lit up by some sort of ethereal radiance. She was positive it had still been raining just before, yet it was bright as daytime outside, except the light didn’t have the same comfortable glow as natural sunshine. It looked pale and ghastly; the mere sight of it sent an ominous chill running through her body. Something was very, very wrong. 

From the other window, the kwamis looked outside with mixed expressions of uneasy curiosity and outright horror. “Hey, Master?” called out Xuppu anxiously. “You might wanna come see this.”

“What’s going on?” Marinette replied, gradually advancing towards the floating kwamis, who parted to let her get closer to the window. 

“I think―I think it’s Trixx.”

Opening the small window for a better look, Marinette realized it was still raining heavily, but for some reason, she could barely make it out through the glare of the ghostly luminescence. Placing a hand over her eyes to shield her from the light and the rain, she took her first real look outside, and what she saw froze the blood in her veins solid.

It was happening. After two long and arduous years, it was finally happening.

Their last battle was about to begin.

Chapter Text

Adrien couldn’t believe this was happening.

He’d thought about it a lot, of course. The day he and Ladybug finally hunted down Hawk Moth, discovered the lair where he’d been releasing his akumas all this time, and gave him the oh-so overdue beating he’d been saving up after TWO maudire years of endless battles and countless supervillains wreaking havoc on Paris and his personal life. 

At first, he hadn’t really minded the interruptions from his insanely strict schedule and the modeling career that had become such an inherent part of his entire existence that the concept of ‘freedom’ seemed to only exist in the form of a black catsuit and an open bedroom window to escape through. Running along the city rooftops, bounding over national monuments like they were tiny playthings, the distinct rushes of adrenaline derived between a skyscraper freefall and a supervillain trying to rip his right hand off every other week. It was crazy, but in a good kind of way, for the most part.

The sense of freedom putting on the suit gave him―perhaps the only source of genuine freedom he’d ever known―made him feel like there were no more gilded cages to be confined to, no mansion-sized prisons he couldn’t break out of with just a single word. Finally, he had some sort of control over his life, with nobody else telling him how to talk, act, or even how he should smile. He could be whoever he wanted to be and do anything and everything he wanted to do. Nothing was holding him back from being his true, authentic self, and it felt amazing, the most incredible experience imaginable. Almost.

And then there was Ladybug. God, she was by far the best part of it all.

She was…there was no one way of describing just how absolutely perfect she was. Brave, compassionate, intelligent, stunning, miraculous. There were about a thousand and one more words he could apply to her, and all of them put together still wouldn’t measure up to what she was really like in the flesh. Of the two of them, he’d always seen her as the real hero, the one who would put everything on the line if another person could be saved or the newest Akuma was defeated. He was just the goofy tag-along spewing out cat puns and doing the grunt work; she was the one saving the day.

He didn’t mind that their partnership worked like that; it was just made that way. He was the Holder of the Black Cat Miraculous, so naturally, it wasn’t his inherent responsibility to fix everything up after it had been broken in the first place. Destruction was his power, and used correctly, he could do a lot of good with it, but there was always the underlying danger that one wrong move could bring everything crashing down around them. Ladybug disagreed, not because his power wasn’t dangerous, but because, as she’d put it, “Chat, I trust you more than anyone I know. I can always count on you to do the right thing, even when it seems impossible.”

Jésus Christ , how could he not have fallen in love with her at first sight? She always found a way to make his heart skip a beat. 

But that already seemed like forever ago, and recently, his feelings for her had…shifted as things between them had gotten more tense. It wasn’t that his core affections had changed despite the new intensities of their situation, but he understood that more than ever, he needed to prioritize his focus on the mission above all else.

Since they’d first started working together, their relationship had barely been anything more than a friendly yet professional one, despite Chat’s many attempts to woo her over through the constant rejections. She’d made her own feelings for him very clear after their first fight against Glaciator, and he tried to give her more room to breathe when Master Fu was killed, but it was after that day things had only become more strained. 

Her time as Guardian had changed her a lot , and usually, these changes had benefited the team as a whole, but he’d noticed just how much the pressure had been getting to her these last few months, and unfortunately, that meant they weren’t able to be as close as they used to be. Daily patrols had lost their routine, warm welcomes were now rushed or ignored out of necessity, and sometimes an Akuma or Amok attack would happen so suddenly that he didn’t have any time to sneak away and transform before Ladybug had diffused the situation with the other Holders. 

Of course, he blamed Shadow Moth for their current circumstances more than anyone, especially after he tried to take advantage of the growing space between them by creating the Chat Walker sentimonster to convince Ladybug he’d quit after their biggest argument to date.* If the real Chat Noir hadn’t shown up in the nick of time, even after Ladybug had already realized Chat Walker was just a little too perfect, it might have all ended there.

Endings. Perhaps that was what scared him the most about all this: losing Ladybug, losing the fight, or maybe even winning it and the unknowable repercussions that came with the victory. What happened next? If it was deemed that Paris no longer needed superheroes, no longer needed him as Chat Noir, would he be able to give up Plagg and the ring willingly? Could he fully embrace the fact that now he was just Adrien Agreste, a young man whom some days he hated being altogether, not even able to look in a mirror without scowling at that perfect face?

He didn’t know if he could do it. He didn’t want to give up this life of freedom and excitement. After everything he had done to keep Paris safe, did he really deserve to lose the best thing he had going so abruptly? Shouldn’t he be allowed to just be happy for once? 

It was selfish; he knew that. And maybe it was unfair for someone as privileged and well-off as him to complain about losing something he didn’t really need…but it didn’t feel that way to him. Despite every hardship, every act of cruelty and malice he had witnessed, the past two years had still managed to be some of the best in his entire life, and he wouldn’t trade them away for anything. 

But maybe, just maybe, if it meant he and Ladybug could finally let go of their disguises and be together like ordinary people, even if it was just as friends, he’d find a way to let go of Chat Noir and find a new version of himself he could love and trust.

But now, he realized, those dreams of a bright future were only dust in the wind. It didn’t matter what happened afterward, not anymore, because as soon as Ladybug realized the truth about who he was, she’d take his ring away in an instant and never trust him again. And honestly, he wouldn’t be able to blame her. 

Gabriel Agreste―his father, his own FUCKING FATHER!! ―had been Hawk Moth all along. 

He wished with every single part of his being that he could believe it wasn’t true, that it didn’t make any damn sense and Félix had been lying from that start, just like he’d lied when he promised to help Adrien stand up to his father. If he had done it himself or just obeyed the first time he was told to go on the train with Lila and Nathalie, then none of this would have happened. Then he wouldn’t have learned the truth in such a horrible fashion. 

He’d already been having a rough Christmas Day from the start: His father had taken his usual controlling personality to new heights by forcing Adrien to leave Paris on a promotional tour that would last months, with Lila of all people, leaving him with no room for negotiation or even a chance to say goodbye to his friends. Only the coincidental intervention of Félix had saved him from his cross-national nightmare, but when things were finally looking up, he’d been drafted into another fight and had to watch Ladybug fixate on Flairmidable like he was the epitome of perfection, and it was all he could do to keep his jealous disdain subdued for her sake.

But things started going really wrong once he got home and realized Ladybug was right behind him, not because she’d somehow learned he was Chat Noir, but because she’d presumed this entire time that Flairmidable had really been Adrien Agreste, and she’d come expecting to retrieve the Dog Miraculous. 

Adrien had to witness the dreadful expression of realization and terror spread across her face once he explained to her he wasn’t the person she’d come looking for, only for them to both come to the same conclusion, with Ladybug only then grasping exactly how horribly she’d fucked up. Adrien knew what it was like to put your faith in people only for them to use and betray you in the end. He also knew he wasn’t wearing the right face for her to readily believe in anything he suggested, but at that moment, he’d silently prayed to whatever gods or cosmic entities might be listening that she could trust in him just one more time.

There had been a few brief seconds of relief once Ladybug had re-transformed and discovered that most of the Miraculous were still there, but they never got the chance to check how many might have been taken before they heard the crash of broken furniture from downstairs and rushed to investigate. Despite Ladybug’s warnings that he should stay put, he knew there was a part of her that wanted to keep an eye on him. Besides, there was no way he wasn’t going with her. He was still her partner, in or out of costume, and he would never let her go on alone when he was there to help.

But this was the one time he should have.

Standing there, witnessing his deceitful cousin about to get bludgeoned to death by the most famous supervillain in Paris in his own home on Christmas had been traumatizing enough. But with just five words and the winter gray eyes of his father meeting with his, his entire reality was shattered like fragile glass in a hurricane. 

No words could express exactly what happened to him in the following moments. Even now, he still wasn’t sure he’d processed anything correctly. It was like the world around him had faded out of existence, and it had just been him standing there across from his father, neither one of them able to move, left still as stone as they both looked at each other like they couldn’t recognize who was staring back at them. 

He’d wanted to do something. Say something. Anything! Just move! But he couldn’t. He just…felt helpless. And alone.

Feeling Plagg twitch underneath his button jacket had been the only thing that snapped him back to reality, and even then, he’d barely managed to speak one single word; the effort it took left him heavy and drained of all his energy. 

“Father?” It felt so alien on his tongue, speaking that way to the man he’d been fighting for two straight years, the one he’d had countless nightmares about as either a victim or another unwilling Akumatized servant in his evil plans. The man who’d been trying to steal his Miraculous for God knows what for so long, that was his father, and the worst part of it all was how much satané sense it finally made. 

Mother. All this time, he’s been trying to bring Mother back.

What should he have felt in that moment? He wished he could say there was some sort of relief, maybe even a semblance of empathy, now that he realized his father was still mourning for the woman they had both lost. He would have understood that.

But he didn’t feel anything like that. He didn’t feel anything. His chest had become a vacuum that sucked away all his emotions, leaving him empty and hollow, a wooden doll without a source of life to provide it direction or purpose. There was a part of him that was gone now, gone forever. And he knew it was never coming back. 

He didn’t notice when Félix took advantage of his perfect distraction and snatched the Peacock from the floor, then ran for the window. He didn’t register Ladybug yelling at Hawk Moth, ordering him to de-transform and hand over his Miraculous. The world was completely empty, devoid of everything save for him and Hawk Moth, his father. His father. His father. 

His. Father.

It was rare Adrien could read his father’s expressions, his steely veneer concealing even his own body language from partners, admirers, competitors, and family alike. He wasn’t the most intuitive person either, and he always tried to see the best in other people, even if it made him seem a bit naive and oblivious at times. But now, looking at his father’s face with the silver mask obscuring most of his features, he could tell the man felt just as brokenhearted as he did. 

“I’m sorry, son.” Somehow, he knew those words were honest and genuine but found no comfort in hearing them. Only more misery.

Then as if exacerbating his despair, he watched helplessly as Hawk Moth battered Ladybug into the wall behind him, the impact of the blow causing an updraft that made his jacket and hair ripple in the gust of air. Realizing he hadn’t moved a single finger to help his partner was the trigger necessary to rouse his inner protector, and he attempted a desperate lunge at his father, reaching out for the Miraculous on his chest. 

His fingers barely brushed against the brooch before Hawk Moth grabbed his arm with unprecedented speed and a firm but gentle grip. Adrien struggled, but without his powers, it was like trying to bend a steel bar with his bare hands. Without any concern for what might happen next, Adrien prepared to risk it all and call out Plagg’s transformation phrase, but found himself forced into silence by his father’s next words.

“Adrien, stop.”

Adrien froze where he stood, unable to move a single muscle or even twitch an eyelash. He stood there like a statue as his father released him and rushed to the table where the remaining Miraculous had been left. He thought he heard Hawk Moth growl in frustration before snatching them up, but right then, he wasn’t sure he could understand anything that was going on. What was happening to him?

He heard Ladybug shifting in the debris behind him, but his attention was fixated solely on his father, who gave him one last remorseful glance before finally saying, “Don’t follow me,” with the most stirring emotion he’d ever heard come out of his mouth. Those were the last words he witnessed him say before he leapt out the window in a blur of dark purple, disappearing into the light of the falling sun, all the stolen Miraculous now gone from the room.

He’d wanted to chase after him. He needed to chase after and catch him. He needed answers, now more than ever. Answers for every half-truth and lie he’d ever been told. Answers for all the pain his father had caused in the name of just one person: a loving, wonderful person who would be disgusted by the cruel, violent man her husband had become. Answers for why he left his own son to grieve alone when maybe, together, they could have become closer than ever, helping each other heal from the pain they both were hurting from. 

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t shake that uncanny feeling of submission that had always kept him from ever disobeying his father. His body wouldn’t obey his brain. He was absolutely useless, and now his father was gone with some of the most powerful and dangerous magical artifacts in known existence.

Once Adrien’s conscious mind had apparently accepted that Hawk Moth was far enough away, his legs had melted under him like wet clay, and he fell to the floor like a fish gasping for moisture. It came to him in the form of fat tears streaming down his cheeks, quickly creating a puddle on the tiled floor where he caught a glimpse of his reflection; the face of a young man who’d just witnessed an unimaginable nightmare made truth and brought to life stared back at him, equal in his grief and dismay.

Ladybug then obscured the vision as she wrapped him in an embrace tighter than he’d ever gotten from her as Chat Noir. He felt inconsolable, yet she was still there for him despite just learning he was the son of her mortal enemy and might have orchestrated this entire incident so his father could take her Miraculous, with Félix acting as the perfect scapegoat.

But she stayed as he cried over her shoulder. He could feel her own tears splattering against his backside, though he wasn’t sure if they were over him or the shame in her inability to fulfill her duties as Guardian. He wished he could comfort her as Chat Noir and tell her it wasn’t her fault. That together, they would find Hawk Moth and Félix and get back the Miraculous one by one and ensure nothing like this would ever happen again. 

But he couldn’t, not because revealing his identity to his partner was dangerous and might upset her more, but because he just…couldn’t do it.

You should have seen it coming, some part of his subconscious had told him, and he knew it was true. He was a poor excuse for a son, a friend, and a partner, and he wholly believed that nothing could make him feel any worse than he did at that moment.

Adrien didn’t realize how utterly wrong he could be until he was standing in front of the glass coffin containing his mother.

...

When Ladybug had eventually left, he’d returned to his room after heavy insistence from Plagg he should not try sleeping on the floor, deflating over his bed and soaking his sheets with even more tears. All of a sudden, he remembered the strange monocle he’d found in the atelier and left in Félix’s extra pair of clothing when Strikeback appeared. For some inherent reason, he knew he needed to find it again.

After Plagg unearthed the monocle, Adrien had tried putting it on, not noticing anything unusual about it until he realized he couldn’t see the kwami through the eye he wore it over. That’s when he figured out it was some sort of advanced technological device, and all the signs and coincidences of the day pointed towards it belonging to Félix. If so, maybe it was a clue related to Félix’s fight with Hawk Moth. He was desperate for answers, and by this point, anything seemed possible.

Adrien retraced his steps back to the atelier, keeping his gaze averted from the destroyed sections of the room in a mostly futile attempt to keep his emotions in check. After fiddling with the eyepiece a bit, he must have activated a feature that scanned for fingerprints because he began seeing traces of them all over the room. Knowing Félix, there’d be only two places in the atelier he’d investigate specifically: the central console and the painting of Emilie that concealed the hidden safe behind it.

Adrien decided to start with the painting. He was unsurprised to find the outer edge covered in fingerprints, but was more curious about the ones left on the center over the canvas itself. Adrien felt them over, but nothing happened, so he tried pressing each print simultaneously, and a trapdoor beneath his feet opened up and pulled him down into a circular elevator.

He’d been stunned. Had this been here the whole time? Even Plagg seemed shocked, and the little cat had been all over the manor searching for the stashes of Camembert Adrien had hidden away for emergencies. 

They'd descended into a massive space lit by lights alongside a catwalk that led to the other end of the room, although that word alone didn’t quite express just how large it really was. On the other wall, Adrien made out a circular glass window with a butterfly-shaped center overlooking some sort of garden with a cylindrical capsule sitting in the middle. Plagg had urged caution as the elevator doors opened, but Adrien couldn’t hear him anymore. He was completely fixated on the pod and its contents; he had to know what else his father was keeping from him. 

Standing before the capsule, Adrien used the eyepiece again and noticed a cluster of fingerprints at its bottom end, then pressed it.

Whatever he imagined he would find within was nothing compared to the sight of his mother, still as comatose yet breathtakingly beautiful as she had been the day he’d last seen her five years ago.* She hadn’t aged a day; her fair but sickly skin lacked any signs of her current age, and her hair was still a vibrant blonde and curled into a delicate ponytail that rested over her shoulder. She appeared to be in some sort of medically-induced deep sleep; there was no sign that she’d registered his presence, and her breathing remained at a steady, gentle pace the entire time.

In an absolute state of stunned silence, Adrien brought his hand up against the glass separating him from his mother’s body, his eyes transfixed on her face where a small smile rested on her mouth as if she was dreaming of a better time and place than the one she had left behind. 

“M-mother?” The syllables that left his mouth didn’t feel real, nor did the display before him. But it was. She was here, right here in front of him. She had been all this time.

For the second time that day, Adrien Agreste was broken by the truth and fell to the ground in tears. 

...

Adrien hadn’t left his mother’s side since then, disregarding Plagg and, soon enough, Nathalie’s many attempts to get him proper food and sleep. He ignored them both and rarely spoke to either, especially Nathalie, once he realized another equally obvious and horrible truth.

You’re Mayura. This entire time, you’ve been helping my father do horrible things. You’ve done so many yourself.

This new revelation had caused him to rampage like a feral beast backed into a corner, not letting her take a single step into the garden towards him or his mother. Whenever she tried crossing his invisible boundary to get closer, he retaliated with an onslaught of curses and slander. He unleashed every piece of pent-up aggression he’d held back from her, thinking she was just doing her job, believing she was a better person outside of his father’s dark influence. He said he’d been wrong about all that; she was just as bad, if not worse than him. He could tell those words hurt her, but he was far too furious and hurt himself to care. 

The only sign she kept trying to comfort him were the plates of food she’d leave by the elevator while he slept. Though his hunger eventually compelled him to ingest what Plagg could carry over by himself, his anger wouldn’t allow him to believe this was anything more than a ruse to coax him out of the crypt. 

He wouldn’t leave his mother alone, even for a moment. He wouldn’t let her out of sight and lose her all over again, just like he had five years ago, the day he’d said his last goodbye without realizing it. His heart wouldn’t be able to handle doing it a second time.

It was a week later, however, when Plagg had finally had enough of the nonstop melodramatic moping and tried, gently at first, to give him some motivation to finally leave the crypt.

“Adrien, you’ve got to get the fuck out of here. This isn’t getting you anywhere, and frankly, you really need a shower.” 

Though his brain was only half-awake, Adrien recognized on some level what Plagg was saying was true. He’d been completely ignoring any personal hygiene for almost eight whole days; his clothes were dirty from sweat, tears, and actual dirt from the ground he slept on. He hadn’t brushed his teeth or shaved either, so any Parisian who looked at his face now wouldn’t be able to compute that always perfect model Adrien Agreste and this blaireau laid were, in fact, the same person. 

“Seriously, kid, you smell more pungent than the homemade Vieux Lille I’ve been maturing for the past three months in your kitchen, and I didn’t even think that was possible!”

“Go away, Plagg,” moaned Adrien from his curled position beside the capsule. He avoided looking at the kwami directly, so Plagg was forced to float right in front of him to get his attention.

“Sorry, but I can’t do that. You’ve got about a hundred or two messages from Ladybug on the backburner right now, and I can’t imagine keeping her on hold is doing her any favors either.” 

Adrien groaned again, shifting his side away from Plagg, but the little cat wasn’t letting up so easily this time and got right back up in his face with a much more insistent temperament.

“Look, Adrien, I get this whole situation is hard for you. Believe me, I know how weird a blast from the past can be when it comes out of nowhere, but this…this is not a healthy way of coping with your grief.”

“And what should I be doing, Plagg?!” he shot back with more ire than he’d intended, but it reflected his current disposition toward everyone around him almost perfectly. “My father’s a liar and a supervillain, my mother’s been in some sort of coma instead of being dead like I thought for the past five fucking years, and to top it all off, I failed Ladybug when she needed me most! What can I do about any of that right now?!”

The tone of his voice startled Plagg, but didn’t scare him off. The kwami was built from tough stuff and too stubborn to leave his Holder alone in his misery. 

“Well, for starters, how about a hot shower and a fresh change of clothes? While you’re at it, I’ll raid the fridge for something edible that isn’t Camembert and see if I can―”

“Plagg, for once, could you just not be helpful, at all? On purpose?” The dolefully spoken words had a more visible effect on the cat than the yelling did, and his ears slumped sideways. Adrien hadn’t meant to sound so ungrateful. Plagg really was trying to help him get through this unbearable situation despite his lack of cooperation, staying with him the entire time when he could’ve, and probably should’ve, been informing Ladybug that her partner was currently “out of commission” (definitely not what Plagg called it) for the time being, but would get back to her dès que possible . A lie, but hopefully one she could have found comfort in for the time being. She deserved some just as much as he did. 

“I’m no good to anyone right now,” he muttered softly into the grass. “I’ve failed miserably as both a partner, a friend, and a son―.” He stopped, not wanting to give the impression he was referring to his father in any way, although he was sure the kwami understood the inference.

He sat up, grubby hands rubbing over his grimy face, worn down from malnutrition and excessive sobbing. He felt lost in his own home, uncertain of his future or any of his recent decisions. He didn’t even feel like himself anymore amid so many traumatic changes. But mostly, he was afraid. Afraid of what he might do if he left the manor angry and what he might do with all that anger if he found his father, found Hawk Moth , and was forced to fight him like never before. 

Adrien had never killed, much less Cataclysmed a living person, not even when it was one of the more advantageous options available and could have saved him from a beatdown. But the urge, the instinct to let loose, had always been there, and this might be the one time he wouldn’t hesitate to give in to it, not ever for his own father. 

It was for that reason alone he was better off down there, with no one around to hurt any worse than they already were. 

“I’m not the hero Ladybug needs right now, Plagg. I’m not the person everyone expects me to always be every second of the day―perfect to the core. I just can’t―”

Plagg cut him off from his pessimistic monologue with what seemed to be a slap to the face, though with the kwami’s tiny body limiting his strength, it felt more like he’d just been poked moderately hard in the nose.

“Oww! Plagg, did you just―?”

“Oh, shut up! And don’t pretend like you wouldn’t do the same for me if I was acting completely hysterical!”

“What? Of course I wouldn’t―”

Another jab to the nose.

“Hey!”

Plagg then shoved himself up against Adrien’s right eyeball, staring at him with more intensity than he had the massive wheel of Vacherin Mont d'Or Mayor Bourgeois had displayed at Le Grand Paris the previous Christmas. Only this time, Plagg was getting deadly serious, something he rarely did when cheese wasn’t involved.

“Listen to me, Adrien, and listen REALLY CLOSELY!! I realize that the entire basis of my personality is to be the exact opposite of a tough love role model, but you need to hear this.”

Adrien couldn’t do anything short of pulling Plagg away from his face, a futile effort against a creature that phased through solid objects, so he kept his mouth shut and let him talk. 

Plagg sucked in a deep breath before continuing, a rare sign the subject was about to get deeply personal. “Kid, I’ve had millennia to see plenty of Holders have all kinds of ups, downs, and all over the places, and then begin doubting themselves when they were at their lowest. They felt like you do now: alone, hurt, angry, scared. They thought they had failed, and that was it―it was all over for them, and there was nothing they could do about it. It happens. But do you know what real failure looks like, Adrien?”

Shaking his head seemed pointless while the kwami was right in his face, so he just blinked his confession to ignorance.

“Real failure comes when you give up and stop trying altogether. You bury your head in the sand and ignore all your problems like they’ll just magically float away from you, but that’s not gonna happen. Right now, you’re leaving your friends and all of Paris at the mercy of your father, and that’s not something the Adrien I know would ever let happen; he’d pick himself up, dust off, and get right back into the fight. That’s how you and Ladybug always beat whatever Hawk Moth threw at you―neither of you ever quit!!”

The green glow of Plagg’s eyes seemed to be intensifying, and for a moment, Adrien thought the little cat would try to scare him from the crypt and all the way out of the house. Thankfully, Plagg restrained himself from escalating to such dramatic measures. 

“Right now, Ladybug does need you, kid, and whether it’s as Adrien Agreste or Chat Noir, it doesn’t matter. You are the hero, with or without the ring, and it's about time you finally figured that out.”

Though Adrien hated admitting it, everything Plagg was trying to teach him resonated deep inside himself; a bright spark of something he thought he’d forgotten flared up with new life and energy, instinctively prompting him to stand up on stiff and unsteady legs, but somehow he managed. Plagg floated back just far enough that Adrien could properly see him now, realizing his resurgence of life had caused the kwami to smile for the first time in days. 

“Chat Noir has never left Ladybug to fight your battles alone, so you sure as shit shouldn’t start now! So get out there, find her, find your father, and teach that sac couché de fromage moisi et sans produits laitiers he messed with the wrong superheroes!”

As suprising as it was to see the black cat giving a genuinely sincere and pun-free pep talk, the result was nonetheless effective at thoroughly shaking Adrien out of this sad state and filling him with a new resolve and clarity of purpose. Plagg was right; Ladybug needed to know her trusted, loyal partner would be by her side throughout the coming storm, and suddenly, he knew what he had to do. 

He took one last affectionate look at his mother as she rested―peacefully, he hoped―within her glass casket. He no longer felt like a child desperately clinging to her for support she couldn’t offer. He was leaving, but he still wasn’t ready to let her go, so he promised himself no matter what, he was coming back to her in one piece, and he would find some way to help her, even if he had to beat the answers out of his father to do it. “I’ll make you proud, Mother,” he promised, gently kissing the glass right over her left cheek. 

Turning away, Adrien strode towards the elevator as Plagg zipped eagerly around him, excited that his own period of self-inflicted house arrest had finally ended. 

“Ah yes, sweet freedom! It tastes so good, like a Camembert that’s been aged just right.”

Plagg slowed down just enough that he could float right next to his Holder as they walked. “So, what’s our first move, kid? I’m still thinking you start with a fresh wash and some new clothes while I raid―I mean, liberate your last few safety caches of cheese. You’ll need to get those restocked, d'ailleurs .” 

He shook his head. “Sorry, Plagg, but that shower’s gonna have to wait. First thing we need to do is find Ladybug―”

“Ugh, really? I mean, I’m glad you’ve got your priorities straight and all, but don’t blame me this time when she asks why you smell like you’ve been dumpster diving in a nature reserve.”

“I don’t think she’ll care much about my odor once I tell her I’m Adrien Agreste and Hawk Moth is my father. “

“Yeah, I guess…WAIT, WHAT?!?!”

Plagg was so startled that he neglected to enter the elevator with Adrien before the doors closed, prompting the kwami to phase through and begin chastising him as they rose to the floor above. 

“What in the name of pure-dairy cheese are you talking about?!” the little cat screeched. “Haven’t I told you a million times already that the two of you cannot know each other’s identities? It’s way too dangerous, especially now that Hawk Moth has several of the Miraculous and could use them for who-knows-what at any moment! This isn’t the time to revisit your old ‘lovie-dovie kiss-kiss’ fantasies again!”

“It’s not about that, Plagg, at least not this time.” A heavy sigh escaped his lips. He’d been waiting for a moment like this for what felt like forever, the chance to finally reveal his true identity to the woman he loved, hoping it could change things between them, bring them closer, maybe even close enough too…. No, it wasn’t like that with them, and now it never would be.

“You were right, Plagg; I can’t keep my head buried in sand and ignore the truth: Hawk Moth is my father, and if Ladybug is going to trust the son of her enemy, she needs to hear that from me. She deserves a partner she can rely on, and I won’t let myself become a liability for her.” He placed his hand over his heart and let it speak for him. “I trust her to make the right decision, and if she decides she doesn’t want me by her side anymore, then I’ll respect that decision. It’s the least I can do at this point.”

“Adrien, I love you, and I love that you’re trying to do what you think is right here, but do you realize how completely insane you sound right now? I haven’t been this stupefied since I saw Romeo & Juliet at the Globe!”

They'd reached the atelier by then, and Adrien stepped out into a dark room dimly lit by exterior lights and the occasional flash of lightning. It was raining heavily outside; thick sheets of water pounded against the windows, creating an ambiance of bleakness that hit him even harder as he looked upon the remnants of his father’s escape. 

The broken window had been replaced, good as new, but the wall Ladybug had been punched through was still decorated with a sizable crater, a chilling reminder of the strength and mercilessness Hawk Moth wielded. He’d spent so much time in his lair puppeting supervillains from afar that both Ladybug and Chat often forgot how strong he was and how much his rage fueled his power. To think a man like Gabriel Agreste hid so much aggression from those around him, there was no wonder he was so good at keeping secrets, even from his own family.

Adrien didn’t want to wake anyone who may be in the house, Nathalie for sure, so he opted to exit through one of the windows, only to discover all of them had their locks replaced with some sort of advanced mechanisms he’d never seen before. He cursed under his breath. Looks like he was going to have to chance the front door.

He wanted to make as little noise as possible, so he moved towards the hole in the wall rather than use the side doors but found that Plagg had placed himself between him and his exit, his tiny arms crossed in displeasure.

“Alright, let’s say you find Ladybug. Somehow. In this storm, which is so bad right now there’s no way you’ll be able to locate her even if she was transformed. What then? Are you just gonna give up your ring and powers when she asks nicely for them all doe-eyed and puckered-lipped? What about finding your father and kicking his ass? Don’t tell me you’ll miss out on that and leave her to do it all by herself!”

Adrien really didn’t want to have this conversation right now, but transforming before he and Plagg sorted out their differences always made him feel agitated and irritable while in costume, so it was in both their best interests to resolve this now before he left.

“Of course not,” he hissed as quietly as he could. “I’m mean, it’s not like I want to have to fight him. He’s still my father, and I get why he’s doing this; trying to bring my mother back so we can be together again, and I wish we could make that happen…but it’s just not possible, not at the cost of someone else’s health and well-being. She would never want that.”

Plagg seemed to relax a bit, but Adrien still hadn’t answered his question, so he went on. “Plagg, you know better than anyone what we’re capable of when we’re together, the destruction we can cause. Most of all, you’ve seen what happens when that power is used recklessly and let out of control, and if I―” The thought of what he was about to say gave him shivers. “If I face my father and can’t control my emotions, if I forget to hold back, or worse―I don’t even try to, I think I might kill him.”

It felt awful to confess that out loud, like the words themselves were an admission of premeditated murder before anyone was actually dead, and Adrien was worried that Plagg’s reaction would be one of disappointment and disgust. 

Instead, Plagg didn’t seem as surprised or revolted as Adrien had expected. In fact, the little cat actually looked both sad and relieved at the same time, like he’d just been told an old friend he hadn’t heard from in years had passed away, and while that news was anything but welcoming, he was still grateful to learn what had happened to them. Perhaps, Adrien realized, that was a sentiment Plagg and the other kwamis were already well-acquainted with. 

“I get what you mean, kid,” he finally admitted. “I’ve seen it happen, just like you’re telling me, one too many times.”

That was a shock to Adrien. Plagg hardly ever talked about his past Holders in any capacity, usually in a brief offhand comment, if at all, but hearing him acknowledge that his power had been used before to take away people’s lives made him recognize exactly how dangerous his current situation was. He needed to believe he wouldn’t slip up and couldn’t do that without Ladybug’s help. 

“Okay, kid,” Plagg relented as he moved aside, looking at Adrien with eyes laden with more complex emotions than he would ever understand. “If you trust Ladybug to make that call, I’ll trust your decision. Until then, we’re in this together.”

The personal reassurance that brought Adrien was immense, and he thanked his kwami with a mini ‘pound-it’ as they passed through the broken wall.

Sneaking over to the door, Adrien exhaled in relief once he confirmed the locks were still the same. He’d hidden a spare key in his room, so he sent Plagg off to retrieve it and some Camembert in case he needed fuel during their search for Ladybug. 

While waiting in the foyer, he tried to avoid staring at the interior decor emblazoned with butterflies that had somehow never raised any internal alarm bells within him before. It brought him back to when he had first fought his father as the Collector, when Ladybug had made the case Gabriel was Hawk Moth, including evidence such as the butterfly motif he used for his products and decor. He hated the idea of that logo being in his face this whole time, mocking the naivety he’d placed in his father’s innocence, only to be revealed as the actual fool years later. 

Strange as it was, he wished so badly his father had genuinely been Akumatized. Maybe then he could have found a way to bring them closer together instead of being―

“Adrien? What are you doing up here?”

Adrien almost jumped out of his own skin, spinning his head around to see Nathalie standing at the top of the staircase in her black night robe, looking down at him with a mixed expression of confusion and concern that replaced her signature visage of unreadableness. He had no idea how she’d snuck up on him while wearing her mechanical leg braces, which whirred and whined as she carefully made her way down the steps toward him.

As she got closer, he noticed dark bags of fatigue behind her glasses, and even with the lights still off, a brief flash of lightning allowed him to spot that her skin was a shade paler than the last time they’d seen each other. Even the streak of red in her hair seemed faded now, as if faintly bleached by the sun. She was also relying more heavily on the braces to move, and by the time she’d reached Adrien, she was wheezing softly into her sleeve. 

Adrien almost reached out to support her, but hesitated, the feelings of betrayal and justified resentment reemerging once more as he looked over the debilitated figure of the woman he’d intermittently viewed as more jailer than caretaker. But now, he saw her as something entirely different―a villain. 

Mayrua had never acted openly sadistic, not like Hawk Moth did without any effort, but it was a sense of unshakable loyalty that saw her follow his orders without question, orders that eventually led to the role she’d played in Master Fu’s death, being the one who weakened his defenses while Hawk Moth delivered the final blow. Adrien knew the Peacock Miraculous was damaged at the time, so when Hawk Moth became Shadow Moth after finally repairing it and Mayura didn’t return, a part of him hoped she’d succumbed to whatever illness she’d been suffering from and would never be seen again.

But now that he knew who she was, that Nathalie’s devotion to his father was what had brought her down that dark path, he wasn’t sure what to think anymore. 

Nathalie managed to compose herself and looked at Adrien with red, glassy eyes. “I didn’t think you would be returning to the manor proper anytime soon,” she said shakily. “I could have notified the staff to prepare a bath and some food for you. Camembert, perhaps?” 

There was something in her expression that Adrien wasn’t used to seeing from someone who acted so inscrutable all the time: Hope. No, not hope―desperation. It was apparent in her voice, her posture, and how she attempted to win him over with token offerings of what she thought he might want. She needed his forgiveness for what she had done and was trying to do anything she could to make amends for her past. 

But forgiveness wasn’t something he couldn’t give her. Not right now, and maybe never. 

“I’m going out, Nathalie,” Adrien replied coldly. “I don’t know when or if I’m coming back at all, so don’t strain yourself by waiting up for me.”

His stern and concise response clearly impacted Nathalie, who was now too ill to hide her inner feelings behind her usually ironclad mask of professional stoicism. “What?! You can’t go outside in this weather! It’s far too dangerous for you.”

“I think living with a pair of homicidal maniacs in the same house for the past two years was way more dangerous, but that’s already caused me enough harm to last a lifetime.”

He saw those words plunge deep into her like a precision strike from a sword, a wound ripping her wide open, exposing her to all the painful feelings she was trying so hard to close herself off from. She began to form a response, but her words were replaced by violent coughing, and she covered her mouth with a white pocket handkerchief.

In the corner of his eye, Adrien saw Plagg hovering behind the banister on the second floor, only visible by his bright green eyes. While Nathalie was distracted, he discreetly motioned for the kwami to remain in place until further notice. Plagg acknowledged this just in time for Nathalie to straighten up, her handkerchief now splattered with blood and her lips quivering. Her condition reminded him so much of what happened to his mother, or rather, what was still happening. He’d seen her suffer the same dizzy spells and bouts of coughing up blood just before his father had placed her in that coma. For that, he almost pitied her. Their symptoms were so similar to each other, almost like they were experiencing the…exact same ailment… as each other.

“I suppose I’m in no condition to stop you,” the suddenness of her voice snapping him out of that train of thought. “But at least allow me to call your bodyguard and have him bring the car around for you.”

“I don’t want anything from you, Nathalie,” He retorted. “Especially not a glorified spy who’ll tell you exactly where I am and never let me out of sight the entire time.”

“It’s only as a security precaution, Adrien. For your personal protection.”

“And what do I need protection from, exactly? Maybe from a certain deranged narcissist with the powers of literal gods running around attacking innocent teenagers? His own nephew, even?”

“That’s far from a fair narrati―”

“No, it’s not fair! None of it is! This whole situation is fucking insane!! But do you know what’s worse? The part that makes me the angriest?!” He was towering over her, using his height and external aggression to make her feel small and helpless against him as he drove her backward. To her credit, she tried standing her ground despite all her disadvantages, but he could tell she was afraid by how she looked at him; this young man she’d known since he’d been a baby terrified her now, and for good reason. 

 “YOU KNEW!!” 

A heavy BOOM of thunder in the background dramatically emphasized his accusation, causing Nathalie to shudder so fiercely her hastily-made hair bun fell apart around her, leaving messy strands dangling about. Her mouth trembled, and her pupils dilated considerably in the darkness. She was completely petrified. 

Good.

“You knew , Nathalie. All this time, you knew my father was Hawk Moth and that was mother was being kept in a coma, still alive, right beneath our feet. You knew what he was doing and why he did it. And what did you do about it?!” Out of everything she’d done to infuriate him, this was what upset Adrien the most because it was the one thing that might have changed everything for them. “Instead of getting him help, real help , instead of calling the police or Ladybug, instead of even telling me that he was a supervillain out of pure grief so I could help him, you. SAID! NOTHING!!!” 

Silence followed those words, save for a swift crack of lightning that illuminated the assistant’s tired features. He saw her now, in the darkness, more clearly than ever before. She was so much like his father, more than he’d realized was possible: cold, calculating, distant, driven, obsessive. And now, she was just as broken on the inside. They were a perfect match made in Hell.

“I-I-Adrien, no…” She was trying so hard to protect herself, to defend what she’d done to him of all people. Why? Why did this mean so much to her? It couldn’t just be about his father; otherwise, why help him bring back the woman he had loved first? Why save Emilie when she had the opportunity to take her place? It didn’t make sense. He didn’t care.

“Adrien, what I’ve done is… unforgivable, I realize that, and so I won’t ask for your forgiveness―”

“Good,” he snapped, “because you won’t get any.”

She winced, then averted her gaze to the floor, too weak to bear his glaring hatred of her. “I know, and that is something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life. But I need you to understand that despite his rashness and excessive brutality, your father’s intentions were not―”

“Don't,” he growled, his voice seething with rage he could barely restrain, his no longer perfectly manicured nails biting deep into his clenched fists. “Don’t defend what he’s done like it’s justifiable; it’s not , and it never was in the first place. He’s a killer now, Nathalie. You helped him become a killer and still helped him after that. Do you think my mother would have wanted that? To see the monster he’s become? She’d probably wish she really was dead after one look at him.”

“NO!” she shouted with a force that exploded out of nowhere, causing Adrien to instinctively back away in preparation for an attack of some sort. Instead, she looked back up at him again, tears splashing against her cheeks and the frames of her oval glasses. She’d appeared weak before, but he’d never seen her be so openly vulnerable, especially not in front of him. This was not the Nathalie he knew anymore. 

“Adrien, I am no longer trying to, nor will I ever again, defend what your father has done. He is a criminal and a psychopath, all that is certain. But what I want you to― need you to understand is that for me, it was never just about helping him reunite with his wife; at least, I never saw it that way.” 

There was an unfamiliar tenderness in her voice that felt irrationally unnerving. It wasn’t like Nathalie to be so transparent with him, with anyone ; this was like a lockbox abruptly bursting open and letting its contents spill onto the floor before him, the reality of what was inside laid bare for all to see. 

He could see the complex mechanisms in her brain working out her next words, carefully choosing what needed to be said and how best to say it, all in an effort to convey whatever bitter truth had led her to this moment. She knew this was her last chance to make him understand and avoid losing him forever; her appeal would need to be perfect.

Nathalie assembled her strength and took her customary formal stance as best she could: straight back, chin upright, a grim seriousness obscuring as many other emotions as she could manage to conceal. Her eyes spoke with a strong inner determination, resolute despite her physical weakness. She was ready to talk.

“Adrien, your mother was, and still is, the most remarkable woman I’ve ever had the pleasure and honor of working for in my entire life. She was stronger and more confident than anyone I’ve known, exceptional in every sense of the word, and more kindhearted than anyone would think possible. To me, she was the rarest kind of individual―a genuinely good-natured and loving person.” 

Adrien saw sincere pride and elation as she spoke those words, providing fresh energy for her frail body to continue onwards.

“She brought out the best in everyone she ever interacted with, your father included. But she was always at her happiest when you were by her side; the love created between the bond you shared was unmistakable, a physical presence in whatever room you were in. It was beautiful to witness in person.”  Her expression momentarily brightened, practically beaming thanks to the jubilant memories, only to disappear and darken once more as she continued. 

“Neither of you deserved to lose that love you had for each other, especially since it meant you were left alone with only your father as…comfort. It wasn’t fair, not after all her sacrifices for you.” 

'Sacrifices?' What was she talking about?

Nathalie noticed his confusion but didn’t give him a chance to question what she’d meant, hastily moving on.

“When Gabriel discovered the power of the Wish granted by combining the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, I thought there was no reason for hesitation. All he had to do was take them from the old Guardian, only using controllable mayhem and a single Akumatized victim as a means to an end, and that would be it. You could all be reunited again after three years apart. But that's not what happened. Ladybug and Chat Noir appeared and ruined everything…and that’s where his obsession with them began.”

Adrien hadn’t expected to hear such animosity towards him and Ladybug from Nathalie, but after everything he’d heard from her already, it made sense they’d only be an aberrant obstacle in her mind, an interference keeping a family from reuniting at long last.

“I can put together what happened next, Nathalie.” He was getting impatient now, and it was beginning to feel like she was stalling to keep him in the manor. “Get to your point.”

“Oh…well, it was just…I didn’t want it to continue that way, so I started helping him more directly. I hated it, truly, every single moment, but I allowed him to continue his crusade because I convinced myself it would all be worth it in the end, that you would finally―” There was great pain in her eyes now, but not for herself. “That you would finally have a mother again.” 

For a few long moments, the only sound in the foyer was the echos of raindrops pelting against the windows, while within, everything seemed frozen by a lapse in time itself. Nothing moved; even the shadows created by the faint illumination outside were stuck in place, like the power of her words hadn't left anything untouched, all the remaining innocence stripped away by the inconceivable truth. 

Nathalie’s expression begged him for some kind of response, and even Plagg looked out from behind his hiding spot to see what sort of reaction he would answer with. Their shared gaze upon him felt like an unwanted spotlight, forcing him to perform some form of spectacle to an audience hungry for the actor’s next scene. Well, if they wanted more drama, they would get it.

“Nathalie.” His voice was like ice, cold and sharp but brittle too, and on the very precipice of shattering apart when too much pressure hit the perfect spot in his chest. He couldn’t stop his hands from shaking and wanted to scream more loudly than his vocal cords could possibly handle. “Are you telling me, that you collaborated with my father, and helped him facilitate literal crimes against humanity , all because you thought I needed a mother figure in my life?” 

She knew it then, he saw. She’d failed. He was lost to her forever. 

“ Qu'est-ce que c'est que la vraie baise ? ! Are you fucking KIDDING ME?!!

“Wait! Adrien, I―”

“Save it!” He slapped away her outreached hand, marching back to the door, and prepared to kick it off the hinges himself, suit or no suit. With how he was feeling, he didn’t doubt it was doable. “All this time, everything you’ve done for him, and that’s your excuse?! I can’t believe you!! Tu es un putain de fou !!”

“No! Adrien, stop!” She managed to grab his filthy jacket from behind but was too weak to pull back. Yet instead of falling over, her leg braces locked in place as she leaned backward, almost causing the two of them to stumble over onto the floor. Adrien tried to regain his stride, but Nathalie grabbed the front of his t-shirt and pulled him as close as she could, using all her strength to hold him in place, unwilling to let him go. All it took to break that grip was minimal pressure on her wrists, but he didn’t let go just yet. 

“I love her, Nathalie, and I would give up almost anything for us to be together again, but you took it too far, and for the worst reason possible!”

“How can you say that? She’s your mother!” She tried to twist herself free but lacked enough space or strength to do it successfully. “No son should be abandoned and left alone like you were!”

“But I wasn’t alone, Nathalie! I had you!”

“I…what?” She stopped struggling, utter bewilderment written all over her face. It was confusing for him to, and hard to understand while fury still muddled his focus, but he knew it was the truth.

“You’ve always been a part of my life, Nathalie, ever before Mother got sick.” His grip loosened, but only enough that he couldn’t hurt her. “And after she was gone, when it was just the three of us, you were the only one there for me, the only meaningful constant in my life outside the one he wanted for me. You could never replace her, no one could, but….” This time, he was the one looking at her with tear-filled eyes. “But I always hoped you would at least try.”

Her mouth was agape in shock, and Adrien finally released her hands, but she didn’t move more than two steps back before clutching her shoulders in regret and remorse. 

“I could never have lived up to her example, Adrien.”

“You didn’t have to―you were there. That was all I needed.”

She didn’t reply. She didn’t even look like she could as she stood there trembling, the vibrations shaking the hair around her face like a dark curtain swaying in the breeze. Perhaps it was in that moment, when she had fallen to her lowest, that she finally realized she could have been so much more than she thought she was. She already had been to him, but never knew to take the risk because she was blind to that opportunity while fixated on another. That was something she could never make up for now―she had failed him for the first and last time. 

The veil of her hair provided enough cover for Plagg to sneak around her, handing Adrien the key for the door before settling into his pocket. Adrien looked over Nathalie one more time, ashamed both for her and over his feelings of sympathy he didn’t want to acknowledge. He turned away for what he thought would be the last time, not planning to return until he had some way of safely getting his mother out of this cursed house, only to find himself stuck in place, unable to move an inch. 

“Hey, kid, why’d you stop?” Plagg whispered after a few seconds. “Are you alright?”

Adrien couldn’t flex his vocal cords, much less find his voice and issue a reply. That unforgettable feeling of total submission had returned in force, followed by a wild panic slithering through his heart and sweat perspiring on his forehead. It was the same thing that happened to him a week ago, the reason Hawk Moth was able to escape. How was it happening to him now? Was his father…here?

“I won’t let you leave, Adrien, not if you’re going to try to find him. He will kill you.”

It took all Adrien’s willpower just to twist his head enough to look over his shoulder and see Nathalie staring at him with a deadpan expression of stony adamance. Lightning flashed once more, and this time Adrien noticed a glimmer of light reflecting off Nathalie’s left hand, where a silver ring sat around her finger. His eyes widened. It was an exact replica of the wedding ring his father wore on his finger, but that was impossible, unless…unless she was wearing his mother’s ring.

But that didn’t make sense. That ring couldn’t be Emilie’s; it was still on her hand in the room below! 

…Right? 

He thought back, trying to remember every detail of his mother as she slept in the capsule. Her hands. Remember her hands! He’d spent so much time looking at her face that he never thought to check― Damn it! Think! He remembered―they were crossed over her stomach, and her right hand was…sitting over the left. He never saw the ring.

Nathalie was really wearing his mother’s ring.

“I’m sorry, Adrien, and I’m sorry to force you to listen this way, but I’m left with no other alternatives.” Quiet footsteps encroached on him from behind, slowly getting closer and closer. What could he do? He had no way of escaping, no way to protect Plagg, and if she found him and put everything together, then took his ring and his power?

Oh, God, no. 

He could see her standing next to him now as she placed her hand on his shoulder and looked him in his face; there was no hesitation or lack of certainty in her own. Whatever she was doing to him, she had already justified it to herself.

“I never wanted for you to learn the truth, especially in a situation as horrible as this, but it’s the only way I can protect you. Here, at least, you will be safe .”

What did she mean? What truth? His father was Hawk Moth? No, that was already done. It must be something else, something involving the ring. But what?

He tried to work it out as quickly as possible before Nathalie got too close or made him do something he couldn’t prevent. The pieces were all there; he was certain, but what did they mean? Think! Work it out like Ladybug would do it!

The rings, this strange control over him, his father, his mother, her illness, Nathalie’s similar sickness, Mayura, the Peacock…the broken Peacock that made her ill. And what the Peacock did was…

No. It’s not possible.

No. No, please. 

No.

Nathalie had just opened her mouth to speak when a thunderous roar cascaded through the air, immediately followed by a blaze of ghostly light that would have blinded them if they weren’t so close to the solid door. The sudden loud noise must’ve had a greater effect on Nathalie because the spell holding him in place seemed to break as soon as her concentration slipped, and she squirmed in pain, covering her sensitive ears. Adrien took full advantage of his reclaimed movement and pushed her to the floor, then jammed the key into the lock, twisted it, and stepped outside into a world where the rules of nature had gone insane.

First was the rain: he could still feel it splashing against his skin and the chill of the frigid winter evening, but it was as if the raindrops themselves had turned entirely invisible in the bizarre illumination of the night. And then there was the light itself; it had no source, at least not one he could see or make out. It was just there, draping the sky with ghastly eeriness and enveloping the world below in a mock interpretation of natural daytime. Uncanny feelings of terror surged through his body, but they were laughably dull compared to what he had just experienced in the house.

Adrien felt Plagg peek out from behind his jacket and looked down to see the kwami quivering as he gazed upwards at the sky. He’d never known Plagg to show outright fear before, even when he was the one in immediate danger. 

“Oh, Trixx, what has he done to you?”

Trixx? Then this was all an illusion created by the Fox Miraculous, but on a scale he’d never seen. Even Rena had never made a Mirage this massively comprehensive before. The power it would require from her would have been…titanic. 

He knew then that he’d waited too long to leave the manor; he’d abandoned his duties to Paris, to Ladybug, and now terrible repercussions would be unleashed in his selfishness. If there was a chance to fix his mistakes, he had to take it now.

“Plagg―Claws―!”

And then something in the sky began to fluctuate. Thousands, maybe millions of dark spots fluttered out of nowhere, coalescing into a colossal shape the size of a skyscraper, probably larger. Adrien realized they were Akumatized butterflies, the kind Hawk Moth always used to spread his power of Transmission to others, but he’d only ever seen them used this way once before; the day he and Ladybug had first defeated Stoneheart, and Hawk Moth had announced himself to the world. Today, they were doing the same again, for one final time.

In the middle of Paris’s horizon stood a gargantuan silhouette of Hawk Moth himself. His features were distorted by the rippling of millions of tiny wings beating simultaneously, but his menacing outline was unmistakable. From his position on the ground, Adrien was standing directly in front of him from miles away, but somehow, it felt like they were face-to-face once more, and he felt nauseated by the idea of it.

He realized now what his father was using the power of the Fox for: he had turned the skyline of Paris into the perfect stage for his greatest performance yet. Adrien had no idea what he might have planned, but whatever it could be, it wouldn’t be anything good for him or Ladybug. 

The swarm of butterflies shifted as the enormous construct of Hawk Moth raised its head and began his address.

“PEOPLE OF PARIS!” The dark giant proclaimed like a dictator, orating a notice of pure dread. “I COME TO YOU WITH A MESSAGE―AND A WARNING!”

The words were all spoken with his usual arrogant bravado, times a thousand in terms of audio, but there was something new hidden behind the familiar bluster, something ominous and spine-tingling.

“TONIGHT, AT THE DAWN OF THE NEW YEAR, YOU WILL WITNESS THE ALL-TOO-ANTICIPATED FALL OF YOUR ‘HEROES;’ LADYBUG, CHAT NOIR, AND THE REST OF THEIR PATHETIC COMPATRIOTS WILL MEET THEIR MISERABLE DEMISE AT MY HANDS, THE HANDS OF YOUR NEW RULER: MONARCH!”

Monarch?! The bâtard had renamed himself again, and he chose to go with Monarch? Of course he had; his ego would never allow himself to be depicted in any other way than a supreme ruler. Now that he wielded more Miraculous than almost any known Holders in history, he probably saw himself as nothing less than a real god.

“ WITH THIS INEVITABILITY COMES CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION! NO LONGER WITH THIS ONCE GREAT CITY BE PLAGUED BY COSTUMED CHILDREN POINTLESSLY RESISTING MY IMPENDING VICTORY. WITH THEIR DEFEAT, PARIS CAN ONCE AGAIN KNOW PEACE UNDER MY BENEVOLENT RULE IN THE NEW ERA TO COME! ”

Bordel de merde ! He was so full of himself that it was violently sickening.

“ IN RETURN FOR YOUR UNCOMPROMISING LOYALTY, I ASK ONLY ONE THING OF YOU: DO NOT INTERFERE IN THIS FINAL BATTLE! IF ANY SIGNS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT OR THE MILITARY ARE PRESENT IN THE STREETS THIS EVENING, MY RESPONSE WILL BE SWIFT AND TERRIBLE! ”

Adrien then felt an unseen shift in the air, like a million eyes had suddenly turned all their attention onto him directly, and when Monarch next spoke, his voice was dripping with unbridled malice.

“LADYBUG! CHAT NOIR! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME, SO LISTEN WELL!” The colossus raised his fist into the sky and shook it like he was trying to wring the necks of two individuals who currently would fit easily into his giant hand. “I CHALLENGE YOU BOTH TO ONE LAST ENCOUNTER, AND OFFER YOU THE CHANCE TO END THIS STRUGGLE ONCE AND FOR ALL!”

His heart almost skipped a beat, and he felt like he hadn’t properly registered those words correctly. The final battle, an end to the fighting―it didn’t feel real. Was it…actually happening? Was this it?

“ FOR TWO YEARS, YOUR CONSTANT INTERRUPTIONS HAVE CAUSED ME SETBACK AFTER SETBACK, AND THOUGH YOU MAY HAVE LEARNED MY TRUE IDENTITY, I KNOW YOUR GREATEST WEAKNESS AS WELL, AND NOW I POSSESS MORE THAN ENOUGH POWER TO EXPLOIT IT! ”

Weakness? What weakness? What had he learned from their last confrontation that he was so confident would help him win this time? As Adrien tried to think it over, he thought he saw the animated construct spread its fabricated lips in a gruesome smile, and it sent more chills through his blood.

“ONE HOUR FROM NOW, WE WILL MEET AT THE BASE OF THE EIFFEL TOWER; A FITTING PLACE TO END WHAT BEGAN SO LONG AGO, DON’T YOU AGREE? I DO NOT EXPECT YOUR UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, NOR SHOULD YOU LIKEWISE EXPECT ANY MERCY FROM ME AFTER OUR…UNFAVORABLE HISTORY!” He said the last bit like he was criticizing one of his many subordinate designers in his company for a minor but somehow ‘irrational’ error, the venom in his voice almost palpable.

“ AS HEROES, YOU SAY YOU CARE DEEPLY FOR THE PEOPLE OF PARIS, YET YOU RELIGATE YOURSELVES TO PROTECTING THE FEW INDIVIDUALS YOU  CARE MOST FOR WHEN YOUR POWERS COULD KEEP SO MANY MORE FROM SUFFERING! ”

The absolute fucking hypocrite! Of course he would claim something so shamelessly false when his original motivation was only to bring back a single person. 

Wait. The few individuals we care most for.

Oh no.

“UNDERSTAND THIS! ” His voice seemed much louder now, the climax of his performance looming like a tsunami preparing to devastate the city with a single stroke of merciless brutality. “SHOULD YOU IGNORE MY SUMMONS OR FEEL ANY STRONG DESIRE TO FLEE…!”

The giant reached out as if to grab something and pulled forth a new form that shimmered into existence. It was another person, a woman, and though most onlookers would not have been able to identify her due to the butterflies’ lack of distinguishable details, Adrien recognized her immediately. The mass of wavy hair, the curvaceous body, and the outline of the horn-rimmed glasses she wore everywhere with spunky insistence. 

Non. 

Please, don’t let this be happening. Not her.

“...THEN I’M AFRAID YOUR ALLY, RENA ROUGE , WILL MEET A MOST INGLORIOUS AND… PAINFUL ENDING!”

Alya. He has Alya, and he’s going to kill her. 

Hideous laughter filled the sky as the dark butterflies forming the two silhouettes began to disperse and dissipate, followed by the ghostly luminescence dissolving from sight. Darkness filled the void left behind once more, and Adrien could once again make out the raindrops smacking against his body, mingling with the fresh tears sliding down his face.

This was his fault. He should have told Ladybug that it was too dangerous for Rena to remain active after Sentibubbler, or any of the other Holders whose identities Hawk Moth had previously discovered. She’d trusted him enough to learn the truth about Rena Rouge and her identity, as well as the other members of the team in case of emergencies,* yet he had done nothing to prevent anything like this from happening, nothing to prove that he deserved his role as her leader, as her friend. And now, she might die, and he would have no one to blame but himself.

He wanted to fall to the ground on his knees and beg whatever gods might exist somewhere in the cosmos to tell him this wasn’t really happening, that he wasn’t witnessing the same events that led to the death of Master Fu play out all over again in the same tragic sequence. This was all just a nightmare he could wake up from if he begged for it hard enough. 

Instead, the little god whom he called a friend told him something different. 

“Adrien. Look at me.” 

When Adrien opened his eyes, he saw the kwami hovering right in front of him again, but this time there was no sign of empathy on his tiny face. His eyes glowed with such harsh intensity; it was like they were on fire, enough to burn the whole world down around them. This was an expression he had never seen from Plagg before―pure, unequivocal rage. Adrien felt it too, and their close bond made the blaze within him even stronger.

“We end this tonight, for good. We save our friends, and then no one else gets hurt.”

The words were cold and emotionless, and though it may end up being the biggest mistake of his life, Adrien chose to interpret them in his own way, and nodded slowly.  

“Plagg―Claws Out.”

Green light flooded his vision as his Miracle Suit formed around his body, filling him with new strength that supplanted his otherwise weakened body. The darkness meant nothing to him now; he could clearly see every minute detail of the world around him through his amplified vision. The rage was there, too, burning hotter than ever and keeping the chill of the rain from reaching his core. 

“Adrien?”

His hyper-senses picked up on her motorized legs the moment he’d transformed, and he turned to see Nathalie standing in the doorway, looking at him like she wanted to vomit, then weep a whole ocean into existence. She must’ve seen Monarch’s speech as well, and now that she was witnessing him like this, the person he’d been all along, her enemy , her sanity must have been totally shattered. 

The ring was still on her finger, but she was no longer in the right state of mind to use it, staring blankly at him like a revenant without enough brains to form a cohesive thought. All he could do in return was give her a scowl of emotional reproach.

“Stay here . Nathalie.” He growled, literally; the primal sound emanating from deep within his throat and distorting his voice like a beast sending out a clear message of open aggression : “Where it’s safe .” 

It was as much a warning as a genuine threat. With that done, he took his staff and catapulted himself into the darkness, leaving the woman he once cared for more than anyone else in a trembling heap as she became one with the storm above: the rain, her tears, the lightning her voice as she screamed, and the thunder the ringing echos of her shame. 

Chat Noir ignored all this as he streaked across the Paris rooftops towards the Eiffel Tower, an invisible blur of motion in the otherwise obscured skyline, where he and the shadows could become one and the same. He was the hunter in the night, swift and lethal, and he knew with absolute certainty what he had to do. It was unforgivable, and there might be no coming back from it, but this time he had no choice. He couldn’t take the risk that Alya would suffer the same fate as Master Fu, and he wasn’t going to leave any chance for that to happen either. 

In order to save his friend and all of Paris, Monarch had to die.

Chapter Text

Art by solodrafts

It was only through an incredible combination of perfect timing and sheer luck that Ladybug managed to catch Chat Noir before he reached the Eiffel Tower.

As soon as the giant Mirages of Monarch and Alya’s had dissipated from the sky and the pure black of night returned everything to normal, Marinette almost began tearing out her hair until Tikki and the other kwamis managed to calm her down before she had another panic attack. After some more meditative breaths and a rushed pep-talk to encourage prompt swiftness, she’d felt composed enough to transform and dove out her window into the thunderstorm, forgetting she didn’t have an actual plan until she was swinging along the Seine at full speed.

Merde.

Suddenly, a notification alarm on her yo-yo began to blare out. It surprised her so much that she almost lost her equilibrium mid-air and fell because she recognized that specific alert as the one she’d been waiting several days to turn on.

Chat Noir was active again.

She took cover from the rain under a patio parasol she hoped the owners wouldn’t mind her borrowing and checked the notification. Her face lit up when she saw the paw-shaped icon indicating Chat Noir was definitely transformed; his tracker identified his current location as east of the Parc Monceau and heading at full speed—directly toward the Eiffel Tower. 

Her sudden rush of jubilation quickly turned to dread as she realized her partner was on a collision course with the man currently holding her best friend hostage, the one who happened to have his hands on enough Miraculous to turn Chat into mincemeat with a snap of his fingers. 

“That idiote folle! What is he doing? He’s going to get Alya killed and then himself!” 

She immediately tried contacting him, but either he ignored her call or just didn’t notice during his mad dash to the Iron Lady—and it was almost certainly the former. Putain! What the hell did he think he was doing, showing up out of nowhere and now attempting an assault on Monarch alone? Did he even know what had happened? Had he listened to her messages, or was he just insanely reckless? Putain de chat stupide!

There was no way she could reach him in time to stop him, not in this storm anyway.

But Cosmo Bug could. 

With no time to waste, Ladybug ate the purple macaroon that transformed her into Cosmo Bug and blasted off into the sky, leaving a trail of fluorescent pink jet wash in her wake. As she streaked through the thunderstorm, Marinette grew to appreciate the thermal insulation the power-up provided her in the winter rain, and the special visor over her face allowed her enough illumination that navigating through the dark was a cakewalk. Without it, actually spotting Chat within Paris's shadows would’ve been almost impossible.

It took her less than two minutes to find him bounding across the rooftops with such extraordinary speed that she would’ve had trouble catching up to him without the assistance of the jetpack. He was absolutely aiming toward the Eiffel Tower, taking the most direct route possible and using his staff to fill the gaps between the spaces he couldn’t leap across without it. If she weren’t about to intervene, it would take him only a few more minutes to get there. She couldn’t allow that. 

She landed right in front of him so there was no way he’d miss her and called out, “Chat Noir, stop!” as loudly as she could, expecting him to come to a sudden halt. Instead, he acted as if she wasn’t even there and lept right over her like just another obstacle in his path. Cosmo Bug’s shock was matched only by her immediate outrage, and she swung around to see him disappear behind a chimney pot. Growling, she took to the air again, not planning to give him another chance to slip through her fingers. 

Despite his efforts to avoid her, she noticed him just as he had reached the Paris Museum of Modern Art, which would put him across the river from Monarch and the Eiffel Tower. After that, he’d have a clear shot at the tower and be noticed for sure. She had to stop him now. 

Rocketing at full speed, she used her yo-yo to lasso Chat during his next jump through the air, wrapping him up nice and tight as she pulled him away from the Seine to someplace more secluded. He struggled and screamed at her, but without his earpiece communicator, there was no way to hear his curses over the storm and her afterburners. He’d have plenty of time to explain himself once they landed.

She dropped him (not very gently) on top of a rooftop at least a mile from where she’d picked him up, letting him untangle himself from the yo-yo before confronting him directly, worried he might try to escape again if she did it for him. As he grumbled and swore—to himself and definitely at her—she looked him over for any little signs indicating where he’d been the last week. She was surprised at how dirty he looked even in the downpour, with disheveled, matted hair sweeping over his eyes and wet dirt running down his shaggy face like mud. Had he been sleeping under a dumpster this whole time? 

His glare, however, was as intense as ever, and so was his attitude when upset. 

“Putain!  What the fuck were you doing?! You could’ve killed me with that stunt!”

“Me?! Killed you?!” She yelled back. “Do you have any idea what you were doing? Monarch has five Miraculous now, including his own. You were walking into a trap, you stupid cat!

“Oh, that’s rich, coming from you.” He snarled right in her face as he finally removed the rest of the string from around his body. “I’m not the one wearing a space suit that literally glows in the dark like a giant flashlight begging to be shot out of the sky! The moment he saw you—!”

“The moment he saw either of us, he would have KILLED ALYA!!”

The words came out in a heartrending scream that could surpass a thunderstrike, but it wasn’t him she was most angry with—it was herself, because this whole catastrophe was her fault.

She hadn’t taken enough measures to protect Alya after Hawk Moth had discovered she was Rena Rouge, which had led to the Sentibubbler incident. And instead of doing everything she could to shield her even further once he’d learned she was still active as Rena Furtive, she and Alya had fallen into disarray when Trixx and the others were taken. The Fox Holder genuinely thought if she hadn’t renounced her Miraculous as a consequence of the gnawing guilt she felt over betraying her friend’s trust, Trixx would still be safe. 

Maybe that was true, but whether or not she’d kept her Miraculous, Monarch still would’ve come after her like he had tonight. If anyone deserved to feel guilty, it was Ladybug for allowing any of it to happen in the first place. 

“We can’t walk into the open on his terms.” Cosmo Bug explained as calmly as she could to Chat, who looked like he was about to start frothing at the mouth, his tail flicking angrily around his feet like it wanted to hit something too. Was that Plagg’s doing? What happened to them? “He’s trying to make a show out of this, just like always. He wants to draw us out like moths to a flame”—her undisguised quip did nothing to alleviate Chat’s scowl—“and place us in the perfect position for a surprise attack. We don’t know which of the other three Miraculous he has on him, so our best option is—.”

“—Is to take him by surprise when he’s not expecting it,” he interrupted like he wasn’t even listening to her. “He wants us to show up in an hour, so let’s not do that or anything he tells us and attack now while his ego thinks we’ll do everything he wants on a whim! He’ll never see it coming.”

“And since when did you become such an expert on the inner workings of Monarch’s schemes?” She openly accused him, making him grimace once more. “As a matter of fact, where the hell have you been the past week? You disappear after we beat Risk and Strikeback, then you don’t answer any of my messages when I call you to let you know that several Miraculous have been stolen, Flairmidable was actually Félix Fathom pretending to be Adrien Agreste, and Adrien’s father, Gabriel Agreste is—

“I KNOW!” He shouted. The volume of his voice surprised her, but not as much as the look of bitterness and sorrow written all over his face. She’d gotten very good at discerning his expressions during their time together as superheroes, and for someone who acted so cocky and flamboyant all the time, this was the look that always worried her the most. It meant he was hurting deeply. 

“Gabriel Agreste is Monarch. I know.” He whispered gloomily, planting his face in his palms and wiping away what she thought was grime and rainwater, but she could have sworn she saw a tear leak out from behind his mask. ”I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me, or when you were searching for Hawk Moth, but I just… I couldn’t be. I…had to be somewhere else.” 

Cosmo Bug remembered how she’d loosely predicted Chat and Hawk Moth’s disappearances were somehow related, and now, with them both reappearing on the same night at exactly the same time, she was sure of it. She had questions, a lot of them, but every second that passed by them was going to waste, and they needed to make a plan right now if they wanted to be ready once the hour was up. 

“Chat.” She reached for his hands with her own, but he brushed them away and crossed his arms, refusing to look her in the eyes. It was upsetting to see him so agitated, especially since she didn’t know how to help with whatever he was going through. She sighed; this was no time for a communication breakdown between them; they needed to be able to cooperate, or they might as well concede to Monarch here and now.

“Look,” she began, trying to use a more assertive tone to let Chat know it was time to focus. “We can talk about where you’ve been once Alya and the kwamis are safe. First, we need to round up the others—”

“What?!” Chat suddenly exclaimed. “We can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“Monarch already has five of the Miraculous. He’s too dangerous for the others to handle, and if he gets his hands on any more of them, he’ll be unstoppable.” 

“That’s not going to happen,” she said adamantly. “The team is more than ready and willing to handle Monarch as he is now, and even if he managed to take another Miraculous, he wouldn’t be able to use it for long without succumbing to the strain of all those powers. Master Fu taught us that five jewels are the limit for anyone, no matter how strong they are in mind or body*. Stealing more would only leave him vulnerable.”

“ That’s your plan?” He almost laughed in disbelief, though it was probably from stress more than anything. “Just confront him with every Miraculous we have left and hope he’s either smart enough to kill us before he takes our power, or dumb enough to try once he has them, all while we wait for him to pass out?”

“I don’t have a real plan, at least not yet. I’ve been too busy trying to stop you from te faire tu er ! What’s your excuse? You were just going to charge in recklessly while you thought his back was turned and risk getting Alya killed! How were you planning on fighting back if he saw you? Was Plagg even on board with your little suicide mission?” 

“As a matter of fact—!” 

He stopped, but the words had already taken root within her conscience, and she realized he meant it. He’d known exactly what he was doing, and worse, Plagg was helping him do it. How could the two of them be so damn irresponsible? Even through the suit's insulation, she could feel a new kind of cold encircling her body, squeezing tightly until she couldn’t take it anymore and released her innermost pain through sobs of fear and despair. This was so much to bear all at once, and she felt totally alone as the world threatened to crash on top of her. 

“Cosmo Bug?” Chat looked up and saw that she was clutching her sides as bright tears, highlighted by the glowing visor, streamed down her face en masse. She’d promised herself there would be no more tears that night and she couldn’t even manage to do that right. Pathetic. 

“Hey, hey, Milady, look at me.” He clasped her arms, sliding his hands down alongside them until he got her to release each one from around her waist, then took her own hands into his. He then pressed them against his chest, letting her feel his steadying heartbeat to remind her he was still here, with her, and he wasn’t going anywhere. “I’m sorry if I scared you, really. I wasn’t thinking straight and—and I don’t want to lose her either. I let those feelings get the best of me; I was selfish, and I have been this entire time, leaving you to deal with this all by yourself.”

She sniffled, then wrapped Chat in as tight of an embrace as she could until she felt him return with one of his own. 

“I was so scared I’d lost you too, Chaton,” she whimpered softly against him. “Never do that to me again.” 

“I won’t,” he said tenderly. “I promise.”

She only let the hug last a few moments before letting go, lowering her visor long enough to wipe away her tears, though the rain made the effort immediately pointless. Chat cracked a small smile, but something was still weighing on him heavily. He swallowed hard before he spoke again. “Look, Cosmo—Ladybug. There’s something you should know before…before we do this.”

“Yes? What is it, Chat?”

“I-I’m…I’m really—”

He was cut short by the buzzing of a new notification from her yo-yo. It was Nino. He was attempting to call Marinette, meaning he was freaking out like crazy at this point. Merde! His date with Alya! She’d completely forgotten!

“Chat, I’m sorry, but this will have to wait.” She truly wanted to hear whatever he had to say, but duty came first, and the clock was ticking. “We don’t have much time to gather everyone and make a plan before Monarch’s deadline is up, so we need to go now.”

“Right, right, of course,” he said, almost regrettably. He turned to leave but noticed Cosmo Bug was staring at him with mild chagrin. “What?”

“Um, your power up? You don’t plan to travel all the way on foot, do you? You’ll catch a cold for sure if you haven’t already.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” He took out his can of cheese potions and ate the one he needed, transforming into Astro Chat in a swirl of green and purple light. He spread his giant wings just as Cosmo Bug unfurled her elytra.

“I’ll take Carapace, Viperion, Pigella, and King Monkey. Can you get Ryuko, Polymouse, Caprikid, and Vesperia?”

“Yeah, I remember where they live, and as long as you didn’t revoke my Miraculous granting privileges while I was gone, this will be a chatwalk.* 

She smiled back to acknowledge his return to form. “Send them to the Palais Galliera, and meet us there when you’re done.”

“Got it. See you soon, Milady.” 

“See you soon, Chaton.”

And with that, they each launched themselves into the night sky, Cosmo Bug hoping there was still enough time to save Alya and the kwamis, and Astro Chat praying he hadn’t made the biggest mistake of his life by not telling her the truth.

49:00 and counting.

...

She was only a minute or so from Nino’s apartment as she raced through the storm, but for her, it felt like hours were passing as every tiny aspect from the past week came back to haunt her unguarded thoughts.

The resurfacing memories took her back to the encounters she’d had with each of the Holders she’d visited right after Félix and Hawk Moth had fled from the Agreste Manor. She’d first spent hours scanning the city for any sign of where they could have disappeared, only for all her searching to amount to literally nothing. She’d also used up that time trying to contact Chat for assistance, the sole other Holder she wouldn’t need to slow down to pick up and the only one left with the enhanced senses required to track them down with Barkk out of the picture. But he didn’t answer a single call, so to avoid straining herself too far and risking total panic, she’d gone over to Alya’s and told her everything that had happened.

Together, they’d bawled their eyes out over the loss of Trixx and the other kwamis kidnapped, with Alya bursting into a fit of rage when she learned not only had Félix manipulated her best friend’s feelings for Adrien and used the Dog to steal Ladybug’s yo-yo, but that connard Gabriel Agreste had been Hawk Moth this entire time, right under their collective noses! She saw it as a complete failure in her investigation and career as a journalist, glossing over the most obvious suspect more than once and falling for each one of his misdirections like a crétin. It was almost as personal for her as it was for Marinette.

Then Nino barged in like a bat out of hell, having caught the part of their conversation about Gabriel, and demanded to know everything they knew. Marinette almost stuttered herself to death, but Alya saved her by explaining that Ladybug was informing each of the Holders, old and new, that Gabriel Agreste was Hawk Moth, he had stolen several Miraculous including the Fox, and she was warning them all to lay low until she had figured out their next move. Because Marinette had once worn the Mouse Miraculous (which was news to Nino), she was technically part of that checklist.

If Alya’s reaction to all this had been considered explosive, Nino’s was the equivalent of a volcanic eruption. They actually had to pull him away from the door to keep him from charging all the way over to the manor while he shrieked some very descriptive insults for the bourgeois that probably hadn’t been used in such abundance since the Révolution Française. After ten minutes of physical restraint and some intense scolding from his girlfriend, Nino calmed down enough to try calling Adrien, but just like Chat, he was completely unresponsive. Several more attempts between him and Alya were met with the same result, alarming everyone. 

While the two of them were ready to storm the metaphorical (but also pretty literal) castle to save their friend, Marinette tried to reason he needed some time to himself after experiencing such a traumatic event only hours ago. She didn’t actually believe that, not after the time with Félix and the Punishers Trio or seeing how he’d broken down in Ladybug’s arms and cried his heart out. Still, it was the only way to calm them down, promising they could check on him once it was morning.

She’d spent her waking hours the next day visiting all the other Holders, telling them exactly what Alya had suggested she say: keep a low profile, and if they saw any sign of Félix Fathom or Gabriel Agreste, contact her via a special number (which was just Alya’s contact info on the LadyBlog) immediately. She also said she’d be withholding their Miraculous for the time being in case Hawk Moth came after more of them. Though they didn’t remember it, he had learned some of their identities during the “Battle of the Miraculous,” so it was too risky to leave any opportunity to steal more. With the curse of hindsight, she should have figured he might target more than just their jewels, a mistake already costing her too much. 

Reactions from the Holders had been mixed, but each one bordered on fear, sadness, or outrage, especially from those whose Miraculous and kwamis had been taken. Marc attempted hopeful optimism but was clearly shaken over Orikko; Ivan was grateful Mylène was nearby, or he might’ve had a full-blown fit of anger*; Max and Markov immediately began searching the Internet for any sign of Hawk Moth, though for Max, it served as a coping mechanism to distract himself in work; and though it was entirely unlike her, Juleka wholly renounced her quiet demeanor in favor of bellowing how she would tear Hawk Moth limb from limb once she got Roaar back from his petites mains moches. It was an extraordinary display of violent expression, but at the time, it had filled Ladybug with the hope that Gabriel Agreste didn’t stand a chance against them.

The only Holder she never visited was Sabrina, not because she had worn the Dog Miraculous only once or because even thinking about Barkk and how she was tricked into handing her over so easily made her want to puke, but because she couldn’t risk a certain someone learning what had happened. Sabrina wasn’t good at keeping secrets, especially from her “best friend,” and if those secrets got out into the open, it would be total mayhem in the streets.

The sight of Nino’s apartment brought her back to the present day. The light was on inside, but she knew it was only supposed to be him there that night, so she wasn’t worried about being spotted by his family. Hovering in front of the balcony window, Cosmo Bug didn’t even have to knock before Nino suddenly emerged from behind the door and pulled it open, yanking her inside before she could even speak.

“Nom de Dieu, Ladybug! Where the fuck have you been?! I’ve called you with Alya’s number like fifty fucking times!”

He looked like a mess. His typically capped head, now full of hair product, had been tussled and tangled in every direction imaginable like several cows had been licking him all at once. His suit, the one he’d spent seven months saving up for so he could impress Alya on their long-awaited New Year’s Eve date to La Tour d'Argent, was a wrinkled mess with the tie nowhere to be seen. Even his glasses looked as stressed as he did, with perspiration fogging up the lenses and the temples covered in miniature scratch marks. 

“If you hadn’t shown up when you did, I was gonna go out myself and—and I—!”

“Nino, Nino!” She lightly grabbed him by the shoulders as he began to hyperventilate. “I need you to be calm. Deep breaths. In, then out.” She took him through the same motions Fu taught her, which she then introduced to the rest of the team. Nino had picked up on the techniques quicker than most of the others, so it only took him a moment to compose himself and chill, Cosmo Bug releasing him once she was sure he wasn’t a danger to himself anymore. 

When he was done, he looked focused, yet still very furious.

“Tell me this is it. Tell me we’re taking down that sale bourgeois for good tonight.”

“Yes, this is it.” She confirmed as she unfastened her yo-yo, reaching in to grab the Turtle Miraculous and watching Wayzz materialize as she handed it to Nino. He took it like a greedy toddler hangry for sweets before slipping the bracelet over his hand.

“Hello, Nino; it is good to see you again. I’m so sorry that—”

“Hey Wayzz, sorry to cut you short, but we need to bounce.”

“I understand. Good luck to you both.”

“Wayzz—Shell On!”

One brief flash of green light later, and Carapace was ready to roll out. “What’s the play LB—errr, CB?”

“First, me and Chat need to round up the rest of the Holders before confronting Monarch.”

“Woah, you found Chat?” He seemed genuinely surprised, but between Ladybug and Alya, he had remained the most readily hopeful that Chat Noir would soon return. 

“Yes, and it won’t take long before he’s finished. We’ll all meet up at the Palais Galliera. I’ll have a real plan ready by then.”

“Gotcha; I’ll keep a look for the others once I get there.” They hurried over to the balcony before giving each other one last look of forced confidence.

“Carapace?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s bring our girl home safe.”

45:30 and counting.

Art by anshi_lazy

...

The rain had lessened slightly by the time Cosmo Bug reached the Palais Galliera after recruiting King Monkey, the last hero on her list. 

As a child, she loved visiting this museum with her parents, eagerly exploring each section and faucet of history regarding the fashion collections they kept on full display year-round. She sometimes got lost in time appraising garments, some of which were literal centuries old, and obsessing over every detail her young brain could visualize and comprehend. As she grew older, she began to better appreciate the complexities of the dresses, especially those made by hand before the Industrial Revolution. An artisan could spend months or even longer working on just one exemplary fashion piece; that kind of love and dedication was inspiring for a young Marinette, eager to one day see the creations of the Knitting Fairy up on the displays alongside works by Coco Chanel and Donatella Versace.

One of her most beloved memories of that time was the day a new exhibit for Gabriel -Brand had opened to the public. She’d begged her parents to let her attend the opening since it would be her only opportunity, probably ever, to see Gabriel Agreste and his family in person. Three key things had happened to her that day: Gabriel Agreste became her main icon for modern fashion with his mesmerizing designs, his wife Emilie had stunned the crowd with a beauty so radiant even her Maman had swooned, and Adrien Agreste made his first public appearance as a fashion model for Gabriel. 

That was the day she’d first fallen in love with him, with those feelings only continuing to grow into her teens, then skyrocketing when he began attending the same high school as her in person.* It was one of the greatest days of her life, but when she thought about it now, all she could picture in her mind were demons and ghosts.

She and the team, or what remained of it, were gathered under the west porticoes, right in front of Honoré Icard's sculpture Protection and Future. Tonight, each word took on a distinct meaning for Cosmo Bug. She’d failed to be a protector: the Kwamis and Miraculous entrusted to her by Master Fu, her best friend and one of the most trustworthy allies she could’ve ever asked for, and her city, which only a week ago was burning as monsters unleashed by an even greater evil tore apart her home, and not for the first time. Years had passed, and what did she have to show for it but a never-ending stalemate that had pushed them all to the brink of despair? In truth, she felt like she’d already failed everyone who needed her.

But there was still their future, and along with it came the inevitable fight and the aftermath of what would follow in either their victory or Monarch’s. She couldn’t predict what would happen next, win or lose, but she knew with certainty that whatever destiny awaited them at the end of this journey, she and her team would face it head-on and protect their city to the best of their abilities, as they always had.

As long as they stood together united, she believed Monarch’s reign of terror would soon be nothing more than a brief memory in the annals of Paris’s long history with deposed despots. She had to believe that, because she wouldn’t know what to do with herself without that belief. The idea alone made her feel hollowed out and numb.

She was still suited up as Cosmo Bug as she leaned against a column while the rest of the team talked amongst themselves behind her. She was observing the night sky for any sign of Astro Chat, who had yet to return with Vesperia accompanying him. It made her anxious when they only had twenty minutes at most before their time was up and Monarch’s scheme would begin unfolding. Luckily, she had the makings of an airtight plan in place, and if Monarch planned on being as blusterous and airy as usual, he’d be the one walking right into their trap.

A new form slithered beside her periphery, just far enough away that it didn’t feel like he was sneaking up on her but close enough that she knew he was there to talk. “Are you doing okay, Mari?”

Art by anshi_lazy

She bristled. It was still strange to hear Luka use her real name while in costume. It had been several months since the events of Wishmaker, where afterward, she’d asked if he’d learned her or Chat’s identities after explicitly using his powers and refused to take no for an answer, even though he thought he was helping her by lying.* Since then, she’d constantly been worried Shadow Moth would target him specifically to learn what he might know about each team member and their leaders, his powers of Second Chance making him the perfect vessel to plunder all their secrets. Instead, he’d gone after the one ally she clearly trusted more.

Pathetic and stupid. 

“No, Viperion, I’m really not,” she replied almost beratingly, like he should know better. “Our teammate and one of my best friends is being held hostage by a psychotic megalomaniac wielding powers he stole from me; the latter alone leaves my entire Guardianship in question, but right now, we have less than twenty minutes before his deadline to come and rescue her is up and Astro Chat still hasn’t gotten back with Vesperia. I’m a little bit miffed if you couldn’t tell.” 

He nodded in understanding, then began attempting to help her work through each of her concerns one by one. “Rena’s tough and insanely resourceful. If anyone can handle Monarch face-to-face without a Miraculous, it’s her.”

“But he’s got five, including her own. And if he tries to Akumatize her again—”

“We can manage Lady Wi-Fi or whatever version of supervillain he might turn her into this time.” He reassured her. “Besides, she’s one of the few people who can shake off an Akumatization, and he knows it.* He won’t be trying it again.”

“Even if that’s true, he doesn’t need to.” She was rarely this openly pessimistic, but she had this unshakable feeling of impending doom that just wouldn’t go away, no matter what she tried. She could never tell this to Chat or any of the other Holders, but Luka had been her only human confidant outside of Alya. And unlike her friend, who figured things out with her extensive journalistic and fact-finding skills, Luka’s remarkable intuition and empathic abilities let him read people as easily as a sheet of music. He knew her thoughts and feelings inside and out, so there was no point in hiding them from him when he saw through every attempt. “He still has four other jewels he can fall back on, and that’s if his speech earlier didn’t cause someone nearby to shit their pants and make themselves the perfect victim for the Butterfly.” 

Viperion peered into the rain as if joining her search for Chat, but she knew he wasn’t done with her yet. “I don’t think so, not in this weather, anyway. No akuma would survive it. And if he wanted to Akumatize someone, he wouldn’t have told them all to stay indoors.” 

“Well, if he’s not using any of his old tricks, we’re in much more trouble because we won’t see it coming.”

“Where’s Grandmaster Su-Han?”

The sudden detour in conversation confused her. “I don’t know. He never showed up after the Miraculous were stolen, and since he still hasn’t figured out how to use a phone, there’s no way to contact him directly. I was hoping he had some sort of…innate warning sense—”

“Like a spider-sense?”

“... Warning sense that gave him a possible connection to the Miraculous, like how his staff can track the Miracle Box.” She had no idea if that was an actual real thing. Still, there was only so much she was able to learn before Master Fu died, and if anyone else knew a special shortcut method of tracking the jewels, it would be Su-Han. “We can’t rely on him now, so don’t expect him to appear out of nowhere.”

“And that helps alleviate some of the stress?”

She scowled. “Why would that make me feel any sort of stress relief?”

“You said your Guardianship was in question. You’re worried that if Su-Han was here, he’d strip you of your powers and responsibilities.”

She opened her mouth to vindicate herself but realized she had no counterargument. He was absolutely right. Fucking mind-reader. 

“I…Honestly, I wouldn’t blame him if he did.” He looked skeptical at her response but said nothing. “I failed in the primary duty of every Guardian—keeping the Miraculous safe and out of irresponsible hands. Once this is over, if he wants me to give up the Miracle Box and pass on the Guardianship to someone more capable, I’ll be in no position to refuse.” 

“I’m sorry to tell you this, Mari, but you sound just as confused and misguided as an out-of-tune guitar.”

“ Excusez moi ?!”

He chuckled. He’d loved playing this game with her when they were dating and still found a concerning amount of opportunities to keep doing it now. “Your voice speaks of failure and regret, but your heart’s melody is hopeful and strong. You don’t want to give up this life—none of us do, and you secretly think you can redeem yourself by taking down Monarch and recovering the Miraculous.” 

Fucking. Mind. Reader .

Viperion smiled his special little smile, and Cosmo Bug felt guilty about how much it made her want to do cartwheels in the rain. She still wasn’t over their breakup, not completely, and often found herself wondering if she’d made the right choice ending their relationship to focus on defeating Shadow Moth and avenging Master Fu. She didn’t mean to hurt him and was grateful they’d retained a more platonic friendship, but like too many events in the past year, she didn’t trust herself to have done as much as she could have.

But she’d learned many times that doubt was a natural reaction to making hard choices. It didn’t seem like it then, and it may not for a long time, but keeping Luka at a safe distance was ultimately the best choice for either of them.

Moving on was a process with many steps, and even when you stumbled, you still had the chance to keep moving forward. Ironically, Luka had been one of the people to help teach her that.

Viperion moved closer, but Cosmo Bug didn’t feel trapped between him and her pillar. It was actually the opposite; his presence made her feel safe in a way only a few others could, and she was grateful to have him as close as possible at any moment.

“Mari, Ladybug, no matter how things end tonight, there’s no doubt in my mind every person here would and will stand behind you in support, no matter what Su-Han says.” He took her hand, and she almost let out a squeal mixed with a choking noise. “No one would say otherwise. Not me, not Rena, and definitely not Chat.” 

That conclusion only served to remind her he knew who Chat Noir was too, and though she’d never tried asking him about it before, she often wondered if having someone around who she knew was aware of her partner’s identity was ever a safe option for Chat in case something happened to her, something like what had happened…to him.

“Do you really believe that?” she asked. 

“Cross my heart, but I don’t plan on dying tonight.”

“...Thank you, Luka.”

“You’re welcome.” He offered kindly, nodding once more. “Maybe in return, you can tell me why you lied to my sister?”

“WHAT?!” she exclaimed a little too loudly, drawing the attention of the other Holders. Carapace and Ryuko looked ready to bring their weapons down on anything that moved, but Viperion motioned that everything was alright, and they gradually calmed down again. He turned back to her, his smile gone now, his yellow eyes penetrating through her from under his hood like no one else’s. 

“What-what do you mean?” she stammered out. 

He looked at her with disapproval, but not true disappointment. “When you came to me earlier, Juleka wanted to help,* and you told her she couldn’t because you had no more Miraculous you could hand out, and the ones you had left were for the other active Holders. You lied about one of those things. Why?”

“I-I thought it might be obvious.”

He crossed his arms, but not aggressively; he genuinely wanted to hear her side of things and was trying to be as open as possible without chastising her. “Try explaining it to me anyway.”

She sighed. She really hoped Chat got back with Vesperia soon before she ended up admitting all her secrets to her ex-boyfriend. Why did everything about love have to be so damn complicated? 

“When I found Chat earlier, I told him this was an all-hands situation we needed everyone here for. I also told him we could still handle Monarch if he got another Miraculous; we’d just have to avoid his attacks long enough for the jewels to overtax his body, and he’d be down for good.”

“But?”

“But out of all the Miraculous he could get his hands on, the Rabbit is way too risky, even more so than my earrings or Chat’s ring.”  

And that was the truth, and he knew it too, possessing his own method of time travel almost as dangerous as the Rabbit’s. Second Chance made him amazingly adaptable in the field, but Burrow was a total game-changer. The Holder could travel through time to any point they wanted—past, present, or future, and nothing short of another Rabbit Holder would be able to stop them. Once upon a time, Hawk Moth might have settled for the Rabbit over the Ladybug and Black Cat, using it to travel back in time to save his wife from whatever had made her disappear in the first place. Now though, he was dead set on revenge, and the havoc he could wreak with it in hand would be unimaginable. It was far too dangerous, and she knew Bunnyx would probably agree with her, whenever she was.

Viperion took a moment to consider this before speaking again. “If that’s the case, why didn’t you just give it to Alix and tell her to take it somewhere, or even better, some when safe?”

“How do you know I haven’t?”

“Mari…”

This time, the sigh was a groan. She never should have let anybody outside of Chat or Alix know about her first meeting with Future Bunnyx—when Timetagger came from the future to take their Miraculous; she probably risked their entire timeline by doing so. 

However, she’d never shared anything with him about her second encounter with Bunnyx, and she never would. Not with anyone . 

'𝄞 Little Kitty on a Roof .'

She shut the memory out as fast as possible. Not now.

Viperion noticed something was wrong, but she shook it off and answered him before his new question was ready. “Alix might know she’ll become Bunnyx one day, but that day shouldn’t have to be today. She has no real experience, and I don’t want to force her to leave her home just because there’s a chance Monarch might win.” 

“But why keep it on you, if it’s so dangerous?”

“Because, if nothing else, it’s one last hail mary to pitch if everything else fails.” That was part of the reason, but her other concern was born from the paranoia of parting with even a single Miraculous now that six had been stolen. She had no idea what Félix was planning, but if he required the jewels, or if taking more would benefit him somehow, just as it had for Monarch, then she had no choice but to keep the Rabbit and other Miraculous as close as possible.

She dreaded she was wrong to do it, though, or worse, it didn’t even matter what future she tried to prevent. Bringing up Timetagger reminded her that there was still a Hawk Moth from the future that her older counterpart was fighting back against. Did that mean today would end in just another stalemate like it always seemed to? Or would they win, but another person would manage to steal the Butterfly Miraculous again? What if their timeline didn’t even matter anymore? Could they actually lose?!

“Marinette.” Soft and soothing, his voice guided her back to him. “You know what you’re doing, so I trust you, but please don’t try to shoulder this burden alone anymore. Have faith in your team, show them trust, and we’ll get through this together.”

In the dark, he was her lighthouse; he could always show her the way to safe harbor. “Thank you, Luka.”

“Always.”

“UP THERE!!” cried out Carapace.

Everyone looked up, a blazing trail of green light swooping down through the rain toward their position. It was Astro Chat; he was back, and carrying Vesperia with him. 

Cosmo Bug grinned and almost whooped joyfully. They were finally all gathered together; now, they could get started.

“Alright, everyone, form up!” She called out. “We don’t have much time before the deadline, so we can only go over this once!”

Everyone huddled before the statue, leaving space open for Chat and Vesperia to land between them. But as they got closer, Cosmo Bug realized it wasn't Vesperia Astro Chat was holding in his arms. It was…

“CHLOÉ?!?”

Releasing her grip around Chat’s neck as they touched down, Queen Bee walked up to the group like a runway model strutting off her catwalk, letting everyone get a good look at her ‘triumphant return to the flock,’ as it were. She was met with stares of apprehension, disbelief, and total indignation from every single person around her. Everyone here had a personal history with Chloé Bourgeois, none of it pleasant. 

Queen Bee ignored their heated glares as she strode up to Cosmo Bug and took her in a full-body squeeze, surprising the team leader so much that she was left legitimately speechless for a second. When the golden girl pulled back, she left her hands loosely wrapped around Cosmo’s waist and smiled like it was the best day of her life. 

Art by anshi_lazy

“Thank you so much, Ladybug! I knew you’d give me another chance one day. I just knew it!”

Another chance? What was she talking about? Chat, what the fuck did you do?

Cosmo Bug gently removed Queen Bee’s hands from her sides and gave her a severe frown. “Chloé, what are you doing here? I told you you couldn’t wear the Bee Miraculous anymore; Vesperia is its Holder now.”

Chloé seemed surprised at first, then snorted complacently like she’d just heard a bad joke. “Oh, Chat didn’t tell you? That pretender to my crown apparently wasn’t interested in showing up tonight, and he knew only I could possibly be the one to fill her place when no one else would. Typical of newbies; they just can’t handle the pressure of being a superhero. Useless. Utterly useless.” 

If it wasn’t for the fact that everyone was depending on her to keep her cool, Cosmo Bug would have ripped the comb from Queen Bee’s head and sent her to walk back to her father’s hotel in the freezing rain. The look she gave Chat could have burned a hole through steel, and he turned away sheepishly like he wanted to crawl under a car and hide from the scary bug lady.

“Chloé,” she tried saying as sedately as possible, but failed to keep a perceptible amount of anger from escaping into her words. “You can’t be here, and you can’t be wearing the Bee Miraculous.” 

“What?!” This time, the shock on her face didn’t vanish so quickly. “But you need me!” 

“Chloé, I know you know why you can’t be Queen Bee. Not after Miracle Queen—”

“But-but that was literally months ago!”

“—and the subsequent two times you’ve been Akumatized since, one of which was on purpose.”

“Oh, well, isn’t being a superhero about forgiving others for their mistakes? Live and learn to be better, right? Besides, I know you have people on this team who’ve been Akumatized before too, and I see that they still get to flaunt their special magic jewelry like they’ve done nothing wrong.”*

That was going too far. If she didn’t shut Chloé up now, somebody was going to get hurt, and it would definitely be her. 

“CHLOÉ!!” she yelled right in her face. “We don’t talk about our real identities. Ever! Just because your tenure as a would-be ‘hero’ began with you transforming on camera to gloat to your mother doesn’t mean everyone else here feels the same way. Get that through your épaisse head RIGHT NOW!!”

Queen Bee looked absolutely dejected, maybe even on the verge of crying. Cosmo Bug hadn’t wanted to take it that far, but with Chloé, you had to be assertive. It was the only way this pompous brat would ever listen. 

Astro Chat grabbed her arm. “Milady, we need to talk.”

“Not right now, Chat; we don’t have any more time.”

“ Ladybug ,” he pronounced her name with more gravity than he ever had before, and it caught her off guard. “Please.”

She looked at him, then back at Queen Bee, who’d started shivering, and not because of the rain. Viperion appeared at her side, placing his arm around her in a friendly gesture, and glanced up at Cosmo Bug. “Go. We’ll sort this out. Just be quick.”

She wanted to argue, but there was no point, not when he looked at her like that. Merde!  Relenting, she tugged her arm away from Chat and followed him to the edge of the porticoes. He needed to start explaining himself, or she might try to bench him too.

“Chat…”

He raised his hands defensively. “Look, I know what you’re going to say, and you’re right—she shouldn’t be here.”

“Then why did you bring her?! On tonight of all nights, no less!”

“I-well…” It was hard to tell from behind his dark visor, but she was certain he was flushed with embarrassment. “When I arrived at the hotel, I searched every room I could for Zoé, but I didn’t find any sign of her. I was just about to leave when I got spotted by Chloé and, well….”

“And she thought you were there for her.”

“Yes, and—”

“And you didn’t tell her she was wrong because she has no idea her sister is Vesperia.”

“...Yeah, and also—”

“You couldn’t ask her where her sister was and leave because then she’d figure it out by herself and have a rampage that would tear down half the hotel by the time you actually found Zoé, assuming she wouldn’t get buried in the rubble.”

He blinked. “...That about sums it up.”

She made an irritated sigh to herself. Out of all the turns this night was taking, this one was the closest to giving her a migraine. “We have to take back from her.”

“What?! We can’t do that to her!”

“Yes, we can. I’ve worn the Bee Miraculous before, so I’ll fill Vesperia’s spot until this all gets resolved. No issue, no drama.”

“No. That’s not what I mean.”

She grimaced; she never understood why he did this.

Chat had always been the most lenient to Chloé’s transgressions, even trying to absolve her of the role she’d played in Master Fu’s death, claiming Hawk Moth had taken advantage of her grief and resentment, turning her into another victim for him to puppet as he wished.* She'd never believed it. Chloé was not someone who deserved that level of sympathy. She was a human being with a brain (however small) who had consciously made her own decisions, and now she needed to understand that she was not free from their consequences. 

“You shouldn’t have told her what happened. She’s tried to take the Miraculous before; what happens if she betrays us mid-battle in favor of helping Monarch? For all we know, Zoé’s disappearance is linked to what’s happening tonight. Maybe Chloé and Monarch are working together, so she’d be in the perfect position to stab us in the back as soon as he tells her to.” 

He huffed in disapproval. “That’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?” 

She crossed her arms, adamant in her stance. “With her, we can’t take any chances. She needs to leave .” 

Chat’s sour expression proved he was going to be as stubborn about this as she was. Why can’t he see her for what she is? She’s an egotistical, inconsiderate, dégénéré bitch! If only he knew her in real life. Then he’d understand . 

“First of all, that scenario only works if she or Monarch knows Zoé is Vesperia, and I’m certain that’s not the case.”

“Oh, you’re certain? I’m so relieved.”

He ignored her blatant sarcasm. “Second, and I know you’ll hate hearing this because it’s true—she’s right. We do need her.”

She wanted to punch him. It was an entirely irrational impulse she knew was unjustifiable in any capacity, but it still wouldn’t have stopped her if she really wanted to. Chloé had made her life HELL since they’d started attending the same school together. It was because of her constant harassment and ridicule that she’d run away from home at fifteen, only to encounter Master Fu and return as Ladybug. * She’d tried being nice for over a year after that, giving Chloé the benefit of the doubt even when she didn’t deserve it because she’d hoped there really was a good person under that superficial persona of toxic vanity. But Fu’s death had been the last straw, and she was out of second chances to give.

“Chat, we can ’t let her do this. Even if she really wanted to help us, she’d just ruin everything and let her ego get in the way . We can’t trust her. I won’t trust her.”

Chat was so taken aback by her declaration that he seemed genuinely horrified. It took him a few seconds to regain himself again. While he did, she almost turned around to rejoin the group and insist that Chloé hand over her Miraculous for the final time, but he stopped her dead in her tracks. “Then try trusting me .” 

She paused, then looked into his bright green eyes, no longer obscured by his suit’s visor. She let her’s recede as well, their eyes meeting in a way that felt beyond regular expression. They had been through so much together, with every laugh and tear along their journey paving the road they’d taken as true partners, leading them to this very moment. It was so surreal, yet they needed no words to describe to each other how they felt. It was all there in the shimmering blue and green.

Ultimately, she let it go first. “Okay, Chat, I’ll trust you, but that means whatever happens is on you , comprendre?

This wasn’t the right time for one of his signature overconfident smirks, but that had never stopped him before. “Don’t worry about it, Bugaboo. You know this cat’s got your tail covered.” 

“Ugh, whatever, kitty. Let’s just get back to the team.”

“Wait, Ladybug, there’s…one more thing.” 

She hesitated, remembering he’d wanted to tell her something earlier, something important to him. They were on a serious time crunch now, but this might be their only chance left to let everything out. Surely, he deserved that opportunity.

“Yes, Chat?” 

He opened his mouth, then wavered, looking genuinely upset about whatever he was trying to say. There was the same pain she’d seen in him earlier, the hurting in his soul. Only now did she regret wanting to punch him.

“Do-do you ever…wish we’d done something differently?”

What did that mean? “What do you mean?”

“Well, I-I just wish we’d had more time to get to know each other better, you know? Learn about each other’s likes and dislikes, favorite hobbies and summer activities, what movies we thought were great, and the ones that are total ordures —.”

“Chat, you already know my favorite movie is the Princess Bride.* We’ve even seen it together twice.”

“I know, but what I mean is—”

“ Chaton .” She approached him, taking his hands and lacing her fingers through them tightly. “I know what you mean.”

His eyes were feline, not human, but within them, she saw more character and emotion than most living people would ever learn how to express. He was an incredible person, and she let him know that every single day she could. But…he wasn’t him . There could only be one him , and she wouldn’t let herself break another person’s heart over those entrenched feelings.

“I know we can’t reveal our identities to each other. I understand the risk, but there’s so much I wish I could tell you, and since we might never get another chance after tonight…why not just let it all out into the open?”

She wanted it, too, more than anything. From the days she secretly missed his incessant laughter and crappy jokes to the nights she woke up screaming from nightmares only he would understand and empathize with. Those were the times she longed to know his name so they could meet up in person as real people and just…talk. When they were together, they were unbeatable, unbreakable, and she wished she could feel that way every waking moment for the rest of her life. 

But it couldn’t be now. Not when so much was relying on their complete focus on the mission.

“Chat…when this is done, when Monarch no longer exists, and Gabriel Agreste goes to prison for life—” That part made him wince, but she took it as a sign that he realized his defeat was really possible now. “—When Alya is safe, and the rest of Paris finally is too, then I think…I think we can make it happen.”

His pupils widened dramatically, and his ears stood on end. “You-you really mean that, don’t you?”

She smiled a warm, encouraging smile, which wasn’t just for him. That smile embodied her feelings about it as well, like a ray of pure hope had found its way through her chest to her heart and said, ‘ It’s going to happen. Everything will be alright .’ The message swam through her blood to every isolated corner of her body, reinvigorating her inner determination a thousandfold. The effect of her brain’s endorphins kicked in, and she momentarily forgot that she should be completely terrified of the fight ahead. 

“Yes, Chat, I really do. But first, we need to kick the cul de ce connard and show him he messed with the wrong ‘costumed children.’ Are you ready, partner?”

He was quiet at first, which was always strange for him, but this time even his face looked lost, like he wasn’t sure exactly what he should answer with. She understood how long he’d been waiting to tell her his real name, but surely it was something that could wait a little bit longer. 

At last, he presented a full-toothed grin and held out his fist. “As you wish, partner. It’s you and me against the world.”

Her smile affirmed it. “Together, until the end.”

“Pound It!”

Returning to the group, they found Queen Bee standing between Viperion and Pigella while the others kept their distance in a loose perimeter. Clearly, they had come to their own resolution on the Chloé problem. Queen Bee looked startled as Cosmo Bug walked up to them, but Viperion placed himself partially between them, and Pigella whispered something into Chloé's ear, which seemed to help a little.

“We’ve talked it over,” Viperion stated matter-of-factly like the decision was already made. “There’s no time to find Vesperia, and Chloé knows how to handle herself in the field. She can stay, so long as you sign off on it too.”

Chloé’s brilliant blue eyes pleaded with Cosmo Bug’s, a display of desperation she was sure had been born out of the sheer need for recognition. She never let the spotlight shine away from her for a moment, and now, Marinette had to help feed her ego once again. Utterly, utterly pathetic.

“Chloé Bourgeois,” Cosmo Bug began, admittedly savoring the sight of her rival getting ready to cry out in protest of her presumed banishment, even if it was a total faux pas . “You are being given one last chance to earn the right to wield the Bee Miraculous. Once the mission is completed, you will return the Miraculous to me immediately , and only then will any future activity on this team be taken into consideration.” 

There were a few gasps and disapproving scowls from the other Holders. Clearly, the decision to give Chloé another opportunity to mess everything up had not been a unanimous one. Chloé, on the other hand, squealed in delight, pushing past Pigella and Viperion to try and hug Cosmo Bug again, but stopped herself, possibly realizing she didn’t need to improve her chances of sticking around with fabricated niceties anymore. “Thank you so much, Cosmo Bug! And don’t worry, I’ll prove to you that I really do deserve to be here.”

I’m sure you won’t .

“Okay, everyone, thank you for your patience; I’m sorry it took so long to get everything settled.”

“Finally!” exclaimed Carapace. “I thought your tête-à-tête was never gonna end! Are we good to go or what?!”

“Yes, it’s all been taken care of and resolved,” she assured him. “We’re ready to begin.” 

He let out a loud breath of relief.

“Cosmo Bug, if I may,” Ryuko spoke up. “Before you start, we should know; have you gotten any closer to determining which of the Miraculous Monarch currently has at his disposal?”

Art by anshi_lazy

Cosmo Bug slumped her shoulders in regret. “No, I haven’t. There’s been no way to track him down, and from what Ma—Pegasus discovered via CCTV cameras, both he and Félix disappeared from view almost immediately after escaping Agreste Manor. We know one of them has the Horse Miraculous, so they could avoid detection completely if they had a place to hide.” 

When she saw how negatively everyone reacted to her disclosure, she tried giving them what few hazy details she recalled from that day. “I can’t be sure of this, but when Félix jumped out the window, I thought I saw him holding something dark and circular. I think it was the Dog Miraculous, and since he already knows how to activate and use it, it makes sense he’d have gone for it.”

This did not have the spirit-boosting effect she had been hoping for. 

Ryuko’s eyes narrowed. “Then we are at a more significant disadvantage than I initially feared. Strategically speaking, the Dog offers the least number of offensive and defensive options of all the Miraculous stolen. If Félix has it, then Monarch is left with some of the most versatile and dangerous Miraculous we ever had in our arsenal.”

Marinette could always count on Kagami to think things through on a tactical level. It was why she had appointed her as the team’s Chief Strategist, a mostly ceremonial title she made up on the spot. Nevertheless, Ryuko faithfully fulfilled the role with pride and integrity. But right now, her candidness was becoming a bit demoralizing. 

“As of now,” she continued, “we know of only two out of supposedly five Miraculous he has in his possession: the Butterfly and the Fox, and we already have seen what he is capable of with both of them. If he has the Horse, as you suggest, he could surprise us at any moment, including now, and even if we manage to corner him, he can easily escape. The Tiger and the Ox offer two of the most efficiently destructive and defensive abilities we have ever seen, and if he has the Rooster—”

“—he can do pretty much everything we can’t.” Caprikid finished solemnly.

All eyes were on her now like they had never been before. They were all expecting her to pull a miracle plan out of nowhere just as easily as she could summon her Lucky Charm, but neither of those things worked like that. There was deep focus involved, an awareness of all relevant factors, and most importantly, trust. Trust that the plan would work above all else. A kind of trust she was currently desperate for.

“Look, I know things seem…pretty bleak right now. Our team is down by over a third, and most of their jewels are in the hands of a man we all know will do anything to see us dead tonight.” There was some uncomfortable shuffling, but they needed to hear this. “I’ll admit, this doesn’t look great. We’ve been given an ultimatum we had no choice but to accept, and we’re definitely walking into a trap, one that Monarch’s had an entire week to plan out while we’ve got almost ten minutes to decide what we’re going to do.” More shuffling, plus some murmurs. “But you know what? It doesn’t matter. We can do this because we have so many times before.”

“Cosmo Bug’s right,” Astro Chat joined in. “We’ve faced odds just as bad as this before, and occasionally, even worse, but we’ve always found a way to pull through, sometimes to the last man standing.” He glanced at Cosmo Bug because, usually, that meant her. “But we won, and we’ve been winning each and every time we take down another supervillain and…Sentimonster.” The faltering in his voice was unexpected, so Cosmo Bug picked up on his momentum.

“Chat’s right; we’ve never lost, not really. We’ve suffered setbacks, yes, just like the ones that have led us to tonight, and I take full responsibility for that. But we haven’t lost a real battle yet, and I don’t think any of us plan on that changing tonight, right?”

The enthusiasm she added to her speech had the right effect, and she saw the team's confidence begin to soar. “Right now, we have the opportunity this end this once and for all. To finally break a two-year-long stalemate that has seen this city brought to its knees time and again, all because of this one man. Whether you can sympathize with his motivations or not, I know each of you has experienced firsthand the lengths he’s gone to for a power he can’t control, all while abusing the influence of his own Miraculous for dark purposes. And now, he’s doing the same again, not just to more of our kwamis, but to one of us.”

They were almost ready—just one more push. “Tonight, we fight for Rena Rouge; we fight for our allies unable to stand alongside us in this final hour; we fight on behalf of every single Akuma and Amok victim who never got to see justice until now; but most of all, we fight for our city, we fight for Paris, because we will never allow Monarch’s tyranny to reign over our streets, our people, our home.” 

The following uproar could not be described as anything less than a rapturous euphoria. The team’s united cheer of support raised her spirits to an all-time high for that night; she couldn’t help but join in. Viperion and Ryuko nodded their approval; Queen Bee radiated with unearned self-approval that almost ruined the moment; Carapace shouted the loudest, eager for the throttling he was about to give the jackass who hurt his friend and stole his girlfriend; and Chat just looked at her with his amazing, reassuring smile, and she remembered that everything was going to be alright.

“So, fearless leader, what’s the play?”

8:30 until the deadline.

Chapter Text

Cosmo Bug landed in front of the Eiffel Tower just as the internal timer on her visor’s display hit zero. She was right on time. 

As she walked towards the towering structure of metal and lights, she deactivated her power-up, letting the suit fall away as she returned to her standard Ladybug costume again. She wanted Monarch to think he had the upper hand, that she had used up her only means of escape and would be an easy target, thus drawing him into the open. 

To her surprise, though, he already was, standing across from her at the perimeter edge of the tower, and right next to him was Alya herself.  

As Ladybug got closer, she noticed from afar that Monarch’s suit had changed from the previous iteration he wore as Hawk Moth, which had been the form he’d taken in the butterfly construct. His entire outfit had darkened to a considerably more sinister shade of purple, which was only discernible by the tower's extensive illumination behind him. His butterfly-themed mask now had silver-edged wings protruding from his face, and his wing-shaped lapel had grown in size while also taking on a more grandiose form. 

A Holder’s costume always modified itself to suit their mental and emotional state, so his change into Monarch was clearly more than just a superficial one. What was most concerning, though, was the lack of the other Miraculous on his person; not even the Fox was visible, and she knew he had it on him. The Butterfly was the only detectable one on his chest, and its properties were the ones influencing the design of the suit. This was easily a trap.

Then she turned her attention to Alya, and her heart sank to ocean depths. Just like Monarch’s, Alya’s appearance wasn’t the same as it had been in the Mirage. She was wearing a dark faux fur jacket that was not at all made for this tumultuous weather. Her ombré hair, now ruined by the rain, had been arranged in tight coils reminiscent of her Creole heritage, and her normal glasses had been swapped for cat-eye lenses with a bronze sheen on the surface. 

But what broke her heart the most was her dress: a halter neck gown colored bright orange and inlaid with white trim along the hem. Marinette had made that dress for Alya for this special night specifically, and the way her friend’s face had exploded with delight when she first saw it had made the entire process worth the grueling hardship. But it, too, wasn’t fit for wet, freezing temperatures, and Alya was left shivering in the rain while Monarch kept his eyes dead set on his advancing enemy.

His eyes. She had gotten close enough to make them out now. They were glowing with a baleful blue light, cold and sinister, devoid of warmth and emotion. They belonged to a predator, a killer, a maniac. They belonged…to…

No . 

She found herself in a place far from here, in another time altogether. 

No . Stop . 

She looked up and saw the moon shattered to pieces. Blazing chunks of rock raining down upon the world around her.

Stop it . 

Paris was flooded, a mass grave for people who realized their doom far too late and never had a chance.

Not now. This can’t happen right now . 

She touched her own face, and it turned to dust in her hands. She watched as her remains faded away into the unforgiving darkness of the freezing abyss. 

Non. No, please . 

She saw his eyes. They were broken and lost. And cruel. And utterly mad. 

'𝄞 All alone…until now.'   

ENOUGH!!

She returned to the real world, her world, leaving the nightmare behind her. It was gone, for now, at least. The past was over; her future was what mattered. She was back. She was ready.

Ladybug approached a few more steps until Monarch held out his hand for pause, and she did. His lips curled in smug satisfaction, taking pleasure in watching her do as she was told. She couldn’t wait to punch that sourire suffisant off his face permanently. 

Lightning flashed and thunder boomed as the two archenemies sized each other up for what was expected to be the final time, taking note of every detail down to their microexpressions. They were close enough to reach each other in a single stride of their magically enhanced bodies, just meters away from standing face-to-face. If she was fast enough, she could stop this before there was any bloodshed. 

Unfortunately, Monarch had gotten very good at reading her expressions after years of watching her through his proxy Akumas, and he knew precisely what she was thinking. He began to laugh. It was an ugly, humorless noise that carried itself through the rain like its own cloud of miasmic venom. If pure evil had an anthem, it would sound exactly like this. 

“Ah, Ladybug, you never change, do you?” He asked callously, but also rhetorically. “Even after years of ceaseless fighting, you still haven’t learned how to bury your emotions. It makes you weak, you know.”

She ignored him and his asinine lecture, instead turning her attention to her friend. “Alya, are you alright? Has he hurt you?”

Alya looked over at Ladybug; her face, though sopping wet with tears of spoiled makeup, remained staunch and steady as always. “I’m okay, Ladybug, just a little wet. But you shouldn’t have come here; you know you can’t trust anything this lying sac à merde tells you, not a single damn word!”

“Ms. Césaire,” Monarch said calmly without turning away from his adversary, “I will ask only once that you keep silent during this exchange in conversation. Otherwise, I will make good on my earlier promise to Ladybug, and I can assure you, death by hypothermia will be a mercy compared to what I can inflict.”

Alya would definitely not have backed down from a challenge like that unless Ladybug had motioned for her to listen. “It’s alright, Alya. I’ll have you out of here in no time.” Alya nodded back, then retreated to the folds of her damp jacket. 

Ladybug returned her gaze to Monarch, trying hard to focus on his face in general rather than those stabbing blue eyes. “There’s not going to be any sort of exchange between us, Monarch, of words or anything else. Surrender yourself and the Miraculous you stole, and we can end this without conflict.”

This time, Monarch ignored her , instead fixating on the apparent lack of her partner’s presence. “Where is Chat Noir? I made it clear that both of you were to appear before me, and yet, it seems you are just as alone as you were when last we met.” His twisted sadism shone through every gap between his perfect teeth. “Did you really think I would allow such a flagrant breach of agreement, or has he abandoned you once more over further…interpersonal struggles?”

Mind games, that's all it was. Once you could see through them, his words became nothing but cheap slander. 

“And did you think I would bring both of our Miraculous right to you without any sort of guarantee you or Alya are even here? You’ve already made it obvious you have the Fox Miraculous despite your attempt to hide it now, so how can I know I’m not just talking to two Mirages while you watch from a safe distance?” 

Monarch spread his arms in a mock gesture; his smile remained unchallenged. “You don’t, and you can’t. I’ve had plenty of time to hone my use of the Fox and the other Miraculous in my possession over the past week. Your allies may have more experience in their handling, but I was there for every battle, in spirit if not in body. I know each trick they ever used against me and how successful each one was. I am not the one at a disadvantage here, Ladybug—that is most certainly you.”

Damn, he was right. Playing off his inexperience to unsettle him wasn’t going to work anymore, so she’d have to dig a little deeper, make it personal.

“That might be the case from your perspective,” she conceded. “But none of them are the ones you wanted, right? You now have enough power to take over this city, probably even the whole country, but that’s not what you’re after—you still want to make your Wish and bring back your wife, don’t you?

That did the trick. Monarch’s bluster evaporated into thin air, replaced by a protrusive ire that made his eyes glow more intensely. Ladybug resisted the urge to show weakness by looking away.

“Monarch, Gabriel , I understand what you’re trying to accomplish now, and I can empathize with it. I’ve lost people I care about too, and there hasn’t been a single day where I haven’t considered bringing them back to me.” 

It was true. When Master Fu died, she and Chat genuinely considered for a horrible split second that the Wish was their best option, but Wayzz quickly talked them out of it. Even if there was a way to avoid someone else dying in the process, Fu had activated a magic spell once he renounced the Miracle Box, though he died before it took full effect over him. If he was brought back to life, the spell would still give him amnesia and make him forget everything from his past life, even his own pupils.

The man she once loved as a second father was never coming back to her, and accepting it had been one of the hardest struggles of her life. But for Gabriel Agreste, the idea of his own wife never returning must have been what shattered his spirit in the first place, driving him to the depraved lunacy he found himself in now. Her suffering was unparalleled to his own. 

“I never met your wife, so I can’t speak for her, but from what I understand, she was a kind and gracious woman. You can’t really believe Emilie would ever have wanted—”

“KEEP MY WIFE’S NAME OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!!” Monarch bellowed furiously. “Do not dare to presume what she would have wanted. Do not pretend like you could ever understand her sacrifices. What she wanted was to live! Live a glorious, wonderful life in the sun’s warmth with her family, who loved her with all their hearts. And instead, she has been left to suffer in the cold, trapped in unending darkness while she waits patiently for me to save her!” 

Suffer? But she was dead, right?

Not, not dead, ‘disappeared.’ That’s what she’d heard, at least, but what did that mean?

“And you, child, hoarding the power over life and death itself, wielding it like an infant as you gallivant around Paris without care, you think you could understand what I have been through, what I have lost in the name of my love for her? Because of you, my own son sees me as a monster now, despite everything I have done being all for him!! If you truly cared about the people’s well-being, as you claim, then you would allow me to bring her back. Not for me, but for my wife, his mother. For Adrien .” 

There was silence, and perhaps, for a moment, Monarch believed she was actually giving it serious thought. But he couldn’t hear the blood roaring through her ears; he could not feel the heat of her skin rising to take arms against the icy rain, and by the time he saw the storm of passion writhing its way across her face, it was too late to regret what he’d done.

“HOW DARE YOU!!” she shouted with such force that even he was visibly astonished. “How dare you try to justify what you’ve done on your son’s behalf! Kidnapping! Murder! Terrorism! And you call that love?! Love?!!”  

She stepped forward, letting him know she was not backing down from this. “If you loved your son, Gabriel, you wouldn’t be here , using an innocent girl as bait so you can play at being God and choose who lives and dies. You wouldn’t have run away like a coward when he learned what you really were and left him all alone . Do you know what your actions have done to him? Have you even seen him since? Have you gone home to comfort him, to explain why you’ve done all this?!”

She saw the hesitancy in his face and knew that he had not. He may have succeeded at becoming one of the world’s greatest supervillains, but as a father, he was nothing but a miserable failure. Even Alya seemed shocked as she watched from the sidelines, in complete awe over her friend’s visceral scolding of Monarch. 

Ladybug had expected some retaliatory rebuttal, maybe an attack using one of his new Miraculous or even a hidden Akuma. Instead, Monarch growled with seething hatred, then let it wash away down his body with the rest of the rainwater. An exasperated sigh was the only other noise to leave his mouth, like he hadn’t expected her to agree with him in the first place. Of course he hadn’t. This was all for show; he just wanted one last chance to gloat before he made his move.

“It doesn’t matter what you think or believe, Ladybug.” He said, cooly. “Regardless of the fact this matter will undoubtedly devolve into wanton violence, know that when I triumph, and you fall, Adrien will be reunited with his mother, and he will thank me for it.”

“If you really think that, you’re more insane than I ever believed you could become.”

“Enough!” he called out before pointing at her with the end of his cane. “This song and dance of yours has gotten tiring and, quite frankly, unwelcomely stale, but since this will be our final encounter, I’m inclined to give you one more chance to listen to reason.” 

Keeping the cane leveled at her chest, he then held out his other hand. “Hand. Over. Your. MIRACULOUS!!”

“Never.” She looked him right in the eyes as she said it, no longer willing to be afraid of the man pretending to be something he wasn’t. He wasn’t better than her in any way; he just had more power. But he had confused power for strength and was about to learn that real strength came in more numbers than he had with him. 

“I am neither surprised nor disappointed by your answer, Ladybug.” He responded. “Even now, you cling to your jewels like they mean more to you than life, even your own.” He unsheathed the shaft of his cane that concealed the fencing blade beneath it. But instead of pointing the épée at her, he aimed it at Alya’s chin. “Even that of your friend’s.” 

Don’t count on it, asshole. She pressed the communicator in her ear. “Ryuko, now!”

“Wind Dragon!”

Out of nowhere, gale-force winds blew through the street and hit Monarch with enough physical strength to almost knock him off his feet, forcing him to dig his swordstick into the stone to stay grounded. Alya was at the edge of the gust yet was still pushed to the ground, the intensity of the wind being that strong. But despite the convincingness of their reactions, this could all still be a well-crafted Mirage as long as Monarch was watching. It was time to test if he and Alya were really here.

Monarch managed to steady himself enough that he might have been about to attempt an attack or try to flee, but he never got the chance. She saw his eyes widen as the object approached, but before he could avoid it, a solid steel garbage can smacked his face right in the nose, and she saw a trail of blood sail into the sky along the winds as he fell to the pavement. 

It really was him; she almost didn’t believe it. 

“It’s him—he’s here! Begin Phase Two!”

As the winds died down, dozens of Polymouse clones the size of small rats emerged from the trash can next to Monarch. They swarmed over the fallen villain as he frantically waved his arms, trying to smack them away. Though mostly unsuccessful, he did manage to keep them from getting close to the brooch. If he managed to stand up or regain his footing, this would all be for nothing. 

“King Monkey! Carapace! Don’t let him get away!” 

“Uproar!” “Shell-ter!”

Plummeting down from the sky as Astro Chat carried them closer, King Monkey threw what looked like a bright red ball at Monarch, hitting him in the forehead just as Carapace’s shield enclosed around the Butterfly Holder and the clones. He was trapped.

“Bullseye!” cheered Kim as he reached the ground. 

As Ladybug watched, she realized the red ball had actually been a clown nose, which became evident as Monarch grew one of his own, as well as a ridiculous rainbow afro and an oversized pair of shoes. Just like she had suspected, the Mirage hiding the stolen Miraculous vanished, replacing his costume with a full clown suit as Uproar confused the illusion. She could see them all now, all the jewels he had stolen. She almost lost focus from the sudden relief and joy within her. 

“Polymouse, get the glasses first! Then the rest of them!”

“Copy, Ladybug!”

The clones crawled over his face as he shouted and swatted, but all in vain. They got the Horse glasses first, then the Rooster’s thumb ring, and the Fox necklace. One by one, they pulled them all away until only the Butterfly remained. As they finally managed to rip it off his chest, Ladybug and the other assembled Holders stared in disbelief.

They had done it. They had actually done it. Monarch, Shadow Moth, Hawk Moth, they had beaten him. It was over. Really over. 

As soon as Polymouse collected all the Miraculous, Carapace disengaged the barrier as he rushed over to Alya while the rest of the team gathered around their fallen adversary. Gabriel Agreste lay there, beaten, helpless, and entirely at their mercy. He tried to rise, but Ryuko shoved her sword against his throat to dissuade him from continuing. “Don’t even think about it, Agreste,” she said with perhaps a little too much animosity, even for her. 

“Oh, my God. I can’t believe we did it!” exclaimed Queen Bee. “In your face, Gabriel Agreste! I always knew you belonged in the dumpster, especially with how you treated Adrikins, but even I thought you had some dignité under that antiquated suit. I suppose that garbage can proved you really are gutter trash! Ha!”

If the surrealness of the moment hadn’t caught up to her, Chloé’s flippant barbs might have bothered Ladybug despite who they were aimed at. She didn’t notice, though. All she could do was stare at him, her enemy, and think about everything he had done to them. All the pain, all the hurt, all the fear. He looked so…human now, so vulnerable. 

New thoughts entered her mind, things she had only considered before in her worst moments and nightmares. She could end this now, eliminate the chance of him ever regaining his power and threatening Paris again. He would never go on to create Timetagger or any future Akumas and never live to hurt his son again. Wasn’t that…a good thing?

“Marinette Dupain-Chang,” she heard a voice in her head say, but it wasn’t hers. It was Master Fu’s.

“Mercy is a gift, not because your enemies may choose not to return it in kind, but because they will never know how to unless you teach them first .”

She remembered those words. They had been part of one of the first-ever lessons he’d given her in private, without Chat Noir present. She had been young then, angry at the challenges of her normal life and her life as Ladybug. Master Fu showed her she would never be a true hero like she wanted unless she understood the importance of compassion.

Someone like Chloé (though she loathed admitting it) was not really evil. Most likely, neither was Félix, and maybe even Lila (although that was a bit of a stretch) because all of them were human beings, and no person ever wants or chooses to be deliberately evil. Even Gabriel Agreste was not truly evil; he only wanted to see his wife again. It wasn’t his fault that it had driven him insane; he never allowed himself the support he needed to heal, seeking strength in solace and unimaginable power. Perhaps that could all change now. Maybe if he could just stop, he’d find a way to move on, accept the past, and even make amends for his actions. 

If nothing else, it was worth a real try. 

She silently thanked the memory of her Master and regarded the fallen Monarch with a new appreciation for forgiveness. She wondered if Chat, who she believed had been taught the same lesson as her, was thinking the same thing and turned to see that his power-up had been discarded. He was staring at Gabriel as King Monkey pulled him to his feet, Ryuko’s blade still at his neck. Something about her partner’s face wasn’t right, like he was in shock or some other comparable state. 

“Hey,” she touched his shoulder, and his sudden spin and accompanying glare sent a second wave of adrenaline flying through her veins. “We-we did it, Chat, we actually did it.”

Chat looked more dazed and confused than anything else, clearly having a harder time processing what had just happened than she was. She thought he would be celebrating this moment with several snarky quips at Gabriel’s expense, maybe even some harmless flirts directed her way, praising her bravery, smarts, and beauty, like usual. But he was dead quiet, not even the trace of a grin on his lips. Yet, when he turned back to face Gabriel, she saw them start to tremble.

“Chat?” she asked, incredibly concerned over how he was handling this moment. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

Chat’s breathing began to shudder as he tried to speak. “L-Ladybug, there’s something…something you should—”

Before he could continue, Viperion appeared between them, blocking her view of Chat. “Ladybug,” he said, his tone deeply insistent. “I need to speak with you. Now.”

“I-well-ok then.” She looked over his shoulder. “Just a moment, Chat, okay?”

“...ok,” he said gloomily as Viperion led her away from him. When they stopped, Ladybug saw that Luka seemed exceptionally unnerved, and exceptionally unnerved for him was extremely unnerving for her. 

“Luka, what's wrong?” she asked. He took a moment before answering like he was trying to work it all out in his head first before speaking.

“Something’s off. The plan went too smoothly, and all of a sudden, we’ve beaten him just like that? It’s not possible, not with him.”

“Luka…” she wanted to agree with him. She didn’t really believe it herself, but she’d seen it with her own eyes. “I know this feels too easy, but you saw what happened, just like I did. We touched him, and the Uproar actually worked. There’s no way it could have been a Mirage—”

“You don’t understand,” he blurted out, something he’d never done to her. “I never got to use my Second Chance while you were talking. There was no surprise or countermove, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing . Everything unfolded exactly as you remember it. That’s never happened before.”

Admittedly, she did find it strange she never heard Viperion give her advice while talking, but she’d been too focused on Monarch to notice. “Not even once?”

“I-no, only once. While you were talking with Chat just now, I had to use it to keep him from revealing his identity in front of you and everyone else.”

“What?!” she exclaimed. That’s what he was about to say? Tell her his name right then and there?! That was crazy! “But-but why?! Why did he do it?”

“That can wait,” he said, almost anxiously. This whole thing was really bothering him, moreso than she’d ever seen before. “But this is all wrong; I just know it. Somehow…I think he wanted this to happen.”

Her heart was racing now. She trusted Luka’s intuition more than most people’s, and he wasn’t the apprehensive type. If he thought something wasn’t right, it meant something wasn’t right.

“Um, Ladybug?” Polymouse squeaked out from a couple meters away. “You said you thought you saw Félix take the Dog Miraculous, right?”

She and Viperion look over to Mylène, who had reformed to full size and was clutching her full bounty of liberated jewels. All six, six stolen Miraculous, plus the Butterfly, were present. Ladybug walked over and picked up one of them, the Dog collar, and examined it closely. 

“Barkk?” she asked, “are you there?” There was no reply. None of the other kwamis had materialized either, completely unresponsive to their names being spoken aloud, not even Nooroo. Polymouse looked terrified, and though she had gotten over most of her constant anxieties, the resonating echo of a thunderclap made her whole body squirm. 

Ladybug looked at Gabriel, whose hands had been bound by King Monkey’s tail rope and still had Ryuko’s sword cornered against his shoulder. But aside from that, he was completely grinning. 

Everyone stared at him as Ladybug quickly advanced and grabbed him by the collar. “Gabriel!” she said, an equal amount of alarm and anger blended into her voice. “What did you do to the kwamis?”

He began laughing his sick, nefarious laugh again, this time much louder and more unhinged. He laughed into the sky even as the rain pelted his face and wouldn’t stop himself. After several seconds, Ryuko had enough of it and shoved her sword under his chin. “Answer her, Agreste. What have you done to the Miraculous? Answer her!”

More laughing followed, but it wasn’t coming from Gabriel this time. It was coming from behind him. From Alya.

No.

Once Alya was secured, Carapace’s job had been to ensure she wasn’t hurt and that the others didn’t discover her identity. However, he could not fulfill the latter, as Alya was walking right towards them, the same malicious grin on Gabriel’s face permeating from her own.

“Alya? Babe, what are you doing?!” Carapace pleaded distressfully. When he reached for her shoulder to stop her, she grabbed him and flung him like a weightless ragdoll at the others. Viperion and Caprikid were the ones to catch him, but he quickly brushed them off.

“Alya, is that you?” Pigella asked quizzically. “You’re Rena Rouge?”

Too late, Rose realized she had almost let her secret out, and everyone, including Monarch, might recognize her identity. But in an unprecedented stroke of charity and unusual genius, Queen Bee pulled her away from that fire. “Alya Césaire? The reporter girl from the Ladyblog?!” she gasped, pretending to be totally appalled. “Since when could she do anything useful besides get into other people’s business?”

That earned her a lot of dirty looks, but Pigella shared her gratitude with a bright smile. Though it was refreshing to see Chloé be helpful for once, Ladybug could practically hear thinking, ‘ Now we’re even .’

Refocusing, Ladybug watched as Alya stopped right next to Gabriel. When she opened her mouth, she and Gabriel spoke together in precise harmony, both using the same exact voice—Monarch’s voice.

“Oh, Ladybug, as always, you never fail to miss the bigger picture ,” they pronounced in concert, the echo effect their words created sending everyone into danger mode. They quickly huddled together, with Ladybug, Chat Noir, Ryuko, and Carapace remaining the closest to the doppelgängers. Viperion had been right—this was the real trap. 

“I tried to tell you before: you never learn, but it seems my charitable lesson was left unheeded. Disappointing, I must say. I really did think you would catch on sooner. ”

“Monarch,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. “Where is—”

“WHERE IS ALYA, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!?!?” yelled Carapace, who attempted to charge the Gabriel doppelgänger but was pulled back by Chat.

“Ms. Césaire is… indisposed at the moment, but she will be safe so long as she remains where she is.” Their shared grimace grew in proportions, reaching an unnatural size that reminded her of a certain  American comic villain. “I know you wouldn’t want any unnecessary collateral damage for this next part.”

“What are you planning, Monarch?!” Chat demanded, receiving help from Viperion and King Monkey to hold back the struggling Carapace. He sounded angrier than she would have expected from him.

“Ah yes, ‘la grande révélation.’ I suppose I’ve kept you all waiting for long enough .” Suddenly, an audible snap of fingers reverberated in the air around them, and Gabriel, Alya, and all the Miraculous Polymouse had been holding faded out of existence. They had been Mirages all along. Solid Mirages. That shouldn’t have been possible. 

Another snap, and suddenly the team of Holder was surrounded by a ring of at least thirty Monarch doppelgängers; each one had their swordstick drawn and was smiling with his signature smile of triumph. They began slowly closing ranks, forcing the team to stand back-to-back with each other, each person drawing their own weapons in defensive poses. 

“Ladybug, what’s happening?” uttered Caprikid. “I thought we had him?”

“Yeah, I got him right in the face with my Uproar!” exclaimed King Monkey. “His powers should be toast!”

“It was just an illusion,” she replied. “They all are.”

“But that’s-that’s not possible!” stammered Queen Bee. “He can’t do that! It’s unfair!”

“Viperion,” who was standing between Chat and Carapace. “Do you have anything?”

He shook his head. “My first charge already ran out. I can’t set my last one until we know how he’s doing this.”*

She nodded grimly. “Monarch, where are you, you coward?!”

“Show yourself!!” yelled Chat alongside her.

“I’m right here.”

A pair of doppelgängers parted to the side, and another Monarch appeared between them as if he had been standing there cloaked from sight this entire time, the Fox Miraculous dangling around his neck and its complementary flute held in his left hand. 

Chat pointed his staff at the supposedly authentic Monarch. “No more tricks! Where’s the real you?”

Monarch chuckled. “Stupid, naive boy. Let me help you to understand.” 

From his feet, bright scarlet energy trailed upwards around his body until Monarch’s costume had wholly turned to a new shade of bloody crimson with golden highlights. His irises remained their deadly blue, sparkling with a new form of sadistic delight. She recognized this power from Heroes’ Day over a year ago. This was the same power he used to become Scarlet Moth, which meant someone must have been Akumatized to boost his abilities. And the only person around to do that with was…

Alya. He Akumatized her.

The Red Monarch spread his arms as if he was being welcomed to his own birthday party, already celebrating his certain success before he had even won. “Tonight,” he proudly declared, “I promised you and your band of impudent youths would die at my hand, Ladybug, and now that you’ve all revealed yourselves and thrown away your only chance to outwit me, I intend to see that promise through.”

“Ladybug, what do we do?” muttered Ryuko to her left, prepared to go down swinging if necessary.

Ladybug looked to her right at Chat, and he looked back at her with serious resolve in his eyes. “I’m with you ‘till the end, Milady.”

She nodded, then answered. 

“We fight.”

Chapter Text

“Simply miraculous.” That was the phrase Chat Noir chose to describe how he and his team managed to survive the first few minutes of Monarch’s brutal assault. Frankly, it wasn’t an understatement. 

The Monarch doppelgängers began their attack by charging in complete unison, attempting to keep their quarry squeezed together without any room to maneuver, easy targets to skewer. But Ladybug wasn’t about to let that happen. 

“Duck!” she yelled, and everyone instinctively crouched to their knees as she began rapidly spinning her yo-yo over her head, creating a moving barrier that cut through each of the Monarchs that approached it, turning them all to mist. Their remaining number withdrew from the lethal hazard, stepping back and waiting for a better chance to strike. 

Ladybug kept the yo-yo twirling above them, but Chat knew she couldn’t keep it up forever. Sooner or later, she’d begin to get tired, or Monarch would switch tactics and drop a giant anvil or bomb on top of them. It would be easy to do so with this newfound power he’d amassed, but that’s not what he wanted. He wanted ‘his’ own hands wet with their blood, a means of getting even after so many failures. They were done for if he decided to get creative—they needed an exit strategy immediately. 

“Everyone!” Ladybug called out to the team. “When I drop the shield, split into pairs and jump as far apart as you can!”

“What?!” shouted Carapace. “Why?”

“Just do it!”

“Trust her!” yelled Chat, ready to pounce when the moment arrived. He could see the doppelgängers circling them like sharks, eagerly awaiting any opportunity to lunge for the kill. To his right, he heard Viperion activate his last Second Chance charge and hoped it would give them the edge they needed. 

The shield dropped. 

“GO!”

Everyone moved with blazing speed, so quick that the Monarchs were entirely unprepared for it, barely able to defend themselves before several were smashed or hacked to pieces by their counterattackers. Chat himself landed beside Ryuko as they swiftly annihilated the two closest doppelgängers and dared the rest to join their fellow silhouettes in oblivion.

All around them, the other Holders followed their example, slashing, smashing, and swinging away at the Monarch doubles until all thirty had been reduced to nothing. At first, Chat felt an immediate sense of relief he knew wasn’t suitable for the moment, but he couldn’t help it. The team had cut through Monarch’s Mirages like they were stalks of wheat, seemingly without applying any real effort. It looked as though they now held the upper hand.

Unfortunately, that was far from the case. Despite how quickly they’d dispatched their foes, Red Monarch simply dismissed their achievement. “A futile effort,” he scoffed before raising the Fox’s flute into the air. “Mirage!”

Instantly, the fallen Monarchs were replaced by new apparitions who rushed into battle with wicked ferocity. 

With staff and sword in hand, Chat and Ryuko faced off against a quintet of doppelgängers who thrust forward mercilessly, attempting to separate the pair by literally cutting them apart. But unlike the others, he and Kagami were expert fencers who knew how to keep one or more opponents from pressing their leverage even while on the back foot. Whenever a double would attempt a slash or strike, Chat would parry their blade aside with his staff while Ryuko used the opening to deliver the finishing blow, evaporating them. Within seconds, five became none. Their combined efficiency would have made their fencing coach weep with pride.

But even as they continued to fight well, Chat noticed that for every doppelgänger they put down, another would immediately take its place, keeping the battle going in a continual cycle of rinse and repeat. Between each wave of new enemies, he could see the other Holders having the same exact difficulties as he was. 

Viperion had stayed back with Ladybug, using his lyre as a surrogate boomerang as his partner lashed her yo-yo about in pirouettes of death. Nearby, Queen Bee mimicked Ladybug with her spinning top while Carapace took care of the duplicates that got too close. The remaining four Holders were standing their ground well, but they were the least experienced of the team, and it looked like Red Monarch was trying to take advantage of that by sending more of his Mirages their way than any of the others. 

“Ryuko!” Chat exclaimed, and she nodded, needing no further explanation. They took to the air again, Chat trampling a double in front of Polymouse and Caprikid while Ryuko saved Pigella and King Monkey from getting eviscerated by two more. Chat saw the Red Monarch growl in frustration and flashed him a cheeky smirk in return. That only made the villain double his efforts, his rage empowering the apparitions and strengthening them to new heights. Oups . 

“Keep moving back,” he heard Ladybug call out. “Spread them apart from each other!” 

Together, the separate groups fell back from their positions, getting further away from the Eiffel Tower and Red Monarch, who, until now, hadn’t moved a single inch from where he’d been standing. Now, he had no choice but to follow them through the rain, his glowing eyes angrily darting from person to person, and the farther apart they got, the more he had to twist his head around to keep track of them. Finally, Chat understood Ladybug’s plan, and the simple genius of it almost made him laugh.

Mirages weren’t like Akumas or Amoks, which Monarch was used to controlling from a distance without ever getting near the fight. Akumatized villains and sentimonsters, to a lesser degree, could act autonomously from the Holder who created them, so long as they had simple enough directions to follow. But Mirages didn’t work like that; they required the Holder’s full attention to operate efficiently, and the more of them there were, the harder it was to manipulate them all at once. That was why these individual duplicates were much easier to put down despite his father’s extensive prowess as a swordsman. And Ladybug was trying to space them out so the Monarch doppelgängers would become weaker, maybe even cease being able to fight altogether. Brilliant! 

And he could see it working, too. The more steps they took back, the slower the doubles got until they were so far apart that Red Monarch had to actively choose where his attention was directed for whole seconds at a time, and those doppelgängers who lost his focus became sluggish parodies of the real thing. By the time Chat was having difficulty making out Ladybug’s bright costume in the murky distance, even with his night vision, each new Monarch he put down was about as dangerous as a kid with a pellet gun; saying they could fight was a being a bit generous. Once again, he felt safer than he should have, forgetting how many tricks Red Monarch still had up his sleeve.

“Everyone!” he heard Viperion shout from his earpiece. “Brace yourselves!”

At first, Chat didn’t understand what the Snake Holder was referring to. He couldn’t see or sense any attackers in the darkness, and he was certain Red Monarch couldn’t attack them all at once with a new set of Mirages while they were so far apart. But then he saw what Red Monarch was doing; he’d raised his hands into the air in front of him, and a Mirage effect over his face dissolved to reveal a pair of dark spectacles—the Horse Miraculous. 

Oh, merd— !

“Voyage!”

The command spoken, a whirlpool of swirling crimson energy opened beneath his feet, with Chat and his compatriots tumbling through it before they could react. On the other side, they were suddenly joined by the rest of the team as they all fell together from one massive portal right underneath the center of the Eiffel Tower. Chat managed to twist his body midair so he landed on his feet, but a few others weren’t so lucky, especially Queen Bee, who landed right on her derrière in front of everyone.

“OW!!” she cried, attempting to stand up without falling over and looking ridiculous. “Hey, Snake Boy, why don’t you give us a faster warning next time? Better yet, why don’t you just stop it from happening at all?” She waited for a response, but Viperion said nothing. “Well? Are you even listening to me? Why didn’t you do something?!”

“I couldn’t,” he replied calmly, which struck Chat as concerning since Viperion’s central role with Second Chance was to keep them out of danger, not let them get tossed into more of it. 

“Just watch,” was all Viperion added to his cryptic explanation. As he said it, Chat saw a new Mirage forming around the entire tower itself. Massive metal walls slid down the structure’s surface like shutter doors, crashing to the ground with a loud BANG!! and cutting them off entirely from the outside world. Once again, they were surrounded and trapped.

“Each time I try to avoid the portals,” Viperion began, “he always manages to get someone, then cuts the rest of us off while he tears them to pieces in here.” A wave of uneasy recognition passed between the team. They were used to being at a disadvantage from time to time, but Viperion’s presence always helped morale to soar, and though it was never really said aloud, he made them all feel unbeatable. If he was the one telling them it was hopeless, then it really was hopeless.

No, Chat wouldn’t let them believe that, not for a moment. His father was not going to be the death of them today or any other day, not while he could still do something about it. He tuned out the sound of Ladybug asking Luka if Monarch had used any other Miraculous and turned his attention toward the closest metal wall, thinking if he could get the team right next to it as he used his Cataclysm, they could escape before—

“Don’t try it, Chat,” Viperion interrupted out of nowhere like he’d read his mind. “It’s a waste of your Cataclysm. He’ll just trap us again before reforming the wall. Sticking together in here is our best shot.” 

“ Wha t?! ” he replied with a harsh growl, catching a frustrated glare from Ladybug in return. “We can’t just stay here cornered like rats! We’ve got to find a way to get out!” 

“Chat, did you not hear what he just said?!” Ladybug asked irritably, annoyed he hadn’t been paying attention. “Monarch has the—”

“Too late,” said Viperion as a red vortex opened up several meters away, and Red Monarch strolled through it, looking very pleased with his catch. 

“I hope you’ve learned, children,” he crowed, “that there is no escaping this, not when my victory is closer than ever before.” He waved the flute again, preparing to cast a Mirage. But instead of creating another small army to overwhelm the Holders, a giant red fifty-foot construct of himself formed around his body, and he disappeared behind the confines of the oversized suit. The massive Monarch towered over them, grinning from ear to ear with a smile so large he could swallow an entire car whole if he wanted. 

“ NOW! ” boomed the giant, “ FOR THE COUP DE GRÂCE ! ”

Viperion screamed, “GET BACK!” as Red Monarch hefted his boulder-sized fist to crush them. When raised, another Mirage concealment disappeared from his hand, revealing a bulky-looking version of a panjas bracelet Chat recognized all too well—the Tiger Miraculous. 

PUTAIN!

“ CLOUT!! ”

The shockwave generated by Monarch’s fist colliding with the ground was so enormous that even if everyone had been as far away as possible, they still would’ve been sent flying into the tower and its surrounding Mirage barriers. To Chat, it felt as though his consciousness had been separated from his body, unable to recognize where he was or what had even happened as he sailed across the underbelly of the tower, slamming against one of the metal walls and falling to the ground in a pile of bruised muscle and bone. He felt like a flattened banana pancake, and it took every ounce of his strength to pick himself up, using his staff to keep his balance.

Back at the center area where he’d been standing only moments ago, a crater three hundred feet in diameter had been formed into the steaming concrete, with tiny pulverized fragments of the material raining back down into the enormous pit. As Chat tried to take a few steps forward, he saw Red Monarch calmly walking up a staircase Mirage from the crater’s floor a dozen meters below street level. Either the blast had destroyed the giant version of himself, or he’d simply decided it had served his purpose and chose to take his time by flaunting his powers. He could have easily just leapt out of the crater, but he wanted everyone to know that to him, this was all child’s play, and he was the one toying with them . 

As Red Monarch ascended the lip of the crater, he locked eyes with Chat and smiled gruesomely, then muttered something Chat’s still-ringing ears couldn’t make out, flicked his wrist, and a Voyage portal dropped the Cat Holder right into the waiting clutches of Monarch’s hand. He squirmed and scratched, but it had little effect on the villain, who kept his attention solely on Chat’s face.

“I have to thank you, Chat Noir, for making all of tonight’s festivities possible,” his father smirked, enjoying himself as his quarry writhed futilely in his grip. He was trapped, the claws of the Tiger pressing against his throat as Red Monarch squeezed tighter. “If it weren’t for your absence when Ladybug came to visit my son thinking he was Flairmidable, then perhaps you would have had a chance to stop me that day. I do hope you’ll accept my full gratitude in the form of a swift death.” Those blue eyes radiated with rancor, boring a hole into his very core and filling him with a dread similar to his experience with the rings. 

The rings…his father was right here. What would happen if he just said his na—?

“But I’m afraid,” Red Monarch continued, “that your nettlesome partner will not be joining you in death as swiftly. She made the mistake of insulting my wife and son, so I intend to prolong her suffering as long as… inhumanely possible.” 

It wasn’t the words themselves that reminded Chat of why he’d initially planned on killing his father; it was how his eyes danced with gleeful malice as they were spoken aloud to him. No matter what his father claimed about his true intentions, he wanted to hurt people, hurt them , more than he actually wanted to help his family, help him —his son. And he was just using him as an excuse for his actions, just like Nathalie did. That’s all he was to them, a pretext for violence and discord, not even a human being. Not that it seemed he ever was in the first place. 

He wouldn’t let his father get away with this. He was not going to let him hurt Ladybug or any of his friends anymore and pretend it was unavoidable. He could end this right here, and all of them would get to live, damn the consequences. 

As Red Monarch was still crushing his throat, Chat grabbed his wrist and looked his father dead in the eye, his conviction pure as it could be. His vision was getting blurry, and he knew either he’d black out first or his neck would snap in two, but all he had to do was say one word, and it would all be over.

Ladybug, Plagg , he thought to himself. Mother, forgive me . 

“Ca…cat-a…” He was on the verge of losing consciousness, but was so close. Just a few more syllables. 

“Cat-a-cl…” He saw the recognition in Red Monarch’s face; how his pupils dilated with rampant terror and his face flooded with disbelief. For a nanosecond, he felt a brief regret for what was about to happen, but it faded quickly. It had to end this way. 

Goodbye, Father . 

“Cataclys—”

Before he could utter the final letter, something curved and teal-colored smacked into Red Monarch’s head, emitting an ear-wringing squeal that hurt almost as much as the choking. While Monarch was staggered, the attack was followed up by a green turtle shell and a pink tambourine connecting with his hip and the arm holding Chat in the air. The final blow forced Monarch to drop him to the ground, and Chat found himself heaving in the fresh air that he could finally breathe again. He gagged and almost vomited; spots of darkness and bright light fluttered in his vision, and he thought he might still pass out regardless of his freedom.

Monarch looked down at the powerless boy before him and prepared to spear his mirametal épée through his back but lost his chance when Ryuko and Caprikid tackled him from the left. * Suddenly, Viperion was by Chat’s side, hoisting him back to his feet while the others traded blows just meters away. “Chat, listen close,” Viperion said, almost in a whisper. “When Ladybug gets over here—”

“You…idiot,” Chat rasped out, his voice barely audible, even to him. “I almost had him. I almost—”

“You almost killed your own father,” Viperion interrupted. “But not before he twisted your head clean off, and you both ended up dying. I’ve seen it happen already, more times than I want to remember, but now I need you to….”

His voice faded from notice as Chat took in what Luka had just told him. He knew who he was. He knew he was Monarch’s son. How? For how long? Before today? Before Flairmidable?! How did he fucking—!?

“CHAT!” Viperion literally shook him back to awareness. “Yes, I know your name, and I’ve known since Wishmaker, but you need to focus . They’ll only make it with your help.”

He was stunned. He’d known for months . 

“You bastard…” Chat sputtered. “You knew…all this time— cough-cough! —even going into this…you said…nothing!”

Viperion sighed. It looked like the truth had been weighing on his conscience like a sour note, but the chaos of battle had distracted him for the time being. With that safety now gone, he had to face the music. “Look, they need my help. Just do as she says, and as far as I know, everybody lives.” 

He released Chat, who’d regained enough strength to stand on his own. He let Luka have one last scowl—“This isn’t over”—before the Snake Holder rejoined their allies in their frenzied duel with Red Monarch.

Chat planned on joining them as soon as he could stop panting and to hell with whatever Viperion had been trying to make him do when, just like he said, Ladybug appeared beside him with Polymouse, Carapace, and King Monkey in tow. “Chat! Are you alright?!” She tried to lend a hand, but he pushed it away.

“Did you know he knows!!” he tried to shout unsuccessfully. She looked confused, so he spelled it out. “Viperion. Wishmaker. Did you know he knows ?” She understood, and her face dropped. Unbelievable . He was absolutely livid now.

“I thought we trusted each other. How could you let him walk around knowing who I am and not say anything?”

“Because he knows me to o !” she yelled back, “And he’s also known since Wishmaker, just like with you. But I trust him, and you can too.” The other three looked surprised and very uncomfortable to be within earshot of this conversation but kept their mouths shut. 

“Look, I know you could’ve died just now and might still need a moment—”

“I can fight just fine—!”

“—but we need your help!” She gestured to the Holders behind her. “Polymouse is about to change back, and both King Monkey and Carapace will soon too. I need you to get them to safety while we keep Monarch occupied.”

“No damn way!” he clamored, his voice as good as it would get under present circumstances. “You need me down here. You can’t take him on your own!”

“CHAT!!” She was more shaken up than he realized, maybe from the fighting, but from the way she was looking at him, he somehow doubted it. “You’re right; we can’t beat him like this—he’s too powerful. But we know the source of his power is from an Akuma, just like when he was Scarlet Moth. If it’s Alya, and I’m certain it is, he’s got to be keeping her here in the tower so she can’t escape without him noticing.” She handed him back his staff, which he must have dropped when Monarch grabbed him. “You’re the only one with the senses needed to find her. Take Carapace with you once he’s recharged. If you can stop the Akuma, Monarch’s powers will be depleted, and he’ll be vulnerable.” She took his hands and gave him the most beseeching gaze she’d ever shown him. “Please, rescue her.”

Chat knew Ladybug and Rena were close, almost as close as they were, but their friendship always felt a bit more balanced than their own, like they knew each other in a way he’d never known her. With the look in her eye, Chat was finally convinced Alya Césaire was more than just Rena Rouge to Ladybug—they knew each other outside of this life, just like he’d always wanted to, and the idea of someone else knowing before he did deeply upset him. 

But she was right; Alya was in danger, and they had to stop Red Monarch before he caused more damage than they could fix. He couldn’t fight her on that. 

“Alright,” he accepted, “I’ll go, but…be careful, okay?” She made a real effort to smile, then squeezed his shoulder. 

“When I give the signal, break for it, understand?” He nodded, and she nodded back before zipping over to where the remainder of their team was giving Monarch one hell of a bruising. As captivating as their performance was, Chat knew he needed a plan to get his team out of there; Ploymouse’s pendant was almost completely depleted, and she’d be done for if Red Monarch noticed.

“So, copain ,” Carapace asked as the three others circled around him. “Any idea how we’re getting to the top?” 

Chat had to admit to himself he had no clue. If Monarch saw them attempting to leave through the giant square in the center of the first platform above their heads, he could just create another portal to block their path. They needed a route that would keep his vision obscured, or even better, a way they could all ascend separately, thus dividing his attention so he’d have to pick and choose his target. 

And luckily, they were in the perfect space to do just that. 

“When Ladybug gives her signal, each of us will pick a leg and scale up to the second platform.” He pointed to one of the tower’s arched limbs and trailed his finger upwards past the square. “It’s high enough that Monarch can’t see or reach us, so once we’re past Platform Un , we should be in the clear.” 

The others seemed to like his plan, not that they had many other options to choose from.

“Everyone ready?” Chat asked, and they all nodded. “Great, now get more ready.” He pressed his earpiece, knowing Ladybug would never hear him otherwise of the sound of the battle with Red Monarch. “Ladybug, we’re ready. Hit it!”

From across the tower’s base, Chat saw Ladybug acknowledge the message and glance briefly in his direction. Noticing this, Monarch was about to thrust his swordstick through her ribcage while she was turned, but his commitment to the attack made for the perfect distraction.

“Lightning Dragon!” 

A voltaic storm of crackling energy enveloped Red Monarch, and white-hot bolts of pure electrical power raced across his body, practically setting him ablaze with blinding light. If his father was still capable of feeling something besides sadistic pleasure, he would definitely feel this. 

“GO!” Chat yelled, and the four of them took off in separate directions, each choosing their own leg to scale by instinct. When Chat reached his, he leapt inside the open-lattice structure itself, using the iron bars as cover while propelling himself upwards to the top. He didn’t look back down as he ascended, but his ears did pick up on Red Monarch, who had somehow survived Ryuko’s most devastating attack, shouting a verbal command for a Voyage portal. The churning vortex opened right above Chat’s head. If he hadn’t heard Monarch create it, he would have unintentionally leaped right through it instead of twisting around the leg and avoiding it altogether. Even as he reached the first platform, he could still make out Red Monarch’s outrage from two hundred feet below. 

Once Carapace and Co. reached the top to join him, they continued to the next part of the tower, another two hundred feet above them. As they lept between the massive metal beams, Chat remembered what Viperion had said to him: ‘As far as I know, everyone lives.’ He didn’t know how much time he had to make sure the Snake Holder’s prediction came true, but he promised himself he would find Alya as fast as possible before he had a chance to learn.

~~~

Although Ryuko’s Lightning Dragon usually had the effect of knocking every supervillain who encountered it hard onto their ass, all it seemed to do for Red Monarch was make him much, much angrier. 

As soon as Chat and the others disappeared into safety, Monarch brought back his attention and full fury down upon them, creating a new array of doppelgängers to harass the team—some now armed with horseshoes and bolas—while he focused on their leader herself, brandishing his fencing épée and unleashing his full might against her. 

He rained down blow after blow, thrusts and lunges and wide slashes, each a brilliant demonstration of his mastery of swordsmanship. It took all of Ladybug’s own skill and discipline to avoid getting shish-kabobed while also trying not to inhale the stink of ozone Gabriel reeked of. Her yo-yo wasn’t the best weapon against a trained fencer, making her wish Chat was still by her side to assist. Still, the string was sturdy enough to repeatedly catch the blade without breaking apart. If it did, she was done for. 

Red Monarch swept his sword overhead, slicing through one of her hair ribbons and almost giving her an unflattering haircut. Frustrated, he committed to a series of punishing forward jabs, forcing her backward as she parried each blow as best she could, stuck in the defensive and unable to gain the distance she needed to maneuver properly. Inevitably, his blade found its way past her guard, piercing through her shoulder, suit be damned. She cried out, and he just smirked. He’d drawn first blood.

Removing his weapon, he kicked her off the edge of the newly formed pit, sending the heroine tumbling down forty feet of jagged stone and busted metalwork. As she came to a graceless stop at the bottom, she attempted to stand, but Red Monarch was already beside her in a flash. He stamped down hard on her right shin so she couldn’t get up, nearly breaking the bone. Pressing his foot harder into her leg, he casually leaned over to watch her squirm in pain beneath him.

“I’m sincerely impressed you and your allies have survived this long, Ladybug,” he mused gratingly. “If nothing else, you are worthy of being my one true enemy. I hope you can remember that during your profuse suffering.”

He placed more pressure on her shin, savoring the agony he inflicted, too focused on indulging himself to stop Ryuko’s sword from dividing his entire left hand from the rest of his arm. 

“ ARRGGGH!!” Monarch bellowed, recoiling back from the two women. “ Damn you , Tsurugi! I’ll see your mother hang for this, right after I plunge that sword through your heart!”

Ryuko was unintimidated by the threats of the mutilated maniac and held her ground vigilantly. “Ladybug, wait here for assistance.” She presented her blade to Red Monarch, her posture steady and composed. “I’ll teach Agreste here a lesson in manners and proper swordsmanship.” 

Red Monarch snarled in disdain. “You’re not half the swordswoman Tomoe is, and she can’t even see what a sorry disappointment her daughter has become. You have nothing you can teach me—” 

Ryuko’s attack was totally unprecedented but wholly deserved. Monarch barely had a chance to defend himself before she was on top of him, unleashing the full speed and swiftness the Dragon Miraculous offered her upon him. “What I will teach you,” Ladybug heard her growl sharply, “is that you never should have hurt Adrien the way you did!”

As their duel moved away from her spot on the ground, Ladybug sat back up and poured her focus and energy into healing her injured shoulder and leg. While in costume, a Holder’s internal systems were enhanced just as much as their strength and speed. Typically, this resulted in mildly accelerated healing for cuts and bruises, but she’d learned from her training and lots of practice that their suits could channel magic energy to expedite the healing process, mending more serious damage quicker than usual. * This always came in handy when a rampaging supervillain had them on their last legs and they needed a moment to recover. It wasn’t a perfect fix, but after a good moment, she could stand up, simply wince instead of awkwardly falling on her face, and look around her.

With fewer opponents to fight, Red Monarch had opted not to create as many doppelgängers this time, leading to the ones he produced being much more deadly and better armed than before, which left the team hard-pressed to weather his elites as the battle moved into the crater. 

At the moment, Viperion was performing much better than the others, seamlessly dodging and weaving between horseshoe projectiles and bola snares like a choreographed dance he’d mastered many times over. It was absolutely mesmerizing to watch, so she knew she couldn’t keep it up and turned away.

Pigella and Caprikid were doing well enough despite their weapons not being particularly suited for combat, but Queen Bee was the one among them who was really struggling. The months she’d spent apart from the Bee Miraculous had wreaked havoc on her martial skills and physical conduct, and she clearly hadn’t kept up with her training in any capacity afterward. She was slower than she should have been, with several weeping gashes across her body and a large bruise featured on her right cheek. But in spite of these impediments, she remained in the fight, her top whizzing around her like an angry hornet that stung any of Monarch’s doubles who dared to approach her. If Ladybug wasn’t still upset about Chloé’s presence in the first place, she might have admitted to herself she was impressed by her determination to persist.

Contemplating about the Miraculous reminded her that she had yet to see the final Miraculous in Red Monarch’s possession. He must have been saving it for something, but she wasn’t sure what it could be with the battle fully underway. If it was the Ox, then it would explain how he’d survived Ryuko’s lightning attack without so much as a scratch, but the Rooster could offer several similar options as well, so long as the Holder was creative and fast enough to activate them. But if he had the Rooster, why hadn’t he used the wide variety of special abilities it could provide, especially since he was now supercharged? Thinking about what he could do with all that power scared her like nothing else. He could destroy them in a heartbeat, and they wouldn’t stand a chance.

A doppelgänger charged at her with Tiger bolas flailing wildly in the air, but it made the mistake of announcing its presence with heavy footfalls. She had plenty of time to sidestep its attack before grabbing its arm, flipping it around so it landed hard on the ground, and dislocating its shoulder. As it turned to mist at her feet, she realized something that alarmed her almost as much as the potential presence of the Rooster did.

When she had led the team away from the tower to weaken Red Monarch’s control over the doppelgängers, he’d been observing the fight from a distance, forced to keep watch over his army so he could exert his control over them all at once. But right now, he was fighting Ryuko while, at the same time, several of his Mirages were battling the rest of the team. Unless he’d recently used the Rooster to heighten his awareness and concentration, none of those doubles should have been fighting as well as they were. 

And then, perhaps by battle-tempered instinct or by way of testing her theory, she looked at the ground to where Red Monarch’s hand had fallen when Ryuko chopped it off and saw that it was gone; not even a trail of blood remained to mark its earlier existence. All of a sudden, she understood what he’d done. Once again, he’d tricked them into thinking he was there when he wasn’t really and never had been in the first place. Ryuko wasn’t fighting the real Gabriel Agreste—he was still watching them right now!

“LADYBUG!” Viperion yelled. “LOOK OUT!!”

The warning almost came a second too late, but she would never have been able to prevent what happened next if she hadn’t received it in time. 

While she had been scanning the ground for any sign of the missing hand, a small portal had opened up beside her left hip, right across from the yo-yo fastened around her waist. When she heard Viperion’s shout, she immediately reacted without even thinking, flipping upward into the air just as a gloved hand reached out to snatch the yo-yo, missing only by a hair’s length. 

The portal vanished as quickly as it had appeared, but she had seen it first, and right then, all she could feel was a burning outrage at Monarch’s complete shamelessness. That utter fuckstain! He’d actually tried to steal her yo-yo again, just like Félix had when he’d stolen the Miraculo— 

Everything fell into place. She understood Monarch’s plan now, what he wanted, what this whole thing had been about. She knew what he was trying to do.

She landed next to Viperion as he beat back another double with his lyre. “Viperion!” she stammered, the urge to share this new revelation exploding out of her like a rocket that had hit full ignition. “I know what Monarch wants!”

He didn’t look surprised, and she wondered how many times already he’d heard those same exact words. “He’s not after your Miraculous,” he confirmed. “Everything about tonight was just a ploy to get us all together, checking to see who you’d bring, and once he knew for certain Bunnyx wasn’t coming—”

“—He would take my yo-yo and the Rabbit, the only Miraculous I have left. The most dangerous one of all,” she finished. She’d been a fool. She’d believed keeping the Rabbit with her had been the safest choice, but Monarch had counted her not wanting to part with it after Flairmidable’s actions, especially since he’d never seen her with the Bunnyx of the present day before. He didn’t need to go after her and Chat Noir separately anymore if he had the Rabbit, the one Miraculous that could let him go anywhere or anywhen he wanted. And with his Red supercharge, the chaos he’d be free to generate without any foreseeable end—he’d be completely unstoppable. 

She couldn’t let that happen. The world would end if she did; the madness of Monarch would see everything they loved razed to the ground. She had to stop him, but first, she had to find him.

“Viperion,” she asked as they destroyed three more doppelgängers together. “Do you know where the real Monarch is?”

He paused but quickly shook his head no, which almost gave her a heart attack. “Every time I think I’m getting close, all the Mirages vanish, and nothing happens. I keep having to reset the ouroboros or I’ll run out of time.” The way his face scrunched up when he was frustrated was sometimes cute to watch, but never in moments like this. “He’s waiting me out. The only reason he doesn’t leave right away every time is if I let him get the occasional hit in, he thinks he’ll finally get the chance to kill me himself. I think he’s still sore about…well, everything, I guess.” His little smirk returned. She wanted to kiss him. She thought better of it. 

“I think I have a way to flush him out,” she told him, hoping Monarch wasn’t close enough to hear that. “Have you seen it yet?”

He nodded. “It’s good, really good, and I know how we can make it work this time—” Don’t kiss him! ”—but we’ve got to move fast. King Monkey and Polymouse will meet us there and improve our chances if we go now.” 

She acknowledged and was about to speak into her earpiece when Viperion surprised her by planting his hand on her shoulder. “Mari…” The trepidation in his voice worried her. “I haven’t seen yet if this works, but…I want you to know I’ve never stopped loving you, even after we broke up. You’ve kept the same place in my heart you always have.”

She was dumbstruck, and absolutely so. Not just because his feelings for her were still there (that was crazy enough already), but because she’d never seen him act like this before. The gentle, soothing confidence he constantly resonated with had been replaced by someone she didn’t know. The vitality in his eyes was dwindling, and he felt…vulnerable, more so than ever. Anxiety pushed its way from the amygdala along her nervous system, setting off all kinds of alarm bells. How many times could they have failed for Luka to be so demoralized? How many times had he watched her die and been unable to do anything but try again?

Only when Luka pushed her to the ground to avoid another yo-yo snatch attempt did her brain turn away from those distressing thoughts and return to her bold plan. “Everyone,” she buzzed into the comms, “I have an idea, but I need you to trust everything I say for it to work.” They were too preoccupied to answer, but a couple glances of acknowledgment were enough. “Ryuko, I need you to run interference with your Water Dragon while we get to the tower section above us. Can you do that?” 

Ryuko didn’t answer, not because she was entirely focused on her duel with the Red Monarch apparition, but because he had just blasted her with a Clout punch, sending her spiraling through the air, her sword turned to shrapnel. 

“RYUKO!!” Ladybug screamed. She couldn’t get her in time. She was going to—!

In a blur of black and yellow, Queen Bee was in the air, catching Kagami and using her spinning top to swing them over to Ladybug, touching down right at her feet. Ladybug extracted her from Chloé’s arms and laid her on the ground up against her knee. Ryuko was in bad shape; one of her eyes was swollen shut and bleeding, and a few shards from her sword had embedded themselves along her torso, drawing even more blood free. She was dangling on the edge of consciousness, her other eye only halfway open. 

“Ryuko? Ryuko, can you hear me? Damn it!” They’d never get out of there without Kagami’s help; the doppelgängers were already beginning to close in on them from all sides, with the red one leisurely marching towards them, unconcerned that his enemies may have any hope of survival. 

Ladybug’s first instinct was to remove the Dragon choker from Kagami’s neck and Unify with Longg, but that would leave Kagami exposed to attack while they were escaping. Her defenselessness made her a liability to the team, and though Ladybug would never use the phrase “handicap” voluntarily, she knew Ryuko would if she was in her place, especially if it came to herself. 

She saw a shadow of regret pass over Viperion’s face, and for a moment, it seemed like he was prepared to activate his Second Chance once again. Ladybug also felt the urge to just give up and let him start over, but then Ryuko spoke. “I can do it.”

Her voice was a fractured spirit of itself, but the resolve behind it endured, unbroken despite the condition of her body. Somehow, she managed to sit up, clamping her teeth down through the pain and effort it took to move, but she failed to accomplish much more than that. She resorted to clutching at Ladybug’s shoulder, pulling her closer so she could conserve energy by speaking quietly. “Get me up. Please.” 

“Ryuko, you can’t—”

“I can , so please… help me.”

The sounds of conflict drew closer as the team held the doubles at bay but were forced to recede ground step by step as the onslaught continued, the apparitions surging forth with carnage and slaughter becoming their entire reason for being. They couldn’t keep this up for long. “Kagami,” Ladybug protested, “we can find another way. Viperion can reset time again so this never happens, and you never get hurt.”

“No,” breathed Ryuko, which Ladybug didn’t believe she was hearing at first, until she continued. “I can see it in his eyes, just like you did—he can’t take this anymore. You must—nggh!—use this chance while you still have it, or he’ll lose that faith in himself which holds his determination in place. You can’t lose him, even if it means losing me.”

Ladybug would dispute that assertion to no end if she had the chance, but there was no time. Red Monarch had almost reached their holdout position, and if Luka had been correct before, they needed to move now, or they’d lose their window of opportunity. But was that really worth Kagami’s life, even in the possible short term? * . The hero and friend within her said no, but the leader knew it was the only logical choice left if they wanted to win. She couldn’t take that gamble only to see them all die in the end, and Ryuko would never let her do so, either. Knowing that now made her regret ever doubting Kagami’s personal intentions in the past—she was too good for this world.

Ladybug pulled her friend up from the ground, arm over shoulder, and prayed she really did have the strength to pull this off. But of course, she always did; nothing could ever keep Kagami Tsurugi from doing what she wanted if she set out to do it. You didn’t mess with the Dragon without getting burned. 

The two women took one last look at each other as the world around them filled with the clamor of weapons and the roar of battle, and they recognized the purpose behind this sacrifice. It would not be in vain.

“No matter what,” Ryuko pressed adamantly, “Gabriel Agreste cannot be allowed to hurt anyone again, understand?”

Ladybug recognized the meaning behind her words as only she could. No, I’ll never let Monarch hurt HIM ever again . “I promise.” 

With what could have been her last smile ever, Kagami let all of her gratitude shine through like never before. “Thank you.”

The Monarchs were about to overwhelm them with their numbers—it was now or never.

“WATER DRAGON!”

Calling upon the last of her strength, Ryuko unleashed a titanic flood of pure rainwater that crashed against the Mirages like a tsunami, submerging them underneath the torrent of her power or vaporizing them outright. The Red Monarch apparition was just as helpless against it as the rest, caught off balance by the surging liquid before it could use any verbal commands to escape. If the real Monarch was down here too, he’d was likely unprepared for Ryuko’s final push and been incapacitated, allowing them to move to higher ground.

“Everyone, climb!” Ladybug called out, hurling her yo-yo up through the center opening to use as an ascension cable. Queen Bee did the same with her top, and in moments, everyone was scaling up to the platform while the crater below turned into an ocean of water and dust. 

Ladybug hoped Ryuko could hold out just long enough for them to make it—they were almost there. 

Upon reaching the top, Polymouse and King Monkey descend from the upper platforms, just like Viperion promised, fully recharged and ready to fight. They began by helping the other weary Holders climb onto the metal deck. Everyone from the battle looked utterly exhausted, but Ladybug didn’t have time to check on each individually. The next phase entirely depended on only one of them being ready to respond.

“Pigella,” Ladybug said as she crouched next to Rose, whose left leg had been badly bruised by one of the Tiger’s bolas. She knew Juleka would feel overly guilty once she learned her girlfriend had been hurt by the Tiger’s powers, but she’d feel even worse if Ladybug didn’t make sure Rose got home in one piece. * “When I give the signal, I need you to create the most powerful Gift you’ve ever tried to make before. Can you do that?”

“I-I think so,” she said, puzzled by the strange directive. “But who am I supposed to aim it at?”

“Just throw it wherever I’m pointing. Got it?” Pigella nodded. Ladybug helped her to her feet and handed her over to King Monkey before peering back down the opening. “Ryuko! We’re safe,” she called out, hoping the Dragon Holder could act on her words, let alone hear them in the first place. “Can you get up here?”

Ryuko was still in her water form, so Ladybug had no idea whether or not she could actually make out the shouting. However, she didn’t need to wait long before a response was made in the form of all the water below rapidly condensing together, then bursting upwards like a geyser and splashing down right next to everyone, showering the whole team in dirty moisture. Most of the water disappeared as Ryuko re-materialized on the metal surface, but Ladybug noticed she was drenched in both water and blood, the sword shards now missing from her body as the wounds bled openly onto the floor. She was totally unconscious, resulting in her suit de-transforming into a silk bathrobe and Longg collapsing onto her chest, fully drained of power and energy. 

Ladybug acted swiftly to conserve the precious seconds, ripping away a large portion of the robe’s hem to craft a makeshift tourniquet while simultaneously giving orders. “Chloé, get Ryuko out of here. Find Chat and Carapace if you can, then make sure she doesn’t bleed to death.”

“No.” The refusal didn’t come from Chloé herself like she’d expected, but instead from Viperion, who pulled Queen Bee away and offered up Polymouse instead. “We need her Venom to paralyze Monarch—that’s the only way this works.”

There was no time to argue, and she already knew he was absolutely right. Ladybug forbade herself from acknowledging that or looking directly at Chloé, whom she was sure was smirking in self-centered pleasure, as she would no doubt consider herself the ‘ prodigal hero’ if they won. She probably had a congratulatory speech already prepared for such an occasion. 

As carefully as she could, Ladybug handed Kagami and Longg over to Polymouse, who, despite her small stature, managed to hold her ally steady as she tied them together with her skip rope like a harness, then leapt upwards to the next level. When they were clear, Ladybug turned her gaze back to their platform, and they waited. 

The team anxiously searched around for any sign of attack; a new set of Mirages or a portal Monarch may appear through, but Ladybug knew he wouldn’t try any of that. She’d seen the smaller portals he’d used before, meaning he couldn’t disguise them with the Fox’s illusions. If he really was down there and wanted to ambush them, he’d have to take the same path they had, and she was counting on his anger and impatience getting the best of his rational thinking once more. Please , she prayed, let him be a putain d'idiot and fuck up again. It’s not that hard . 

They waited. Pigella nervously fidgeted with her tambourine, Viperion sweat bullets from the burden he’d been holding, and Queen Bee slowly twirled her top, ready to activate Venom when the time came. Ladybug watched, looking for a sign that would give Monarch away, hoping he’d overlook that one small, crucial detail. 

They waited.

Then it happened.

With Monarch soaking wet from Ryuko’s attack, Ladybug predicted he’d use Mirage to disguise the water puddles that would form when he reached the top, leaving no trace of his presence when he moved toward them. But , while doing so, what if he forgot to create a sound Mirage for his landing on the platform, thus indicating exactly where he was standing across from them? As her luck would have it, that’s precisely what happened. 

When the reverberations went off and the echo reached them, Ladybug gave the call—“NOW!!”—and charged towards the noise and full speed. 

“Gift!”

Pigella lobbed her bright pink box at just the right angle, sending it straight over Ladybug’s head to the source of the noise. If Monarch wasn’t really there, they were done for. But as soon as the box landed, it latched onto an invisible presence and opened itself, turning into a glowing sphere of rosy energy that conjured forth an image of four people sitting together at a large dining table. They were smiling and laughing all together as one big, happy family. 

“Emilie? My love?”

The invisibility Mirage camouflaging Monarch dissipated, revealing him dressed in the same red outfit as the earlier apparition but soaking wet, just as she’d thought. His left hand was also still there, confirming this was their first time looking upon the real Gabrial Agreste. His blue eyes were transfixed on the Gift; he’d been trapped within the dream created from his greatest desire, mesmerized by the promise of true happiness it offered him.

“Nathalie? Adrien? You’re here too; we’re all together again. …Thank you.”

Ladybug didn’t take the time to analyze what he was saying in his stupor or the accuracy of the depicted vision. The idea that Gabriel Agreste’s greatest wish really was to be with his family again just didn’t compute in any way with her, and there was currently no place for sympathy in her mind; every room had been booked up by her hatred and disgust. Besides, if he realized what he was seeing had just been their own illusory trap, he was going to wake up very, very angry. 

Ladybug reached Red Monarch just as tears began welling against his eyelids. It was too dangerous to attack him directly and risk the trance ending early, so restraining him had to be the primary objective until he was open for a Venom strike. Thus, she flung her yo-yo around his right arm, pulling back as hard as possible, gaining her wounded shoulder’s ire in the process. Monarch’s arm jerked backward, causing him to drop his cane and shake away some of Gift’s effects, groaning lethargically. Pigella also grabbed his right arm while Viperion and King Monkey got him from behind and Caprikid took his left arm, snatching away the flute and tossing it to the ground.

The clatter it made further dislodged Monarch from his dream. “Emilie, Adrien, where are you going? Please don’t leave me again!” Viperion choked off his windpipe, inhibiting his ability to speak again. That had him. They could do this!

“Chloé, he’s open! Get him now!”

Queen Bee was advancing on Red Monarch, the pulsating stinger of her Venom power already activated around her fist, but she was moving too slowly. What was she doing?! Was this the betrayal she had been worried about? 

“Chloé!” she yelled as she strained to hold Monarch still. He was coming too now, his asphyxiated sobs getting louder despite a lack of air. “You need to hit him now!!”

Chloé shot her a brief glance of resentment before eying over the dazed Red Monarch, her face twisting into a mask decorated with barbed fury and bitter sorrow, something entirely unlike the pompous daddy’s girl who’d happily bullied Marinette for years on end. 

Ladybug knew Chloé was upset over all that had happened over the past year, but she hadn’t expected she could be harboring this much inner turmoil; it wasn’t like her to genuinely care about anything. Liberating that pain now was horrible timing—she would get them killed!

“CHLOÉ!!”

“Gabriel Agreste,” Queen Bee pronounced through gritted teeth and bloodshot eyes (when had she been crying?). “I’ve had a long time to think about this, and I know now it’s all because of you that no one respects or trusts me enough to be a hero anymore; you’re the reason everyone hates me—why I hate myself , and I will never forgive you for that.” She was close enough to paralyze him now but wasn’t finished. “You told me I could be the new queen of Paris, that I would get the recognition I deserve, but that was all a lie so you could use me to hurt and kill more people! Well, tonight, I’ll see you get what you deserve!”

“ NOW!!!”

Chloé raised her arm, prepared to plunge her stinger deep into Monarch’s chest.

It was already too late.

Regardless of Viperion’s constrictive grasp, Red Monarch was too strong to be stopped completely, neither passing out nor being kept from speaking as he slipped out of the Gift. Ladybug didn’t see the ring appear under his nose, but she heard the word he managed to groan out.

“Re-sis-tance.”

Both Chloé’s Venom and Pigella’s Gift faded from sight as the Ox’s power took effect, the former’s fist slamming uselessly against Monarch’s chest and its impact fully awakening him from the fake world of his dreams, causing him to scream with all the heartbreak and torment of a man who’d lost everything he ever cared about for a second time. 

“ CLOUUUT!!!”

With his arm restrained, the ability was far from its most destructive, but without a means of directing the attack, it caused an eruption of blazing raw power to ignite right in Pigella’s face. A wave of pure force with the heat of a birthing star, empowered by Red Monarch’s passionate outcry of distress, released from the bracelet and threw everyone to the surface of the Iron Lady. Ladybug had been the furthest away, yet even she felt the concussive force that punched her back against the guardrails, her entire body bursting with aches and agony, so much so she almost blacked out.

There was a moment where Marinette wasn’t sure if she was still alive or not, but she figured she must be; everything hurt too much for her to be dead. She tried moving but could barely even maneuver forward on the ground. Her back felt like it had almost been completely busted open, but she couldn't concentrate enough to try and heal it. She didn’t have enough energy anyway; it had all been used up from the fighting and Red Monarch’s punishing assault. She’d be lucky enough to literally walk away with most of her bones intact; her spine was likely in more pieces than a broken wineglass, with the liquid spilling everywhere.

After somehow getting onto her hands and knees, Ladybug heard a groaning noise to her right that sounded like someone in anguish. She crawled toward the source, her vision still hazy from the sight of Clout, but once she reached who’d been moaning, she managed to make out that it was Pigella, or rather what remained of her.

Half of Rose’s joyously sweet, beautiful face, which was always brimming with positivity, had been blackened almost beyond recognition. Her fair skin was burnt and charred like an overcooked pork loin and a sizable portion of her blonde hair had been incinerated, leaving only singed, patchy chunks along her scalp. The undamaged section of her face must have been shielded by her hands because her fingers had been turned into a mangled mess of splintered meat and bone, only held together by the supposedly impervious suit she was wearing. Miraculously, she was still alive but hanging on by a thin thread of life that could be cut loose at any moment. 

Ladybug almost broke apart entirely over the sight of her friend’s awful disfigurement. She’d seen so many traumatic injuries before, but never anything so horrific as this up close, even with her most experienced teammates. She had to fix this and save her life somehow , but with what? The only option she had was her Lucky Charm, but she didn’t know whether she could use it to save Rose and also beat Red Monarch. And if he touched it now that he’d exposed the power of the Ox, would it disappear? Would everyone die regardless of her efforts? No! She had to make sure they could win first before risking it. She needed to find Luka. They needed to try again!

She could barely see ten feet in front of her, and there was no sign of Viperion’s cyan suit or hair beyond that vision range. But she did make out a familiar black and yellow outline just a few meters away.

CHLOÉ!! At first, there was only distraught rage—this had all been her fault. She did this ! But then she found herself astonished as she noticed something was wrong with Chloé; her face looked red and inflamed, and she was twitching uncontrollably as something round and bloody crimson radiated with malign energy in her right hand. It was her spinning top. Red Monarch was trying to Akumatize her again!

Cher Dieu, NON!

“Killer Queen,” Red Monarch’s displeasure was evident in his voice as he tried to bend Chloé to his will. “Once again, you’ve demonstrated yourself to be nothing more than a ridiculous failure, as pathetic as can be, and for what? The adoration of your peers who hate you? The respect of a hero that treats you like less than dirt?”

“I…won’t…bow…again!” Chloé stammered, barely able to keep the negative power of Transmission at bay. “I won’t…hurt… anyone … for you! Never…never again!”

“You think I’m giving you a choice?” Red Monarch emerged into view, smacking Queen Bee on her back with his retrieved cane where she lay there whimpering, unable to unclench her possessed weapon. “I gave you back the Bee Miraculous when no one else trusted you to wield it. I allowed you the chance to prove you deserved the worship you sought by defeating your tormentor. All of France could have been your subjects, and you their queen. Yet time and again, you were too weak to see it through.”

“I…I…no…” Chloé was fighting a losing battle. With her track record, Red Monarch would surely have her under control only moments from now. Ladybug needed to stop it, stop her before she turned, but her legs felt like lead weights, and she couldn’t muster enough strength to throw her yo-yo—it would have been useless to try anyway.

“Things can be different this time,” Red Monarch both goaded and threatened, towering over Chloé like the embodiment of judgment itself, ready to either ‘save’ or destroy her with a snap of his fingers or a flick of his épée. “You can use this power I grant you now to show them you are better than they believe you to be. You can crush them under your heel, and Paris will be all yours, the only superhero it will ever need. Isn’t that what you want—what you’ve always wanted? To be seen as Ladybug is seen, adored like she is by everyone beneath her? Don’t you wish to be special again?”

From the corner of her eye, Ladybug saw someone slowly rising up from the ground behind Monarch. It was Viperion! They could erase this timeline and start again! Everything was going to be—!

And then she saw his right arm hanging limply from his side, the humerus fractured and protruding against his suit from within, now effectively deformed. That was the arm with the hand he needed to activate his Second Chance on his left wrist. He-he couldn’t use his powers—couldn’t stop this from happening! 

No. No. Nononono, what are we going to do?!!

The Rabbit. She could go back and fix this. Red Monarch hadn’t noticed her yet; he was preoccupied with Chloé. She could go back and change time; she had no choice. But…it would give Monarch a chance to steal the Rabbit, and he would do a lot worse than this once he did. Yes, that’s it! This must be another illusion to trick her, to expose the pathway to the Miracle Box so Monarch could take the pocket watch like he wanted. After all, why would Chloé hesitate when she could have what she wanted—the power to control or destroy as she wished? She never had before, and it certainly seemed like she wouldn’t now, when it would be so easy to finally win. 

In what would eventually feel like a lifetime away from now, Marinette would look back on this moment with shame; a heavy tide of remorse washing over her personal convictions and the accusations she believed were totally justified when she’d first made them. She’d long since given up on Chloé’s alleged desire, much less her ability to change for the better. Since Miracle Queen, she’d only been able to see Chloé as a narcissistic, vainglorious brat who did everything for the attention she needed to encourage her vanity. She’d maintained that Queen Banana and Penalty had been spurred on by those same desires, no matter how regretful Chloé acted after each event—she’d never accepted her repentance as legitimate.

But it would be that day, that crucial moment, when Chloé did something entirely unprecedented in contrast to the villain Marinette had made her out to be, so much so that Ladybug was utterly taken aback when she saw it herself—Chloé expressed genuine honesty…and she discovered that a part of her actually believed in what she said.

“I…don’t need…to be…worshiped…and I…never…believed I was…better than…her.” Somehow, despite the unmistakable pain she was in, Chloé managed to sit up and support herself with one arm, the other still squeezing the Akumatized top, but now with a grip that looked like she was trying to crush it into dust. “You twisted…my words and my…wishes, but you…of all people…can’t understand…what it’s like to be…seen as…only a product of…your parents and their…lack of humanity.”

Red Monarch appeared just as shocked by her words as Ladybug was, though likely even more so since it was bluntly directed at his possessive treatment of Adrien. As a father, he’d only ever allotted him a limited amount of freedom while controlling the rest of his life, molding his son into his image of perfection, not letting him grow into the man he’d rather become.

“You-you dare ?!” Red Monarch bellowed.

Queen Bee looked up to her torturer with sapphire eyes as hard as diamonds, her perseverance shining past the cracks and fissures he’d created. “All I ever wanted…since the moment she…first put her…trust in me…was to become…a different person…than everyone…thought I was. To prove to them all…that I could change…into someone better than…the Chloé Bourgeois…they all know…and hate. A real hero…like Queen Bee.”

After so many years of hating a person like Chloé, Ladybug never thought she could ever feel some bizarre semblance of sympathy for her. Chloé’s efforts to change in the past never seemed to stick, but had it been the efforts themselves she’d been overlooking? It almost seemed like she’d really been trying, but the influence of her mother’s neglectful ‘parenting’ always seemed to get the better of her, emulating how Audrey treated others by doing the same herself, sometimes even as Queen Bee. 

Marinette was fortunate enough to have wonderful parents who’d never mistreated her. Still, she understood from watching Adrien how difficult it was to exist in the shadow of a father figure who never acted like one. Chloé, it seemed, was just better at camouflaging her misery than him. If only she’d really understood Master Fu’s lesson as well as she thought she had, she could have been more charitable to her, even if she hadn’t acted like she deserved it. 

Queen Bee took to her feet, standing in defiance of Red Monarch, and held out her weapon right to him. “Get it through that…ugly cerise head of yours,” she growled through gritted teeth, “that I will never be…your slave… ever again!! ” 

With that spoken, the akuma butterfly in her top was spiritually extracted, fluttering away to the higher echelons of the tower.

“You. Pitiful. WRETCH!!!” Red Monarch snarled before kicking her onto her back with enough force to make the sound of ribs cracking audible. “You think you are capable of change?! Don’t make me laugh. People don’t change ; no one can ever stop being what they really are, so they lie to hide the truth at the core of their being, down within the darkest shadows of their soul. No one is better than their true nature.”

Monarch’s bracelet began to glow with scarlet fire, preparing to unleash another Mega-Clout attack, but this time with an intended target. Chloé would be obliterated if he struck her. “You, Chloé Bourgeois, are nothing more than a constant disappointment , a speck of crude instability trying to rise above your station. You do not deserve power like this, and you certainly do not deserve to be loved. The only thing you deserve,” he raised his fist, “is to be squashed like a bug!”  

“NO!” Ladybug cried out. Her yo-yo, she needed to grab it before—

She was too slow. Red Monarch had begun to rear back his arm, preparing a blow that would vaporize Queen Bee if it connected, killing her instantly.

And it did connect, but not with Chloé.

At the moment Monarch was prepared to strike her down, Viperion was already surging forward with blinding speed, coming in from an angle to tackle the villain backward before he could attack. But he, too, wasn’t fast enough—Red Monarch saw him coming and awkwardly swung his arm around to intercept.

“CLOUT!”

Viperion was right on top of Red Monarch just as the power activated, so the counterattack never achieved full velocity, but it was more than enough to cause another explosion of energy that forcibly battered Luka right into one of the tower’s limbs, his spine making a wet snap before he crumpled to the ground. There was no further movement. He just lay there, completely still, and never rose back up.

“NOOOOOO!!!” Ladybug and Queen Bee screamed together, the latter falling to her knees in hysterical sobs, unable to retaliate even for the man who’d sacrificed himself to save her. On the other hand, Ladybug reacted instinctively, seizing her yo-yo and tossing it up into the air. Her only conscious thought was that maybe her powers could create an object that would somehow help Luka survive the violent assault.

“LUCKY CHARM!”

A bright sparkle of light shone around the yo-yo while a swarm of magic ladybugs converged to form what looked like a large, boxy object with a nozzle on the front. It resembled some kind of fog machine, but Ladybug never got the chance for a closer look. As soon as the Lucky Charm let gravity take hold and descended, a red Voyage portal opened just above her head, plucking the object from the air and transporting it somewhere she’d never be able to follow, stealing their last chance and the rest of her hope along with it.*

NO! No! No. No. 

No  

Ladybug didn’t register that her legs had given way under her body, or that she’d begun weeping just as profusely as Chloé as all the optimism was sucked out of her body. Again, it had happened again!*

She couldn’t think; think of any way to fix this, think of any way to fight back or even evade him successfully. She’d never be able to stop him now, not even with the Rabbit. And if she tried to use it, she’d just be giving him what he wanted—the opportunity to kill them all over again, and again, and again. And he was still Red, his amplified powers magnifying his strength beyond her capacity to resist. Either she’d been wrong about Alya being kept in the tower, or Monarch had prepared another trap for those trying to save her, and Chat Noir had fallen right into it, all because she’d told him to. It was all her fault, everything was all her fault, and now her friends were dying, all because of her.

I’m so sorry I failed you, Master, her inner voice lamented. Chat Noir, please, save us . 

Wicked laughter resounded in her ears, further poisoning her dismal thoughts . “ HAHAHA! Oh, Ladybug, of all the things I believed you might have learned from your prior failures, that repeated bit of misfortune was certainly the leading pick. Well, more’s the pity! HAHAHA!!”

Red Monarch was suddenly right in front of her, laughing madly without so much of a hint of sane amusement in the raucous laughing. Underneath his patterned mask and the skin of his cheek, a line of unnaturally thick veins crept along his smug lips, pulsating in putrid hues of dark purple. All these she recognized as symptoms of all that power he wielded corrupting his body and mind, destroying him from the inside out, starting with his already fragile psyche. He’d lost it so utterly that he didn’t even seem angry about the Gift anymore; his eyes displayed a psychotic delight in the suffering he’d inflicted, and with the way he was glaring down at her, he no doubt had plenty more he wished to dispense. 

Art by anshi_lazy

The part of Ladybug’s mind that wasn’t cornered by fear tried to mount her own show of defiance, but her legs just wouldn’t move—they’d also given in to the hopelessness.

“I must say, the irony of using an illusion to trap me is not at all lost,” he said while waving the Fox’s flute in her face. “I would applaud your ingenuity and…cruelty, but I’m afraid my well of sympathy for you ran bone dry quite some time ago.”

“You don’t know how to feel…anything but selfishness.” The words themselves felt weak, or maybe that was just her, but words were all she had left. “And you’ve never…done anything to prove…otherwise.”

“Have you not been listening, girl? Have you disregarded my words, my intentions? Did you not see what the Gift showed me?” Red Monarch took hold of her chin and tilted it upwards so she was forced to keep her eyes locked on his, bathed in the ruinous glow that reminded her of falling skies and lost friends who also preached of love in madness. The rest of her strength fled, leaving her in a listless state where she could only watch him continue. “All I have done, I have done for my family . I want nothing more than to reunite with them again, and that’s no illusion. But it has always been you and that flea-ridden vermin boy who stood in my way, keeping me from her , my wife , and because of that, my closest ally is now dying of the same disease that still afflicts my Emilie.” 

What? His closest ally—that would have to be Mayura, whom she’d already guessed must be Nathalie Sancoeur, Gabriel’s executive assistant. But the same disease—the Peacock? And his wife had used it too…and was still alive?! But how? And why had she done so in the first place? 

“And then, there is what you did to my son.” The hand on her chin wrapped around her throat, and he pulled her from the ground. “You made him hate me, distrust me, FEAR M E!! ” He began to crush her neck, slowly, forcing her to experience every ounce of pressure he applied. “You turned him against me, my own child!! You told him lies and drove him from my arms!” He leaned in close, his breath soured and hot. “This is all. Because. Of YOU .” 

“I’m not the one who drove…Adrien away,” she croaked out. “He’s too…kind and innocent to ever…think that this violence…could be justified. I just wanted to…help him when he was…hurting. All you ever did…was run away.”

Red Monarch laughed again without humor, malice glinting harshly in the void of his pupils. “Oh, but you misunderstand. I’m not referring to ‘you,’ Ladybug. I’m talking to Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

~~~

It took Chat Noir longer than he’d thought to figure it out, but once he’d cracked it, finding Alya had been as easy as baking cheese pie. 

After ensuring Polymouse and King Monkey were safe, he’d scoured the entire tower alongside Carapace, searching top to bottom, between every crevice and behind every locked door, at least in the areas it was still safe to access without confronting Red Monarch again. Chat hated that he’d left Ladybug to fight his father alone, but if saving Alya could give them an edge and an ally, it was worth the effort, and he trusted her to manage herself. 

Their superpowers made climbing the tower light work, but once they’d gone over everything at least once, they’d decided to accelerate the search by splitting up. The battle below sounded like it was getting more chaotic, the sounds of intense combat reverberating through the metal bars and the artificial enclosement created by Monarch’s Mirage around the tower. A moment of hesitation or doubt would have been enough for him to abandon Carapace to assist the team, but he kept his wits about him, for his teammate, and for Ladybug.

What frustrated him the most was he wasn’t picking up anything with his enhanced sense of smell. He knew Alya’s scent inside and out: the sweet citrus shampoo she always double-layered on account of her thick tresses of hair; the specific fragrance of eau de parfum Nino had bought her for their first Christmas together, and she’d worn it ever since, and he’d even memorized the subtle differences in the types of perspiration she exhibited when scared, focused, or excited. He’d become a fine-tuned compendium for various odors and essences, even magical ones, yet he still couldn’t find a way to catalog Plagg’s extensive cheese palate or, for some reason, locate Alya’s scent in a structure where no one else was around. 

He was getting worried, even beginning to consider that Red Monarch had never brought her to the tower in the first place, and she was locked away in some deep dark hole far from here, somewhere they’d never find her. The idea made his claustrophobia resurface, much to his discomfort—his father was well-practiced at placing people in cages.

But then, as he’d been scaling back up to the summit for the third or fourth time, the non-stop fighting below taking up half of his attention, he’d had the revelation he needed. 

He already knew Red Monarch’s amplified Mirages of himself still needed his attention to remain functional, but what about the ones that stayed completely still? The massive walls he’d constructed to trap them in the tower were still there, just as solid as before, despite his focus being directed to the conflict. What if, as long as nothing disrupted an illusion, it remained intact? What if Alya really was here somewhere, her presence disguised by a Mirage, but under Monarch’s orders, she hadn’t moved a muscle from where she was?

That’s it! That bastard’s got her in plain sight so he can keep rubbing his tricks in our faces .

Chat immediately shared his theory with Carapace, then continued up to the tower’s peak, a sneaking suspicion telling him Alya could be found within Gustave Eiffel’s office.

Upon reaching the summit, he opened the door to the burnished room of wax figurines and modern replicas of late 19th-century furniture and panned his head left to right, looking once again for anything that seemed out of place. Nothing. He sniffed the air and turned his ears to the ground, searching for a heartbeat or any unnatural vibrations. Nothing. Red Monarch had put a lot of effort into concealing her if she even was here. If he was going to find her, she’d have to let him find her willingly.

“Alya, are you in here? Alya?” It was risky leaving himself exposed like this, giving her a chance to make the first move. Most Akuma villains he’d fought never hesitated to attack when the opportunity presented itself, their anger and Hawk Moth’s persuasion driving even the sweetest individuals to de trop violence. Alya was never one to pull her punches in a serious fight, even when she wasn’t Akumatized, but if it could draw her out into the open, he’d let her take the first shot. “If you’re really here, you need to let me know; our friends need us, right now.”

“Go away ,” a voice whispered from somewhere nearby, so faint that he barely made it out even with his feline hearing, but he recognized it immediately as Alya. She was here and just a few feet away too.

“Alya? Is that you?” Chat slowly moved in the direction he’d heard the voice come from, not wanting to startle Alya into lashing out or attempting to flee. “Because now would be a really bad time for another Red Monarch Mirage to get the better of me. He’s already getting too good at it for someone who isn’t even talented enough to develop his own color pallet. You know he basically stole your name along with your powers, right, Rena Rouge? ”

Chat’s attempt to both humor and provoke Alya out of hiding seemed ineffective as several seconds passed without so much as a disappointed sigh at the lame joke. Drat, he thought, guess I’d better get serious then. “Look, Alya, I know you’re not feeling yourself right now, but I’m here to help you. Just let me know where the akuma is, and I can—”

“NO!” The illusion hiding Alya under a desk broke at the volume of her shout, revealing her tucked up in the fetal position, her magic costume a dark grayish blue suit with a red visored helmet and pale blue skin. The helmet enveloped half her head, but Chat noticed from the way her mouth trembled so emphatically that she was trapped in a state of absolute distress, the likes of which he hadn’t seen in an Akuma since Juleka’s last transformation into Reflekta. Whatever his father had done to make Alya appear this petrified was another crime he’d have to pay for when this was over.

“Alya! Dieu merci , are you all right?” Before she could answer, Chat reached for his earpiece. “Carapace, I’ve found her at the top office.”

“Yo, quoi ? ! Is she all right?”

“Just get here fast; I’m gonna de-Akumatize her.”

“No, you can’t! ” Alya had stood up to grab his arm, her super strength compressing the veins in his arm and crushing his nerves. It hurt, but that wasn’t intentional. She’d just been trying to stop him from…de-Akumatizing her? Why?

Alya fell back to the floor in a heap and began bawling into her hands, tears leaking through the edge of her visor and onto the carpet. This had been the last condition Chat had expected to find Alya in; she was too fierce to be broken into submission so easily. What had happened when Monarch kidnapped her, and why didn’t she want to be de-Akumatized? He needed to find out quickly. 

“Hey, Alya, what’s wrong?” Chat kneeled down and felt her entire body quaking as he tried to comfort her with a warm hand on her shoulder. She didn’t resist, but only because she was too enwrapped in her sobbing to even notice. “Alya, I just want to help. Can you tell me if he hurt you?” No reply, the weeping only intensified. “Alya, please, let me—”

“Catalyst.” That single word was the only thing she said for a few moments. Chat gave her the space to open up further, and his patience bore fruit. “That’s what he called me, not Alya. That’s who helped him the first time on Heroes Day, and it’s who I am now. Who I need to stay as for as long as he wants.” The helmet slid back over her forehead, and Chat saw her eyes for the first time; they glowed red just like her visor but were suffused with more than just emotional pain. Her pupils were wide open and flickering with an erraticism he could only describe as total desperation. Whatever it was, it kept Alya from accepting Chat’s help when she should’ve wanted it the most.

“You can’t de-Akumatize me, or else he’ll notice, an-and then he’ll… .” Glowing tears were brimming on the rims of her eyelids, threatening to overflow onto her cheeks. Chat moved closer, but she waved him away, wiping the water from her face. “ You can’t help, and this-this is all my fault. It’s because of me he’s doing this.”

“Alya, I know that’s not true,” Chat reassured her. “If anyone deserves the blame over Monarch discovering you were still active as Rena Furtive, it’s me. I didn’t speak up when it was too risky—”

“No no no, you don’t understand! ” she cried. “ If I help you, he’ll kill them! He’ll kill my baby sisters!!”

Oh.

Oh, you sick fuck.

Alya would no longer look at him; her hands cupped over her face and remained there as she talked. “ He-he was waiting in the apartment with Ella and Etta when I got home. He shoved them through a p-portal and said I’d never get them back unless I willingly Akumatized myself and did whatever he said, and if I refused, he was g-going to… .” More sobs replaced the rest of the sentence, but Chat was familiar with the types of threats his father made when ‘convincing’ people to listen to him and needed no explanation.

“ He turned me into Catalyst, made me enhance all his Miraculous, but he wasn’t done . He said-he said he knew I had to know more than I let on if Ladybug trusted me so much as Rena Furtive. That I must know things even you didn’t know, the most important things she always kept close, like… her biggest secret. ”

All of Chat’s hairs grew large goosebumps, and his tail sprang straight out behind him like a cartoon cat’s when they were jump-scared. ‘Her biggest secret,’— this was the worst kind of nightmare he’d spent the last two years dreading would happen one day. That a single life-changing revelation would lead to them losing each other and everything they cared about. He’d promised to protect her from anything, but how could he save her from this?

“Alya,” Chat asked slowly, “Do you know who Ladybug is?”

Alya’s red eyes seemed to get even redder, water and spittle pooling into a dark stain on the carpet. She looked like she wanted to die. “I-I had no choice. I told him everything I knew, and when I was done, he just started laughing and laughing. He said…he said it all made sense now.” She finally turned her face back to Chat’s. “He’s going to unmask her in front of everyone in Paris, and then he’s going to make them all watch as he kills her.”

Chapter Text

There had been many moments in Adrien Agreste’s life where he’d felt lost, separated from the world around him, like he’d been pushed into a deserted pocket of reality and left alone in isolation, his thoughts and nightmares serving as his only estranged companions. 

Some of his earliest memories of his father included instances like this: the icy indifference he’d come to show his son only contrasted by his mother's ambient love in his times of need. After her supposed ‘passing,’ Adrien would spend most of his free time lost in that isolation again, and the countless hours of modeling for Gabriel -Brand, along with the many demanding extracurricular activities his father had chosen for him, didn’t do much to alleviate the loneliness he constantly endured in private. 

But going to school, making friends, becoming the superhero—that had done so much for him, and finding a real purpose in his life that he was passionate about helped keep him out of the dark and embrace the warm light he’d forgotten about in his silent seclusion. He learned he could be happy again, have a life—two lives!—that were all his own, and he got to decide how to live them. 

It was the sort of freedom most people wouldn’t even think to consider, but for Adrien, having the ability to make his own choices was something he promised he’d never take for granted, no matter how different his life might become if he ever managed to break from his father’s smothering hold over him.

But after they’d lost Master Fu and especially since Adrien had learned of his father’s alter ego, he’d been returning to that emotional cage more and more often, the loneliness threatening to drown him in suffocating darkness and his despair. He worried that he’d eventually lose himself to it for good, left directionless and alone within his mind, and he’d never find his way out again, and just the idea of it scared him like nothing else.

But this was not one of those crushing moments. Right now, Chat Noir was learning from Alya, currently Akumatized into the living power amplifier known as Catalyst, that his father, Red Monarch, was planning to unmask Ladybug, his best friend and partner, in front of the entire city before publicly murdering her, he only felt one, single emotion. 

Fury. Enough to turn the whole city to ashes as the white-hot flames of his rage consumed everything without mercy or pity. 

So many thoughts were assaulting him all at once, piling onto all that he’d learned starting one week ago, then just an hour before at the manor, and then now, where Alya had just confirmed she already knew Ladybug’s true identity, a secret he’d always hoped no one else would ever get to learn before he did. And yet, here they were, and Chat couldn’t help but ask himself: How was that possible?

He’d been right earlier—Alya did know who Ladybug was, confirming what he’d suspected was the explanation for how they got along so quickly after their first meeting, even though he’d already known Ladybug for longer. But—but how? And why? Was it an accident, or had it happened entirely out of the blue when he’d been busy as Adrien and Ladybug had needed a shoulder to lean on, a person she could trust whose identity was already known to her—someone who, unlike him, wouldn’t become a risk that jeopardized the entire world.

But when could Alya have learned this? Was it after she had become Rena Rouge, or when she’d been almost killed when Shadow Moth kidnapped her family? Could it have been even sooner, like not long after she’d created the LadyBlog? Or…was it possibly even before all that? Had they already known each other, even before becoming heroes, maybe from school? 

It might make sense; most of the Holders went to Lycée Françoise Dupont and were coincidentally in the same class as him and Alya.* Ladybug could be selecting people she knew personally and not just strangers related to the current Akuma of the day. 

But if that were the case, it would mean…he already knew who Ladybug was. 

I know…I know who she is . The thought would have been completely euphoric if he didn’t realize what it meant: she’d been there by his side all this time…and he’d just never noticed. How was that possible?! Her bravery, kindness, and stubbornness to never give up were unmistakable. No aura masking* could ever hide such a beautiful, courageous, driven young woman from his heart—

Except, there was someone he knew just like that. Someone he’d seen wear a Miraculous before to fight Kwamibuster, who, at the time, he’d believed that was the only instance he’d ever observed her in the field. Someone who, when he thought more and more about it, began overlapping in his mind with his depiction of Ladybug. If he’d learned anything recently, it was the best illusions could fool anyone; even sons would never recognize their own fathers, and vice-versa. 

What if Multimouse had been Ladybug all along, another trick of the Fox pretending they were separate people. 

What if Ladybug was really—?

“Chat, help us!!”

The sound of shouting when he was so close to the answer was almost as unwelcoming as the scent of blood that followed it. Lots of blood. 

He turned away from Alya and saw Carapace hadn’t arrived alone. Polymouse was with him and appeared utterly exhausted as she helped to support a de-transformed Kagami in a silk robe, crimson rivulets streaming down her legs from a makeshift tourniquet stained red around her torso. One of her eyes was black and swollen. She already looked half-dead. 

Reacting immediately, Chat took Nino’s place and helped Mylène gently lay Kagami onto the floor, careful to keep her steady so the damage wouldn’t be exacerbated. He tore apart the nearest curtain and removed the old bandage. Her stomach region was looking very bad. Whatever had been lodged in there had already slipped free, and the agitated wounds were expelling her blood at a rapid pace. 

Chat wrapped the new cloth around her tightly and applied only as much pressure as necessary, or he would make it much worse. Her skin was cold and clammy, and her breathing shallow—she was going into shock. 

“Damn it! Polymouse, get her legs up!”

Everyone on the team knew basic first aid for emergencies like this. While Polymouse elevated Kagami’s legs with a chair to improve blood flow, Chat dislodged more curtains from the office windows and wrapped them around as much of her body as safely possible, acting as blankets to keep her warm. The office was air-conditioned to keep the wax figurines in prime condition, so Chat located the thermostat and turned it up several degrees, hoping it would alleviate the effects of the freezing air outside. 

Once he’d done everything else he could do, he returned to placing pressure on her stomach and glared intensely at Polymouse, who was clutching a depleted Longg in her hands and shivering from her own spell of trauma. However, that didn’t stop Chat from pressuring her with questions.

“What happened?!!”

Polymouse’s lips quivered as she tried speaking, needing a few attempts before the words finally materialized properly. “Ry-Ryuko got injured while fighting Monarch,” she squeaked, “but she helped us escape to the first platform above ground level before…this…happened….” 

Mylène managed to compose herself before she started crying, keeping her eyes on Chat rather than the hapless form of her teammate. “Ladybug said she had a plan, but she made me take Ryuko before I heard anything else. I-I think it involved Pigella, s-somehow.”

“I found them on my way to you,” Carapace added as he sat next to Catalyst, holding her tightly against his chest as she stared at Kagami’s body, her vibrant red eyes unable to avert their transfixed gaze. “Kag—Ryuko here wasn’t doing so hot, so I helped Polymouse the rest of the way and, well, I guess you know the rest.”

Chat appreciated Nino trying to respect Kagami’s privacy, even if everyone in the room had met her before, but right now, privacy was the least of her concerns. She was in bad shape, worse than he’d ever seen any of the others in, except for Ladybug and himself at the worst of times. The only way he could see her surviving this was if they could get her to an emergency room now, which they couldn’t do with those barriers up. Another was if Ladybug used her Charm's Miracle Cure to fix her, but that relied on them beating Red Monarch first, and making that possible in the first place was his current task. 

That left Viperion’s Second Chance, but if Kagami was still this severely injured, that meant he hadn’t used it. Why?! What was going on down there?

His father, that’s what was going on. That diseased maniac had lost his goddamned mind and was butchering his friends one by one, slaughtering kids who had never done anything but try and protect their city from his twisted fantasy where the means always justified the end. He could have ended this already, kept Kagami from getting mortally wounded onto the cusp of death, dying for a cause that shouldn’t have been worth her life. 

Why couldn’t he have just finished this when he had the chance?! If Viperion had allowed him that final nanosecond to use his powers, Red Monarch would no longer be a threat, and they’d have time to regroup and collect the stolen Miraculous. Then, all Ladybug had to do was use her Lucky Charm to bring them back afterward, and none of this further bloodshed would have been necessary. It wouldn’t have been the first time he’d sacrificed himself so she could ensure their final victory, and he could endure their disgust of him if it meant they were all still alive to feel that way. 

Except…what if Luka had seen what happened after he died? Had…had he learned the truth about him? Was that why he hadn’t let him die? Because he thought Ladybug’s powers couldn’t bring back a destroyed senti—?

“ This is my fault. ” Alya was suddenly right beside Chat, looking down at Kagami with a somber glower, her bluish skin appearing a shade darker. Chat knew Alya would believe those words even if her Akumatization didn’t lead to her negative emotions being amplified times a hundred. Her unbending loyalty to her friends was what made her a great support leader for the team, but that came with the unavoidable consequence of her always taking it hard when she felt she'd let someone down. Her behavior now was like she’d been the one who hurt Kagami and more than just an unwilling accessory to the crime—she saw herself as the real criminal.

“No, nuh-uh. No way, Rena.” Carapace interjected straightaway. “None of this is on you. This is all that bâtard malade Monarch.”

“You’re wrong, Carapace,” she said, keeping her eyes fixed on Kagami as a form of self-flagellation. “It’s through me he’s doing this. I’m his dynamo, keeping him charged so he can keep hurting us as much as he likes.” 

She pulled herself away from their injured ally and took Chat’s hand, gaining his attention by squeezing it tightly. “Chat, listen to me closely. I can’t shake this off. If I do, he’ll sense it right away, and I’ll never see my sisters again.” This was the first Carapace or Polymouse had heard about this, and Nino’s surprise turned to outrage as his face developed a dark tone of crimson. “I can’t risk their lives for nothing, so I need to know I can trust you to end this quickly.” 

“...Of course. What did you have in mind?”

“I can feel him through our connection. Something’s wrong. I-I think he’s winning; he…he’s so far gone I can’t tell if he’s happy or losing it completely, but Ladybug and the others can’t hold out much longer. You need to end this. Now.” 

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

Alya’s red eyes told him everything her words didn’t. He understood what she meant, what she needed from him. But was that because of the Akumatization, another possible misinterpretation on his part, or did she really mean it? So many conflicting emotions flooded his heart, too many to leave him with a sure answer.

“Right now, he’s distracted, but if you make your move and miss, or if Monarch thinks something is wrong and that I helped you, he’ll never give you another chance.” She squeezed his hand tighter, her fingers grazing over his ring. An indication of her intent? Did she realize what she was asking of him? Could she bear that on her conscience afterward, even if she did understand right now? He’d been willing to on his own, but that was not a burden he wanted to share with anyone else. 

“Chat, can I trust you to save them?” 

Nino and Polymouse stared at him, unaware of the hidden appeal within Alya’s desperate petition for help. There was no time to weigh the options, though the answer should have come easy for him. It was what he had been planning to do all along, only now, someone was pleading with him to break the one principal rule of being a superhero—never kill another living person, no matter what. 

And that was his problem: this wasn’t just about him and his father anymore. Before Ladybug had caught him, he’d wanted to end this alone. No one else needed to be involved, and his father would already be on a one-way trip to Hell before anybody could have stopped him.

But she had stopped him in time, and this mess suddenly became much more complicated than it should have been. And now that she’d brought the whole team into this, he wondered if their blood was on his hands as well. 

But if Alya didn’t deserve the blame for any of this, should he be the one accepting it?

Yes, he should. This was his father, his mistake, and his responsibility. He would end this, not because Alya was asking it of him, but because it’s what he had to do, even if it killed him. Ladybug would fix this afterward to heal Kagami and he didn’t care if that brought his father back or not. Right now, this was the only surefire way to keep them all safe for good, and he would do anything if he could make certain of that, even become what he hated most. 

“Yes, you can trust me,” Chat assured Alya. Her expression didn’t change much, but she nodded her approval.

“When he Akumatized me, he made me hold the Fox’s flute. That’s where the Akuma is.”*

The flute. He’d put the Akuma in the Fox’s flute— Alya’s flute. He’d taken her powers, sisters, dignity and agency , turning her into a living generator to empower himself beyond belief so he could exploit that power to kill her friends. Then, to top it all off, he was taunting her by placing the key to her imprisonment within the same weapon she’d used so many times before for noble purposes, now a tool of bedlam and bloodshed.

“That fucker!” Carapace raged, “How does he keep getting away with pulling merde like that?!”

“He won’t, not after tonight,” Chat promised him as he stood up. “Carapace, stay here until Rena’s been de-Akumatized, then join the rest of us below. Polymouse, keep an eye on Ryuko. The second Monarch’s down, Ladybug’s Miracle Cure will fix her, and she’ll need a friendly face nearby to fill her in.” He glanced at Alya. “No offense.”

She mustered up a sort of sad smile as he headed for the office door, taking a brief look at Kagami so he would remember why this had to be done. In his resolve, his certainty, the world seemed to recede into an aberrant quiet, empty of any other noise but the breathing of his mouth and the beating of his heart. Nothing mattered but the challenge before him, his mission, and his purpose to see it through. He thought about the importance he put on his choices, this particular choice, and how it wasn’t something to take lightly. He didn’t, though in concept, it seemed like such a simple act.

Just say the word, and it’ll all be over . 

He jumped, free-falling for the briefest moment before latching onto a metal lattice and sliding down the tower’s surface towards the lowest platform. 

~~~

Now out of earshot, Chat Noir wouldn’t hear the exchange between Alya and Nino, which meant he couldn’t notice Alya’s recognition and sudden misgivings over what she had almost certainly just inferred to her close friend.

“No.” She clutched the sides of her head, Monarch’s corruption making it difficult to focus through the dark miasma that kept encouraging the shame and guilt keeping her trapped within her own body. “No! No, damn it!”

“Babe? What’s wrong?” Carapace whispered distressingly. 

“I-I think I’ve just made an awful mistake, and-and I don’t know if I can fix it in time.” She was on the verge of sobbing again, and Nino was desperate to help his girlfriend feel safe in her darkest hour.

“What can I do?” he asked as confidently and supportingly as he could gather together. “Anything, just name it.”

Her ocular glow washed over him, but he didn’t flinch. Behind the frightful appearance and the prison of despair he could remember vividly from his previous possession.* was still that strong and fearless fighter who’d bewitched him with her cunning charm and all-knowing smirk. He would give her everything he had to see that smile again, to save her from the screaming torment eating her alive on the inside. 

She hesitated. “Nino, will you trust me?”

“Always, Fox-babe.”

“I need you to let me borrow Wayzz.” 

“Woah, what?!” His exclamation wasn’t so loud that Polymouse broke away from her duty to Kagami, but her round ears twitched slightly. 

“Nino,” she gripped his shoulder with firm affection. “I-I need to make things right, for my sisters and the team. Also, Monarch owes me some payback, and I owe that connard a good kick to the entrejambe .” 

Carapace paused, trying to remember every single reason that had led to him falling in love with this enchanting vixen in the first place. He couldn’t. There were way too many.

“That’s my girl.”

~~~

One word. That’s all it would take, or so he had told himself.

If only it really was that easy.

Chat Noir fell, and he felt like he’d fallen so far already. In his mind, the prospect of murder had long stopped appearing as an impossibility and more like an inevitability, something unavoidable, but nor should it be avoided.

He’d thought there may be a chance when Ladybug intercepted him to end this bloodlessly; he’d even hoped so, but this was shaping out to be the greatest battle of their lives, and few great victories were ever made possible without sacrifice. Master Fu had taught them that, and he’d died to prove it was true. 

Chat wished he was still here to guide them. He always seemed to have a simple answer to his most complicated questions. 

Murder was never one of your answers, Master .  What would you say now, if you could see me like this?

How much farther would he let himself fall?

Then, as he had almost reached his destination, he saw Red Monarch from a hundred feet above, gripping Ladybug by the throat with the Tiger’s claws, the rest of his allies strewn across the ground in broken and bloody heaps, and conscious thought was entirely replaced by primal instinct. He was the predator again, and his prey threatened his pack and his love. Unacceptable. 

Guided by impulse over logic, he pounced toward his target, sailing through the air with incredible speed, his trajectory aimed right at the oblivious Monarch’s backside. He would never see it coming.

One word. One touch. No choice.

“ Cataclysm!”

He reached out, dark energy of pure destructive power radiating from his palm, the power to end anything. All he had to do was touch him. Just. Touch. HIM!

Chat Noir didn’t know why, but at the last moment, his hand turned away from the perfect opportunity. If he had been thinking clearly, perhaps he would have known if it came from a sudden disillusion with this act of patricide, or maybe his desire to be the man his friends thought he was triumphed over his blinding savagery and the anger that fueled it. He wasn’t sure, but even though his arm moved on its own, he knew it wasn’t because of his father’s control over his body. 

A part of him still didn’t want to win this way. 

The Fox’s flute crumbled to dust in his hand.

Chat tumbled onto the platform, his momentum carrying him several meters before he came to a jarring stop against a guardrail. Mind-bending pain racked his left shoulder, but through the haze, he recognized it hadn’t been broken and managed to pull himself to his feet. 

Red Monarch was left stunned. The magic flute had been reduced to nothing, and the akuma inhabiting it fluttered away into the air, finding somewhere to perch just above their heads. Synchronously, the Mirages keeping the Eiffel Tower closed off from the outside world vanished as well, and the heavy rain began to freely wash over them once more. The chill helped Chat focus through the burning sensation in his arm. He trained his eyes on Ladybug. Still breathing, thank God.

Unfortunately, one massive problem remained. Monarch was still Red. Until Ladybug could purify the akuma, the effects of what Catalyst had done would linger on, and Monarch didn’t look at all pleased with the idea that his victory was now balancing on a knife’s edge. 

“You impetuous fleabag!” He screamed, still holding Ladybug up with one arm. “I will declaw you, NAIL BY NAIL!!”

“You should be careful with that kind of talk,” Chat snarled back, “or you’ll end up my glorified scratching post!”

“RAAAHHH!!!” 

With his mad howl, Red Monarch threw Ladybug’s body at Chat, a move the Cat Holder recognized as the ‘bait-and-tackle.’ Luckily, past injuries from repeated carelessness had taught him how to evade the lure. He lunged at Ladybug before Monarch got his bearings, scooping her out of the air just as his father attempted to turn him into a red smear with another Clout punch. 

Chat landed on the roof of a boutique on the other side of the platform. He pulled Ladybug close so he could assess her wounds. Her throat had taken some bruising from Monarch’s choking grip; the splashing of raindrops reminded his own neck of the similar way he’d also been strangled, but the real concern came from a fresh wound in her shoulder definitely caused by his father’s épée. He pulled off his belt and fastened it tight around the wound, hoping that would seal the breach until the battle was over so it could be properly attended.

He swept aside some wet strands of dark hair, and she opened her eyes. Her bloodshot sclera accentuated what a beautiful blue they were, as deep as the ocean and as perfect as the sky. The images in his head blended together again, and he saw her as clear as day. His friend. More than just a friend.

Ladybug coughed into his chest, then stared at him, a blend of pain, concern, and relief adorning her battered features. “Chat? Is-is Alya…?”

“Don’t worry, Milady, she’s alright. And so is Kagami.” He smiled back, and a sliver of that concern melted away. “What about you? Can you move?”

“I-I think so, just give me a…wait, what about—LOOK OUT!!”

Red Monarch’s horseshoe whizzed over Chat’s head, followed by the villain himself teleporting to catch it before attempting to smash them both flat with the Ox’s hammer. So that was the last Miraculous he took. Still better than the Rooster, he decided.

Chat Noir lept away with Ladybug once more as the roof of the boutique turned to scrap metal and caved in through the ceiling. His trajectory took them behind another structure, hoping he could buy them time to make a plan. 

“Let’s hope the sale on t-shirts and plushies keeps him distracted,” he tried to joke, but the effort felt hollow given the situation’s severity. “Ladybug, now would be a great time for a little Lucky Charm, don’t you think?”

“I-I can’t, Chat.” The hurt in her voice made him realize her eyes weren’t red only from the choking. The rain on her face mimicked tears, but he could tell some were genuine. He’d missed something. “He took my Lucky Charm.”

“What do you mean he took your—?!”

The window panes behind them exploded  into thousands of tiny shards. Chat only had time to cover Ladybug’s head with his body before they struck; razor fragments tore through the skin in his neck, but with his head lowered, none managed to penetrate through his suit or the thicker tissue around his skull. Even so, he didn’t feel the glass because he was too focused on the consequences of Ladybug’s statement. No Lucky Charm meant no Miracle Cure, which meant none of their injuries could be healed. Kagami could actually die now. 

How were they going to fix this?

Before he could form any sort of response to that or check if Ladybug had been hit, something wrapped around his throat—the Tiger’s bolas!—and pulled him away from his partner.

“CHAT!!” She grabbed his flailing legs, but it was a pointless tug-of-war game she couldn’t possibly win in her state. Chat tried to cut through the rope with his claws, but it was too tight. He couldn’t loosen it without making it worse.

“Once I kill you both and take the Rabbit,” he heard Monarch threaten, “I’ll go back to the day of our first battle and show your young counterparts the pile of corpses I’ve collected from every-single-one of our previous struggles. It will be an excellent means of discovering how many ways there are to skin a chat!”

Red Monarch dragged Chat Noir to his feet and prepared to bring his swordstick down between his eyes. Not about to become a shish cat-bob, Chat sliced through his dress pants, causing Monarch to miss the strike as he bellowed thunderously. The bolas relaxed and he removed them just as Monarch tried stabbing him again, only for his face to unceremoniously meet Ladybug’s yo-yo with heavy thwack as two of his teeth were knocked clean from his mouth.

“ARGGHHH!!” He stumbled backward, fresh blood leaking from his upper jaw. 

“Good shot,” Chat complimented.

“I was aiming for the glasses.”

“Well, thanks anyway.”

Red Monarch looked at the blood pooling into his hand, then flung it aside dramatically. “This changes nothing! I still have all the power I need to reduce you both to nothing but ash! Freeing Rena Rouge was a wasted effort. NOW DIE! CLOUT!!”

He rushed at them, prepared to deliver another world-shaking blow, but was intercepted by a familiar barrier of green energy.

“Wha—?!”

The Shell-ter that encased Red Monarch burst like an egg as the Mega-Clout made contact, but not before most of the kinetic impact rebounded back onto him, creating a mini sonic boom and filling the air with acrid smoke and the smell of burnt clothing. 

After a moment, Red Monarch emerged, alive but dazed, hacking up soot as he wearily waved away the fumes. He was mostly undamaged; Resistance must have protected him from the brunt of his redirected attack. He looked at the two heroes with astonishment equal to their own. “How did you—?”

A figure in green who was definitely not Carapace landed with a thud before Monarch. He barely had time to recoil in surprise before the figure grabbed the Fox necklace and Ox ring. “I’ll be taking these back now,” Alya snarled before yanking off the chain and ripping out the nose ring, the latter splitting Red Monarch’s nasal septum in two, making him scream in a horribly high pitch before stumbling over himself onto the ground. 

Not-Carapace dashed forward to grab him, but he opened another vortex and fell through the floor.

“ Merde ! I should’ve grabbed the glasses!” Alya turned around to face her friends and revealed a thin smirk that displayed quite the opposite of displeasure. “But it was almost worth it to hear him screech like that, non ?” 

“Alya!” Ladybug practically threw herself at their teammate, wrapping her in a hug so tight she forgot about her own wounds. “Owww,” she grimaced. “Sorry, I’m still a little tender.” 

“Hey, at least you’re still in one piece, Red. I had no idea if Chat-boy here would see through his second-rate Mirages, but I knew he couldn’t outsmart my girl in a million years.”

“Oh…oh, uh, well, I’m just glad you’re safe now.” 

The trio moved under cover of the now-windowless boutique, where Ladybug continued with her inquiries. “Where were you? That bastard didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“No, I’m okay. He was keeping me hidden in the summit office. That’s where the others are now.” Alya’s smile turned sour, and her voice panicky and apologetic. “Look, Ladybug, I am so, so sorry that I told Monarch your name. I-I didn’t have a choice!”

“You—?!” Ladybug appeared absolutely perturbed. Chat worried for a moment she might blame Alya for the danger she was now in, but that would mean he was misjudging Ladybug’s entire character. She would never attack her best friend and someone she knew she could trust with her life like that. That’s why she was the best of them. 

“It-it’s okay, Alya,” she tried to assure her after a quick recovery. “I understand. You were Akumatized—” 

“No, I mean, yes, I was, but before that, he took Ella and Etta and threatened to hurt them if I didn’t give him what he wanted.”

Ladybug’s eyelids sprang wide open. “Qu'est-ce que ç'est que ce bordel ? ! That fucker took your sisters?! That blackhearted fuck!” She hugged Alya again. “We’ll get them back, don’t you worry!”

Over Alya’s shoulder, Ladybug peered at Chat, concern displayed in her eyes “Chat, do you know…?”

He shook his head disingenuously, but only he knew that. “Nope, not a thing, not that I would believe a word of the bullshit he spews from that bloody maw of his.” 

She sighed in relief, and his heart felt a little weaker. Would it really be so bad to know right now? She still wanted to tell him, right? Or would she change her mind after all of this?

“Chat,” Alya spoke up, the worry not yet faded from her words. “I’m so sorry about what I said; if I made you think for even a second—”

“Don’t worry about it.” He feigned his own smile, not wanting to openly admit how close he’d been to ending his father’s life for good. “But why help us? You said Monarch would go after your sisters for this.”

Alya’s frown was heavy with cold fury. “My sister's lives were in danger the moment Agreste took them, and deciding whether or not to free me wouldn’t have made things any better for them. Besides, I’ve got a hunch he won’t leave unless he’s desperate enough, and for that to happen, he’d need to lose his supercharge first.”

As if to prove her point, a flash of red went off high above their heads, disappearing before they got a good look, but Alya seemed to know what it was. “He’s taken his akuma back. We’ll need to get his cane if we want to de-power him.”

“Right, we need a plan, and it’ll have to be our best one yet,” Ladybug agreed. 

“Did Monarch say something about using the Rabbit?” Chat asked. Both he and Alya glanced at Ladybug, who clutched her yo-yo defensively, like bringing it up triggered her somehow. 

“Yes, that’s what he wanted all along—the ability to time travel and destroy us one day at a time. Everything he’s done tonight was just a means of getting the watch here so he could take it from my yo-yo. Why kill us now when he could do it whenever he wants?”

Chat was shocked, then enraged and unsurprised. His father kept finding new ways to disgust him with every revelation. He could use the power to save his mother, but would rather kill and torture children instead. His Cataclysm shouldn’t have missed. 

Next time .

“And he took my Lucky Charm,” she informed Alya. “He used a Voyage and probably dropped it into the sun or the bottom of the ocean. There’s no way to get it back.

Alya’s eyes widened before she clenched her fists and pummeled them together. “Fucking jackass! What do we do?”

Ladybug was about to answer when her face suddenly went askew with wild panic. “Oh God! L-Viperion! Monarch hit him with a Clout—we need to—!”

“It’s okay, he’s alive.”

Out of the shadows stepped Caprikid and King Monkey, the Goat Holder supporting an unsteady Queen Bee over his shoulder while King carried the blackened body of Pigella in his arms. Rose was…oh, God, half of her face was just…gone, replaced with scorched tissue, and her breathing so shallow he almost couldn’t see her chest rising. But it was there; he could hear her muted wheezings as she fought for each inhale and exhale, fighting to survive just a little longer.

“We checked on him while you were keeping Monarch occupied,” Caprikid informed the trio. “He’s still breathing, but we didn’t think it was safe to move him when he…his back is…”

Ladybug suppressed a heavy sob as Chat reached out to Pigella, but was intercepted by Chloé as she stumbled away from Caprikid and into his arms. 

“Chat Noir?” she mumbled, her eyes rolling lazily to peer up at him. “I-I tried so hard to-to fight back. But Viperion….” She started to cry softly, and Chat held her close, consoling her in the cold with his presence and warmth.

“Hey, it’s okay, you’re okay,” he whispered gently as her body shook against his. “You’re safe now—we’ve got you.” His words of reassurance earned him and Queen Bee a momentary look of disapproval from Ladybug as she checked on Rose herself, though no one else seemed to notice. 

Speaking of things no one had noticed yet. “HEY!! Are we invisible to you guys?!”

“Trixx!” Alya squeezed the little kwami as much as possible while Ladybug did the same with Stompp. “Are you both okay?! Has that mangeur d'écume been feeding you anything?

“Yeah, if you call shoplifted Carrefour shelf food a ‘meal,’” the tiny fox squirmed. “I don’t know what was worse, the hours he spent making us work for our food or the food itself: the gluten-free cookies and dried raisins! Yuck!”

“I’m just glad you’re alright, you little scoundrel.” She scratched his head affectionately, and he giggled in response.* “I will never, ever abandon you again!” she promised him. 

Chat was glad at least two kwamis were safe now, but that wouldn’t be enough. Even with their combined might, Red Monarch still had the advantage of the Horse and Tiger to use as much as he wanted, while they could only use their powers once before de-transforming. Ladybug’s earrings were already down to three minutes, and he wasn’t far behind. This plan would need to be perfect. 

He glanced at Ladybug, noticing her wet eyes were scanning over their allies and their surroundings faster than he could track, and the muscles in her face were all scrunching together. Chat knew that look. It was the signal Ladybug was formulating one of her overly complicated but always successful master plans, putting every obvious and obscure piece of information together into one perfectly crafted gambit to save the day. He was in love with that face, with every facet of her immeasurable beauty. He didn’t doubt she would get them through this.

“Here’s what we need to do,” she began, with everyone paying close attention. “Caprikid, the Lucky Charm was some sort of fog machine. Use your Genesis to produce a new one.”

“That’s no problem, but it won’t be able to fix anything once you’ve used it.”

“We’ll worry about that later, got it?”

He nodded, then used his brush to paint the fog machine into existence in her arms. Chat Noir recognized it as a model many fashion shows used for theatrical effects. The smoke it produced was very potent. 

“Thank you. Now take Pigella and carefully get her to the summit office. Help keep her and the others safe until we get back in contact.” 

Caprikid carefully took Pigella from King Monkey and exited boutique, and Ladybug shifted her focus onto the Monkey Holder. “King, we can’t move Viperion with his injuries, so I need you to protect him until we can get him out of here. Without Resistance, your Uproar should keep Monarch away while he focuses on us.”

King Monkey was rubbing a sore right eye that appeared damaged by a bright light, but accepted the order with mild enthusiasm. “Playing defense isn’t my best position, but it’s your call, Coach.” He gave a two-finger salute and lept away, leaving Ladybug and Chat with Turtle Alya and Queen Bee, who looked like she wanted to break down onto her knees or puke up her dinner. Only Chat showed her any attention while Ladybug continued.

“Monarch will be back any second. Chloé, you go find that red akuma Monarch tried to corrupt you with. If he gets it back first, he’ll try to use it on someone else, and we can’t handle another supervillain right now.”

“I-I don’t know if I can,” Chloé sniffled dejectedly, wiping away mucus and salty moisture from her face. “What if he wants to Akumatize me again? I can’t fight that off a second time. He’ll turn me into a monster and make me—”

“No, he won’t,” Chat promised her. “You’re strong, Chloé, stronger than you think. You’ve just fought off his control at his most powerful, and you can beat him again. And if you can’t do it alone-” he gripped her shoulders tightly, “-we’ll be here to help. Always .” 

He shot Ladybug a beseeching glance. Agree with me on this . She didn’t hesitate, and he hoped it wasn’t just because of how serious things had become. 

“Chloé,” Ladybug said with more empathy than he’d seen her address Chloé with in over a year. “Monarch…he wasn’t lying. I haven’t treated you fairly tonight, even though you came to help us with full knowledge of the danger you’d be in.” Chloé’s expression began morphing from dismal uncertainty to sudden bewilderment. “I heard everything you said. You want to be a hero, and I believe you meant it.”

“You do?”

“Yes, and that’s why I know you’ll do the right thing.” She took Chloé’s hand and grasped it tightly. “Will you trust me, Queen Bee?” 

Queen Bee’s face lit up excitably. “Y-yes! Yes, I can! And you can trust me!” Snatching her top with a resurgence of energy, she hurried outside and threw it into the air, grappling an iron lattice. “I won’t let you down, Ladybug!” she called out, leaving the three heroes and two kwamis alone once more.

“ Hmm , did you really mean all that?” asked Alya skeptically.

“Ask me again once we’ve beaten Monarch, or don’t,” she answered impassively. “Now, put on the Miraculous.”

“Huh?!” Chat blurted as she handed him the Ox ring.

“You trust me too, right?” 

Chat Noir looked at the jewel. Despite the numerous accessories he’d worn as a model, facial piercings might’ve been the one supplement his father actively discouraged at his shows and marketing promotions. “Errr, Stompp, is there any chance—?” 

“Nope, sorry, gotta be the nose.” 

Sigh . “ Bien sûr .” Chat felt a very unpleasant pinch as he inserted the nose ring between his nostrils, but that was it. Thank God for magic gems that didn’t need to pierce flesh to stay in place.

“But I don’t wanna share with Wayzz!” Trixx complained.

“You’ll share with Wayzz and you’ll like it,” Alya scolded as she put the necklace on.

“Plagg, Stompp! Unify!”

“Wayzz, Trixx! Unify!”

Bull Noir and Rena Verte were ready for action. 

“Sooo…now what?” Noir asked, surprised Red Monarch hadn’t attacked them yet. Losing two Miraculous at once must’ve made him overly cautious about attacking them head-on. “Do we just wait for him to attack us again?”

“No, but I can’t say anything in case he’s watching, so you’ll both have to keep trusting me.” She handed Bull Noir the fog machine, who had to shift the weight away from his still throbbing left arm, then reached for her yo-yo. “Just listen out for my signals through your comms, and this’ll all go…smoothly, I hope.”

“And what are you doing?”

Ladybug held up her yo-yo and opened it, revealing the bright pink accessway that created a shortcut straight to the Miracle Box. “Setting the right bait. Get read—”

Bull Noir recognized her plan as something so reckless even he’d never attempt it, but before he could stop her, a red portal no larger than a dinner plate grew into existence, and a gloved hand emerged to grab at the exposed yo-yo. Ladybug must have expected this exact response because it all occurred so fast that he and Rena barely perceived the threat as it happened while she’d already seized the hand and was trying to drag the rest of Red Monarch’s body through the portal. “Rena, a little help?!”

Rena Verte took hold of the arm alongside Ladybug, slowly pulling Red Monarch out through the churning portal, which was forced to expand in diameter to accommodate the resisting voyager. Noir would’ve helped them, but he was still holding the fog machine with both hands. 

“Bull Noir, activate the machine!”

“But you need my—”

“We’ve got this—JUST TURN IT ON!”

If it had been anyone else, figuring out how to operate the machine would have taken time they didn’t have. Luckily, Adrien Agreste had spent most of his life around devices and mechanisms used for special effects, so making it work was as simple as pressing the right button.

The fog machine hummed to life and immediately began belching out a pitch-black smoke, obscuring everything in its path. Within seconds, a thick cloud had enveloped the space before him, making it nearly impossible to perceive his allies and their adversary, who were supposedly only a few feet away from him. 

“Keep it going!” he heard Ladybug yell. “We’ve almost got him!”

Noir could no longer see anything in detail, but when he heard a loud thud hit the platform, he knew the girls had succeeded in wrestling Red Monarch through the enlarged vortex. Unfortunately, he could do nothing about it, as he was practically blind and could make out nothing but the raindrops perforating through the artificial smog. At this rate, the weather would blow away their cover entirely, ruining whatever purpose the original Lucky Charm had intended for them. 

“Noir,” he heard Ladybug whisper through his earpiece. “Keep the machine going as long as you can, and move to the edge of the smoke so we can see you.”

“Right,” he acknowledged, stepping back a few paces as the fog machine kept pumping out its smokescreen. “What are you going to do?”

“Don’t talk,” she hissed, “just stay put and leave the machine on the ground. In a few seconds, Rena will create a Mirage around you, and when Monarch lunges, activate Resistance before his Clout blasts you apart.”

“Wh—!” ‘ Blast me apart?!’ 

Damn it. He was being used as a lure for another one of Ladybug’s improvisational traps. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so insistent about what irresistible bait he’d make back when Hawk Moth was nothing more than a puppeteering creep with a big mouth. Only after confronting him directly did he realize he was no pushover in a fight, especially now. He hoped Ladybug knew what she was doing.

“Ok, here we go,” Ladybug said just before he heard her speak again, but this time, her voice echoed through his ears as if her words were emerging from his own mouth. “It’s over now, Monarch!” ‘she’ yelled. “I’ve Unified with the Rabbit Miraculous. There’s no way to keep me from undoing all the damage you’ve caused tonight.”

A sound Mirage. Mixed with the dense smokescreen, Monarch would have no idea where Ladybug was, his ears the only reliable means of navigating the fog, or so he thought. And so,  if he thought he knew where Ladybug was standing….

“CLOUT!!”

Red Monarch’s crimson form burst through the smoke, desperation and the frenzy of madness etched into his features beneath his mask, along with blood-soaked bandages he’d wrapped around his face, giving him the appearance of a bloody Egyptian mummy. His fist burned with a destructive fire that incinerated the veil of fog before him, but he realized too late he’d been misdirected at the wrong target: in his blind rage, he was charging an angry bull head-on while dressed entirely in red. Noir saw wrath turn to fear, and he welcomed the sight of it.

“Resistance!”

The magic of the panja bracelet disappeared as Bull Noir caught Monarch’s fist in his hand, then haymakered him right in the jaw, sending more blood squirting out from his poorly bandaged nose and mouth into the air. Keeping hold of his father’s right hand, Noir used the Ox’s raw strength to pummel his face several more times before relenting his barrage, believing he might not stop if he kept at it. For some reason, that thought unnerved him.

As Red Monarch tried to recover from the assault, Noir yanked the Horse glasses off his face and looked him right in those baleful eyes. “This is for all the pain you’ve ever caused,” he growled savagely before headbutting him so hard in the nose that he felt the nasal bone push against his own skin, almost piercing through. His father’s blood spewed across his face. This was his retribution, an overdue reckoning between father and son. Noir would see it all the way through.

Red Monarch managed to keep himself standing, but his face had been ruined by the ruthless beating. If anything of his former visage remained beneath the mask, it had been twisted into a grotesque misshaping of flesh, leaking out internal fluids and turning several shades of new colorations where the skin was still visible. But somehow, he kept going, his resolve to win no matter the cost sustaining him through what must have been severe injuries. “Yuh-you… wretched enfant! I’ll kuh-kill you—!”

THUMP!  

The sound of Rena Verte’s foot slamming hard against Monarch’s testicles from behind was so agonizing that Bull Noir instinctively wanted to cover his crotch and back away several meters. Thankfully, only Monarch was on Alya’s blacklist. While he groaned from the intense sensations swelling up in his groin, Rena casually removed the Tiger Miraculous from his right hand and growled, “That was for Ella and Etta, you motherfucker.”

“You-your sisters?” Red Monarch asked, then snarled back, “they’re…dead next—”

Rena’s shield cut him off from speaking any further with a thwack-crunch , and whatever teeth he still had in his mouth were now few and far between, at least those that weren’t chipped or wholly shattered. “And that one was for me,” she said before spitting onto the ground. 

At this point, Red Monarch didn’t have much of a face left, but he still wouldn’t go down, trying to hold his cane steady and pointing it back and forth between Noir and Rena as they advanced upon him. He prepared what Noir perceived as a crudely composed passata-sotto thrust but never got the chance to attack. 

Ladybug’s yo-yo lassoed the épée away from his hands as she landed between her allies. In her expression, Noir saw her optimistic confidence finally returning and rejuvenating her exhausted body. Her eyes sparkled with some renewed hope that he himself was experiencing, and also plenty of disdain for the pathetic pile of déchets about to keel over before them. 

“Care to be the one to finish this, Red?” Ladybug asked, presenting the fencing weapon between her hands.

“Oh, you know it, Red,” Alya smirked, bringing down her shield straight through the blade, snapping it clean in half with a metallic pop . If nothing else, there was some symbolism in this action that Noir could appreciate.

Ladybug took the head of the broken cane and peered inside the dark stone handle. The original akuma was there all right, and even though Red Monarch was barely an immediate threat, it still needed to be purified along with its red sibling. 

Speaking of which, descending from the platform above them, Queen Bee had finally returned from her hunt with her spinning top gracefully lowering her down. “You people have…no idea how hard…it was to catch this…stupid thing!” she panted exasperatedly, holding up her top and shaking it around, indicating where she’d stashed the akuma. “I swear, they’re just as much têtes de nœud as their limp-dick master when they’re like this.” She turned to face Monarch, scowling before she punched him hard in the gut, and he fell to the ground. “Limp-dick and pathetic,” she scoffed.

“Alright, let’s end this,” said Ladybug, gesturing for Queen Bee to release the akuma. Chloé twisted the top of her weapon and let the scarlet insect flutter into the chilly night air, followed closely by its black and purple counterpart. They circled each other in tandem, perhaps, Noir wondered, awaiting the moment they would finally be cleansed of their negative energy. 

“Time to de-evilize, you two!” Ladybug announced, rapidly spinning her yo-yo before sweeping it in a wide arc, snatching both akuma out of the rain before returning to Ladybug’s hand. When the yo-yo’s insect wings parted again, the two purified butterflies ascended into the sky, seeking the closest shelter from the easing rain. The sight made Noir smile. 

With the akuma’s effects wiped away, the supercharge keeping Monarch red dispelled from his body, reverting him to his dark purple costume. Devoid of the most incredible power he’d ever wielded, Monarch fell to his knees, drained like never before, moaning inconsolably to himself. 

“So,” Alya started, eyeing the villain’s collapsed form, “now what?”

Noir knew the obvious answer would have been to remove the Butterfly brooch, something he’d done countless times before while sleeping, hardly believing it would ever become as simple as he’d imagined in his dreams. But Queen Bee moved before he or Ladybug could speak, snatching the broken blade from his Lady’s hand and shoving it against Monarch’s chin. “Now,” she sneered hatefully, “I think we should repay him for ruining all our lives for the last two years. That seems like something totally well-deserved! ”

“Chloé!” Ladybug yelled, as shocked as the rest of them at what their ally was proposing. “What the hell are you doing!?”

“Getting payback, isn’t it obvious?! This bastard deserves to suffer, just like we have.” She slowly drew the sharp edge across his neck, not deep enough to slit his throat but still sufficient to make his blue eyes shake with terror. “Just like you made me suffer,” she said in a dark tone.

“Fucking damn it, Chloé, get away from him!” Ladybug nearly shrieked. “You can’t kill him!”

“Why not?! He’s made our lives miserable! Utterly miserable!! Why shouldn’t I kill him?!!”

“Because he’s the only one who knows where my sisters are!” screamed Rena. “If he dies, so do they!!”

Queen Bee hesitated, but ignored Alya’s warning by reaching for excuses. “Whatever you saw could have just been another Mirage he’s gotten so fond of using! Why drag in some dead weight when he could easily turn you into his pawn again by pulling on your frail heartstrings?!”

“‘ Dead weight!?! ’ We’re talking about the lives of children , you stupid bitch!!”

“Noir, do something!” Ladybug shouted. 

Bull Noir had been standing the closest to Monarch, keeping one eye out for any new signs of duplicity or aggression. That explicit focus on his father had distracted him until Chloé leveled a blade against the man’s jugular. He’d noticed conflicted feelings had arisen within him as she made her accusations, each possessing a modicum of truth he felt was undeniable. He’d be lying if he said she was wrong; that Monarch didn’t deserve to suffer. God only knew how badly he wanted to finish this himself.

But Ladybug wasn’t wrong either. They needed him alive to save Alya’s sisters, and even as his wrathful side demanded punishment befitting the crimes, when he looked at the crippled villain before him, he recognized how wrong it would be to end him like this, unarmed and defenseless. Master Fu had shown him the value of mercy a long time ago, a lesson he’d ignored until now. He hoped it wasn’t too late to honor his teachings.

“Chloé, please,” Noir pleaded gently, “don’t do this.” 

She spun around, a crimson web of grief and fury tugging at her striking irises. She wanted this as much as him, maybe even more right now, but didn’t know how to restrain herself. “You need this too, don’t you?!” she asked more than observed. “It’s for the best that we end him now while we still can. He’ll never get to hurt us again. He earned this!”

Ladybug was about to exclaim more reprimanding denunciations, but Noir held her back. She couldn’t help with this. It needed to be him. “Chloé,” he leaned down to her level and held out his palm, not for the sword, but to take her hand in his. “Death isn’t justice for what he’s done—it’s absolvement. You’re right; he needs to pay for what he’s done, but he can’t do that if he’s dead. You’re only setting him free. Heroes don’t do that.”

The hand that gripped the blade trembled. Monarch’s eyes shifted between Queen Bee and Bull Noir, regarding them with alarm and apprehension. Gabriel Agreste was not someone who understood mercy in the slightest. Still, even if he couldn’t appreciate the second chance Noir was seemingly fighting for on his behalf, he still deserved the opportunity to freely accept or squander it as he chose to. Only tyrants like him took away others’ choices. But not Noir. Not ever. 

Queen Bee’s head drooped down, and he saw how difficult it was for her to make this choice. Ultimately, she came to a conclusion with herself and began to turn over the broken sword to Noir. 

That was when Monarch made his pis aller , and in one swift movement, he grabbed Chloé and the blade, plunging it through her chest before shoving her into Noir and taking to the air in a blood-streaked blur of motion. 

“ NOOO!!” Ladybug cried out, leaping after Monarch and attempting to ensnare him with her yo-yo, but he knocked it aside before the line went taut and continued his mad dash across the platform. 

Noir barely noticed Rena Verte pursuing them both as he held Queen Bee in his arms. Monarch had pulled the sword out as he fled, so nothing could keep the hole in her chest from bleeding extensively onto his lap.

Futily, he tried anyway, but the red tide seeped through his fingers regardless of his efforts. 

“Chloé! Chloé!!”

No, not her too! I can’t lose two friends in one night!

Monarch had missed her heart; the harsh coughing made that clear, but he must’ve punctured one of her lungs because she wasn’t breathing right. She was gurgling blood that streamed down her chin and cheeks like a cascade of dark liquid garnet, and that which didn’t surge out from her mouth threatened to suffocate and drown her instead. His brain couldn’t process how much blood there was. 

Damn it damn it DAMN IT, NO!!

“Stay with me, Chloé! Stay with me!”

She couldn’t respond, not with blood clogging her throat. 

Alone, the injury was severe enough that her survival was unlikely even in the best circumstances. But when he suddenly heard her comb give off its final warning chimes before her suit fell away in a blaze of golden light, he realized she was going to die if he didn’t get help right now ; he had to get her out of there.

Reaching into his zipper pocket, he pulled out the Horse Miraculous, and Kaalki emerged in a shower of sky-blue sparks. “Well, I say, it’s about time someone got around to rescuing…oh, oh dear.” 

“Plagg, Stompp, Kaalki! Unify!”

“Wait! What is going oooonnnnn—!!”

Noir scooped up his childhood friend. There was no time to waste. The closest major hospital was Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou, but physical distance didn't matter anymore. If he opened a portal and got her to any emergency room, he could be back in less than—

The nerve-cutting scream froze him in his tracks. It had come in the direction Ladybug and Rena had chased Monarch, but he couldn’t see anything beyond the boutiques for several long seconds, not until a spinning object boomeranged around the edge of the platform and struck his head with a loud BRRANGG!! 

He fell to the floor, Chloé crumpling next to him which caused more fluid to seep onto the ground. Noir tried to help her, but he couldn’t move. Whatever hit him had left his body in a state of numbing shock he couldn’t free himself from. He felt something sticky roll down his face into his mouth. It tasted like salty copper and the rain. 

Gradually, Chloé’s eyes turned glassy, and a single tear steamed along the corner of her face as she choked out her last breath. Noir tried to call out her name, begging for her not to die, but his words were nonexistent passings in the freezing wind. 

And then she was gone. Gone forever.

Noir screamed noiselessly, not knowing if anyone could hear him or would even come to help. He screamed into the storm, and the storm screamed with him, but nothing happened. There was no last-minute rescue or savior to suddenly fix everything at the eleventh hour. 

Nothing. 

Nobody.

Until Monarch reappeared. 

As Noir’s vision began to turn muddy and the encroaching darkness threatened to take him too, he made out the villain standing above his body; large yellow eyes coldly stared down at him like an angry sun, and a serpentine grin of glinting fangs and debonair sadism poisoned his already subsiding heartbeat just by looking at it.

“Thank you, young Noir ” Monarch hissed, his voice a million miles away, “for reminding me of the rezsstorative power of Zssecond Chancezss. I promizsse you, I will not wazsste the opportunity you and your now deceazssed friend here so graciouzssly provided.”

Noir thought he saw the sky tearing itself apart, and the air turned hot as the rainwater began to scald his skin. How could this be happening? Where was Ladybug? Why wouldn’t she save him?

Had…had he been the one abandoned this time? 

Marinette…why…. ?

With no hope left and his mind breaking down, Adrien was dragged away into the darkness. In his final moments of consciousness, he closed his eyes and felt both the chill of nightmares and the haunting shame of failure as the world around him burned completely out of existence.

Chapter Text

Ladybug thought she’d already encountered the epitome of abject terror when Red Monarch first said her name aloud. Then she’d watched him steal the Snake Miraculous from Luka’s broken body and activate Second Chance, and realized she’d learned nothing yet as the icy dread she’s been experiencing since he called her “Marinette” reached critical mass. 

At that earlier point, in those brief moments between that horrifying revelation and Chat Noir’s hair-brained but still successful rescue attempt, there had been one terrifying second where she’d genuinely believed nothing could be done to save herself and her allies. Viperion was down, her Lucky Charm was gone, and accessing the Miracle Box to retrieve the Rabbit Miraculous would only result in the jewel in Red Monarch’s corrupting hands. She couldn’t conceive any way out of that hopeless position. If Chat hadn’t saved her from Monarch’s insidious clutches, she might have lost her will to keep fighting entirely.

She’d done her best to hide this crushing doubt from the others, trying to be as optimistic about their chances as possible and hoping that would be enough to galvanize the others to fight on. But for her, it was barely enough to repress a new panic attack inspired by the terror she felt as she imagined what Gabriel Agreste would now do with the knowledge of her identity. There was only one reason he’d want to know who she was when killing her would have been far simpler—he wanted to make her suffer.

Maman, Papa, everyone she cared about—they were all at risk now because of what he’d forced Alya to tell him, using her sisters as emotional blackmail and turning her into his Catalyst for a new wave of carnage that fueled his merciless campaign against his most hated adversary, and she knew he’d enjoyed every twisted second of it. He’d torment and kill her entire team just for the pleasure of it, and that would only be the start.

Ladybug couldn’t let him succeed if that was the dark future in store for her friends and family, so she kept on fighting, putting everything she had left into one final plan that had to work. If it didn’t, and they failed to stop him…

But they didn’t fail. It worked! They’d won! They had Monarch on his knees and were closer than ever to a decisive and lasting victory. Every moment of their journey led them to this: Master Fu would finally be avenged, and Paris would be safe for the first time in years. The fear began to recede; her loved ones would remain safe tonight…

And then, as if karma had decided to remind her of her greatest lapse in judgment as a hero, Chloé Bourgeois had ruined everything once again by focusing only on herself, and her planet-sized ego might’ve just gotten her killed this time. Ladybug might have considered that pure karma as well if she hadn’t seen it for herself; the sight of Queen Bee being stabbed in the chest had caused her to emit a heart-wrenching cry of hysteria, reigniting the pyre of dismay she’d almost extinguished, though whether the scream was over Chloé’s injury or Monarch’s escape attempt, she would never be sure. 

Her scream was followed by a surge of remaining adrenaline she thought she’d depleted long ago, and she took flight after Monarch, her yo-yo already tossed around his leg before she realized she’d thrown it. But despite his various injuries, Monarch was still fast enough to bat away her projectile before the line was secured around him. She was left falling through the air, her momentum taking her to the center of the platform, where she might’ve fallen through to her death below if Rena Verte hadn’t saved her.

“I’ve got you, Ladybug!”

They landed together on the opposite side of the platform, but Ladybug didn’t give herself a moment to stop and think things through—she just ran. She ran like she had everything to lose; her body felt like it had been dragged across a field of red-hot nails, and her right shin howled at her to stop as every footfall made her want to yelp, but she wouldn’t let him escape. 

Beep . Beep. Beep.

Her earrings began buzzing the one-minute warning, forcing her to pick up her stride as much as possible. Through the pain, she ran faster than she ever had before, breaking her limits as her body threatened to break down, but she didn’t care. She ignored all of it and just kept running because she couldn’t let him escape. No one in her life would be safe if he got away again.

Need to be fast enough! Please, just let me be fast enough!

It took her only three seconds to dash around the perimeter of the platform in the direction Monarch had been fleeing. If he was trying to escape that way, it wouldn’t serve him better than any other angle he had available; the entire tower was still lit up like a starry night sky, and she’d easily pick him out from above with little to no cover on ground level for dozens of meters. There was nowhere he could go she wouldn’t follow; she’d chase him to the world’s edge if that’s what it took. 

She rounded the corner and was struck by a free-flow of absolute dismay when she saw that instead of trying to flee, he was still inside the tower, crouched over Luka’s body with the ouroboros bracelet removed from his limp wrist and placed onto Monarch’s. 

In the following half-second, she registered several more alarming details: Sass was floating next to his new Holder, completely unable to retaliate in the slightest; King Monkey, whom she’d sent to protect Viperion until he could be safely moved, was lying inert on the ground, Monarch’s broken blade run straight through his sternum.

And almost as terrible as the sight of her impaled teammate was the realization that without the Snake to keep his broken spine from overwhelming his body’s natural healing process, Luka was going to die. 

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!!” Ladybug cried out, pushing her legs way past their already disregarded safety thresholds and sprinting like a frantic cheetah racing to catch a gazelle before it was out of reach. Monarch could not be allowed to get away with the Snake Miraculous! With the power of Second Chance at his command, he’d be nothing short of unbeatable, a menace subordinate only to the Rabbit’s influence over time itself. The future itself depended on her stopping him before he could escape. 

But Monarch wasn’t trying to escape anymore; just like her, he already knew he had no chance of making a run for it in his condition. Regardless, he still intended to end their vendetta tonight and was taking his most considerable risk yet to ensure it would happen, one way or another. 

Just a few meters away, a blur of red and black in the air, and Ladybug realized it wouldn’t be enough. Monarch had just been waiting for Sass to replenish his energy with food poached from Luka’s jacket, and the little snake had already finished his meal.

NO!!!

“Noowoo, Thath—UNIFY!!”

Scintillating illumination battered her off balance, but Rena Verte was by her side to catch her once again, steadying her upwards as the blinding light receded into the shadows, and the new Monarch stepped forth in his terrible majesty. 

Gabriel Agreste’s newly warped visage had been perfectly intertwined with fresh serpentine features that somehow complemented the additional papilionidae characteristics flawlessly: his suit was fabricated with dark scales arranged in twisting insect wing patterns, and a cobra-shaped hood originating from his lapel settled along his head down his furred collar, openly extended like a king proudly displaying his opulent, horned crown. Large compound eyes, though no longer that soul-crushing blue, glowed with a hideous shade of venomous yellow that diabolically contrasted with Viperion’s golden sapphire shimmer. Shattered human teeth had been supplanted with a set of needle-like fangs as sharp as steel razors, and the sordid-pale skin that wasn’t covered by dark-scaled armor sprouted a short layer of fuzz that turned orchid at the edges. 

His broken cane had also been replaced, the handle now a statuette of a winged serpent winding its body down the shaft. He held it leisurely by his side with no sign he needed it for support—his injuries appeared to have healed entirely. 

But most abhorrent to witness were the Miraculous themselves. Somehow, both the brooch and the ouroboros had been fused to Monarch’s flesh; deep-colored veins spread across his chest and right forearm, bulging with sickening orphic power. 

Emerging from his fresh transformation, King Monarch took one look at the rightfully appalled Ladybug and Rena Verte and spoke his activation phrase with malicious satisfaction, his voice an impeccable blend between a slithering hiss and a droning buzz. 

“Zssecond Chanzcce.”

The sound of the bracelet’s timer snapping into place almost shattered Ladybug’s spirit completely; she went rigid with shock as if her body had already accepted death and rigor mortis had begun to set in. Numbness affected not just her muscles and nerves but also her brain like a fast-acting toxin released into her system, paralyzing everything from her motor functions to her very breathing. She needed to scream, but her mouth wouldn’t listen. She wanted to fight, but her arms and legs wouldn’t obey.

For the second time that night, in the span of just a few minutes, Ladybug had lost all faith in her ability to win this battle. 

Beep . Beep. Beep .

“Yezss, thizss feeling…I have been waiting for thizss feeling for zsso long. ” Monarch’s hairy forked tongue flickered across his lips, tasting perfectly sweet triumph in the air, and his discolored maw split into a repulsive grin. “ The feeling that I know I’m finally going to win, and there’zss nothing you can do to zsstop me thizss time. ” 

He began to laugh, though with his newly acquired physiology, it sounded more like a vivacious hissing, the same noise an otherworldly predator might emit if it was toying with its prey but fully prepared to strike at any given moment. It made the blood in her veins shudder intensely. 

How could they fight this…this monstrosity of a man? She’d never witnessed a Miraculous change a person so dramatically, so…grotesquely. It was like a literal demon had been formed out of the darkest parts of his identity and summoned forth into physical existence to crush them like feckless gnats. 

How did you fight, much less defeat, a force of nature? 

“We’re not afraid of you.”

Alya’s voice cut through the static wasteland of uncertainty and distress Ladybug’s mind had converted itself into. In the face of this new danger, she was absolutely fearless; not a single trace of terror was present in her voice. But there was a passionate anger and plenty of it. “We weren’t scared of you before, and we’re still not. Another new makeover doesn’t make you any less of the psycho lunatic you’ve always been. We’re not giving up now, and we’ll beat your face in as many times as it takes to prove your pompous ass isn’t invincible.” 

“ ‘Azss many timesss as it takezss,’ ” Monarch parroted mockingly back at her, his insectoid eyes radiating such intense waves of fervid animus it was like staring into a noxious chemical fire ready to consume everything in its path. “ That, my dear Alya, izss a luxury you can no longer afford. I, on the other hand… ” he began to exude more noises, but they sounded much more jovial this time, like he was giggling to himself. “ …will enjoy killing you over and over again before your entire family, right until I dizsscover the perfect approach that zsseezss them torturouzssly zsscarred for the rezsst of their miserably brief livezss. ” 

“RAAAAGGGHHH!!!!” Rena Verte blasted forward at Monarch like an artillery shell fired from a cannon; loud, fast, and devastating when so close to her intended target. Clad in armored green and orange with her flute and shield in hand, she looked reminiscent of a Medieval knight proudly clad in heraldic colors, defiantly charging the enemy with every intent to smite him where he stood. Any other opponent would have experienced trepidation in facing down such an aggressive assailant or, at the very least, been somewhat intimidated. 

Monarch was neither intimidated nor impressed, but if Ladybug had been prepared to follow her friend’s lead, however reckless, they might have stood the slightest of chances together. But she wasn’t ready, and her body still refused to act on her commands despite the required immediacy. She could only watch as Rena paid the price for her cowardice.

Monarch effortlessly swayed around Rena’s barrage of attacks like he’d seen them coming in slow motion , sidestepping each one with a hypnotic finesse far surpassing that of a premier danseur étoile in the Paris Opera. She only managed to deliver three rapid strikes, each one pitifully far off the mark, before her fourth attempt was interrupted by Monarch’s swordstick circumventing the tight chinks in her armored abdomen with practiced efficiency, sliding out the other end slicked wet with her blood. 

This time, Ladybug’s voice returned, allowing her to scream. 

The scream itself was more like a shrill howl of despair, a sound no one would think a human could make, even in their darkest nightmares. The raw intensity of it burned her throat like a corrosive acid that dripped down and damaged her heart with even more pain. 

She’d come here tonight with every intent to keep Alya from suffering this kind of punishment; alongside reclaiming the stolen Miraculous, it had been her primary mission and strongest desire, but she’d never believed she’d see things get so bleak. 

Almost half of her team was already inflicted with life-threatening injuries that would kill them without immediate treatment, and now King Monkey was lying motionless with a hole in his chest, the first of them to fall. Next to that, Alya’s own wound may not have been intentionally lethal, but if Monarch had really wanted her dead instead of planning to make her suffer far worse later, nothing could have stopped him. Not anymore. 

The shock of the moment dragged Ladybug into tunneled vision, focused solely on King Monarch’s putrid grimace as he pulled his blade from Rena Verte’s stomach and watched her topple over onto the ground with a painful gasp, various fluids from her ruptured organs leaking out through the open wound.

“I’ll be back in a zssecond ,” he smirked down at her. 

Then Monarch ignored Alya entirely and turned his full attention onto the sole remaining heroine, his eyes and teeth dazzling bright with scopious malice. He acted as if dispatching her friend was nothing but a momentary inconvenience he’d already dismissed from memory and began steadily walking in her direction, feeling no need to hurry. He knew she wouldn’t run, and he had all the time in the world wrapped around his wrist if she tried. 

Beep, beep, beep !

The alarm was getting faster and louder, but she could do nothing about it. Monarch had her boxed into a shrinking corner with nowhere left to run. Anything she did, however successful at first, would be erased from time by the Snake Miraculous, and he’d never allow her a second chance to try it again.

“No more interferenzcce, no more zsstalling, Marinette. ” He spoke her name like he was spitting a poison so vile even he needed to expel it from his system. “ Whatever you’ve imagined I will do now that I know your true name, whatever horrorzss you believe I will inflict upon you and thozsse you care for, they will only be the zsstart. ” 

He wrapped his tongue around the length of his blade and let the crimson fluid run over the inky black tissue. He was drinking her best friend’s blood! 

He withdrew the weapon from his maw, but streams of liquid clung to his bristly chin like melting water hanging from an icicle, splattering onto the wet metal platform and drifting away into larger puddles of rainwater until they dissipated entirely. It felt like a haunting metaphor for this current crisis; no matter what she tried to do, she was nothing but a few drops against a thunderstorm. She was doomed to fail before she even began and found herself hoping that Sass could forgive himself for this heinous misuse of his power.

Beep, beep, beep !

She was almost out of time.

Bull Noir, where are you?! I need you!!

“I wonder, ” Monarch taunted smugly, with more than a hint of undisguised lunacy, “ will your blood tazsste as zssweet as your poor friend’zss? Her erroneouzss bravery muddled the zssavory flavor of her terror, but I’m sure I won’t have zssuch issuezss with you. ” His mouth widened like a python ready to devour its prey. “ Not after I butcher your parentzss right in front of you. ” 

She would have killed him for that, she realized. Without hesitation, she would have tossed away every humane value and moral lesson she’d learned over the years in that one single moment, then taken his skull and crushed it like a watermelon between her hands, just so his sickening, lurid fantasies would never come any more true than they already had. She would have traded his life and even her own for the survival of everyone else left, and at that moment, she would have done so gladly. That was her sacrifice, the only real option she had left. 

A hand reached out of nowhere from behind and dragged her through a perfectly cylindrical portal before she’d even realized she’d been touched. King Monarch was also taken by surprise, and for that last second of the portal’s existence, Ladybug saw him reaching for the ouroboros, the first time she’d ever seen anyone attempt to use Second Chance once activated. She thought she was done for.

Then the window shrunk in on itself, and he was gone. The usually imperceptible rewinding of time somehow failed to occur. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be here .

Now in the clear, Ladybug quickly wrestled the stranger’s hand away from her shoulder, finding herself face-to-face with a battle-scarred Bunnyx looking at her like it was the first and last time they had ever seen each other.

“Marinette, listen closely because we don’t have much time anymore. If you don’t, the whole world is going to end.”

...

In the Burrow pocket dimension, all of time was accessible to whoever wielded the Rabbit Miraculous of Revelation * . It was a nexus hub between every point in history where the consecutive flow of the past, present, and future all converged into one place: the Center of Time. Ladybug and Bunnyx stood at its heart on a surface of invisible matter, a solid illusion of magic that replaced a palpable floor.

Surrounding the center point of the dimension was a large sphere of over a hundred time windows arranged in a polka-dot pattern beside one another, each one leading to a different era or generation taking place throughout Paris, from before the Earth had even cooled after its initial formation, to whatever fate awaited their world at the end of everything. *

Beyond those windows was a white void of indiscernible nothingness leading to nowhere. It was impossible to discern its distance past the sphere of time portals; it could have been the size of a large room or an uncrossable infinite expanse, and you’d never know for sure. 

Ladybug had found all of it amazing the first time she’d been here with Bunnyx but quickly discovered it wasn’t a place to remain in for long. The power to change the course of the entire world was in the hands of the Rabbit Holder, and that power was immensely tempting to use selfishly. She’d learned that the hard way when she went back through time with Flairmidable to locate Risk’s Akumatized object without hesitation, and the ripple effect of her choice was the catalyst behind her near-death experience. Maybe she had done the right thing, maybe not, but manipulating time to win your battles always comes with a cost, a price you had to pay, and Ladybug’s purse was stained red with her blood and the blood of her teammates to afford the heavy toll.

As the future Holder of the Rabbit Miraculous, Alix Kubdel knew about these consequences better than anyone and had already taught Marinette the importance of respecting the natural flow of events, advice she’d mostly disregarded under the effects of Risk’s powers. So why would she of all people have pulled her from the flames if she’d known it would only replace the bonfire with a more incredible firestorm?

The first thing Ladybug noticed about Bunnyx was how much older she had become since they’d last met. During their only two meetings, she’d guessed Alix was in her mid-late twenties but no more than a decade older than her and her younger counterpart. Now, she looked like she’d kept the same build and figure, yet her raggedly tired face said she’d somehow been prematurely aged twice that original estimate. 

Facial creases and worry lines extended across her warm olive skin, intermingled with various scars and cuts, some of which looked fresh. Her fiery red hair was shaved clean on the sides, arranged with more tousled, messy layers on the top to keep up the tomboyish image she’d had since they first met as kids. The new appearance was surprising, but besides the more recent-looking cuts, those faded ones were nothing Ladybug couldn’t believe had been earned from Alix’s favorite pastime of aggressive roller derby. 

The second, much more concerning realization was that Bunnyx's right hand was missing from her wrist. Nothing but a flat vacancy of bleeding flesh filled the space where her severed appendage should have been. Whatever had cut it off had been sharp enough to slice cleanly through bone and her suit; the wound was perfectly level, and it hadn’t been there for very long, or Bunnyx would already have bled out, not that she was doing so well already. 

“Bunnyx!!” Ladybug gasped as Bunnyx nearly fell over on top of her, slowly easing the time traveler back to her feet. She placed a hand on the back of her shoulder and felt something warm and wet run over her fingers. She peered over and nearly had a double-take response identical to her first reaction. 

Four large gashes were arrayed diagonally across her back from shoulder to waist, each the size of a paintbrush’s bristled flat tip, painting the arctic blue and white of her costume scarlet with an unwelcome tarnish. 

The lengthy grooves were unlike any injury Ladybug had ever seen, and she’d seen a lot of extraordinary things while fighting opponents with bizarre magic abilities. They reminded her of claw marks, but the skin they’d cut through hadn’t been crudely torn or ripped away from the source—it was just gone, like it had been surgically removed and immaculately smoothed over, with no indication other than the bleeding that any extra flesh had ever been there in the first place. 

“Bunnyx, what happened?!” she asked, trying to keep the distress of being pulled from her useless struggle against Monarch, only to be confronted by a heavily marred future version of her friend from overwhelming her further. It was proving to be a treacherous battle uphill.

“It’s not as bad as it looks. Promise,” Bunnyx replied through shaky breaths as Ladybug helped her stand upright. “I’ve taken bigger hits from dragons and dinosaurs. This is just—Ahhh!” She winced as she shifted her posture. “Just a few scraps here and there,” she chuckled unconvincingly. 

Ladybug plainly saw that Bunnyx was anything but just “scraped up.” Though she was still shaken from the sudden change in location, she did her best to cover the gory plateau of her forearm with what remained of her hair ribbons. The magically-generated material was thick enough to stem the bleeding, and Chat Noir’s belt—painfully removed from around her own shoulder—did an even better job at stopping it once tightened around the Rabbit’s Holder’s forearm. Unfortunately, each application was no better than putting a bandaid on an acid burn while ignoring the gunshot wounds on Alix’s back. 

She could do nothing for the chasmal lacerations across Bunnyx’s back. Without proper medical attention, she wasn’t sure how much longer she would manage to survive this. She dared another peek at the claw marks. Something about them was eerily familiar in a hair-raising way. Her blood began to run cold as she considered the possibilities. 

No, it-it couldn’t be . 

“Marinette! Listen to me,” Bunnyx nearly shouted, drawing her attention away from deliberations over the impossible. Ladybug realized how much more serious Alix had become now that her life was in jeopardy; she was using her real name instead of her favorite nickname for her, and her tone was deadly serious, a far cry from her naturally spunky attitude. There was something else too, dangling in the periphery of her eyes, almost an alien sight to Ladybug, who had only seen her enduringly self-confident friend brought this low a handful of times—Fear.

“You need to treat everything I tell you as if all of existence depends on this one moment, got it?” 

Ladybug understood it wasn’t really a question. “I-yes, I understand.”

“Good.” She winced again as she tried to stand on her own, but her legs were too unsteady to take the extra weight, so Ladybug helped her to sit down on the nonexistent floor. Large pools of blood formed under their bodies, giving off an uncomfortable wet heat that mimicked the sensation of soiled trousers. It was easy to ignore under the urgency of the circumstances. 

“You probably already noticed,” Bunnyx began, trying to keep her physical anguish from stifling her words, “that I’m not exactly the Bunnyx you remember meeting those first two times. I’m from the future. The further future, and everything from my time is coming apart.”

A shudder of black dread threatened to undo Ladybug from the cellular bindings holding her body together. Even so, she found her own breathing nearly stopping along with her already battered heart. It was the impossible truth she had dreaded and denied. It was as if all her fears were suddenly being validated by the only person she knew couldn’t be wrong or lying to her, making this horrifying reality all the worse. Her premonition of impending doom had been correct from the start. They’d already lost.

“What happened?” she asked. “What was changed to make everything go so wrong?” She knew Bunnyx wasn’t supposed to share these things with anyone, and that revealing future possibilities or certainties could have significant unintended consequences. But after watching most of her team get completely annihilated with ease, and several of her closest friends nearly killed for their efforts, she was well past caring about someone else’s rules, even those of time and space itself. 

To her surprise, Bunnyx only briefly hesitated before answering with full disclosure. “The Snake,” she revealed, the two simple words sending a cascade of goosebump eruptions across her bruised skin. She immediately knew it was the unequivocal truth. “He was never supposed to take it from Viperion, and the battle…it should never have lasted that long. I’m sorry, Marinette, but I…I think you already know why this happened.”

“ Chloé .” The name left her lips with deadly malignancy like a curse uttered into the sky with the promise of a reprisal long overdue. She didn’t need a time traveler’s affirmation to accept the sincerity of her own conclusion; she was certain she was right. “This is all her fault! I never should have trusted her again!”

Bunnyx didn’t deny it, but her expression read as if she didn’t want to confirm it either. Ladybug thought Alix would have jumped at the chance to scorn Chloé with plenty of well-earned surnoms regarding the chienne they both hated. Maybe it was just from her declining condition, but she almost looked upset and sickened with herself for a reason Ladybug couldn’t understand or make out. She quickly decided it was only because there were more important things to focus on than childish name-calling.

“It wasn’t all because of Chloé,” Bunnyx began to explain, but Ladybug found that hard to believe. “Even with Vesperia, Red Monarch still would have injured most of the team, including Viperion. The only thing that changed was— Nnh! —h-her attempt to kill Gabriel before you could remove the Butterfly Miraculous, and he took that new chance to get away before any of you could stop him.” She paused, looking up at Ladybug with watery eyes filled with pain, both the physical kind and the emotional. 

She wanted to console her friend, but wasn’t sure how to help anymore. Only Bunnyx held the answers now. 

“Not everything happens all at once,” she continued, momentarily forced to spit blood from her mouth, a sign of internal injury. “You need to understand that time is like a flowing river; unnatural ripple effects will always leave their mark, but you might never notice how significant the changes are until it’s too late to stop the flood. The outcome of this fight, the future I’ve seen, it’s….” She shuddered and blinked away tears. “...I couldn’t stop it. I wasn’t there to help when I was needed. They needed me, and I…I was off chasing Rabbits down the Burrow for so many years of my life. They never saw it coming without me.” 

Ladybug wasn’t sure if the excessive blood loss was starting to cause Bunnyx to ramble nonsensically or not because most of her words were coming out as gibberish. She was starting to sound eccentric, and not in a slightly disoriented but innocent way like her kwami Fluff. Alix was clearly in shock, barely able to collect her own thoughts and on the verge of dying. It seemed so impossible that anything, anyone , could bring a person as powerful as the future Rabbit Holder down to this shivering shadow of herself. 

“What does that mean? What-what happened to us, in the future? What did Monarch do?!” 

The mention of Monarch’s name stirred something within Bunnyx, and she looked over Ladybug as if she were assessing a possible threat, probing her over with leaky eyes and tensing up the muscles she still had control over. “You’re real, right?” She murmured carefully like she wasn’t sure she’d get the response she was after. “You’re really Ladybug? I-I’ve seen so many things I never believed were possible, and when I got back, I just wanted everything to be normal again, but all I found was…I was stupid, and I didn’t think…I didn’t listen when I should have.” 

She looked like she wanted to genuinely cry, this woman Ladybug saw as one of the strongest people she’d ever met. Even powerless, Alix was an inspiration and braver than some of the heroes she’d worked with in costume. Watching her break down into this frightened mess as she bled out was like witnessing the shattered moon crash in burning meteors upon a flooded graveyard of a city. 

Suddenly, she realized she was one of the few people who knew exactly how Bunnyx was feeling. 

“Please,” the injured hero pleaded miserably, “tell me I’m not going crazy.”

“No. No, Alix, it’s really me. It’s Minibug, your friend. I’m really here.” She tried to say it with a soothing tone, speaking loud enough that Bunnyx wouldn’t drift off into unconsciousness or…or death, yet remaining as reassuring as she could for the fading Rabbit Holder. In a way, the words were also meant to comfort her as well; she hadn’t been able to help any of her teammates during the battle, even those as severely injured as Luka and Rose. Now, outside of the fighting, this was all she was capable of, even if it was next to pointless. That was her only solitude as she kneeled in the pond of blood surrounding her. 

Bunnyx exhaled a quivering breath of relief, letting her body relax only as much as she could afford to. “I didn’t know if I’d be too late to save you, and I almost was. Without time, without the river on course…,” she raised her remaining hand from the floor and watched streaks of ruby drops trickle down the snow-white glove. “...everything becomes chaos. I wish it wasn’t like that, but time is leaving me, and I have no other choice.”

Ladybug couldn’t make most of that out, but she understood when Bunnyx referred to how she was almost too late to save her from King Monarch’s Second Chance. She still didn’t understand how that was possible; beyond anything short of a condensed black hole, she’d never seen or read any mention of the Snake’s powers being annulled in any capacity. 

Bunnyx seemed to sense her confusion, or maybe she was still too delirious to focus and started babbling up an answer simply by accident. “Rabbits and Snakes have always been natural adversaries; even our similar powers are completely incompatible and defy each other at the worst times. You could say…we get volatile when we’re too close.” She almost smiled, like she was trying to share a private joke where only she understood the punchline, then realized no one else would laugh with her. “Snakes are precise, but they’re only the masters of Linear Time, back and forth, but mostly back. Us Rabbits work outside all that in the Burrow, the source of our Consecutive Time, where everything is possible, and we see all. There are no Second Chances at the center of Everytime because you’re offered so much more…at least until you run out of time.” *

“Bunnyx, don’t talk like that. I can get you help.” Ladybug reached for her yo-yo, brutally reprimanding herself for never using her own Rabbit Miraculous to fix everything sooner. She’d been a fool to avoid its power when it could have kept her friends alive from the very beginning, and she’s watched helplessly as they all suffered for it. Now she needed it more than ever and wouldn’t allow for any more hesitation. 

The yo-yo opened, and she reached for the Miracle Box.

Bunnyx’s arm shot from the air and yanked Ladybug’s hand away from the pink portal. Despite her weakening state, her grip was as firm as a steel cable wrapped around her wrist, and she kept it closed as she pulled Ladybug closer, her words stern and more controlled than her previous utterances. “There’s no point in pitching your hail mary if you’re focusing on the wrong target. You can’t help me; no matter what, I won’t be— mmph! — around for much longer until you fix what’s broken, and to do that….” 

The Rabbit Holder let go and strenuously reached into her side pouch, procuring the Rabbit pocket watch, “...you’ll need some fuel for the road. Counter Clockwise!”

Ladybug watched with alarmed surprise as Bunnyx’s costume dematerialized in a flash of brilliant blue light. Without the magical aid and strength the suit provided, Alix, whose outfit changed into a sleeveless black biker vest along with ripped jeans and combat boots, all now seeping with blood, sagged onto her back from the full weight of her injuries. Fluff hovered next to her head, clasping her whiskers with little arms and chittering frantically to her Holder. “Oh dear-oh dear-oh dear, this is all wrong, Alix, all wrong!” 

“I know…Big Ears, but…it’s okay. Ladybug’s g-gonna…make this right…for everybody.” Alix tried grabbing something from her jacket pocket but was too weak to move her arm anymore and growled softly in defeat. “My…pocket, if you don’t…mind.” 

Ladybug reached in and procured a single small carrot, Fluff’s favorite snack when recharging. Recharging…her earrings! They’d never finished their countdown! Somehow she hadn’t changed back after having only seconds left to go. With all her attention on Bunnyx, she hadn’t even noticed!

“It’s all…I have left…to offer,” said Alix as a crimson tear wept from the corner of her mouth. “In here…all clocks stop…counting the minutes, but…out there…you’ll need your…L-Lucky Charm…to keep fighting…and save th-them.”*

“Alix…” Ladybug took the carrots and wrapped her hands around the time traveler’s. They began to tremble with another round of unbearable heartbreak, one of too many she’d been forced to experience tonight. Emotion was the gift that kept on giving and the curse that took just as much as it gave out to the heart. How could she let Alix do this to herself, much less give up on her that easily? “If I remove my costume, your hand will bleed out. You’ll die! Please, let me find another way!”

Alix chuckled ruefully, attempting to squeeze Ladybug’s hand with a grip that felt as soft as a goodbye kiss, a strangely tender and sweet gesture for someone with such a rough and tough personality. “Dead or dying…I’m already done for. It‘s up…to you to…bring me back. Saving me now…means nothing. So…please, let me see my f-friend’s face.”

It sounded like insanity, but Alix was right—what happened to her here and now didn’t matter. According to the Rabbit’s lore from the Grimoire and her own experiences, fixing the past and present was the only way to save the future. It-it didn’t matter if Alix died now or later, not with the bigger picture already in the frame. 

“Spots Off.”

Alix looked relieved as she gazed at Marinette’s unmasked face and smiled even as she was reaching the end of the line, her uncovered wound oozing out what remained of her existence. Marinette tried to hold herself together for both their sakes, but tears came forth in defiance of her will, splashed onto her thighs as her knees continued to soak themselves red. Even if she already knew how to save Alix, the idea of this alone made her feel awful, like she was still letting her friend die a slow, horrible death because of something she still didn’t understand the full ramifications of. 

Alix’s final words were heavy gasps for breath, enough to finish what she’d started, the mission that had cost her her life. “Choose your…moment well. One s-shot…make it c-count…but remember…don’t let… her …stop you.”

“I-I promise, Alix, I will save you. I’m going to save everyone.”

Alix exhaled a weighty sigh of relief and stared up into the dome of windows up above, but her eyes were unfocused and looking at none of them directly. “Eternity…suddenly feels…like an…instant. Thank…you…for…trust...”  

Her voice cut out before she finished, and her body went limp in Marinette’s arms, who could barely hold back a new round of choking sobs. 

Tikki, who, like her Holder, had been thrust away from the fight into a whole new and inconceivable nightmare scenario, drifted wearily over to Fluff and pulled themselves tightly together, the rabbit keeping her gaze upon her Holder’s empty body.  

Marinette didn’t want to do this anymore. Kagami, Rose, Luka, Kim, Alya; within one night, she’s witnessed each one of them be torn to pieces, battered beyond recognition, defiled in body and spirit, and still more was asked of her. It was almost too much; no human being should ever have to witness such wicked atrocities committed on so many good people. 

She was tired. The thought of another fight made her injured leg and shoulder throb angrily in protest, and her throat itch in discomfort. She rubbed at it, barely noticing the blood still on her hands, as if it even mattered while she was surrounded by the stuff, and once again worried to herself that no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn’t be enough.

She knew that from the beginning, she had been a failure. She’d failed to stop Félix from stealing the Miraculous, failed to keep Hawk Moth from hurting Adrien and kidnapping Alya, and failed to defeat Monarch before he could brutalize and kill her friends. Now, Alix had told her she’d even failed to prevent the future of Paris from turning into something she couldn’t bear imagining. 

What kind of future was she trying to prevent? She didn’t know, but looking at what had been done to Alix, the amount of pain she must have died in, she realized she didn’t need to know. Any world where her closest allies were still being led to slaughter was a world that should never be allowed to become their reality. 

There was a reason ordinary people needed heroes like her, someone willing to dive headfirst into the blazing inferno with no guarantee they’d come out safe on the other side. This was why Master Fu had chosen her that day when she’d stood up to Hawk Moth’s very first Akuma, a monster whose flesh was stone with a matching heart fueled by limitless rage, and she hadn’t backed down even when she could have died. * People like her were made to fight the horrors no one else could; villains like Gabriel Agreste would never be stopped by anyone else who lacked the resolve and power she’d been gifted. 

Choosing to do nothing would only waste the trust and responsibility she’d upheld for the last two years in defiance of Hawk Moth’s cruelty. Whatever she could do to save her friends was the right choice to make, and that meant there was no choice at all. 

Through a massive influx of fatigue, Marinette forced her arm to hand the carrot Alix had gifted to Tikki, who examined it with somber eyes as she took it, then looked over Marinette with tired features that rivaled her own. Neither of them said anything, though it was clear they wanted to comfort each other but lacked any meaningful way to do it after so much gratuitous bloodshed, so silence prevailed instead. 

As Tikki slowly ate the carrot, Marrinette’s gaze turned to Fluff, who was still staring at the body of her dead Holder, an indecipherable expression of dull sorrow lining her little face, though it was hard to tell if she was actually sad or not. It sounded appalling to suggest that, but Fluff was the most confusing of all the kwamis, and half of what she did or said rarely made sense at the time. It was also very possible that, thanks to her time-travel powers, she was the oldest of all the kwamis, and had already seen countless Rabbit Holders meet an early demise in similar grisly fashion. 

She must have felt awful, though, like any person should after losing their partner, but she said nothing, and Marinette got the sense there was a reason for that.

“Fluff,” she spoke up, trying to console the white rabbit, if that was even possible right now. “I’m so, so sorry for your loss.”

“My loss, your loss, everyone’s loss for losing.” Fluff turned herself halfway away from the corpse and peered sideways at Marinette like she was trying to keep her attention on both women at once or just couldn’t bring herself to look directly at either of them. “Yesterday is too soon to say goodbye, but here we are today, all alone, and the hole grows deeper.”

That didn’t sound like Fluff’s usual nonsense. A figurative metaphor for heartbreak, perhaps, but Marinette understood the sentiment and reciprocated it wholly. This wasn’t ‘her’ Alix, but death was something she refused to take lightly, or else she might forget all life was sacred and that she had the duty of protecting it. The sacrifice of a hero like Bunnyx shouldn’t be overlooked or made in vain. This was now her fight to finish. 

“Fluff, I’m going to beat Monarch this time, I promise you. We won’t let him get away with this madness any longer.”

The rabbit turned her full attention to Marinette, her ocean-colored gaze peering past her human form into her very soul, something only a creature as ancient as a kwami could do intentionally, and Marinette felt the full weight of her judgment upon her very being. There was no clear sign of what she was thinking, no visible hint of concern, anger, or doubt. 

There was little sense in trying to decipher an enigma like the white rabbit. Still, if Marinette had to guess, she’d say Fluff was deeply perturbed by something invisible to herself, maybe concerning the future she and Alix had traveled from. 

Marinette wanted so badly to ask her who had killed Bunnyx, to know if her suspicion was correct, even as she prayed it wasn’t. She’d seen Chat Noir and Purple Tigress make similar scars, but she instinctively knew neither could have done this. The only other option scared her too much to even put into words, a monster from a future she’d left far behind in the past, but the memory of what she’d seen had never disappeared. If she was right, if Bunnyx’s future was anything like what she’d experienced, it meant she had to stop this. She had to save her partner from becoming… him .

‘You can never escape me, Marinette. I’ll find you wherever you go .’

“Marinette?” Tikki whispered, finished with her carrot. “Are you ready?”

“Yes. Yes, I’m ready, Tikki. Let’s do this.”

As soon as her yo-yo was in hand, Ladybug pulled out the Rabbit Miraculous and watched as Fluff, her Fluff, manifested into form next to her and Alix’s body. When the kwami took her first look at the scene before her, she was left aghast in horrified confusion. Then she saw the original Fluff, whose expression didn’t alter a hair as her twin gawked back. Somehow, a silent message was passed between them, and Ladybug’s Fluff didn’t speak a word as she and Tikki were Unified together. 

Bunny Bug gave Alix’s body one last remorseful look as she closed her blank eyes and rose from the lake of blood encircling her.* “What will you do now?” she asked the other Fluff, realizing the kwami probably couldn’t travel with her even if she wanted to, but she wasn’t getting the sense that she did. 

Fluff didn’t answer. Instead, the last words she granted Ladybug were ones of ominous caution. “One plus one always equals disaster,” she remarked cryptically, her tone stiff but placid. “Alix offered you salvation or damnation without understanding the difference. I’m not certain you will either. If you fall down this rabbit hole, only luck can save us all.”

Bunny Bug understood none of that, but she knew a warning when she heard one. Had Alix kept something from her she should know? She couldn’t walk into this half-blind. Too much was riding on her success.

“What does that mean?” she asked, receiving no response. “Fluff, please, just tell me—”

“Go.” Fluff was angry now, and her tiny power began to radiate with invisible power like that of a giant. “Do what you must, and do it fast. Time is running out.”

Bunny Bug was at a loss for words. She wanted to help Fluff in any way she could, but the kwami was making it clear she didn’t want anything from her, and it was best if she left now before she got angrier. 

Bunny Bug offered one last, unheeded glance of sympathy before approaching one of the many time windows surrounding them. She needed to find the perfect moment, one where she’d have the best chance of stopping Monarch before he could get the Snake Miraculous and turn into that… thing that nearly killed Rena Verte. She needed a point where his physical body was not just out in the open—he needed to be vulnerable. 

Her contemplation was brief, and the answer instantly came to her. She knew where she needed to go to stop this and keep her promise to Bunnyx. 

~~~

Fluff watched as Bunny Bug disappeared through her portal. As soon as it closed, one of the windows turned to hazy static, shortly followed by another, then another. She knew it wouldn’t be long before all of time leading from the Burrow, which was all of time, was gone as well.

She watched Alix’s body slowly begin to dissipate, then looked at her hands as they did the same. Being wiped away from existence felt like nothing. There was nothing to feel, not anymore. Alix had been lucky in a way, dying with hope in her heart after it had almost been entirely ripped away from them both. After all they had seen, she’d hoped Alix would have learned the cost of abusing her power and the consequences she had just unleashed, but Fluff had witnessed many times what desperation did to the desperate when their hope was nearly gone. Alix had made her choices, and she had allowed her to make them. She was just as culpable in this crime as the dead human. 

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be the ones forced to suffer for it.

As Fluff’s torso began to disappear, the unnoticed scars on her back, scars that, if Marinette had looked closer, may have confirmed her dreadful suspicions, disappeared as well, allowing the white rabbit one last vestige of relief before she was gone forever. 

Taking one more look at the window Bunny Bug had disappeared though, Fluff spoke her final words as her head faded into the void of nothingness awaiting her on the other side of everything. 

“I hope you were right to do this, Alix. If not, the only person poor Marinette will have left to blame is herself.”

Chapter Text

Bunny Bug had chosen her moment of egress from the Burrow perfectly. Not only would she be able to keep Monarch from taking the Snake Miraculous, as he would already be at his weakest, but she could also finally confront the person behind his escape like she should have from the beginning and teach Chloé Bourgeois exactly why she didn’t deserve to be a hero. 

Her Burrow hole placed her right in front of the assembly of heroes standing before a seemingly defeated Monarch, just seconds after her past self had purified the twin akumas and stripped Red Monarch of his Catalyst-enhanced supercharge. She entered into the storming night just after Rena Verte had asked what they were going to do with their beaten adversary, right at the instant Queen Bee had responded by taking the broken end of Monarch’s cane and rushed forward, prepared to place the blade up against his throat, until Bunny Bug intercepted her advance. 

Standing between Chloé and Monarch, she caught the Bee Holder’s arm as it attempted to meet his neck, causing the entire group to react with total surprise and disbelief at the sight of her astonishing arrival.

Queen Bee was the first to exclaim her confusion at Bunny Bug’s sudden appearance as the newcomer’s grip wrapped tightly around her wrist. “Wh-what?! Who—?”

Bunny Bug didn’t give her the satisfaction of an answer; there was no time for one, and Chloé was the least deserving of an explanation. Without speaking, she squeezed tightly on Queen Bee’s pressure points, eliciting a yelp! as her fingers unclenched and dropped the makeshift shiv into Bunny’s other hand. 

Before the others could also react, she turned to look down upon a bewildered Monarch, now out of tricks and too weak to stop her as, in a moment of long-overdue triumph, she finally stripped him of the Butterfly Miraculous. 

Everyone stared in awe as amethyst light flared around Monarch, coalescing into the doll-sized form of a winged purple kwami none of them had ever seen in the flesh but had still spent over two years trying to rescue from his kidnapper. As the creature opened his dark eyes, he was greeted with the sight of his liberators all gawking while his former master lay bent on his knees beneath him. Gabriel Agreste could no longer bend the little butterfly to his inescapable service. 

Nooroo, the Kwami of Transmission, was finally free.

To Bunny Bug and most likely everyone else there, this scene could barely be registered as real despite all the visual evidence right in front of them. After so many setbacks, so much chaos and subversion, the man who called himself Hawk Moth, Shadow Moth, and Monarch, was collapsed on the ground with barely a hint of energy still present in his battered shell of a body. 

Below the neck, he looked as he always did; impeccably dressed in one of his finest Gabriel suits, one he must have stolen recently as it was still in perfect condition. The rest of him, however, was the complete opposite in comparison.

Gabriel’s angularly austere face looked like it had been trampled by a herd of wild animals; in fact, it barely even looked like a face anymore, more resemblant of several squashed vegetables all blended together in a grotesque assortment of spoiled waste. It was a bruised and bleeding melange of various colors: bright reds and yellows leaking from multiple wounds, while sickly purple veins of magic poisoning predominated under most of his visible flesh, all thanks to his careless use of the stolen Miraculous jewels. Several of his pristinely clean teeth were now jagged roots or missing entirely, the sore gums discharging blood nearly as fast as his mouth could fill up to its brim, like an overflowing bird bath. One of his eyes was entirely swollen shut, the other little better, and his nose was now a deformed piece of meat bent so far to the left after Bull Noir’s headbutt that Bunny Bug could make out bone through the gaping breach on the bridge. It would probably take a miracle for any of his senses to ever function correctly again. 

Perceiving what had been done to his former captor, Nooroo was beginning to realize his liberation wasn’t some hoax or cruel deception—this was real. He was really free at last.

With wide, unblinking eyes, he shifted his gaze between Gabriel and the others, no doubt having some difficulty coming to terms with his newfound independence after so many years stuck in captivity. “My-my bonds, I can…no longer feel his restraints upon me.” A bead of liquid violet slid down his cheek, then another, until his lilac face was gushing forth tears like the thunderstorm overhead, each one a day of his life he’d spent alone under the control of a remorseless tyrant who abused him and his cosmic powers. There were so many, for it was so much for him to handle all at once. “You…you saved me!”

Setting aside her rage momentarily, Bunny Bug embraced the little kwami wholeheartedly. Initially, she was gentle, not wishing to scare or hurt him accidentally. As Nooroo held onto her tighter and tighter, she reciprocated with increasing compassion for him and what he’d been through, letting him know through her actions instead of words that he wasn’t alone anymore. She had him and would not let go. His family was here for him, now and forever. 

“Thank you, thank you so much! Thank you, thank you.”

Nooroo continued to babble his gratitude into her arms as Bunny Bug turned herself around to confront the others—with Chloé particularly in mind—but found all of them were now appraising her with more suspicion and ambiguity than the same aghast surprise from before. Despite their exhaustion, they were each poised to fight, muscles tensed up and braced for an attack that hadn’t happened yet and never would, but she realized none of them could know this. This was not the response she’d predicted, but in hindsight, it should have been the one she expected. 

“Milady?” Bull Noir asked skeptically, his green eyes scanning her over and his nose twitching as he took in her scent, attempting to verify whether or not she was who she appeared to be. “Is that really you?”

The aftereffects of Monarch’s first deception must’ve still lingered with Noir, as his eyes shifted from her to Rena Verte, glaring dangerously as he began to doubt the veracity of her existence as well. 

Rena appeared just as disturbed as he was by the time traveler’s abrupt arrival but found Noir’s quiet probing of her identity offensive. “Hey, I’m not another Mirage, Bull-boy. You destroyed the flute corrupting me, remember?”

“Yeah, but I never saw you get de-Akumatized. What if you’re just another ploy by Monarch to keep us off guard and the real Alya was never even here?”

Rena rolled her eyes but remained alert, training them back onto Bunny Bug once finished with her display of frustration. “God, how can you be so dense after everything that’s happened? It’s me , hairball-head!”

Noir bristled, still not entirely convinced, but he couldn’t argue that her willful attitude was a flawless imitation, at the least. His luminous gaze paused once more on the newcomer before glancing at his partner. “What do you think, Ladybug?”

By this point, both versions of Marinette had remained the quietest so far, and only Bunny Bug could understand the reasons behind their shared silence. Her own was of the more logical sort; this Ladybug had questions that she couldn’t, but moreso didn’t want to answer for them. The amount of grisly and traumatizing details she had witnessed in the ten minutes since she’d been standing where her prior self currently stood were too numerous and awful to recount aloud, and that was excluding the fact that sharing such details would only harm the timeline she was presently trying to save. 

The slightly younger Ladybug, on the other hand, this perfect reflection of herself from what already felt like ages ago, was silent for an almost equally grim reason, one that Bunny Bug knew she would also be subjected to if in her double’s shoes. Like Bunnyx had been for her earlier, Bunny’s presence here was an affirmation that things had gone terribly wrong in the future and that somehow, even though they had Monarch on his knees right now, they had still failed. Trying to wrap their identical heads around that and accept it was something she hadn’t even finished doing herself. 

For Ladybug, the sight of herself having finally used the Rabbit Miraculous must have been harrowingly unnerving, but unlike the others, she didn’t seem to think this was a trap. Instinctively, each knew they were the genuine article, for it wasn’t the first time they’d come face-to-face with themselves with time travel involved. Awkwardly but still sensibly, thinking about Timebreaker only made Bunny Bug miss Alix more. 

Ladybug strode over to Bunny Bug, keeping their eyes locked together as if a magnetic force pulled their pupils forward like the navigation of a compass. Neither could look away; the mere idea of doing so was a pale afterthought skimming along their conscious mind but never breaking through. There were few sights as uncanny as meeting yourself, and it was an experience not easily interrupted. One would want answers, the other could give none, but the desire to learn more was always there, entirely undissuaded.

“Your…eyes,” Ladybug murmured so quietly it couldn’t have been intentional.

“What?”

“I…n-never mind,” Ladybug adjusted quickly. “Why are you here? What happened?” Her question was an unsettling echo of the same thing she’d asked Bunnyx, minus the perturbing fear that had taken hold as she watched her friend die. No doubt, Bunny Bug thought, she was preparing for the worst news imaginable, provided that the time traveler was willing to share anything of substance about their destiny. For the best of reason—the safety of the timeline and their sanity—Bunny Bug held her tongue tightly. 

“I’m sorry, but you all should know I can’t say anything about that,” she pointed out, prompting further looks of wary skepticism from Bull Noir and Rena Verte, but only a dour glance of pathos from Ladybug, which entirely replaced the ecstasies of their presumed victory that had been present in her system less than a minute beforehand. If Bunny Bug was still in her shoes, she’d be wondering how it all went wrong, likely placing the crux of the blame on herself without stopping to consider otherwise. That’s what good leaders did: taking responsibility for the team's collective failure. But in this case, Bunny Bug knew better than that. It wasn’t her fault; it wasn’t the team’s either. The real fault belonged to one among them who wasn’t one of them and hadn’t been for a long, long time. 

Without realizing it at first, Bunny Bug’s gaze had turned upon Queen Bee, who was carefully massaging her wrist after having it aggressively split apart from the fragment of metal she’d intended to kill Gabriel with. Even now, she seemed more interested in him than the time traveler who’d disarmed her, glaring daggers at his pulpy visage and scowling deeply, apparently unaware of the jewel in her hair counting down to its final seconds of charge until de-transformation. Contrarily, Bunny Bug started paying very close attention to the countdown, waiting for the perfect moment before she acted.

Gently as possible, Bunny moved Nooroo away from herself and held him and the Butterfly Miraculous out for Ladybug to receive. The little kwami was still crying; the bottom half of his face looked like the edges of a water fountain as tears spilled over the sides, supplemented by the downpour from above. Ladybug took Nooroo with both hands, allowing Rena to safeguard the winged brooch along with the Tiger Miraculous while she helped the tiny being relax under the shadow of the night storm. Together, the two women huddled over Nooroo, speaking in soft, friendly voices as they inquired about his condition and any immediate needs.

Bull Noir, however, kept all his focus on Bunny Bug as she began moving closer to Queen Bee, his nerves still on edge and his animal instincts warning him something about this version of Ladybug wasn’t the same as his own. But instead of speaking up, he remained in place, watching her from a short distance like a wild creature judging a packmate. Bunny Bug was glad he would be too late to get in her way because he certainly would if he understood her intentions.

What she was about to do was juvenile, dishonorable, and a complete abuse of her authority. However, none of that was even considered as her blood started boiling again. With discipline thrown all the way out the door, Bunny Bug could no longer keep the rising tide of hot anger from overwhelming her rational thinking, not that she would care even if she could still think straight. She was done with this perennial process of allowing Chloé leniency out of misplaced pity just to keep watching her selfishly lose sight of the bigger picture and ruin everyone’s lives in the process. She’d just witnessed a good woman die so she could be here, and before that, watched as a maniacal beast of a man killed one ally and skewered another, all because “Queen Bee” was only thinking of herself! She didn’t care if Chloé might have died as well—her actions were the reason for that! She got herself killed!  

No more patience, no more silence. Before she ensured everything was fixed and everyone was safe with her Lucky Charm, this time for good, she would teach Chloé Bourgeois a lesson she would never let her forget.

Standing directly in front of the gold and black-striped Bee Holder, Queen Bee had to reluctantly shift her attention from Gabriel to Bunny Bug, an even mixture of confusion and harsh frustration clouding her resplendent beauty, though her mask still dazzled with its crystalline honeycomb pattern under the Tower’s vast array of huge lights. Her comb beeped louder and louder, but she still didn’t seem to notice it, or maybe she thought she had no reason to care since everyone present already knew her identity. Her negligence only highlighted another distinct and reprimandable flaw in her conduct.

“Well?” Chloé demanded, “What do you want?” Her respect for the heroine as Ladybug was largely replaced with pained irritation, her words containing only the faintest bit of apprehension by the end, as if she actually felt some remorse over her attempted actions. For Bunny Bug, it was too late for regrets from either of them. 

Beep, beep, beep!

“Hell-ooo?” Queen Bee huffed. “Are those outrageous ears of yours not tuning in correctly? I said, what do you want—?”

This is what I want , something seethed violently in the back of her head, almost as familiar as her own voice.

With one second left, she threw her punch.

The fury that propelled her arm forward was so great that Queen Bee’s head snapped back with tremendous force, the crunch of facial bones fully audible to the sensitive ears she had just been mocking. Bunny Bug hadn’t held anything back from the strike; she knew Chloé could take it while transformed, but had timed the blow perfectly to just before the comb ran out of power and left her powerless and weak, unable to retaliate. It was a cowardly move, but effective nonetheless and immensely satisfying, to say the least—almost concerningly so. 

As Queen Bee fell backward, every trace of her costume burned away in brilliant gold; the last time she would ever wear it, Bunny Bug promised herself. She hit the ground hard, the puddles she splashed into doing little to cushion her from the solid metal beneath and only served to soak her fuzzy yellow night robe in freezing water.

“NO!!” As Bunny had half-expected, Bull Noir pounced at her from behind, sailing through the air with claws extended to tear her apart. But she was prepared for this. Before he could break off his lunge, she opened her parasol in time for him to crash into it, using his momentum to twist him overhead and slam him into the ground next to Chloé. She hadn’t wanted to hurt her friend, but she needed him dazed, or he’d just attack her again without thinking first.

Ironically, she hadn’t expected Ladybug to place her in a chokehold with one arm while restraining her own arm with the other. Still, she didn’t bother trying to twist herself free even as her neck was painfully compressed for the second time that night; they needed to understand she wasn’t looking for a fight. 

“What the HELL are you doing?!!?” Ladybug shouted right in Bunny Bug’s ear, her accusingly severe tone pounding into her eardrum like a foghorn. “You can’t just attack someone like that! There’s no reason to—!”

“YES, there is!” Bunny Bug yelled back, her burning stare fixed upon the battered former Bee Holder as she tried to sit up. A thin river of blood was already snaking down along her upper lip onto her sodden robe, the rich material absorbing the red and blending it into a vivid sunset orange. Struggling, Noir assisted her upright, only infuriating BB even more as she watched her partner display kindness to her childhood bully. “She deserves that and more! You have no idea!”

“Wh-what are you thaying?” Chloé managed to ask weakly, her words only discernible to those with enhanced hearing while the storm still raged in the sky. Pollen buzzed around her head in concern while an infuriated Noir glared a raging tempest of his own at their supposed savior. “I-I thought ith wath over. Whe won—”

“WE?!!” Bunny Bug snapped back at her. “There is no ‘we’ here, Chloé. The team defeated Monarch without you; if you weren’t about to interfere, he would have stayed down, but you couldn’t help yourself, could you?!”

That allegation garnered a few gasps and shocked faces. Bunny Bug had just indirectly disclosed information about the future, something she’d just claimed she couldn’t do—a principle every Rabbit Holder adhered to as a cardinal tenet of their duty. She wasn’t supposed to ignore this, but her reasons for doing so still seemed justifiable in her mind as her anger remained white-hot. Her Miracle Cure: she believed it would fix everything from her friend’s injuries (even Chloe’s , which was only one reason she’d let loose) to the vague hints of her past they weren’t supposed to know about. Even if they didn’t forget, they’d learn nothing more specific than that about the nightmare she’d escaped from.

“I don’t underthstand.” Chloé winced as she wiped the trickling flow under her nose with her canary sleeve. Her broken nose contorted her speech into messy syllables. “I-I jutht wanted him to—”

“I know what you wanted,” Bunny Bug growled fiercely. “You wanted revenge, and you placed it over the responsibilities we uphold every day as Paris’s protectors, not its executioners. That speech you gave earlier, the one where you said you were ‘ trying ’ to prove you were a hero? I didn’t see it before, but I do now. Like everything, it was all about you! Your lack of accountability! Your selfish need to be beloved by everyone! And when you realized everyone irreparably hates you , you thought you could reinvent yourself as Queen Bee, and they would love you instead. But the suit doesn’t change who you are, Chloé—you’re still just a parasite! ”

A deep, bestial sound emanated from the back of Bull Noir’s throat in response to her vicious derision. “You know what?!” he snarled, “I think you’ve been lying to us this whole time, ‘Ladybug.’ This is exactly the sort of trick Monarch just pulled on us; he pretended we defeated him the first time, but it was just a Mirage, and you are too!”

“No, I’m real, and right now, I’m the only one not defending this sorcière from getting what she deserves! You’ve always been too soft on her, Noir, and she’s learned nothing! She got our Master killed over a tantrum, and you still forgave her for it!”*

“Chloé didn’t kill Master Fu—Hawk Moth did! He’s the one to blame, not her. I thought you understood that—”

“Two minutes!” she warned, and the others went quiet, confused. “All it took was two fucking minutes to see I made a mistake allowing you to use the Bee Miraculous tonight.” Her words were directed right at the shivering blonde. “You’ve saved the day with us a handful of times, but the amount of Akuma attacks you’re responsible for alone is almost incomprehensible; all of Paris would despise you if they realized that, and if you hadn’t stolen the Bee that first time, I never would have allowed you to wear it in the first place, ever .” She leaned away forward from her subduer as much as she could. “Vesperia makes a better hero than you ever will!” 

“That’s enough,” the other Ladybug hissed as Chloé’s deformed cries grew louder, retightening the constrictive hold. “You don’t need to do this to her—not right now.” 

Bunny Bug heard the hesitation in her voice even as she said it. Despite the ten minutes that separated them chronologically, they were still the same person, and she knew her past self perceived Chloé the same way she did. She should agree with her on all these points. The only difference was that she hadn’t been pushed to the breaking point like Bunny had; she didn’t understand that tolerating that bête noir any further would have become the biggest mistake of their life if Bunnyx hadn’t explained the consequences, giving her a chance to preemptively stop Chloé before she gave Gabriel the opening to escape.

However, Ladybug was right—she should stop, but she didn’t want to. Years of repressed hatred was blossoming to the surface in potent flares of anger; the rapture of finally setting it free overwhelmed her in its throes, giving her already unsteady mind the impression she needed more of it. The experiences of the night were beginning to fray the seams of her psyche; unlike veteran time travelers such as Viperion or Bunnyx, who could use their abilities whenever called for and understood the complexities of navigating the past, Bunny Bug had endured every individual traumatic event in one full duration before Unifying with Fluff. Her willpower had been repeatedly clobbered and crushed, and she was left without either the motivation or necessary experience to properly handle the nuances of time travel. 

Though none of them except maybe Bull Noir would have believed or accepted it, Gabriel Agreste, still sunken on his knees while guarded vigilantly by Rena Verte, was the only one among them who could comprehend the maddening rage consuming his adversary like an infection, slowly rotting away everything that made her pure of heart. He’d seen it before in himself, only admitting so in private moments at the very beginning of his crusade for the Miraculous. He, too, chose to ignore the warning signs, and it had left him broken and obsessed, fanning the flames of vengeance with his growing insanity.

With enough fear, desperation, and someone to blame for it all, even the bravest heroes in Paris were sure to fall victim to themselves.

But Gabriel was still sane enough to recognize an opportunity when he saw one. All he had to do was watch and wait for the heroes to inadvertently give him his opening. 

Still inhibited from moving while in Ladybug’s grip, Bunny Bug couldn’t reach any of her weapons to escape even if she tried, but she knew in just a few moments, her captor would be forced to let her go or risk exposing herself out in the open.

Beep. Beep. Beep .

“Let me go,” Bunny Bug said calmly, though she still felt anything but, her gaze remaining carefully transfixed on Chloé, who continued to wheeze out sobs through her broken nose, much to the alarm of Bull Noir and Pollen. “If you don’t, they’ll both see you, see us , before I can set everything right. It’s the only way to fix this before it’s too late for the others.” 

Ladybug wavered, her chokehold slackening the barest amount, and a peal of thunder rang above them as if signaling the start of a countdown. Bull Noir looked up at them both, his feline gaze tracking between them like spotlights in the dark. 

“My Lady?” Noir looked at Ladybug pleadingly; the expression on his face was almost like a young child’s begging not to be left alone, waiting for a solemn promise to be kept as intended. It didn’t matter that Gabriel already knew, but Chloé didn’t and shouldn’t, even if they were on better terms. Bunny Bug almost felt bad about manipulating her counterpart like this, but it was for the best. 

“I’m sorry, Chaton,” Ladybug said wistfully, the bitterness in her voice entirely recognizable to everyone around her, and Noir drooped his head, completely dejected. “It just can’t be now.” 

She let Bunny Bug go, giving her future self a deep scowl of distaste before motioning to the counterpart’s yo-yo. “Alright, me —fix this. Save our friends.” 

That was her plan, but first, she had to finish what she’d started, and she wouldn’t risk the Lucky Charm erasing her chance to do so once she and Ladybug were merged into the same person again. She was focused now, so she believed, and for a time, genuinely thought what came next was the right thing to do.

“Chloé Bourgeois,” her voice was ice cold and lacked any shred of sympathy. “Though you may not be aware of the full repercussions behind your actions, your complete incompetence tonight has demonstrated you are unfit to wield the power of the Miraculous in your possession. As Guardian of the Miracle Box, I hereby renounce your Holdership of the Bee Miraculous, permanently." *

“WHAT!!” A collective surge of outrage erupted from the entire group, Chloé’s shouts being the loudest despite how much it must have hurt her face to exhibit such dismay. Bull Noir’s eyes grew so large and bright it was almost painful to look at them directly; Ladybug was stunned to the spot, clearly distressed but unable to interject without wasting time she didn’t have; even Rena Verte seemed shocked that her best friend, known for her kind and understanding demeanor towards other, would suddenly act so viscerally to another person. Marinette had never expressed this level of contempt, ever. 

Gabriel watched all this discreetly, feigning more pain and sedation than he was currently in. Though he was racked with outstanding injuries, he wouldn’t stop until he had what he wanted or was dead, and the latter wasn’t even a consideration to his deranged brain. The opportunity to strike was close; he could sense it coming, but it wasn’t here just yet. A little more patience, and he was certain it would come to him. 

”You can’t do thith!” Chloé wailed, appearing like a small blotch of color pressed between the shelter of Bull Noir’s shadowed body bent over her and the iron-gray floor beneath. “I-I-I’ll make ith up to you, I thwear! I’ll prouve to you—!” 

“All you’ve proven tonight, Chloé,” Bunny Bug interjected with frost still coating her words, “is that you never deserved to be here in the first place. It’s done. You’re not getting any more second chances.” 

With that, she tossed her white-spotted yo-yo into the air, oblivious that she’d just created a brief but salient opening and, in her carelessness, the inspiration needed for the fight to begin anew.

“LOOK OUT!!”

Bunny Bug didn’t recognize who shouted out the warning—it all happened so fast that, as she was still distracted by the Lucky Charm forming above her, she didn’t realize what had happened until it was too late to stop it. 

With Rena Verte left alone holding the Butterfly Miraculous while the others were focused on Bunny Bug’s altercation with Chloé, no one could assist her in guarding their wounded prisoner, who wasn’t as thoroughly vanquished as they all thought. As the sky around them was being highlighted by rosy pink fluorescence, Gabriel Agreste knew his moment had come. In one swift motion, he pushed himself up from the ground and barged shoulder-first into Rena’s flank.

The impact was like throwing a foam football at a linebacker. Unified with the sturdy fortitude of the Turtle Miraculous, the feeble Gabriel had no chance of knocking Rena off balance, much less hurting her, but that wasn’t his intention. He just needed the surprise collision to jolt her into dropping the precious purple jewel she’d been clenching in her fist. 

“NO!!” Rena shouted, but it was too little, too late. With dripping-wet hands, Gabriel somehow managed to snag the locket brooch out of the rain as he slid almost frictionless across the platform, his momentum taking him just far enough away that he was out of Rena’s reach before she could catch him. By then, he had already hooked it back onto his shirt, spitting out his transformation phrase with spiteful gaiety.

“Dhak Whingth, WISE!!”

“NO!! NNNOOOOOo—!!!” The heartrending shriek came from poor Nooroo, who had escaped his subjugation from Gabriel just moments ago, only to be made his slave once again as he was dragged away back into his home and prison. His screams would echo in their nightmares for weeks. 

Ladybug was the first to charge at Monarch. Though Rena Verte was closer, Ladybug moved with the speed of a bullet, so fast that it should have been impossible for anyone to notice something more observable than the blur of color she had become. 

But somehow, Monarch saw her coming. 

Just as Bunny Bug’s Lucky Charm had just materialized and dropped into her hand, her fist instinctively curling around a short wooden handle, a metallic distortion slashed through the drizzled air, cleaving the space before Monarch in a wide arc as if he were trying to cut through the air itself with his sword. But in actuality, it was Ladybug’s throat that had been cut, and she dropped to the ground in a wet flop before his feet.

Oh God , Bunny Bug realized within a nanosecond. He just killed me . 

“LADYBUG!!” This time, the screams came simultaneously from Rena and Bull Noir, who scrambled from their spots to attack the revived villain in a desperate retaliation but were again too slow. Monarch’s physical weakness beguiled his inner strength; though Rena’s flute managed to bash against his head with what should have been a decisive blow, Monarch just shook it off and grabbed her arm, throwing her into Noir and sending them both hurtling to the ground like a heavy sack of bricks.

Before she had even realized her body was in motion, Bunny Bug was sprinting after Monarch, who had lept into the air in a direction she immediately recognized. He was heading right for Viperion again.

No, NOT again! Her inner voice was blaring like a siren in her head—this wasn’t supposed to be happening! She’d stopped him! They’d beaten him!

No , another voice whispered, more condescending in tone than the angry one that urged her to attack Chloé had been, yet still familiar. You stopped Chloé, not Gabriel . He was already beaten, until you let your guard down and he got away . 

But she was supposed to stop Chloé—that’s what Bunnyx had told her, and she’d done that! She didn’t understand what she’d done wrong! 

Did she really say that ? The voice asked. Or is that just what you wanted to hear?

Bunny Bug could spare no time to evaluate her actions next to the truth, because regardless of whatever the truth was, she could only focus on what was happening now, which meant stopping Monarch before he changed into an unstoppable monster. 

Being Unified with the Rabbit meant the Holder inherited more than good hearing and a watch that could travel time. Gracefully pushing off the ground, Bunny Bug’s improved leg musculature let her soar through the air with an exerted force like jumping from the world’s bounciest trampoline. She sailed through the space between the platform with speed comparable to being shot out of a cannon, reaching Monarch within moments and tackling him violently midair. The impact sent them on a collision course just meters away from where King Monkey was standing watch over Viperion, anxiously jogging in place until he saw the shapes of his ally and enemy tumbling down together in a painful heap, and the Monkey Holder’s mouth went agape in amazement. 

During their descent, Monarch had managed to use his greater mass to twist them around so Bunny would take the brunt of their landing. Not wanting to decorate the Iron Lady as a smear of red, white, and blood, she’d raised her parasol, having nothing more than hope that it could do something to cushion the fall.

Catching the air like a parachute, the unbreakable weapon slowed the descent a little, but not by enough to make their crash any less painful than it was. The landing knocked them both apart, sending the villain sprawling against the guardrail while Bunny hit the floor feet first. Even with the stronger muscles, the shock her legs absorbed felt like landing on solid osmium, and she had to use the parasol to brace herself, or she would have lost her balance. Her wounded leg almost gave out regardless.

As she steadied herself, she finally took a good look at what object the Lucky Charm had taken the shape of this time, and more confusion than usual swept through her head. On top of the short handle was a thin, octagonal sheet of metal painted bright red with white spots like her new yo-yo. On its face, in big, bold letters, was the word 'ARRÊT.'

“STOP?” A stop sign? she thought to herself. What the hell am I supposed to do with this? The seconds she took to consider were seconds wasted.

Looking up, she saw Monarch had already shaken off the effects of their fall and was moving towards Viperion’s body, the only thing in his way being King Monkey, who looked more than eager to get back into the fight. Their charge at each other brought back the previous sight of Kim’s lifeless body with Monarch’s blade speared through his sternum. She believed she wouldn’t let that happen this time, until Monarch threw his épée directly at King’s chest.

Normally, King Monkey would’ve had an easy time deflecting the projectile with his Ruyi Jingu Bang staff, but Bunny Bug remembered almost a second too late how he’d been rubbing his right eye after the Mega-Clout explosion and realized why he must’ve failed to stop Monarch to first time—his depth perception was off. He was going to miss it!

“Burrow!”

Just in time, Bunny Bug’s portal appeared before King Monkey, swallowing the weapon and blinking out before King accidentally ran right into it. He slowed his run regardless, brandishing a grin of appreciation her way, and in doing so, failed to see Monarch coming before he barreled right through him and knocked him off the tower.“KING!” she yelled, but heard him call out, “I got thisss—!” as he fell and had to take his word for it, chasing after the purple menace before he could get to Luka.

When he was just two strides away, Bunny Bug’s yo-yo roped around his chest. She pulled hard, yanking him some distance away from Viperion. Still, it wasn’t enough to make him lose his footing, and he strained vigorously against her, his untied arm reaching out for the ouroboros. Against her best efforts, Bunny Bug was slowly being dragged forward, the slippery platform offering no traction to take advantage of. Her right shin howled in protest, but she shoved the pain into a box in her head and sealed it up, not allowing it to distract her any further. She had to focus!

Just when she thought she’d stopped his advance, Bunny Bug heard a weak noise that simultaneously warmed her heart and split it right down the middle. 

“L-Ladybug?”

It had come from Viperion, whose head was inclined in their direction, his dazzling yellow eyes staring directly at her. She felt his gaze like a physical sensation as if his arms were wrapped around her body in a soothing embrace that released endorphins of reassurance. Even as he lay there, his body broken, he was still trying to help her. The urge to respond in kind almost made her lose that crucial focus.

In her periphery, Bunny Bug made out the bright orange and green figure of Rena Verte swiftly leaping across the tower’s underbelly towards them, but with no sign of Bull Noir following from behind. Still, Bunny realized with Rena’s help that they had the opportunity to end this, and she pulled all the harder. 

But Monarch saw her too. Now frantic, he wrapped his free around the line and heaved her forward, lifting her off her feet for a second and loosening the yo-yo’s snare just enough for him to struggle out of it and lunge for the bracelet.

Bunny Bug heard Rena shout defiantly and throw her shield at Monarch’s head. He knocked it aside with the cane’s shaft, but the exertion of doing so nearly threw him off balance—he was almost out of strength. 

The Unified heroine once again pushed her legs as far as they would go, putting as much energy as she could into her leap, but there was only so much she could do while Monarch was already on top of Viperion. By the time she’d tackled him, he’d already unfastened the Snake ouroboros.  

Shimmering aquamarine light nearly blinded her up close as Luka’s Miracle suit disappeared, so she closed her eyes and held on tight. She wouldn’t let Monarch go, not if he needed to recharge Sass in order to power up the bracelet again. He hadn’t won anything yet, and she would keep it that way.

Still closing in from several meters away, Rena Verte threw her flute at Monarch’s head. Though he lacked the strength or capacity to block it, he still managed to shift himself back just enough that the weapon brushed against Bunny Bug’s forehead, drawing a sliver of blood and surprising her adequately to ease her grip just enough. His opening made, he slammed the end of his cane into her gut, then picked her up by the shoulders and threw her in Rena’s direction. Then, he ran for the Tower’s edge and jumped.

Time condensed into a single moment like someone outside of perceptible reality had paused the scene, and nothing moved even a millimeter. Raindrops froze midair, a bolt of lightning miles away stopped still in its electrifying arc, and Alya’s voice behind her was suspended mid-scream, the sound caught in an endless echo at a constant pitch. That’s how Bunny Bug perceived everything with perfect clarity as she was flying through the air toward Rena, but inside her mind, her synapses were still moving fast as ever, and her brain candidly told her she had only two options left. 

She could either run after Monarch once she landed, giving him a chance to escape where the possibility of him finding a way to activate the Snake Miraculous before they caught him was almost fifty-fifty. This option could result in the deaths of more innocents, and she already had less than five minutes to find him before her Lucky Charm was gone for good. Or, her brain disclosed, conjuring forth a recent memory from only minutes ago, she could risk using the vague advice Bunnyx had randomly brought up by accident and potentially win this battle, eliminating the threat the Snake posed entirely.

Not seeing much choice between the two, Bunny Bug made her decision, and time began to move again.

“Burrow!”

A white circle appeared inside Monarch’s flight path, and he entered it with a roar of shocked outrage before it closed behind him. 

Rena Verte caught Bunny in her arms and held her aloft, making the landing back to the ground much more generous for her upset leg muscles. Once they hit the ground, though, Rena almost let her drop and rushed to the railing, peering into the night-covered landscape of Paris beneath them, then turning back around with panic and acrimony energizing her words and movements. “Where did you send—?!”

Bunny Bug didn’t hear her. She was already at Luka’s side, checking his pulse and breathing, neither of which could tell her what she wanted to hear. He’d lost consciousness again and was fading quickly, too quickly to survive his tremendous injuries without help. He needed a Miraculous, one sturdy enough to help him weather this storm and keep his damaged spine from suffering further harm.

“Omigod!” Rena gasped. “Luka?!”

“Rena!” Bunny Bug yelled as she rifled through Luka’s jacket, looking for whatever snack she’d seen Monarch give Sass the first time. She found it almost immediately in a breast pocket—cooked tofu cubes, the little snake’s favorite. “Give me Wayzz!”

“What?”

“NOW!!” 

Whether it was the gravity of the situation or the tone of her voice, Rena Verte immediately took off the Turtle bracelet and handed it over. Bunny Bug snatched it away and slid it over Luka’s wrist, then tossed the tofu to Wayzz, who recognized this was no time to practice proper dining etiquette and swallowed the cube with one big gulp.

“But how will you—?” Rena Rouge began to ask a relevant question: how would Luka activate the Miraculous if he was out cold? BB had an answer but needed complete concentration to pull it off. She’d only seen this done once before and never learned how herself, so this was a lot to put on faith, but she had to trust in herself. She knew Luka would without hesitation, and that was enough to try. 

Her fingers around the Turtle’s jade surface, she spoke the phrase and prayed. “Guardian activation: Wayzz, Shell On!”

Emerald light flashed over Luka’s prone body as a large oval shell formed over his back, saving him for now but not fixing the damage done. The urge to activate Miraculous Ladybug with her Lucky Charm and heal him was almost too overwhelming to ignore, and without the distraction of Rena’s next question, she might have given in to it.

“How did you do that?”

“It’s something I saw Master Fu do,” she explained as she tried to stand. When her legs refused, Rena pulled her up the rest of the way. “A security feature for wounded Holders. He used it to save my life one time…just before he died.* It-it was the only way to save Luka without using the Charm.”

Rena Rouge was briefly silent as she took that in. She’d never met Master Fu personally, but she knew how much the man had meant to her friend. It wasn’t long after his murder that a depressed Marinette had told her she was Ladybug, and their tight bond of friendship grew even stronger afterward, a complete and total trust in each other at its backbone. But that bond was in danger of loosening; it had been forged between Alya and the Marinette she knew, and the woman before her was clearly not the Marinette she thought she knew, and definitely not the one she trusted. As she realized that, Rena’s expression changed from subdued disquiet right back to deadly serious within the time it took Bunny to blink. “Mari, where did you send Monarch?”

Bunny Bug let herself take a second to lean against her parasol, catching her breath and focusing her inner energies on mending her numerous bodily traumas. She’d never been so utterly drained before and couldn’t think of a time she’d fought a battle that was so demanding on her body and mind. The overall intensity had worked her down to the bone, and even against additional or stronger foes, she’d never felt so damn fragile before, even outside of the suit. The perception of healing her wounds wasn’t very comfortable either, but it was better than leaving them alone to only get worse. Once she’d done as much as she could as quickly as possible, she answered Rena.

“I put him in the Burrow. He can’t leave unless he has the Rabbit Miraculous. He’s trapped, and I’m going in to finish this.”

Rena grabbed her arm before she could raise the pocket watch. “Alone? Like hell you are! I just watched you—I mean Ladybug almost die, and—!”

“Almost?” Bunny Bug swung herself around. “Is she…am I still alive?”

Rena’s countenance was one of irritation and distress as if answering that question wasn’t something she wanted to do or wasn’t comfortable with. After having watched what she’d done to Chloé seemingly out of nowhere, she found it difficult to blame her. Still, Rena inclined her head in a brisk nod. “Bull Noir’s getting y-her and Chloé to a hospital. He'll be right back once they’re in safe hands, and then we’ll go after Monarch, together.”

Bunny Bug ignored her at first, letting out an inner sigh of relief. The moment's panic had kept her from fully considering it, but if she—her counterpart—had died, then she would be erased from existence, and this would’ve all been for nothing. As long as Ladybug still lived, there was still time to end this. Her Lucky Charm would do the rest once she was back.

“Tell Noir to feed Tikki and get her costume back on if possible. No one there can learn who Ladybug really is. He has access to the Miracle Box, so he should be able to—” 

“Whoa, hold up, girl!” Rena Rouge looked absolutely appalled by the order, one given without any friendly undertones or the patience for a response. “Are you seriously saying your identity is more important than your life?! So what if Noir sees who you are? If she dies, you die too, right? Nobody’s gonna let that happen, even if—”

“Rena, you knew what would happen when you told Monarch my real name, right?” That was completely uncalled for, and she knew it, yet continued anyway. “This could be just as bad. If that entire hospital learns my name, all of Paris will be next. Anyone with a vendetta against Ladybug will come after my family in force, and there will never be an end to it.” She tried hard not to yell at her best friend, but clenching her teeth to contain herself hurt just as much as the shouting would her already raw throat, and the concentration of the former made her feel even more agitated. “But if it’s Ladybug who dies and not Marinette, maybe everyone I love can still be saved.”

“Marinette, honey, I know all good heroes develop a sort of martyr complex at some point, but believe me when I tell you you’re taking this way too far! Nobody is going to just let you die, even if that stop sign can magically bring you back with a single toss. You are clearly not okay, not if you really had to go off on Chloé like that, but I won’t let you think you have to do this alone—”

“ALYA!!” This time, she allowed herself to shout. The longer this went on, the more dangerous it would get. “I realize all you have to go on with me is faith, no facts, and that’s hard for you, especially now, but I need you to trust me. I am your best friend, and you’re mine, so when I tell you that I will NOT risk losing you again to that monster, you have to understand I’m doing this to protect you, your family, and everyone else who loves you!”

There it was, another intentional slip-up, but with the way Rena’s face went slack, she knew it was worth it.

She held up the Lucky Charm and turned it over in her hand, holding onto it tightly like she could lose it again at any moment. “Monarch has already destroyed one Lucky Charm tonight, and if this one breaks too, then he’s won, and nobody will be coming back, not even me.” She looked up at Rena Rouge with hard, tired eyes and let her see the face of someone who had witnessed unrecountable madness. “But if I had to die so you would live, I wouldn’t hesitate to make the leap, and I know you’d do the same for me, which is exactly why I won’t let you come with me. I can’t…I can’t do this a third time.”

A soul-crushing pressure gripped her chest, and she understood this must have been the burdensome sensation Viperion had experienced when he looked her in the eyes and said he still loved her. He’d realized repeatedly trying to make the impossible possible was becoming more than he could handle, and when he’d reached out to share his lingering feelings, it had been his way of asking for help, and perhaps forgiveness. This was her’s; she wouldn’t let Alya suffer any fate worse than what she’d already seen for herself. Her sisters needed her here, alive, and so did she.

Rena must have seen something significant in her expression—anger, fear, an unwillingness to compromise, or all of the above—that convinced her to stand down because, after a drawn-out sigh of exasperated sorrow, she reluctantly relinquished her grip on Bunny Bug’s arm. “ D’accord , Marinette, if I can’t stop you, I won’t, but I don’t like this and neither will Noir. So when, not if , when you get back, you need to set things right with him, with everyone , and I’m not just talking about using your Charm, got it?”

She did, but only nodded her response, noting that any cracks in her words would be picked up by Rena immediately, and she’d know her friend was lying to her. Her powers would fix everything that needed to be fixed, but not the repercussions of what she’d said to Chloé, and she was more than fine with that. 

“Thank you, Alya,” she smiled faintly, giving her fellow heroine one brief hug before opening her portal straight to the Burrow.

“Just be careful, alright, Red?” Rena called after her. “I’m not planning on losing my best friend twice in one day either.” 

Bunny Bug gave her a quick thumbs-up of acknowledgment as she stepped through the glowing circle and prepared herself for her final fight.

Chapter Text

The first thing Bunny Bug found herself looking for once she entered the Burrow pocket dimension wasn’t Monarch, but Alix’s body, silently praying that Agreste hadn’t defiled her in any way looking for kwami fuel or, worse, Fluff and her pocket watch. If he had, she was prepared to give him the worst beatdown of his entire life and, through whatever means necessary, make sure he stayed that way. 

But to her surprise, there was no sign of Alix or Fluff anywhere, as if the both of them had just vanished from this pocket reality. Though time didn’t function conventionally here, she wondered if it could have been so long that Alix’s body had decomposed entirely, though that wouldn’t account for Fluff, who was immortal. Her best guess was that the unnatural chronal variation from their alternate past had caught up to the both of them, and they really had disappeared, just like she would if Ladybug died without the Lucky Charm's Miracle Cure to save either of them. But as she settled on that plausible theory, she noticed something she had not expected to find.

The extensive pattern of time windows encircling the Burrow that always depicted the past, present, and future were all turning to static. Over half of them had already changed into hazy screens like a TV set on the fritz, the pictures flickering with fuzzy spots of black and gray, and between each breath, another would begin distorting the same as the others. She’d read about this rare phenomenon before in the Grimoire; the timeline was becoming erratic as past events deviated from their intended direction and endpoint. If it wasn’t fixed soon…well, the book didn’t say because nobody really knew, but she was certain the result would be nothing sort of an apocalypse. 

Then, all the way across from her, she spied the root cause behind all this—Gabriel Agreste, de-transformed and leaning down on one wobbly knee as Sass and Nooroo hovered above him, the latter begging his ex-former master to come to his senses. 

“Please! You must stop this lunacy and see reason, Master!” Nooroo wailed, his dark-shaded skin making it easy to see his trembling within their blank surroundings. “This is a battle you can no longer win! You have to—!”

“THUT UP!!” Gabriel spat out through bleeding lips before turning back to Sass, who appeared to be trembling just like Nooroo until she realized he wasn’t shaking—he was chewing on something! Gabriel had de-transformed so he could feed the kwami and Unify again!

“Huwry up, Thath!” Gabriel growled forcibly, “before Ladybug getth—” That’s when he saw her standing across from him. Even though his eyes were covered by swelling flesh, she could still make out a wild terror that permeated within.

“FINITH IT NOW!!” he screamed.

“SASS, STOP!!” Bunny Bug yelled, but he couldn’t, not when Gabriel had full control over his every action.

“I’m sso ssorry, Masster,” the little snake mumbled as he swallowed the last bits of his grub, leaving Bunny Bug with no choice but to charge full speed at the trio against the wishes of her legs. She threw her yo-yo, hoping she could interrupt Gabriel before he re-transformed, but he blocked it with his left arm and it rebounded off the ouroboros just as he uttered the final word.

“UNIFY!!”

The same awful brightness as before filled the Burrow, casting stark shadows of light across the entirely surfaceless dimension. Bunny Bug shielded her eyes, and when the glare had faded, she saw the hideous monster Monarch hid under his skin had returned seeking vengeance, every serpent’s slit on each eye lens aimed directed at the multicolored heroine before him. His putrid lips curled into a repulsive smirk, and, reveling in the moment, he activated the Snake’s power.

“Zssecond Chanzcce.”

For the first time for him and her second, she watched the bracelet’s timer snap into place with a rattlesnake hiss. King Monarch looked immensely satisfied as he had before, but this time, Bunny Bug wasn’t afraid of his power. In disguised amazement, she could see the risk of bringing him here had already paid off, but she had to keep her opponent distracted so he wouldn’t notice it himself. The longer he remained confident, the better chance she had to take him by surprise and end this. 

“Yesss, thizss feeling…” his words effecting the worst form of déjà vu she’d ever experienced. “I have been waiting for thizss feeling for zsso long. The feeling that I know I’m finally going to win, and there’zss nothing you can do to zsstop me thizss time.”  

Slowly, carefully, she began walking in his direction, parasol in one hand and yo-yo in the other. She kept the Lucky Charm secured around the back of her waist. If she was wrong about this, she didn’t want her only remaining hope to be within his arms reach.

“Oh?” King Monarch watched her curiously, the fact he was currently unable to blink making the stare of his insectoid eyes unsettling in so many ways. “You’re approaching me head-on?” He let out a slimy chortle, his exhalations pushing his rancid breath against her airways. Her tongue wiggled in discomfort at the taste of rotten death. “Do you not fear what I’ve become? My power?”  

Bunny Bug offered him no answer. 

“Ahhh, I zssee, you’re already acquainted with thizss new form of mine, aren’t you, Marinette? That’zss why you came back, izssn’t it? Hmmmm-heh-heh-heh-heh. Well, izssn’t that zssuch a pity? You’ve already failed.”

That’s right, you self-righteous pile of trash; just keep talking like you’re in control. It’ll make this sweeter.

King Monarch spread his arms in an inviting gesture with his cane held off to the side, giving the illusion she could attack him then and there, but she remembered how fast he’d been before. She needed to get closer first, let him believe that Second Chance was all the security he needed to ultimately win this fight, no matter who threw the first punch. His ego would let him down yet again.

“Go ahead,” he mocked, each word letting trickles of venom pass between his curved fangs and drip onto his scaled suit, but he didn’t seem to mind. The many optics of his eyeballs observed her closely with a reptilian hunger. “I’ll even let you take the first shot if you have the nerve. It won’t matter, of courzsse, but perhapzss it will make you feel a little better before I take your Miraculouzss, and we have ourzsselvezss a nice vizssit with your dear mother and fath—”

He was so arrogant, so sure of himself and drunk on his power. He couldn’t imagine losing now, the audacity of it would’ve been unbearable for an ego like his. 

Just as always, Gabriel’s pride blinded him to what he refused to loom at and see, which meant he never saw it coming when Bunny Bug raised up her parasol and shoved the weapon right through the edge of his big bug eye.

“ YYAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!”

The transformed Monarch ululated an unearthly screeching noise that seemed to reverberate with vociferous intensity around the Burrow, as if the space had suddenly become a cavernous echo chamber that magnified his pain. He clasped the left side of his face where a dense, translucent goo poured out from the tear in his eye; it might have been his blood or some form of collagen cut free by the rip in the outer layer. She doubted it mattered. This was proof he could be hurt, wounded, or worse.

Eye for an eye . That’s for you, Kim .

Floundering about in agony, King Monarch had to anchor himself steady with his cane. His remaining yellow orb tried to track Bunny Bug with its multiple lenses, each one blazing brightly with his pure hatred of her. 

“Kill you! I’LL KILL YO—!”

She interrupted his howling with a solid thrust of her weapon’s handle into his liver, nearly perforating it, and would have if his scaled skin hadn’t become so thick. She had to keep up the pressure before he could recover, or the momentum of her barrage would be lost altogether. 

Kagami , she whispered inaudibly, making each strike not just a means of attack but a reminder to herself and to Monarch of all the harm he’d been the cause of tonight.

Stooping over as he clenched his gut, Bunny Bug lept high above him, flung her yo-yo around his torso and pulled herself down, slamming her feet hard into his spine before pushing off again. Her legs cursed her for it, but King Monarch’s beastial wail made it clear it’d hurt him a lot more.

Luka!

Bunny smacked his right hand with her parasol as he attempted to get up, breaking at least two fingers. When he tried to throw a southpaw jab with his other arm, she hooked the bent handle around his wrist and heaved him overhead onto his back, then twisted until she heard the bone snap!  

Rose! Alix!

She grabbed for the Snake Miraculous, but Monarch stopped her with his remaining hand. In response, she repeatedly stomped on his chest and stomach, each blow forcing out strained gasps until he was coughing up blood.

ALYA!

Finally, whether instinctively or on purpose, Monarch’s next wet heave was followed by a spew of smoking venom spit from concealed glands in his mouth. Only a few drops of the spray managed to splash onto her costume; they proceeded to eat through the material like molten steel on soft molasses. She frantically swept it off her suit, feeling an acidic burn brush her fingers before it was all off. But even without the risk of the venom killing her, the lapse in delivering punches had given Monarch enough time to recover. 

Before she could form a defense, he knocked her aside with his cane, sending her careening against a staticky time window. She was lucky it wasn’t working, or it might have sent her to a period where the Earth was completely flooded, and a sea monster devoured her.

“ENOUGH!!” King Monarch bellowed, his voice louder and more daunting than ever, thanks to his metamorphosis. “Zssavor your inzssignificant feelingzss of victory while they lazsst, Marinette! Zssoon, it will mean nothing!”  

He reached for the ouroboros with his unbroken fingers and pulled back the snake, activating Second Chance.

Or at least, that’s what he thought he was doing.

Even though she wasn’t close enough to stop him, she wouldn’t have tried. Her stratagem had worked perfectly up until now, and it was better he discovered it this way than learning the truth by himself mid-battle. She smirked as he frustratingly struggled with the Miraculous, allowing him to see the problem through his remaining eye once when he stopped to look closer at the sea-green jewel.

The snake hadn’t moved a micrometer since he first activated the ability. Second Chance wasn’t working because the timer hadn’t started counting down yet. He still had a full five minutes left to go.

The smirk became a full grin. Thank you, Alix , she said to herself, showing her appreciation for the unintentional gift Bunnyx had offered her on her deathbed: Knowledge, and she’d turned that knowledge into a game-changing advantage. 

“What-what izss thizss?!” King Monarch demanded after repeating the activation phrase several times without success, his fingertips still wrestling with the ornate serpent on the ouroboros, but it didn’t budge. It couldn’t; it was already all the way back. “What did you do?!!”

“I took the advice of a friend. One I’m sure you’re responsible for murdering, just not yet, and now, not ever.” She couldn’t help but feel a sense of prideful satisfaction in watching him squirm with perplexity, all his self-assurance going right down the drain as he realized his greatest weapon was no longer an option. “She told me all about how the Snake really works; it’s why Rabbit and Snake Holders don’t get along—their powers just don’t mesh well together.”

“What are you talking about?” he rasped, no longer fidgeting with the Miraculous as he hung onto every word she spoke, trying to make sense of what she was saying. 

Bunny Bug pointed at the sea-green bracelet. “The Snake Miraculous only lets you control Linear Time. That might make you pretty much unbeatable outside this dimension, but inside, you’re in a pocket world where Linear Time doesn’t exist . Your power doesn’t function here because there’s nothing—no real time —to tether onto. The clock won’t run because it hasn’t even started.” She let him see her blood-pinked smile, and his agitation turned into absolute horror. “You’re trapped in the Rabbit’s Burrow now, Gabriel, and you won’t be getting any more second chances from that bracelet, or from me. We’re ending this, here, and now.”

King Monarch, if anything, looked more broken than ever. He had just acquired one of the most incredible powers in the known universe, a power that could have destroyed his enemies a thousand times over if he wished, all for it to be rendered into a useless waste of effort that meant nothing while trapped here, the very place he had wanted to get to all along. Even with his eye gouged apart, he didn’t look like he could say anything, even with the enormous pain he must’ve been experiencing. 

And he stayed that way, but only for the moment, until the shaking and fermenting around his mouth began.

“No…No, NO, NONONONOOOOOEEEAAAAAAGGGGGG!!!!”

Bunny Bug saw the last few vestiges of his humanity dissolve away as he hurled himself at her, shrieking madly and blind with rage. He’d psychologically turned into a rabid beast; sulfur-colored froth caked his lips and stank of noxious venom while his remaining mutated eye went ablaze with crazed zeal. He’d become a true monster, the one he always had been underneath.

Witnessing this change absolutely revolted her. 

Art by Charleian

King Monarch crashed into her with the force of a small yacht running aground to destroy everything in its wake. The collision alone almost gave her whiplash. She fought hard to beat him back down, but her blows seemed to have little effect on him. He was too far gone to remember how to react to pain. 

“ZSSSAAAAAAA!!!” His jaw unhinged, fully revealing his yawning purple-black maw and rows of smaller fangs behind the outer set. He was going to bite her head off but hesitated long enough that Bunny Bug guessed he was preparing to fire another load of acid in her face to make her chewier with some extra flavor. In protest to becoming a rabbit stew, she took herself off the menu by uppercutting his chin with the back of her head. The venom spilled over his lips and washed down his gullet before he could halt an instinctive swallow. 

“BLAAAGGGGG!!!” Monarch was forced to release her as she pushed away, vomiting up his own poison and reddish bile onto the invisible floor in a steaming mass of putrid filth. If he wasn’t immune to his own poisons like most snakes, his stomach might have dissolved from the inside out. 

Too bad , something told her, a voice itching to be heard and heeded. You’ll just have to do it yourself . 

The message it shared was quickly forgotten. Monarch was already getting up, and all her attention was on him. Still, somewhere in her subconscious, the sentiment remained resolute.

The mutated villain got up sluggishly, moving considerably slower than expected compared to his alternate self, who’d stabbed Rena Verte with a speed and grace beyond anything she’d witnessed up close before. It occurred to her that this new form of his must take some getting used to with all these animal characteristics and extra power, and without his Second Chance, he couldn’t adapt as quickly, at least from her perspective. Maybe she could finish this fight quicker than she’d hoped.

King Monarch, of course, was determined to prove her wrong. Swift as a striking viper, he attacked again, swiping at Bunny Bug with both his sword and its shaft, creating a deadly combination that left little room for a counterattack.  The parasol gave her better options for defense, but it was still one weapon against two, and his strength had more than doubled, making each individual hit feel like a wallop from Anansi’s triple right hook. 

Her arms ached and groaned from the strain of countering each blow, but she didn’t let up, or he’d surely kill her. She had to find a way to—

Sweeping with both arms in one direction, King Monarch let out a roar of triumph as Bunny Bug’s parasol was finally knocked out of her grip and sent spinning to the far end of the Burrow, the canopy fabric shredded to flapping rags. Left with an opening, the beast-man lunged again mouth first, almost biting off her entire left shoulder before she could scramble out of reach and unhook her yo-yo, hoping its extra length would give her a much-needed advantage. She used her distance from him to hurl her weapon at his most vulnerable areas: face, crotch, stomach, joints, but whatever blows did connect were simply shrugged off or acknowledged with murderous hissing until finally, he ran right at her.

Bunny Bug spun her yo-yo in a perfect gyrational circle, creating an energy barrier that could cut through a bus and had turned Red Monarch’s solid Mirage clones back into the mist that made them. Under normal circumstances, Monarch would have been turned into a fine red mist of blood and other bodily fluids, but she forgot he was literally no longer man or really human enough to succumb so easily. He stopped the spinning by thrusting his blade through the weapon’s circular pathway, nearly fracturing his shoulder but succeeding in breaking down her only defense. Then he grabbed the red and white casing and chucked the yo-yo into the blank void around them, proving the Burrow went on for much further than visibly conceivable. 

When the villain turned back, he snarled maliciously and lunged at his vulnerable prey.

With no more room to maneuver and not enough strength to hold him back, Bunny Bug went down under the weight of her opponent. Gnashing teeth snapped at her face like a starving shark, and his breath after puking stung her eyes shut. He would get her this time if she didn’t stop him fast, but she had no weapons! Nothing but…

Caught between a rock and a very angry psychopath, Bunny Bug reached behind her and, praying she wouldn’t regret it, jammed her Lucky Charm between Monarch’s jaws, where it got stuck between his huge teeth as he bit down once more for her head.

“ZZZSSSSSSSSSAAA!!” King Monarch violently shook his head around to dislodge the stop sign, but it was just the perfect size that it wouldn’t come loose. The more he flexed his mouth, the further the metal dug into his gums, frustrating him even more. His venom spattered against the magic octagon, slowly but surely melting away at it; corrosive pockmarks began appearing across the surface, blackening the bright colors as more and more of the Charm liquified into reeking sludge. Bunny Bug had to get clear while she could, but she couldn’t lose the Lucky Charm—too many people were depending on her to save them.

With one colossal exertion, she kicked hard into his groin with both legs, sending him sprawling several feet away into another broken time window. His outcry of physical distress was so great that his jaw opened wider than ever, possibly dislocating it in the process as the stop sign finally freed itself and clattered to the floor. Half of it had been irreversibly ruined beyond recognition, appearing more like a scorched sewer grate than anything else. But the magic was still there. She could feel it.

“Uh-uh-oooouu aarreee…”

That awful noise—it was coming from the thing that used to be Gabriel Agreste. He was standing with his back hunched over, breathing heavily as he clutched his lower jaw, red and yellow fluids spilling over the edges by the ounce. With a boney pop , he snapped it back into place, massaging the muscles but never letting his guard down as his remaining eye focused all its lenses on his adversary. 

“You look tired…Gabriel,” Bunny Bug panted as she fought off her own not-so-inconsiderable fatigue, trying to make it appear as if she had more fight left in her than she really did. “But I’ll keep at this…as long as you keep…making me fight you. One way or the…other, I’m bringing you down, ha rd .” 

“How…dare you!” Monarch shouted, clenching his fist around his cane. His voice was more wild creature than human now, but an unmistakable trace of his abrasive imperiousness still lingered in his words. She could tell it was taking all of his concentration just to speak normally again, though she doubted it would last long with the way his body was excitedly palpitating. He needed to unleash the beast within, but was holding it back for some reason. “How dare you alwayzss try to interfere! How dare you tear down everything I’ve built up!”  

“You have…no right to…tell me that! You’ve committed years …of your life to destroying…Paris, day after day. You ruin the lives…of everyone you meet, everyone in this city …and even beyond. What have you built…that’s worth leaving standing? Not a damn thing!”

“You underzsstand nothing, girl!” he sneered back bitterly. “I am not the villain you make me out to be! I never have been! None of this violence would have been nezssecary if it weren’t for your master’zss zssenzsslezss decision to relinquish the only two Miraculouzss I needed to YOU and that immature garçon, actual children , all just to zsspite me! If anyone is to blame for the pazsst two yearzss, it izss Wang Fu!”

“You don’t get to speak…his name! My master did his duty as Guardian of…the Miracle Box. He understood the consequences…behind making the Wish, and he kept…that power from you because even back then, before you…lost your mind, you were still a selfish, egotistical monster …at heart.” She wiped blood from her brow and huffed. “Only now can you see…for yourself what you truly are—what you’ve always been!”

King Monarch seethed with savage animosity but reined in his wild side with visible effort.

“You may zssee me azss a monzsster in your myopic outlook of this gray-shaded world, but what of your crimezss? What about the ultimate zssin you’ve committed againzsst me and my family? Not azss Ladybug, but azss Marinette Dupain-Cheng? Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten what you’ve done?”

Bunny Bug knew what he was referring to; how could she forget the Tiger’s claws wrapped around her throat, cutting and squeezing as Red Monarch accursed her for driving an imaginary wedge between him and his son as if his role as Paris’s greatest supervillain wasn’t the actual cause of their traumatic estrangement. W ould he try to convince her that she had purposely manipulated Adrien? That somehow, she knew who he really was all along and was using his son as a weapon of subterfuge to take him down from inside his own home? 

On second thought, that wasn’t even a question. Of course he would. And he did, but not how she’d expected. 

“I never zssaw it before; I believed you and your band of adolezsscent misfits were nothing more than an emotional handicap for my zsson while he grieved for hizss mother. It wazss a weaknezss on hizss part, but he wazss frail without her love, and dezsspite my mizssgivingzss, I wazss willing to allow him zssome zssemblance of normalcy until it wazss time for him to become a real man.” He stood up a little straighter, relying less on his cane for support with each passing second. “But I overlooked you, Marinette, and the true nature of what you were doing to my boy.” 

Her breathing halted unnaturally as she processed what he was saying. It sounded so ludicrous that her tired brain found it difficult to find the logic behind what he was inferring. He was…blaming her for being Adrien’s friend? For being there for him when his father wasn’t? Was that what this was all about? Did he think she’d replaced him on purpose?

Monarch continued, irately elaborating further. “Zssuch a brilliant young girl you are, I should have zsseen it zssooner, but you and your partner dizsstracted me azss I zssought the cure for my zssweet Emilie, and I lozsst zssight of half the reazsson I needed her back—to zssave my zsson from himzsself! Zssomehow, you knew thizss. You knew he wazss weak, and whether or not you knew my identity, you zssaw an opportunity, one you had been waiting for zssince you both firzsst met, and perhapzss even before that day.” His inhuman face shifted perversely, and Bunny Bug couldn’t tell if the idea of what he was about to say out loud was so absurd to him that he wanted to burst out laughing, or if he was so bloated with rage that he couldn’t possibly unleash it all at once. “I’ve zsseen the way you look at him. It’zss the zssame way my wife would look at me when we firzsst met—you are in love with my zsson.”

Panic and disbelief became the brilliant star around which all Bunny Bug’s thoughts began to orbit. Unfeigned terror and bodily aches destroyed her focus on King Monarch. All of a sudden, she was back in Agreste Manor, holding Adrien as he wept over her shoulder, left in anguish by a father who’d run away from his crestfallen son. She couldn’t protect him then, and now, she realized, she couldn’t even protect herself.

He knows, she quaked. He knows everything about me now . 

This shouldn’t have mattered to her; she was in the midst of a battle to the death, and whatever Monarch was saying should have been ignored, not just until after the fight, but forever. But love…that had always been her primary weakness, and her greatest enemy had figured out how to exploit it through his own flesh and blood. Now she was sure—he was smiling.

“It wazss the perfect opportunity for you, wazssn’t it? That day a week ago, when you shoved him away from the zssafety of ignorance to show him what I’ve had to become to zssave our family? I saw that in hizss eyezss too; not love , the kind any zsson should know for their father, but fear , and suddenly, all your effortzss as Marinette had been realizssed. You made Adrien believe I was a monster, and then you showed him one, and he chozsse to believe you over ME!”

“YOU— are you saying I’ve been grooming your son to hate you?! You think that’s what the past two years have been about?! That I wanted this to happen; for Adrien to realize that his father is the most evil man alive and despise you for it?!! That makes absolutely no fucking sense—!”

“It makes perfect zssense, harlot!” Monarch snapped back, spit and blood flying everywhere. “You love my zsson, but he doezssn’t love you, not like you need him to. Zsso you zsspend countlezss hourzss zsstalking him, exploiting him, advocating on ‘hizss’ behalf so passionately, azss if you truly want what’zss bezsst for him and I don’t.” He pointed into the distance, the direction in which he had thrown her yo-yo. “You were even willing to fall for Félix’zss deception so eazssily…or…perhapzss you both were working together with the zssame agenda.”  

He cocked his head to the side, the eye’s lenses scanning her over as if he could see her in a different light for the first time. “Yezss, you both are more alike than you realize. You manipulate otherzss like Adrien and Chloé to zssuit your needzss, and neither of you ever liked me as hizss father…not that it would have ever worked.” He waggled an armored finger at her as if that should mean something. “He may be weak, but he’zss more loyal to ME than you could ever underzsstand.”

Bunny Bug had had it with this man. She was done listening to his incoherent madness; none of it would ever make sense to anybody but him, and she could only hurt herself by letting him speak. Instead, she would rather be hurting him , her fist to his face. 

She had no support of her own to help stand up. Still, she found that final adrenaline rush mixed with the most potent rage she’d ever felt for another human being—though he was far from human now—was all she really needed anymore. “Gabriel Agreste, you are a fucking lunatic, and your powers have driven you batshit insane. You are a menace, a butcher, and the worst version of a father for your son imaginable. No matter why you started all this, Emilie and Adrien are now just your twisted justifications for inflicting as much death and destruction as you want, and that’s all you want now. No more. Never again!”

King Monarch growled, and she noticed that most of the wounds she’d inflicted had been healing as they contested each other’s motivations. Even his left eye now had only a thick ribbon of scar tissue that was moderately shrinking on its own. Another trick he’d picked up from watching them and improved upon. 

“I couldn’t agree with you more, Marinette. Originally, I thought of letting you live only to zssuffer greatly for all that you’ve done to me, but it’zss clear you’re more trouble than you’re worth zsstill breathing, a mizsstake I’ve made for far too long. But before I drag your broken body to your family and shower it with their blood, I want you to know one thing—Adrien would have never loved a filthy tramp like you. He is forever more than you dezsserve, and will alwayzss be beyond your reach. You are nothing to him but a 'friend,' and that’zss all you ever will be—beneath his love. 

“And now…” he raised his sword at her face and darkly intoned his final declaration, the animal within ready to burst free from its cage, “you get to die the death you truly dezsserve.”  

“You know what, Gabriel?” She picked herself up all the way, standing as tall and unyielding as the Eiffel Tower itself. “I couldn’t agree with you more, but there’s two things you’ve just gotten backward.”

“And what, pray tell, izss that?”

“You’re the one who doesn’t deserve his love, and you’re the one who’s going to die.”

And then they fought, and it was a fight like none ever seen before. 

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was not the same person she had been at the beginning of the true battle from what now would seem like ages ago. If Marinette’s master was still alive and here to witness this slaughter, he would’ve found no honor in the actions of his star pupil, and would’ve claimed she had lost all her hard-earned discipline. Even the Ladybug of ten minutes ago, kneeling over the body of Bunnyx, too terrified to comprehend what horrors the time traveler must have witnessed from her bleak future, wouldn't have been unable to recognize the combatants of this battle. All she would’ve been able to make out were two monsters tearing each other apart, limb by bloody limb. 

Bunny Bug fought as she never had before; brutal, ruthless, murderous even. Each strike became one intended to kill, each blow releasing enough force to break a man where he stood. In the midst of that melee, she wouldn’t have even been able to recognize herself. She was no longer Ladybug, Defender of Paris, an icon of hope and embodiment of good luck. She was… changing , becoming something else entirely. 

As her bones blistered with each hit she gave and received in return, Bunny Bug somehow grasped onto a strange thought she would never forgive herself for considering, even in that incredible moment where she had almost every justification to believe it. Between his sanctimonious speeches and deranged ramblings, Monarch had been right about one thing, and one thing only. Under the surface, people didn’t change; they just revealed their true selves when pushed far and hard enough, the true nature of what they were forever the only constant in their lives. A snake could shed its scales as many times as it wanted to, but it would never, ever stop being a snake. Cold, unfeeling killers out for themselves, their base desires the only thing that mattered in their world. Everything else was just an obstacle to overcome and conquer. This unhinged thing was all that remained of the once imposing Monarch, an animal reduced into a desperate, savage bloodlust. 

For her sake, for Adrien’s, for everyone’s , she would put him out of his misery for good this time.

Her bones continued to burn, but not, she began to notice, because of the fighting. The next time her fist connected with Monarch’s skull, it looked like a large paw smacking against his face, some sort of claws raking into his fuzzy, scaled skin. Her thoughts became dimmer as her senses sharpened; the ears on her head, mostly cosmetic but not without their use, began sprouting thick hairs from end to end; and above her scalp, two long objects protruded their way down either side of her periphery, and she realized they were insect antennae— she had grown her own antennae!!

YES! GIVE IN! The angry voice had returned, screaming at her to accept the strength being offered. The urge to rip and tear away at Monarch until there was nothing left became a deafening holler she could not ignore, nor did she want to. It was the purest feeling she had ever known; this rage, this power, she wanted it, NEEDED it more than she’d ever needed anything before.

And why refuse? She could kill him.

Yes.

End him for good.

Yesss .  

With Creation and Revelation, she was unstoppable. 

YES! DO IT! GIVE IN! KILL HIM!!!

Yes, yes, YES, she would do it! She would kill hi—!

What stopped her was the last thing she would have ever expected in a million, billion years, but that was no challenge at all in the Burrow. Her fist, meant to collide with Monarch’s noseless stump above his wrecked mouth, missed as he rolled to the left, and her knuckles connected with one of the last working time windows left in the Burrow dimension. The blurry image shifted, and the rapidly altering psyche of the transforming Bunny Bug struggled to comprehend if she was staring at the past or future. 

It was a vision of a dark room unfamiliar to her. Within its center stood a lone woman, though the lighting was so poor it wasn't clear if she was in there alone. She wore a dark blue garment coat that seemed familiar in some way, but the details of it seemed inconsequential compared to the figure herself. 

The woman was…breathtakingly beautiful; her face was immaculately pristine, like an angel given human form to grace the Earth with her heavenly presence. Her hair was a luscious blonde, so regal and bright it was as if it had been woven out of the purest gold. And her smile…God, that smile. Bunny Bug’s devolving brain was immediately transfixed by it. The sight of it alone warmed what was cold, healed what was broken, and filled her with a blissful sensation she hadn’t experienced for what felt like forever—pure, unconditional love. It was as if every good thing she had ever wished for had suddenly come true while everything wrong melted away into nothingness, no longer something to fret over ever again. 

The woman gently turned around—the movement like the faintest ripple in the soothing waters of an ocean at peace, and Bunny Bug realized why her blue apparel looked so familiar to her: she was wearing the Peacock Miraculous! But how?! When was this? What was she looking at? Who was she looking at? 

The question was soon answered when a tear gracefully descended the Peacock Holder’s cheek as she gazed down at a bundle of cloth wrapped around something held in her arms. No, not a thing…a baby.

Suddenly, a man, a very familiar man, appeared from the darkness and approached the woman, taking both her and the infant in either arm, kissing the former’s forehead as she beamed in response, and sharing her gaze upon the child— their child.

“Hello, Adrien,”  a young Gabriel Agreste said with a genuine kindness she had never heard in his voice before, utterly bereft of any coldness or hatred. “It’s so wonderful to finally meet you.”

No. 

It wasn’t possible. 

It wasn’t possible. 

It couldn’t be possible.

And yet, just before Monarch’s incoming cane smashed into her temple and rattled her brain like a snow globe, she realized it was all too possible. 

More than that…it was the truth.

CRACK!!

She flew through the air like a homerun hitter had used her skull as a baseball, not noticing there was a body attached to it from the neck down. If she hadn’t begun her own transformation almost identical to Monarch’s, the innards of her head would be spilling onto the ground like the juices of a crushed watermelon. Still, that seemed like the least of her worries now because not only was there a battle in the physical world to fight that she was in no condition to continue, but it seemed as if the voices in her own head had decided to rebel against her for total control. 

DON’T STOP! GET UP! The angry voice bellowed. GET UP AND FINISH THIS! KILL HIM!!!

You have no other choice , the condescending voice taunted with punitive disdain. You brought this on yourself . Now you have to see it through .  

GET UP!

Get up!

KILL HIM!

Kill him!

MAKE! HIM! SUF—!!  

“NO!!” a third voice blared, clear and resonant, and she knew with utmost certainty that this one belonged to her and her alone. I will not…become…a monster too . I need…I NEED to understand .

The other voices slowly became muted clamorings as she painstakingly fought to regain complete control over her body and mind. The poison of her rage was pushed back and slowly purged from her system as she tried to remember her teachings. Deep breath in, then out, then repeat. “ Anger is a weak man’s substitute for strength and a fool’s interpretation of power, ” Master Fu had told her. “ True strength comes from perseverance; true power comes from your will to act. Master your emotions, and you will be the only master of yourself .”

Thank you, Master . 

Gradually, the fog of violence clouding her sane judgment receded, and she could think properly again; think about what she’s just seen. It couldn’t have been real, right? Adrien Agreste, the boy she loved…a creation of the Peacock? It couldn’t be real; he was nothing like the crude humanoid forms Mayura and Shadow Moth fabricated with their Amoks—he was absolutely perfect in every way, down to the last-minute detail. He was more human than most people she knew, so full of joy and life. He couldn’t just be a-a Sentimonster!

“ I’m nowhere near as perfect as her .”

Sentibug…Chat Noir had faced the most elaborate and complex Sentimonster Mayura ever created and actually believed she was authentic! Ladybug almost had to, like this was the version of herself she had always wanted to be, and when she was erased…she was in pain…like a real person.

What was it Monarch had said…about his wife?

'Do not pretend like you could ever understand her sacrifices!'

Using the Peacock before it was fixed always had a tragic cost. 

' My closest ally is now dying of the same disease that still afflicts my Emilie .' 

She had been sick, just like Nathalie, but no official cause of death had ever been reported. 

' She has been left to suffer in the cold, trapped in unending darkness while she waits patiently for me to save her!'

Not had been… still was! Not all of his ravings were purely delusional, nor was he trying to resurrect the dead. 

' You and your partner dizsstracted me azss I zssought the cure for my zssweet Emilie .'

Emilie Agreste was still alive; Monarch had confirmed it all. 

Emilie must have created their son, Adrien, almost two decades ago, and the strain of her actions would've infected her body like it had Mayura’s after repeated use. Gabriel Agreste was trying to save her life but couldn’t do it on his own—he needed their Miraculous. And his insanity—desperation was the answer for it. His race against the clock drove him mad as his wife faded further from him with each passing day. He’d been forced to watch her suffer a slow death for the past five years since she disappeared from the world to wherever he was keeping her body preserved. 

Did…could Adrien have known? No, no, he couldn’t have, not without knowing who his father was. And he would never want his mother to endure that kind of agony for so long; he loved her too much for that. 

But…could he know the truth about himself? Did he know…what he really was?

Even if Bunny Bug was capable of answering that question, which she most certainly wasn’t, it would have to be put off until the fight was over, a fight she had totally forgotten about as she was left fighting for supremacy over her own thoughts, then distracted further as she realized what the past two years had really been all about for her adversary. She could have been killed at any moment during all this, yet she wasn’t, but not King Monarch was taking pity and allowing her to catch her breath; it seemed, just like her, he’d discovered something he’d never expected to find. 

“No…it can’t be.”

The mutated Monarch was standing no less than four meters away from Bunny Bug, entirely enraptured by what looked like the last working time window left in the Burrow, the only one that had yet to dissolve into static. Even though his face was still covered by his dark scales and bloodied insect hair around his cheeks, she could’ve sworn he’d gone completely pale. Though her enhanced vision was slowly receding back to its normal state, she could see each of the reptile slits in his eyes had shrunken to the size of tiny ink blots, and his jaw, though already fixed and healed over after its dislocation, hung loosely from his gaping mouth. From Bunny Bug’s angle on the floor, she couldn’t get a good view of what the window was showing him, but whatever it was, it might have just become her saving grace.

She had an opening; the beast was distracted, and unless the screen suddenly winked out like its counterparts had, he looked like he would stay distracted. But that didn’t mean time was on her side. She probably had mere seconds like until the window disappeared on its own, but even then, she had no plan. She couldn’t just keep punching him until he went down; it wouldn’t work, and he would overpower her eventually, his fury and madness allowing him to maintain his transformation and the strength it rewarded him with. She needed something reliable; she needed…to get lucky.

And there it was. Just before Bunny’s eyes returned to normal, she made out something unusual on Monarch’s ouroboros—a crack, a fissure, one she had made when he deflected her yo-yo with his arm just before his Unification. It gave her an idea, a reckless, dangerous, even insane idea, but what choice did she really have? 

She had no weapons; her parasol was in pieces, her yo-yo had hopelessly disappeared into the white void, and her Lucky Charm was on the other side of King Monarch. If she went after it, he would see her, and she’d be dead before she even made it past him. That left only one other item capable of exploiting the breach in Monarch’s Miraculous, the one she had in her pocket and swore she would keep as far away from him as possible. 

‘Do what you must, and do it fast. Time is running out.’

Fluff’s words chimed through her head, and she knew, like it or not, it had to be this way. He wanted the Rabbit Miraculous? Fine, she would give it to him, but he wasn’t going to like what happened next.

Sass, I’m so sorry, but this is gonna hurt .

As soon as the pocket watch was in Bunny Bug’s hands, she was running, the last bits of energy she had in her body pushing full throttle as she made her final charge, maybe her last ever. This was her do-or-die moment, the long-awaited final move on the chessboard of life and death. Someone was about to win, and the other was about to lose everything. 

”MONARCH!!” she screamed, her voice still retaining a semblance of bizarre unison between a drone and a feral growl. He looked up at her, his window finally going dark as he turned. His reaction was completely instinctual as he raised his arms above his head for cover, giving her the perfect angle to bring down the Rabbit upon the Snake. 

This was everything she had left; every ounce of her remaining energy was poured into this one critical movement, her last chance to survive. As her arm came down like a thunderbolt, she saw the recognition in Monarch’s eyes of what she was doing and that he was too late to stop her—it was already over.

When the magic mirametal of the jewels collided, Bunny Bug had time for one last thought she could only get halfway through before the Miraculous exploded. 

Adrien, I will never stop—  

Then the shockwave hit, and the Burrow was set ablaze in white, purifying fire. Blinded, she thought she heard herself screaming, but her mouth didn’t move, and the sound seemed so far away. 

And then everything, literally everything, was gone.

…

The first thing Marinette noticed when she woke up, if that’s what happened, was that her entire body hurt like hell, and that conclusion was reached by what she could still feel beyond the numbness.

Everything was…confusing, like she’d just been aggressively ripped out of a fever dream and was still trying to adjust to the waking world around her. The first thing her senses could tell her was that she was having trouble breathing because she was lying on her chest on something hard. That hard thing was wet and cold, very cold, like she’d been tossed into the middle of winter and—

— and back onto the Eiffel Tower , her aching brain grasped with some effort. I made it back home .

Slowly, her memories of what had happened changed from a jumbled, chaotic mess to a precise sequence of events she remembered witnessing with her own eyes. Fighting Red Monarch, her friends dying, Chloé, losing Luka, saving Alya, Chloé, losing Alya, losing Bunnyx, Chloé , fighting King Monarch…Adrien. 

Oh God, it all really had happened.

Marinette had to get up! She had to find them, but her body wouldn’t listen. She had ignored its warnings for too long now, and it would no longer give in to her slew of merciless demands. She was going to stay put right where she was in the freezing rain, and that was that. The best she could still do was force her eyelids to open up, which itself felt like trying to lift a car up out of a ditch, and made out one significant detail in the miasma of the tower’s intense illumination and her soupy eyesight—she was back in her Ladybug costume again. 

What? Where…where is the Rabbit?

She blinked. It was supposed to be in her right hand, but she could feel the chilly rainwater sprinkling against her palm and knew it wasn’t there anymore. She blinked some more, and then she saw it, or rather, what remained of it, and it lay in a dozen shattered pieces right in front of her. 

No, that’s…not possible! It-it was perfectly fine before I used it to break the Snake! But that explosion…no, no, this wasn’t supposed to happen!

She had to fix it. She had to fix it, or…or what would happen to Fluff? To Bunnyx? She didn’t know, but she knew she had to fix the watch quickly. Her Charm. Where was her Lucky Charm? She had to find it—

Ladybug saw more movement up ahead. Someone was running towards her, shouting, but she couldn’t understand what they were saying through the rain and her pounding head. She tried to reach out to them for help, but her arm still wouldn’t cooperate. She tried to open up her mouth to say something, anything she could get out of her throat, but all she managed was a ragged gasp of surprise when someone picked her up from behind and wrapped their arm around her neck, squeezing firmly while she could barely even struggle against it.

“Stop right there!” a worn-out, gravelly voice next to her ear shouted weakly at the approaching figure. “Or she DIES!!”

Chapter Text

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. 

As the thunder and lightning continued their cacophonous cycle of fulgent noise far above in the dark sky, Chat Noir restlessly paced across the upper platform of the Eiffel Tower with absolutely no intention of leaving until Bunny Bug and his maniac father had returned from the Burrow. 

He’d been there for almost forty minutes now, repeatedly marching back and forth like an anxious alley cat right in front of the spot where Rena Rouge said she’d last seen Bunny enter the Burrow almost an hour ago. He hadn’t stopped to rest since then nor taken a moment to focus on healing his bruised shoulder or any of his more minor injuries. He endured the pain, not allowing himself a moment to stop moving. Otherwise, he’d be forced to think about what had happened in the hospital. 

But despite his substantial effort, the need to suppress those memories from blighting his focus became impossible as intrusive thoughts pulled them out of the shadows into the forefront of his mind. Suddenly, he was back in the emergency room of Pitié-Salpêtrière, carrying the bleeding, dying body of his partner in his arms.

The ER was in a panic long before Noir had opened a Voyage portal directly into the heart of the room, Chloé stumbling in next to him while the sound of frightful shouts echoed in the small space all around them. He learned later that this had been where Red Monarch had stolen the bandages for his face just minutes before they arrived. That made sense; this was the same hospital where his mother had been taken when she’d exhibited the first symptoms of serious illness, so Monarch already knew where everything was located, just like his son did. 

Adrien had inherited an unconscious bias against doctors, one deeply ingrained by his father’s absolute hatred of them after their treatments had failed and Emilie was relocated to home care. Still, he knew with certainty that Ladybug would die without their help, and he was willing to do anything to get it. 

With the winter storm forcing Parisians to celebrate the New Year at home in relative safety, the hospital was mostly empty. Noir had no trouble finding an empty cot to place Ladybug in before yelling at the closest nurse to help her; the sharp, immediate tone he used caused her to drop her clipboard before rushing over, and more nurses and doctors left their stations to assist.

With the medical staff swarming over Ladybug and only precious seconds of charge left for her earrings, Noir acted quickly to protect her identity. He grabbed a nearby pillow and ripped apart the cover, placing the sterile piece of fabric over her eyes and forehead with seconds to spare. He forced himself to look away as the pink illumination washed over the room and kept his gaze averted even after it was gone. “ It just can’t be now." He heard her words and complied; he couldn’t protect her from Monarch learning her name, so the least he could do was honor her request now, even though it tore at every fiber of his being to do so. 

I already know , he thought to himself, but it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t allow himself to hurt her like this. 

After Noir was certain Ladybug was in the best hands, he made it crystal clear to the ER staff that if any staff member didn’t respect her privacy while he was gone, they would end up in traction in the gurney beside her. Leaving that threat hanging over their heads as he turned away, he couldn’t help but take one last, shameful glance at the young woman lying in bed surrounded by white and blue uniforms, and unintentionally spotted a familiar string of colored beads around her right hand that was quickly obscured by the constant shuffle of the nurses. He cursed himself, not because he’d looked back, but because seeing it for himself confirmed his earlier convictions beyond a shadow of a doubt, and he hated that he’d been such an idiot this entire time. If he’d just been more attentive, less of a fool and a better friend, maybe this would have been avoided—he could’ve been there for her when she’d needed him most and not crying to himself like a helpless child. Marinette was here because of him, and he had to make it right.

He drew the cubicle’s curtain shut behind him, not knowing it would be the last time he ever saw this version of Ladybug again. 

Not wasting any time, Noir swiftly located some snacks, an empty room, and recharged Plagg, Kaalki, and Stompp. His first instinct then was to follow Bunny Bug and Rena Verte as they chased Monarch, but while it was difficult to ignore the compulsion to find his father and beat him until his knuckles were raw and bleeding, he knew the right choice was to get Kagami and Rose the medical attention they desperately needed. The requirements of the team came first; it's what Ladybug would’ve done in his place. 

Once the girls were safe in their hospital beds and under the careful watch of Polymouse and Caprikid while the doctors treated them, Colt Noir took the now Ox-wearing Nino with him to help safely move Viperion next, but instead found Rena Rouge kneeling over Luka, who was not wearing the Snake Miraculous anymore, but the Turtle in its place. The sight of this nearly sent Noir into an emotional frenzy, and he demanded to know why she was here instead of helping Bunny Bug take down Monarch? “Where is my father?! Where is Marinette?!” was what he almost said, but the words were reeled back and replaced before he could let the truth inadvertently slip out. Hastily, Rena answered his question, explaining everything he’d missed by just moments.

Monarch had stolen the Snake from Viperion, but Bunny Bug had trapped him in the Burrow before he could escape, then gone after him alone.

Alone . Without Rena.

Without him. 

His first thought was that he’d misheard her. Surely, she hadn’t just left them all behind—her team —as she faced his father alone . Ladybug would never do something so reckless or wildly dangerous without backup! His second was one of recognition; Bunny Bug wasn’t the Ladybug he knew. She was so much unlike herself, to the point she’d punched her own teammate and called her a disgrace. She was irrational, impulsive, and burning with an inner rage so hot he could smell it like stinging spices in his nostrils.

His third arose when he alarmingly realized the woman he had just described was the same person as the man who’d intended to end the life of his own father tonight, guided by nothing but the impulse to hurt and kill the source of his suffering in spite of everything that could go wrong, including what happened afterward. Chat Noir hadn’t cared if he lived or died so long as Monarch followed him to the grave, and if Bunny Bug felt the exact same way…if she’d changed that much…

And that’s how he came to the final, most horrifically world-shattering realization of them all—he might lose the love of his life, the woman he adored as a hero, to his father not just once, but twice in one night, and there wasn’t a single force on Earth that would help him stop it from happening.

But before he could let the idea of utter despair consume him, Rena Rouge gave him a spark of hope that made him curse himself again for being so stupid; the answer was right there, and he’d just ignored it—AGAIN!! The Ladybug Miraculous. Rena mentioned something about a technique Bunny Bug had used to transform Luka, but Noir had already stopped listening. He had the answer now—he knew how to save Marinette and the others.  

The earrings, the ones Marinette was still wearing; if he could transform into Mister Bug and conjure a new Lucky Charm, he could heal everyone’s injuries instantly, her included! They wouldn’t have to wait for Bunny Bug to return for it to work—he could save her now! It had to work. It had to work. 

But as Colt Noir and Nino carefully moved Luka through the portal, his massive shell the only thing keeping his spine stable, they found everyone in the emergency room had entered a new state of total distress. Security guards had cordoned off the area and were interrogating several individuals, including some of the staff treating Marinette when he’d left just a minute ago. Their presence away from her could’ve just meant the surgeons had taken her to an operating room to administer the special attention she needed for her neck, like something out of a TV show, and his worry was only outpaced by his confusion about how they’d relocated her so fast. Then he locked eyes with Polymouse, whose wide gamboges had started to swell up with sudden tears of fright, and the worry turned to an electrifying panic.

He was across the room before anyone noticed, shoving a trio of security staff gathered around the bed out of his way, but he was already too late. 

Marinette…Ladybug…was gone. 

The earrings, Tikki, the body itself. They were all just…gone. Nobody understood how, but as soon as Bunny Bug had entered her portal, Marinette had disappeared without a trace into thin air, with no physical evidence remaining that tied her to ever being there in the first place. There was no way to track her, no way to find where she went or what took her. There was nothing left. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Nothing…but wait. 

And that’s where he found himself now, pacing back and forth across the Eiffel Tower while the worst winter rainstorm he’d ever experienced tried to drain him dry of his determination to stay put in the freezing wet cold. He ignored it all: the pain in his left arm; his tired body, completely sapped of vigor when his adrenaline ran out half an hour ago; even his own brain fought back, begging him to seek shelter before he died out here, his survival instincts trying fruitlessly to turn him away from his unrelenting march and failing at every turn. 

He wasn’t going to listen. He would stay here as long as it took, as long as he had to, even if that meant forever. He wouldn’t leave her. He wouldn’t lose her, not again. 

And so he waited. Waited for answers, waited for a sign of some sort, waited…for her to come back to him. It will happen , he told himself. She’ll be here soon, at any moment . He couldn’t give in to hopelessness. He knew she was coming back. She had to come back to him.

She had to come back.

She had to. 

Please , come back to me . 

“Hey, capitaine , you okay?”

If he had the energy, Chat Noir might have answered Carapace with unwarranted hostility, telling him to go bother someone else who’d put up with him so he could focus on the task of sole importance to him right now. As it was, all of his concentration was placed in front of him. The only reason he heard Nino at all was through his super-hearing, which still refused to block out all the excess sound created by the storm. It picked up on every insignificant sliver of noise he didn’t want to hear, including when people tried talking to him. So his first response was to simply not respond at all. 

Carapace ignored Chat’s ignoring of him and got closer, careful to steer clear of the Cat Holder’s well-defined pacing route as he slipped his shield off his back and pressed a concealed button. With a smooth mechanical clicking, the shield produced six extendable legs that elevated it several feet as bundles of waterproof fabric unfurled along the hexagonal edges. 

In the span of a full breath, Carapace’s Canopy stood tall and proud like an imposing tree from one of the world’s most luscious forests. When it was completed, Carapace stepped inside the remarkably spacious tent and made a friendly gesture for Chat to join him. 

Instead of expressing gratitude, Chat just scowled with impatient irritation.

“What are you doing?”

“Just making us a good spot to get out of the chill and chill, dude.” There were no seats in the canopy, but through one of the transparent windows, Chat saw the Turtle Holder taking a seat on a thick mat floor that divided him from the uncomfortable wet iron below. “If we’re gonna be waiting here all night, we might as well get comfy.”

Chat glowered, still showing no visible appreciation for Carapace’s efforts to be helpful. “There’s no time to ‘get comfy,’ Carapace. Bunny Bug could be back with Monarch at any moment. We need to be ready for them, not sitting around on our asses.” 

Carapace took Chat’s contempt for his thoughtful courtesy on the chin, very aware that his teammate—or leader, really—was acting insensitive to cover up his own misgivings about the situation. He was taking refuge from those fears through denial, refusing to acknowledge the possibility of current events not playing out in his favor. It wouldn’t do him any good, especially if he turned out to be wrong, so Nino was slowly trying to help shake Chat out of his unhealthy fixation and give him a chance to relax while they kept watch together.

“You sure you wanna stay out there, dude? The insulation in here is pretty nifty, and we can’t have LB coming home to find her complice got himself turned into an iceberg out of stubbornness. I bet she’d rather have some nice, toasty arms wrapped around her than a couple of clawed furcicles. Feel free to shake yourself off first, though, ‘cause I don’t want any puddles in here.” 

“I’m fine . I’m right where I need to be, and I don’t need to get distracted right now, so just sit there and stay quiet, if that’s all you’re going to do.”

Carapace sighed. “Look, man, if you don’t get out of this tempête like, soon, you’re gonna freeze to death. And without Ladybug’s Miracle Cure, you won’t—”

Chat ripped apart the quasi-plastic screen on the canopy with one sudden swipe and snarled ferociously in Carapace’s face. “DO NOT FINISH THAT FUCKING SENTENCE, NINO!! She’s coming back!! She’ll be back, and she’ll fix everything! No one is going to die! You get that?!!

Carapace was so shocked he nearly fell onto his back, but managed to keep his cool as he stood upright to confront the infuriated Chat Noir. “Hey, I’m just trying to help, dude. I know you’re shook up; we all are after what’s happened, but it’s been an hour now, and—”

“But you’re not helping, Nino; no one is. No one can! Our friends are dying in that hospital right now, and the only way to save them and bring back the real Ladybug is with Bunny Bug’s Miraculous! That means we wait here for as long as it takes, even if we don’t get to eat, sleep, or go home tonight! So if you can’t handle that, then get lost!”

Carapace’s gloves made a rubbery-squelching noise as his hands ground together into fists. Though Chat knew starting a fight with his best friend for no good reason was more than your basic ‘bad idea,’ he’d be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t looking for something to hit as hard as he could right in the face. That was the best thing about Carapace right now—his armor gave him the best protection of all the Holders, making him the perfect punching bag to work off some aggression. It might cost him all the cartilage in his finger bones, but Nino could take it, assuming one of them threw the first blow and got things started. He’d find a way to say sorry later. 

“Look, Chat, you need to calm down before you do something stupid and hurt yourself, pote , because that’s what’s gonna happen if you keep this up.”

“You think so? Why don’t you give it your best shot then, buddy .”

“Man, don’t tempt me—”

“MÈRE PUTAIN DE FILS DE PUTE!!!”

The firey sound of the explicit swearing drew Chat and Carapace away from beginning their pointless brawl, and they peeked through the torn-open side of the canopy to find its orange-clad source. Rena Rouge was marching their way, angrily gripping her flute like it had offended her somehow and she was unwittingly trying to snap it in half. She was absolutely fuming, loudly muttering various filthy curses and insults with such enmity that Chat Noir could smell an abundance of stress hormones creating a thin envelope of heat around her body. 

Sketch by Deimalor as reference for a later commission

“Damn that stupid fucking asshole and his rotten, absolutely shit-ridden administration! Who the fuck does he think he is where he can just walk in there and make us—!”

“Yo, Fox-babe,” Carapace called out, his voice crack indicating a mixture of concern and personal disquiet as he attempted to confront his girlfriend about whatever had so royally pissed her off. “What’s going on? Who’re you—?”

“The fichu mayor!!” Rena blasted. “That kakistocrat is at the hospital right now , demanding that we explain to him how two Parisian ‘children’ and the daughter of Tsurugi Industries’ CEO landed themselves life-threatening injuries when they were supposed to be inside, per Monarch’s instructions. Of course, that ‘reflects poorly’ on him, but was that what he was most upset about? Noooo ,” she growled, and Chat knew it was about to be one of those conversations.

“What really got that asshole to explode at me was that his own daughter, the least seriously wounded out of everyone, was suited up as Queen Bee again when the entire city knows she hasn’t been active for months, yet somehow got pulled into ‘our’ fight and ended up with ‘a host of unacceptable bone fractures and facial bruising.’ He literally made it sound like we kidnapped and forced her to fight Monarch! Jésus Christ , this entire situation has become the biggest clusterfuck I’ve ever seen!”

“Whoa, hold up a moment. ‘Children?’ He doesn’t know those are our people in there?”

Rena let out a big breath and lowered her hood as she joined the two under the tent. “For now, no, nobody else but us knows. Ryuko and Pigella were de-transformed when we moved them, and everyone saw it wasn’t you wearing that turtle shell, so Viperion’s covered. None of the doctors had a chance to identify Ladybug before she…before she disappeared….” She glanced at Chat as she said it, who offered nothing in return. “The only thing we have to worry about is their Miraculous. The hospital staff tried to bag them with the rest of their clothes when they were taken to surgery—”

“But we have them, right?” Chat asked, his tone expressing frustration that Rena didn’t appreciate being directed her way, but she didn’t let his attitude deter an answer. 

“Yes. Polymouse gathered them all up. Caprikid has them now, fully charged for worst-case scenarios. Once the doctors give King's eye the green light, our guys will stay put and keep their eyes on them until we know they’re all safe and Monarch’s in custody.”

Or dead , Chat thought, because even if Bunny Bug came back without having killed Monarch, he still wasn’t sure he wouldn’t. He was still so angry over the lies, the pain, and all the people hurt tonight and long before. His father had ruined him. He wasn’t sure how to explain it, but somehow, he was certain that the perfect golden boy his father had tried to shape him into wasn’t who he was meant to be, and that was only compounded by everything Hawk Moth had done to Chat Noir without knowing they were the same person. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt truly safe, without the threat of the company’s strict conduct he was required to follow flawlessly weighing him down spiritually or, later on, Akumatized supervillains ready to tear him in half every other day like clockwork breaking him bit by bit as the years dragged on. As far as he knew, he’d always been on edge. 

He’d never had a normal life, and it was genuinely the last thing he wanted if he could still be a superhero, but right now, he’d give up anything to find a little peace in the chaos, a beacon of light in the suffocating darkness. 

Please, come back to me .

“How are they all doing?” 

Chat hadn’t realized Rena had been waiting for him to ask that very question, frowning at his silence until Carapace did it for him. Still frowning but more somber now, she delivered what information she had. “It’s bad news all around. Polymouse’s clones had a peek at everyone in surgery while gathering the jewels. Ryuko is—”

“Kagami,” Chat interrupted. “Ryuko’s not the one dying on that table while we wait for a way to save her life; Kagami is, and so are Rose and Luka. They’re normal people now, with no ‘impervious’ suits or magic powers to keep them safe any longer. We can’t ignore that.“

Chat wasn’t afraid to use the Holders’ real name anymore; by now, half the team had seen their faces and recognized who they were from their personal lives, leaving him to wonder how long it would be until each of them realized they were all connected in one way or another without their masks. What he did feel, however, was a profoundly deep-seated guilt in himself for not being there for his teammates when they had needed him most. Finding Alya had been important, necessary even. Still, it hadn’t stopped Red Monarch from inflicting brutal punishments against the others in his absence. He was co-leader of this team, and anything that happened to them was on him . 

Not that he’d ever forget his father's role in it, and would be sure to remind him of that as soon as they were face-to-face again. 

Rena Rouge and Carapace shared a look of uneasy consideration between each other before Nino moved beside Alya and took her hand, nodding his approval. It seemed to give her the strength and confidence to continue talking, though her words remained shaky at first. “Kagami is…in rough shape. Because her wounds were open for several minutes, even with your makeshift bandages, she lost a lot of blood in her abdomen and needs a ton of O- to stay stable. * Thankfully, if you can say that, the shrapnel’s impact was slowed down by her suit, which reduced the damage, but her large intestine was still punctured. Right now, they’re focusing on keeping it from causing an infection while they sow it back up.”

Chat clenched his teeth hard enough to hurt his gums. Kagami was resilient and tougher than nails; she wouldn’t allow herself to be killed like this. She was a fighter through and through, but like all fighters, she had her pride, and even if— when she survived this, what worried him most was how she would take the news of what happened to the others. It wasn’t the same as his frame on things; she’d been there for them, sacrificed herself to save them, and it still hadn’t been enough to protect them. Her friends meant everything to her, and if she was left believing she hadn’t done enough…it just wasn’t fair.

“Rose,” Rena continued, “has it even worse. The burns on her face were alarmingly close to becoming fourth-degree, but she still has her facial nerves intact…and that’s left her in unimaginable pain the entire time. That half of her head…might be unrecoverable, but it’s too soon to say.”

“What about her hands?” Carapace asked anxiously. “They shielded some of her face, right? Can they…?”

Rena dolefully shook her head. “It’s too soon for that either. The left hand? Possibly. Her right? …all I know is that if she hadn’t been wearing her suit, they would’ve already had to amputate it.”

“Shit!”

Chat didn’t know what to say. A part of him was too apprehensive to say anything, especially since he knew Rena had saved the worst for last.

“And…Luka?” was all he could manage.

This was when Rena’s hands and lips began to tremble. Carapace wrapped his arm around her, letting the Fox Holder lean against him for support. “Polymouse couldn’t…she wouldn’t tell me what she saw in the operating room. I don’t think she knew how. The doctors there, they…they said…”

“It’s okay, Alya,” Nino whispered softly. “Just go slow; we got you.” 

Chat felt his claws biting through his gloves, drawing blood. Somehow, the harrowing tension of this moment made the physical pain feel almost preferable. 

Rena let a deep swallow pass through her throat before she tried speaking again. “Polymouse heard a trauma surgeon say it would take a miracle for him to survive the next hour…let alone the entire night. They’ve already notified the Couffaines and Jagged, whose on his way from Prague on a jet right now. They told them…” she nearly had to stop but forced herself to finish. “This might be their only chance to…to say goodbye.”

Chat thought he was going to throw up all over the tent. He didn’t , but he still had to step outside and take several large, methodical breaths of cold night air to avert a massive panic attack. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. He’s not going to die , he tried to convince himself. He’s going to be fine, and when Bunny Bug gets back, he’s going to be good as new . He has to! SHE has too! 

His psyche started to feel as sick as his stomach, and that’s how he recognized he was beginning to have less certainty in this tenuous mentality. Carapace was right—this was taking too long; with the Rabbit, she should’ve been back the minute she left, dragging Monarch at her heels and ready to undo all the catastrophic damage with her Lucky Charm. He didn’t understand how things worked in the Burrow, but he knew something had to be wrong; he just couldn’t tell what it was. 

But as bad as he felt, it must’ve been a thousand times worse for his friends' parents and family members, who would’ve been going to sleep only to be woken up with the worst news imaginable—their children were dying. He knew what the ‘death’ of a mother felt like, but your own son? Your daughter? And then there was Juleka, Luka’s brother and Rose’s girlfriend. She must’ve been out of her mind with inconsolable anguish; she couldn’t be there for either of them as Purple Tigress because Monarch had stolen her Miraculous, the same one he’d used to nearly kill them both. What would she do when she learned that? 

“Chat?” Rena Rouge and Carapace stepped out of the tent together, eyeing him carefully, but he could see they were also worried about him. He must’ve seemed like a lunatic, refusing to step indoors in the dead of winter, during a freezing thunderstorm no less, waiting for their friend and leader to suddenly step through a time portal to make everything better again. It sounded like a children’s fantasy story, but that was the reality they lived in, and if something as absurd as magic really did exist, then he had to believe in her return as well. He didn’t understand why they weren’t as worked up as him; were they not holding out hope too?

“Chat,” Rena repeated, a little more delicately, “I have to go now. I managed to slow down the police’s investigation with a cover story for all the parents explaining why three kids and a ‘retired’ superheroine were out of their houses when they shouldn’t have been and got hurt, but it’s still flimsy at best and totally see-through at worst. Once Polymouse gets here with Minotaurox and Pegasus, I need to go have a chat with them and our ‘esteemed’ mayor to convince them we’ve got this handled. I think it should be you talking with them, but it’s clear—”

“You’re what?!!” Chat lashed out when her words finally registered with him, causing the two Holders to jerk backward. Chat was just as shocked as they were, but his reaction came from total disbelief at what he was hearing. Alya, Marinette’s best friend for as long as he’d known either of them, was just going to leave while she was still out there?! Que dia ble ?!?

“You’re leaving?! Just like that?! You’re going to abandon Ladybug again?!!” Even though the logic in Rena’s plan was sound, his brain refused to accept any rationale that didn’t align with his own. To him, it sounded like she was placing a duty that could be filled by anyone else over her responsibilities as a friend. He knew she’d planned out how Polymouse was going to discretely round-up Max and Ivan, but he’d expected that meant they would all be gathering here together , not splitting up at the worst possible moment! To him, that was the ultimate betrayal of someone they all looked up to—someone who would never leave them behind if the roles were reversed. 

Rena, on the other hand, had a much more pragmatic outlook on their current situation and found Chat Noir’s insular and ridiculing attitude towards her not just insulting, but completely unwarranted. 

“I’m not abandoning her, Chat,” she answered, “but she’s not here, and someone has to look out for our teammates and their families during all this. That needs to be our priority until we know she’s coming back.”

Chat didn’t even notice his claws were digging into his palms again, but it was for the best they remained buried in his flesh rather than unleashed on his allies. “She is coming back, but she wouldn’t have left in the first place if you hadn’t let her go!” he snarled. “How could you do that?! Why would you?!! After everything Monarch’s done tonight, knowing he had the Snake, what could have possibly been going through your head to make you think—?!”

“ First of all,” Rena snapped back, “don’t you dare talk to me about abandonment when you went missing for an entire week when we needed you most! Whatever you were doing, it couldn’t have possibly been more important than the Miraculous being stolen and Gabriel being outed as Shadow Moth! If you had been there to help, our friends might not be in the hospital right now!” 

Chat tried to make a rebuttal, but Rena refused to relent now. “And second, I did not abandon her! I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen, and I didn’t want to start a pointless fight with her, just like you’re doing right now . Letting her fight Monarch alone, that was the second-hardest choice I’ve ever had to make, right after allowing Monarch to Akumatize me to protect my sisters, who are still missing, and, for all I know, could already be dead!!” She stepped up to Chat and jabbed a finger in his face. “So don’t you ever talk down to me about my commitments again. I’m following mine while you’re avoiding yours. These are our people, Chat, and they need you with them.”

“I—! ...I know.” 

Chat felt like a deflated balloon that had used up all the air inside and was slowly falling to the ground, a shell of its former self. Alya was completely right; he understood that, and he wanted to do more, but he didn’t know how to help. What was he supposed to do? Go to the hospital and try to comfort these families while he was barely holding himself together? It was clear to him that Rena was the one with a real plan and the composure to act effectively, while he had established himself atop this lifeless tower and refused to leave, even for a moment. 

If he wanted to go, even if he tried his hardest, he wasn’t sure he could make himself move an inch from this spot. “I know I’m needed, but…I can’t abandon her again, not like before. I have to stay.”

Rena made an exasperated noise, but somewhere inside it, he heard a touch of sadness that matched his own concern for his missing partner. Of course Alya didn’t want to give up on her friend either, but she had an easier time focusing on the bigger picture than he did. It must’ve been the reporter in her, while he was just a hopelessly lovesick fool waiting for a miracle. 

“Dude,” Carapace said as he stepped up to Chat and placed a hand on his shoulder, “she’ll be okay. Really, I mean it. If anyone could take down Old Man Agreste alone, it’s our girl.”

“I know, Nino, but…that’s what I’m worried about. He was down to his last leg and barely holding out as it was, but the Snake gives him an almost unbeatable edge up close. What if he’s too much for her like that and kills her, or what if she’s forced to…to…”

Carapace’s jaw dropped slightly when he got what Chat failed to say out loud. “Bro…you don’t really think that, right? I mean…she’d never…there’s no way—”

“No, she wouldn’t do that, not Ladybug,” Rena interjected, and the way she said it made it very clear how adamant she was about that. “She’s the best of us all, even on the worst days. She wouldn’t compromise her values like that even if the entire world was telling her she had to. She had her Lucky Charm with her; she’d find another way, just like she always does.”

Chat believed everything she said about Ladybug, but he wasn’t sure if he could say the same thing about Bunny Bug. “Rena, you saw how she acted with Queen Bee. I’ve never seen her so angry, even when we fought Psychomedian or after Hawk Moth killed Master Fu. That was not the Ladybug I know.”

“Chat, it’s not…it’s not that simple. I don’t know how far ahead of us she came back from or what she saw, but Chloé…she just doesn’t…she’s a lot to deal with.” 

Chat could see what Rena was trying to do: she was trying to defend Bunny Bug’s actions without making it seem like she knew Chloé from her personal life at school, where she’d apparently been Marinette’s personal boogeywoman since their very first encounter as kids. Her climactic reaction wouldn’t have surprised him if they were at school and Chloé was acting out again, but in-costume and while her bully was trying to help them as Queen Bee? Either Chloé had done something completely unforgivable, or, and he hated to consider it, something was wrong with Bunny Bug. 

“Besides,” Rena kept saying, “I don’t think you should have—” She abruptly stopped talking as her flute began to chirp out an alert. A hologram mimicking a text screen read out a message that, from the sight of Rena’s scowl, wasn’t welcome news. “Speak of the devil, and she’ll add on another migraine to the pile.” 

“What’s up, babe?” Carapace asked.

“It’s Caprikid. Apparently, Mayor Bourgeois is so ‘utterly’ enraged over tonight that he’s trying to convince his daughter to press charges against us for  coercion and intimidation, reckless endangerment, kidnapping, and several other crimes he’s probably reaching for off the top of his head.” She crossed her arms and exhaled her stress and irritation in a huge breath. “Captain Roger * is trying to talk him out of it until they can question witnesses, but it sounds like he’s already made up his mind and is trying to have Kid and King arrested on the spot. If Pegasus doesn’t get here soon so I can reason with him…God, why is this night getting consistently worse every other minute? Next thing you know, there won’t even be a tomorrow, and we’ll be stuck in this shitshow forever!”

“Did Chloé agree to press those charges?” Chat inquired. Maybe if he called her to help sort things out, she could get her father to calm down and stop his persecution of the team.

Rena read over the message again, texted back, and waited a few seconds before getting an answer. “No idea. She’s still getting checked out by the doctors for her injuries, and Roger wants her speaking properly before he takes her account of what happened.” She gave Chat a frustrated glare. “Like I was saying, I really don’t think you should have brought her here tonight, Chat. She just causes more problems that we have to solve before taking on the real issues. Besides Kagami and one other guy I know, almost every rich kid I’ve ever met has been nothing but a spoiled salaud with egos as big as their trust funds, and she’s the worst of them all.”

“I know she’s not…perfect in most ways…at all.” Boy, way to lay it on thick, Adrien . “But when I was…when I couldn’t find Vesperia and went to her instead, I could see how much she really wanted this.” Rena raised an eyebrow. Carapace motioned for him to quit before it was too late. He didn’t. “I don’t just mean she wanted to be Queen Bee again; that was certainly a big part of it, but even when I told her how bad things were and how dangerous it would be, she still wanted to help. In her eyes, I could see …I…I really thought she had changed since Miracle Queen.”

Rena appraised Chat neutrally as he shrunk into himself. “Chat, I get you keep trying to find the good in her. I’m not saying you should give up on that, but having all this amazing power at your fingertips…some people just don’t know how to handle it responsibly. Being a hero isn’t for everyone, and Chloé…I don’t think she has it in her to be the kind of hero Paris needs right now. She proved that tonight, and there’s no going back for her, not as Queen Bee, anyway.”

Chat didn’t want to believe Rena was correct this time, if only because it made Chloé look like the villain everyone kept saying she was, especially at school. He knew she wasn’t a bad person at heart, but she’d never learned how to balance her privilege with her personal disposition, and that made her constantly appear arrogant and conceited because she didn’t know how to correct herself. Ladybug had been right from the beginning; bringing Chloé here when she wasn’t ready physically, mentally or emotionally might’ve been what changed everything for the worse. He just hadn’t wanted to give up on another friend who’d needed his support to find redemption.

And that was when he recognized that the issue hadn’t really been Chloé—it’d been him all along. 

Maybe…maybe it was finally time for the truth. 

“You were right earlier, Alya,” he began, slowly working up his nerve. He hadn’t imagined he would do it like this, especially without Ladybug present, but if anyone else deserved to know, it was Alya and Nino. “Monarch taking the Miraculous, what it's led to tonight, it’s all my fault. And not just that; I think I…I think I’m the cause of the past two years as well.”

Rena Rouge and Carapace stared at him, their expressions utterly awestruck. “Dude,” Carapace spoke first, “what does that, like, even mean?”

“How could you have anything to do with that?” Rena challenged, her curiosity just as apparent as her bewilderment. “We learned Gabriel Agreste is Monarch just last week, and his wife went missing three years before his first attack. How could you be involved with any of that?”

Chat tried to keep his eyes level with theirs, but this was so much harder than he thought it was going to be. He was honestly scared to say it. Adrien Agreste was their friend, and Chat Noir their ally, but what would they think of him when they learned those two people were one and the same? That Chat Noir was Monarch’s son? That Adrien wasn’t even a human being? If they took that news the wrong way…what would happen when Ladybug herself learned the truth about him? Would she still want him to know who she was? Would she still be his friend? Would they still…have a future together?

Those kinds of things had to wait, he told himself. This had gone on for too long, and he couldn’t put it off anymore. It had to be said. 

“I’m more than just involved, you guys: I’m the reason Emilie Agreste disappeared five years ago, and maybe…maybe why Hawk Moth exists in the first place.”

More shock, but it wasn’t equal between the two sweethearts. “Chat,” Rena said, an accusing wariness inlaid into her tone as her muscles tensed up. “what did you do?” “It’s not about what I’ve done, it’s about who I am and…and what I—”

He stopped suddenly as he was finally about to let it out. It hadn’t been intentional, but though the storm had been playing havoc on his enhanced hearing, his ears had finally picked up on something new. An abrupt, unnatural shift in the rain, coming from the corner of the tower adjacent to where they were standing. He instantly knew something had changed but only recognized what when he smelled it. 

Every Miraculous was different from the other by nature, and that didn’t just mean their appearance or powers. Their magic auras, the auras of their kwamis, were different as well, from the Cat’s restless urge to unleash destruction to the Ladybug’s encouraging desire to inspire creativity. He knew this one too; he’d never forgotten this distinct sensation he’d experienced during his first encounter with Bunnyx; an endless expanse of unparalleled potential, the perfect place for anyone with a thrill-seeking sense of adventure—it was the intoxicating magic of the Rabbit Miraculous opening a wormhole to the Burrow. 

She was back.

Chat Noir took off like a bolt of lightning, Rena Rouge already at his heels, her senses having picked up the same anomalies as his own. Carapace lagged behind, unaware of what was happening, but Chat wasn’t going to wait on either of them. He knew it was here, the moment he’d been praying for, the relief he’d been after since the last time she’d held him in her arms. 

She was back. 

He was already thinking about everything he would say to her; everything he’d wanted to say since they first met. He’d confess it all; his name, his real name, and how much he sincerely loved her like no one else. He’d strip himself bare of all secrecy and pledge himself to fixing the greatest mistake he’d ever made—never showing her how much she really meant to him as a friend, as a partner, and the greatest thing to ever happen to him, his dream of happiness come to life. He would never waste another moment by her side again and make each day they spent together the best days of the rest of their lives.

She was back. 

She was home. 

But she hadn’t returned alone.

He didn’t need the tower’s lights to make her out through the stormy weather; she was planted facedown on the walkway, soaking wet in the rain but breathing—alive. Despite having used Burrow to get back, she was wearing her regular Ladybug costume again, with no sign of the Rabbit’s blue and white color scheme anywhere on her person. He barely noticed that, though, because it didn’t matter to him. It was her and in the flesh. No illusion or subtle trick—he knew better since Sentibug. He just knew it, like a negative charge being pulled towards its positive opposite—there was no mistaking this feeling of attraction. 

Chat could see her trying to move from her spot with no success, her arms extended forward like she was reaching out for something. Me , he thought, but he’d learn soon enough just how terribly wrong he was.

“LADYBUG!!” he shouted as he ran. She was at the far end of the platform, several meters away, but not far at all for someone who could outpace a fully-grown cheetah at its top speed. He could have been next to her in seconds, but that wouldn’t have been fast enough, not with someone else already behind her. 

A dark shadow rose up from the ground, spotting the incoming trio of heroes with a single haunting blue eye, and grabbed Ladybug from the ground as Chat’s cry of warning was only half-formed.

“LOOK OUT!!”

“Stop right there!” Monarch lifted up his hostage and held her by the neck with one arm, the other gripping a sharp object shoved against her stomach, the tip already drawing blood to add sincerity to his next threat. “Or she DIES!!”

Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, and Carapace froze right where they were, none of them willing to risk moving the barest amount while their leader’s life was in jeopardy. Monarch and Ladybug might not have been out of reach, but his father’s weapon was currently pushing past her skin. If he caught even a whiff of hostility, he could cut apart her internal organs like meat in a butcher’s shop.

Chat was by no means a strategist of Ladybug’s caliber, but even he could weigh their options in his head and find that none were sympathetic to their plight. Carapace had left his shield behind on the tower’s West side, but his Shell-ter would have been useless anyway with Monarch this close to his captive. Rena was too exposed to use Mirage, and even if Chat could use his Cataclysm, he’d risk touching Ladybug and killing her instead of destroying the weapon. 

But Monarch wasn’t in a good position either. Upon a closer look, Chat could see just how unsteady the villain was standing; his legs weren’t holding him fully upright and were shaking, like he was having trouble coordinating his balance. Chat examined his face; his mask concealed most of his injuries, but one of his eyes was very clearly closed shut by a scar that was somehow healed over, like he’d been gone longer than it seemed, or his healing abilities had somehow been accelerated past their usual limit. 

His other eye, however, told the whole story; it wavered in its socket, never fully focusing on Chat or the others. Chat recognized this as a symptom of brain damage a boxer who’d taken too many hits to the head would have when their brain was bashed around inside their skull. This had happened to him a few times before during past fights; he knew Monarch’s motor systems were sluggish now, but it also meant he was less predictable, which made him even more dangerous while he had a weapon and a reason to use it.

But even if Monarch had the capacity to run, he had nowhere to go: no teleportation, no means of escape. All he had to protect himself was Ladybug as his hostage, leaving them all in a tenuous standoff that threatened to collapse if someone made the wrong move against him. 

And then Chat’s eyes found Ladybug’s, and he nearly rushed forward regardless. 

She looked half-asleep, tired and weak, with no strength left to fight against her captor’s hold around her. The pain from Monarch’s blade was visible as only a wince on her cheek, having no energy for any other response but a soft, pained groan. The way she looked back at him was like a silent pleading for help, knowing she’d done all she could already and would never make it out alive without him. 

This time, he had to save her.

“Monarch,” Chat started, using all his concentration to keep his hatred and disgust from polluting his attempt at a calm, reasonable approach to their circumstance. One misstep and Ladybug would be gutted like a fish. “You need to let her go. Right now.”

“No, I will not!” Monarch shouted back, but his voice was just as uneven as his posture, his words slurring. “You will step away…and let me pass! I will be taking Ladybug… with me, and if any of you…presume to stop me, I will kill her!”

“Don’t do this, Gabriel,” Rena said, taking the same approach as Chat by adding a sedateness to her words. “Think about it; there’s nowhere for you to go. If you surrender now and don’t harm Ladybug any further—”

“Then we won’t have to kick your ass again!” Carapace yelled, thoughtlessly ignoring his teammate’s efforts to negotiate peace with the unstable maniac. Rena gave him a sideways death glare and he cowered back, leaving them to handle the issue.

“None of you seem…to understand,” Monarch rasped. “I don’t need to leave here…with her alive; she’s just my…insurance. All I really need…is her Miraculous.” The hand from the arm around her neck gestured at her left earlobe where one earring glowed faintly, its timer drawing close to a remaining two minutes of charge. This might’ve been the closest Monarch had ever come to taking her Miraculous, and now he had to treat them as a bargaining chip for his escape. Chat would’ve found that comically ironic if he wasn’t so focused on keeping his father from killing the girl he loved. 

“Monarch,” Chat tried again, “you know what killing her will mean for you once this is over. It’s going too far, and you can’t possibly think you’ll get away with—”

“I will do it,” he sputtered. “She deserves it…for f-forcing me to…go this far. I’ve given up… everything …to save my family, and she…destroyed it all. My last chance…and it was all…for nothing.”

His open eye shifted away from them at that last part, almost dejectedly, like he’d finally realized he’d lost but didn’t know how to accept that. This was a different side of Monarch; Chat had never seen his father so despondent before, even while his mother was sick or when Adrien learned who he was. He’d always fought against the odds, either out of determination to win or the sheer refusal to lose. He might have called it ‘hope’ if the man wasn’t raving mad and obsessed with victory, whatever the cost. This , this was a lack of hope, like something had happened to Monarch while he’d been in the Burrow and…

No, that couldn’t be it. His father would never  show this kind of genuine sentiment or remorse, not even to his own son. He was just a hollow, broken man who’d lost his most prized possession and, just like a child who’d been spoiled rotten, had thrown a tantrum, hurting everyone close to him as well as random innocents he’d never met, treating them like puppets, things , until he got what he was really after. But he never had, and this was where it had left him. No one had forced him here—he chose this. 

Monarch clearly wasn’t in his right mind anymore, even moreso than before. The brain damage must’ve been severe, or else he would’ve tried something more rational, like negotiating for his freedom. Instead, he slowly slunk away from the heroes, dragging Ladybug with him as more blood flowed free from the crude incision in her stomach. She looked like she was trying to mouth something to Chat, but he couldn’t make anything out; the storm was too loud, and her voice was too faint to pick up, even for him. Her own injuries from all the fighting must have been substantial. If she didn’t get proper help soon, Monarch might kill her accidentally through negligence alone.

He had to find another way to deescalate the situation before—

And that’s when everything went from bad to worse as Chat sensed the opening of a new portal not far behind him, and Monarch’s chokehold over Ladybug squeezed tighter as he saw first who’d walked through it before the Cat Holder could. 

No, not now! Not right now!!

Then Chat turned around to spot who it was, and that’s how he knew they’d completely lost control over the situation. 

“GABRIEL AGRESTE!!!” an ancient voice thundered, each syllable spoken with an outer authority that commanded absolute respect from all within earshot. “Release your captive and surrender yourself at once!”

Su-Han, the Grandmaster of the Order of Miraculous Guardians, stepped through the churning Voyage vortex, his hawkish eyes blazing undauntedly at the feeble Monarch, whose own eye went wild in agitated panic. By his side came Pegaus, Polymouse, Minotaurox, and… Vesperia?!  

Each of them had their weapons ready as they gained an understanding of the scene they’d walked right into, initially unaware their presence was only making things worse.

“NO!” Monarch yelled, backing away further from the group. “G-get back! All of you, STAY BACK!!”

“Grandmaster?!” Chat Noir said, equally amazed and dismayed as the elder Guardian strode towards them. Even though it was freezing wet outside, Su-Han displayed no discomfort despite only wearing his standard temple attire without gloves or a hat. Instead, a resolute fire of hatred burned in his indomitable features, and all of it was directed at the man who’d been defiling one of the Guardian’s most sacred artifacts for years. “What are you doing here?!”

“I apologize for my delay, Chat Noir,” Su-Han said sternly, sparing Chat only a brief glance of acknowledgment before refocusing on Monarch. “I found myself absorbed with these abhorrent machines called ‘slots,’ but came as soon as I realized something was amiss. I intercepted your young companions on my way here.”

“Grandmaster, it’s good to see you, but you can’t be here! You’re only going to upset—!”

“Nonsense,” Su-Han huffed officiously. “You clearly need reinforcement to deal with this threat, and I am no stranger to handling such pitiful deviants. He will not be escaping.”

Su-Han may have been correct about that, but he failed to factor in the danger Ladybug was in, which was was growing bigger every second.

“I said STAY BACK!!” Monarch shouted and the encroaching Holders, his obscured shiv sliding precariously further into his captive’s stomach. Her reaction this time was a spasm of movement, but his stiff embrace was still too strong to foil. 

“LET HER GO!” Minotaurox bellowed. Vesperia activated her Venom, and Polymouse prepared to release a clone of herself to get behind Monarch. It was all too risky for Chat with Ladybug’s life on the line; he had to get them all to stop now!  

“STOP IT!!” he found himself screaming, and everyone stared at him. His team shifted uncomfortably; their dutiful concern for their leader and Chat’s outcry were the only things keeping them from stepping closer. Su-Han scowled intensely in his direction, then back at Monarch, unwilling to keep the Miraculous thief out of his sight for long. Monarch also stopped moving, but only because he’d reached the guardrails behind him and had nowhere else to go. He, too, wouldn’t take his eyeball off the heroes, or else they’d find a way past his guard, and he’d be done for. 

“Gabriel,” Chat Noir tried one last time, “it doesn’t have to go like this. You want to save your wife from the effects of the broken Peacock, right? The Guardians can help ; they know how to heal diseases like hers.” He turned to Su-Han, allowing himself a daub of optimism. “Right?” 

The Grandmaster looked at Chat skeptically with a tinge of undisguised annoyance, no doubt questioning how Chat could know something so specific about their enemy and his motivations. The team also seemed confused; it was a calculated risk, putting his true identity on the line in front of Monarch, and it could potentially make things even worse. But it was worth it. Su-Han inclined his head in affirmation, and Chat’s spirit jubilantly soared like a great eagle. “Don’t you see? Emilie can live again, Gabriel; you can have her back, and your son…he can have his mother! All you have to do is Let. Ladybug. Go.”

Monarch paused, clearly puzzled about what Chat knew about him, looking over the Cat Holder carefully as if trying to read his words' sincerity. He actually could, Chat realized, with the Butterfly’s empathic abilities. * . Maybe once he knew there was another option, a real chance to save his wife without causing further damage, he would—

“No,” he mumbled, his face echoing the same aspect of lost hope that had haunted it earlier before the others arrived. “It’s already too late…I know the truth: she’s…already gone…and I can’t save her.”

Chat’s heart skipped a tangible beat. ‘Gone?’ Gone?!! No, no, that couldn’t be right. She-she was fine when he last saw her. Nothing had changed in her condition. She couldn’t-she couldn’t be dead! She couldn’t be dead!!

“What…what are you talking abo—?”

“Enough!” Su-Han boomed, his staff pointed at Monarch as he walked past Chat. “Gabriel Agreste, relinquish Ladybug and the Butterfly Miraculous at once, or I will be forced to—”

“ Look…out. ”

The words…Chat could finally hear what Ladybug was trying to say. Her speech was a croaked whisper without direction, but her ocean eyes indicated what she was referring to, what she was looking at, just before Su-Han accidentally stepped on the shard of it.

“What…is this?” Su-Han reached down to pick up the biggest piece of something that used to be part of a much larger object. He turned it over in his hand, examining it closely, and in the light, Chat made out an arctic blue surface with black and white decals in the form of a circle. It was a pattern he recognized immediately, but he couldn’t believe it at first, and neither did Su-Han. “The-this is…impossible.”

It wasn’t. It was true. The remains of the Rabbit Miraculous lay in the palm of the Grandmaster’s hand, and when Chat scanned the ground for more pieces, he noticed it wasn’t the only one that had been broken. A pile of sea-green remnants of another jewel lay scattered on the wet platform. Before Chat could gather any for a closer look, he caught sight of a pale luster on Monarch’s modest weapon; it came from the scaled head of a yellow-eyed snake that served as the timer of Viperion’s stolen Miraculous. 

The Snake was broken. The Rabbit was broken. The power over time itself had become relegated to a handful of colored shards like a shattered hourglass, and the kwamis of Revelation and Redemption…were nowhere to be seen. 

“What have you done??” The first time Su-Han said it, his voice was drowned in quiet disbelief until it became a roar of enormous outrage, unlike anything the elder had ever expressed before. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, AGRESTE?!?!”

“It was HER!!” Monarch bewailed, turning to look Ladybug in her exhausted eyes as a shadow of culpability crept across her face. “She destroyed it all…just to hurt me! She broke time…don’t you see? It’s all over now…it’s all lost…and so are…your friends! ”

What did he mean by—no. 

Chat scoured the ground again, pushing his enhanced feline sight to its limits, even though the extensive illumination of the Iron Lady made his night vision nearly useless. But with or without it, one horrifying truth became painfully apparent when he failed to locate the red and white object he’d seen Bunny Bug summon just before everything went to hell again.

The Lucky Charm wasn’t here.

Rose, Kagami…Luka. None of them could be healed now. 

Everything was falling apart.

“It’s all…her fault,” Monarch grimaced as a strange liquid dripped from his nose. Not blood, but cerebrospinal fluid. His father’s traumatized brain was leaking out of his body. “She’s…no hero…but a m-monster …just like me.”

That was when Chat Noir finally lost his temper and gave up on mediating peace between them. “She’s nothing like you!! You are a fucking monster, but she’s a thousand, a million times better than you ever were! She’s more than you ever could be!!”

“Chat, don’t—!” Rena Rouge tried to say, but Chat ignored her and the others completely. It was just him, Ladybug, and his father now. The rest of the world had become insignificant. 

“Let her go,” he snarled, “or I will make these the last few moments of your life, and I promise you , they will be filled with the most excruciating agony you’ve ever experienced, and you won’t be coming back from it!“

Chat thought he might’ve heard someone telling him to stand down, Su-Han most likely, but his focus was entirely ahead of him. On saving Ladybug. On hurting Monarch. Hurting him bad . 

“ Hnn-hnn-hnn .” Monarch was chuckling, actually chuckling. He looked delirious but still remained just as dangerous, gently curling his fingers around the jagged Snake remnant in Ladybug’s gut. Her eyes begged with Chat’s for a rescue, a savior. 

Don’t worry, Marinette, I’ll save you .

“You think you…know pain, boy?” Monarch sneered. “How would you feel…knowing this woman you…love…is in love…with someone else?”

“I’d say you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!!”

“Really? You know…this? You think you…know her? Hnn-hnn-hnn!” His fingers reached for her left earring, and her face contorted with raw dread. “Allow me to…show you otherwise.”

“ No…please! ”

“Agreste, stop!”

“Ladybug!”

“Don’t do it!!”

The earring came out with a fleshy rip, and the magic costume started to fade in a flicker of sparkling rose pink. 

***

Chat entered a perfect state of terror, remembering what Alya said Monarch’s original plan had been for Ladybug; make her identity public, then kill her while the world watched. Right now, he almost had exactly the presentation he was after, a stage where he would accomplish his long-sought ambition of ending her life in the most deplorable way possible. 

There was no mistaking it. Monarch was going to kill Ladybug this time. 

But not if Chat stopped him first.

What transpired next moved so quickly that only the minds of Miraculous Holders could process everything to its full extent, and even then, only Chat Noir really understood what actually happened. 

After removing one earring, Monarch’s free hand was already shifting towards its counterpart on the right of Ladybug’s head. His arm loosened from around her neck, allowing him to reach for it, but she still lacked the energy to defend herself, and trying to stop him would get her killed anyway. Her face evoked a mask of tired yet desperate hysteria as her actual mask gradually disappeared. At the same time, Monarch showed no sign of anything but gleeful vindication as his revenge finally reached its moment of convergence. It seemed as if it was already inevitable. 

While this was happening, Su-Han and the team of Holders around Chat rushed forward, but it was as if they were moving in slow motion. They would never get to her in time. Only he could do this. 

By complete instinct, Chat had already raised his right arm and braced it with his left, not even noticing what he was doing as he did it, yet knew through complete intuition alone not to fight it. A surge of cataclysmic dark energy poured from the Cat ring, but instead of gathering around his palm like usual, it converged together into a glowing sphere just before his hand, setting itself in place as his fingers curled into a circular ‘flicking’ gesture. It was as if an internal force was guiding his hand, directing the power of Destruction where it was needed. Plagg , Chat realized, he’s showing me what to do . 

Again, without truly understanding anything, he knew what he was capable of now. He had the power to end this fight without ever getting close to his target. But what would he do with it? His aim had to be perfect ; otherwise, he still risked turning Ladybug into a flurry of lifeless ash. But even if he was sure he wouldn’t miss, what was his target? His father, or his makeshift weapon?

Chat’s fury made the Cataclysm ball burn brightly with green-tinged shadow fire, and a strange voice, neither his nor Plagg’s, told him what his angry, betrayed heart wanted to hear. Kill him, or HE will kill the only one left who truly loves you .

He could’ve made the split-second decision almost instantly; it was a choice between Marinette or his father, Monarch; the girl who meant everything to him, the only person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with no matter what they were to each other, or the man he called father, who wasn’t even his real father, and never treated him like a real son. It seemed so obvious who got to live and who needed to die. 

But just when he thought he’d chosen, he saw her face staring back at his. Her mask was halfway gone; the effects of the aura masking it provided diminished to a level that left him more certain than ever it was the clumsy, awkward, yet remarkably sweet and brilliant girl staring back at him, the unmistakable claws of fear tearing at her beautiful, flawless features. That fear had already made itself known, but Chat noticed that it was no longer coming from a general recognition that she only had moments left to live; it was directed right at him. She was afraid of him . 

Within a space of time indiscernible to mortal minds, faster still than Chat was already perceiving this frozen moment, Adrien Agreste went from being totally committed to killing Gabrial Agreste to realizing the cost it would carry was too much for his soul to bear. He’d spent the entirety of the past week committed to the belief that his father was a monster, then the better part of the past two hours thinking he was one as well, just in a different way. But now, he found himself on the precipice of becoming the same kind of monster his father was; a killer, willing to selfishly put his needs over another person’s life , the most sacred, precious thing in the world. A hero wouldn’t do that. He couldn ’t do that, not if saving Ladybug meant losing her as well, and he made sure both he and the primal urge of violence at the root of his psyche knew this equally. 

His father was an undeniable monster, but he was also Adrien’s sculptor, spending years molding his “son” into his ideal model of absolute perfection. And if that perfectionist philosophy applied to everything Gabriel Agreste found rightly justified in his own march for godlike power, then inflicting death was no exception. This was Adrien’s one chance to break free and prove he was better than that. He didn’t have to be a monster like Monarch. He could choose .

There’s always another way . 

One word. One touch. His choice.

“CATACLYSM!” And away it went. 

Though marginally slowed down by his injuries, Monarch’s fingers had finally wrapped around the second earring, ready to tear it out along with the rest of Ladybug’s ear before unleashing the contents of her stomach across the wet metal floor. He never got the chance to do either. His moment of triumph was taken from him as, first, Chat Noir’s airborne Cataclysm turned his blood-soaked Snake Miraculous into black ash. And while his addled mind tried to work out what just happened, slowing his reaction even further, the other Holders crashed into him like a tidal wave of splashing colors, grabbing their leader free in the process. 

They had her. They had him . 

It was over. 

“NOOOOOOO!!!” Monarch turbulently screamed, writhing futility as Carapace, Minotaurox, and Pegasus held him in place, refusing to give an inch of ground as they exposed his vulnerable chest for Vesperia to paralyze him in place. 

“Hold!” Su-Han ordered, almost physically pushing past the Bee Holder to approach Monarch, ignoring the man himself as he tore away the Butterfly Miraculous from his chest and watched Nooroo rematerialize into the downpour.

“Nooroo,” he asked as an unfamiliar gentleness overlapped his default strict timbre. “Are you all right?”

“Y-yes, Grandm-master.”

“Good, good.” Then, unexpectedly, Su-Han turned his attention onto Chat Noir, still standing where he’d fired the Cataclysm. “Chat Noir… how did you do that?” 

Chat’s brain felt foggy, like he’d taken a surplus of physical supplements and used up all the extra energy within a single second, leaving him feeling more depleted and weightless than he’d ever felt before, even after a fight in zero gravity. His right arm… tingled . It took him several seconds to even grasp time had started moving again, much less register he’d been asked a question. “Wh-what?”

“That technique! The ‘Flying Death,’ how did you manage to perform it?!” Su-Han looked absolutely appalled, which was not something Chat was accustomed to from him. “It has been expressly forbidden for a millennium due to the unimaginable danger it presents should it be mishandled. No Cat Holder has utilized it for centuries. It is not even mentioned in your Guardian spellbook. How could you have possibly—?” 

“Chat Noir!” Chat heard Rena Rouge cry out. “Over here, quick!”

“Noir, do not ignore—!”

He ignored him, finding the strength to move against and found himself standing beside Rena, who was holding a quivering Ladybug in her lap and trying with no success to get her to calm down after her rescue. Her left earring had been returned to her by Polymouse, her identity safe for the time being. And yet, she looked more terrified than ever, relentlessly shivering in a fetal position and repeating the same thing over and over again: “Non…non…please no….stop….”

“Honey, please, tell us what’s wrong,” Rena pleaded, almost tearing up herself as Ladybug continued to weep uncontrollably. “You’re safe, safe with us.”

“Non…stop it…please… please …”

Rena stared up at Chat. “I don’t-I don’t know what this is. She’s—she’s never done this before…right?”

No, she hadn’t, not that he’d ever seen anyway. This was the exact opposite of the unbreakable and fiercely confident heroine he remembered from the beginning of this battle or her more recent, furious persona as Bunny Bug. It was as if her fortitude had been shattered into pieces like the Rabbit Miraculous, leaving her as this shaking, sobbing bundle of red and black spots with her face buried in Rena’s legs. He was legitimately distressed in every way possible.

“Milady?” Chat kneeled down and offered out his hand to her. “Bugaboo…it’s okay now…just let us—”

“NO!” Ladybug recoiled away from Chat hand, backing up hard against the guardrail and shielding her eyes. “Not again! Please! STAY AWAY FROM ME!!”

Chat didn’t understand. What had he done? He hadn’t even touched her, yet she’d looked at him like…like…like he’d wanted to hurt her. Like he was…a monster.

“Please…please….” Ladybug shrunk back into herself, neither Rena nor Polymouse able to coax her out of whatever traumatic event she thought she was experiencing. He stepped back, uncertain of himself, of what he should do, until he remembered there was someone here who may know about the torment afflicting her, most likely because he’d been the one to cause it.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!” Chat seized Gabriel Agreste before Vesperia could incapacitate him, grabbing his jacket and forcing him to his feet. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO LADYBUG?!!!”

“Nuh-nothing…she didn’t…deserve.”

Chat threw his father against a metal beam, the impact just shy of breaking bone. He advanced, no one daring to stop him, except for Grandmaster Su-Han.

“Chat Noir, restrain yourself before—”

Su-Han never got the chance to finish; he fell to the ground unconscious, his nose leaking the same blood now stained across Chat's fist. 

It may have been because few of the Holders there had met or particularly liked Su-Han * , or perhaps they were wary of getting in their enraged co-leader’s way. Regardless, no one tried to stop the Cat Holder from interrogating their hated adversary as he groaned in pain. 

“One. Last. Time― What did you do?! ” 

The first half of Gabriel’s reply was literally spit into his face. The second was far more personal, and triggered an event no one present could possibly understand the true implications of until it was far too late. “You don’t under…-stand love…boy,” he groaned through lips caked with blood. “That’s…the look of…losing…everything you…care about. Don’t you see?...she’s gone…your love…is dead.”

“ ANSWER ME!!”

“Love…is d-dead…oh, Emilie…forgive me…”

“Mother would never forgive you for this.”

Everyone stared, utterly astonished, as Chat Noir relinquished his black catsuit in the middle of the pouring rain and returned to his filthy week-old clothing. They all recognized him immediately: Adrien Agreste, their classmate, the most famous boy in all of France, the son of their beaten enemy, and now, they finally realized he was the same man who’d help bring all of them together. 

“Adrien?”

“No way!”

“D-dude?”

Adrien leaned down and looked this pathetic, diseased man dead in his one good eye, pulling off the silver wedding ring from his left hand without breaking eye contact, the last symbol of power that held any control over him. His father was speechless, and he thought for a moment he’d killed him just through the shock of this revelation alone, but he continued breathing through shallow, floundering breaths, and Adrien found that he hated him for it. 

“I could never thank you for any of this,” he seethed with no amount of any other emotion but pure, unadulterated rage, the kind that spilled out from a broken heart, present in his voice. “I will never forgive you for what you have done, no matter why you chose to do it, and from now until the day I die, I will always hate you, Gabriel.” 

“No…son…p-please….”

“I’m not your son,” Adrien whispered, holding up the ring he was certain possessed his amok. “I know the truth now—I was never yours, and this—” his last words to him nearly had to be choked out over a disappointed sob. “— This is what it looks like when you lose the last person who used to love you.”

He strenuously stood up, leaving his once-father to rot in the rain as he walked away, disregarding the abundance of awe-struck eyes upon him as he returned to Ladybug’s side and found her still cowering under Rena’s arms. The Fox Holder was just as dumbstruck as the others but, without a word, lightly nudged at Ladybug and got her to look up at Adrien, her partner.

“A-Adrien?”

“Yes, it’s me, my Lady.” He forced out a reassuring smile to disguise the grief of how he was really feeling. “It’s…I know this wasn’t how you wanted to…God, there were so many times where I almost just said it , and I don’t know why I didn’t sooner….but….” He tried being more gentle, more…happy about it, for her sake. “This is who I really am.”

“Y-y-you’re Chat B-...Chat…Noir?”

He nodded. “Yes, I am.”

Art by chai_latte_art

Her face went slack, and all color left her complexion like a magnificent portrait bleached of its liveliness. She just…stared at him, not uttering even a single syllable more for several, eternal seconds. Adrien’s heart pounded in his throat, waiting for a signal back. Waiting to hear her say…anything. 

Instead, it was her eyes that spoke for her failed voice. Those gorgeous bluebell eyes worth more to him than his home, his city, the entire world, were gushing fat tears and screaming for help. But not to him. From him . 

That’s when Adrien’s hope collapsed and buried him under his despair and grief. The last tie he had to his former life, the innocent person he used to be, was now irreparably severed, and he and everyone else now knew that nothing would ever be the same as it was again. 

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

***

From almost half a mile away atop the Palais de Chaillot, two figures concealed by darkness watched the events unfolding on the Eiffel Tower with an invested interest in the final outcome. This was a time they both remembered vividly, the fateful night when everything began to change for the worse. And it had all started with one person, the “hero”-made-villain of their story.

These figures were strangers in this place, recent arrivals, yet entirely at home. As much a part of this world as they were completely anathema to it. They did not belong here, and yet, somehow, here they were when all laws of the natural and unnatural realms said it should have been impossible. But doing the impossible was second nature to them both, though they themselves did not understand how they had come to be here, only that they were , and so for now, they watched, and they learned.

The first of the two felt something he had not felt in a long time—true, burning hatred, enough to reignite a dying star before it exploded, though the power he wielded was equal in measure to either outcome. From his perch, he spotted the ones he blamed for his current state, the cage he’d always been trapped in now more literal than ever because of them , and the overwhelming need for revenge nearly saw him unleash that supernova power in an uncontrollable flash of incomprehensible destruction. It would have ended the world and him along with it, but he would’ve been at peace with that. 

The second of the two was much more cautious and patient; she sensed an opportunity for far more than settling a trivial vendetta and was already making observations that, to her, should not have been possible. What was happening here tonight…it wasn’t supposed to be like this. It hadn’t been like this. 

She, too, closely watched the individual she blamed for the hell that had become her life, her blood boiling in response and dark thoughts demanding long-deserved recompense, but she kept them at bay through an iron will. She was in control, as always.  

Bringing her compatriot to heel before he acted rashly, the masked woman told him of her plan. For now, they would wait, they would continue to watch, but it would not be for long. There was change coming on the new horizon, one that would transform the entire course of history itself and remake this world into one unrecognizable from what these people would ever believe was even possible.

A reckoning was coming. A dark storm. 

A reign.

Chapter Text

Wednesday

le 7 février

Dear Diary,

 

Hello again. It’s been a while since my last entry, or even since I’ve looked through these pages. Too many memories waiting for me, I guess, and the thought of reliving them when there’s so much going on now, so much that’s already happened…it’s just been too hard to think about. Besides, this seems like something I should have outgrown a long time ago! Diaries are for little kids to hide their cute little secrets from each other, like a crush or something they regret. My secrets are…painful. They hurt, and it hurts knowing there are so few people I can talk to about them…or some of them, anyway.

Still, Doctor Clouteir—that’s the psychologist my parents hired after “The Battle of the Eiffel Tower”(I’ll get to that later)—suggested that writing out my feelings could be “cathartic” and help me locate the root of my issues. Not sure if I need any help with figuring that out, but Maman and Papa really believe it will help, and I don’t want them to think I’ve given up on myself.

Dr. Clouteir also suggested I try speaking with close, trusted friends, but Tikki and Alya have their own issues to deal with without me adding gas to the fire, and they don’t deserve to have my worries placed on top of their own. Besides, you, my dear diary, are the one place I know I can share anything and everything. It’s not like you can grow legs and run away once you’re thoroughly freaked out by what ludicrous insanity my life has become, right?! …That’s probably a good thing, because it wouldn’t take too long before you started crying with me. 

I guess…this is harder than I thought it would be. Maybe I should just start with something more… manageable first. Like…school? 

School is going about as well as can be expected, all things considered. I wasn’t able to turn in all my winter break assignments due to my time in the hospital (just another reason I haven’t put pen to paper in so long ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ), and I was really worried this could seriously affect my grade average going into the final school semester. My chances of getting into any university I actually wanted to get into would go *poof!* and I’d be stuck working out of the bakery, my already limited fashion experience relegated to knitting hats for kids until my skin turned to sourdough and my smile was as fake as my teeth. 

Thankfully, Ms. Bustier took pity on me and my other classmates who didn’t finish on time either (most for the same reason as me) and gave us all extensions. I should probably be working on that now, but all this extra homework doesn’t do much to help with my general angst, so taking a breather every now and then can help a lot. 

Speaking of university, despite the setback of last semester, plus, well, EVERYTHING Ladybug-related wreaking havoc on my time actually in class and studying, I think I’ve got a real shot of being accepted into one of the premier fashion schools in France! You wouldn’t believe it (I certainly didn’t ✧ᗜ✧), but some of them are really impressed by my designs. The chairman of Institut Français de la Mode HIMSELF replied to my application request and said my pigeon-themed derby hat was “an inspiration unto itself!!!” How crazy amazing is that?!?!

I think he must have written that response before the new year because I haven’t heard back from IFM since. Or, now that I think about it, I haven’t gotten any new admission letters for a few weeks now. Maybe because…let’s just circle back to that later. 

Umm…family! That’s something! And my parents are…they’re doing okay, all things considered. The last month has been really hard on them. Actually, it's been hard on everyone. And when I say that, I mean EVERYONE . But especially, I think, for Maman and Papa. They were so scared when they arrived at the hospital. Papa was so upset I snuck out and got hurt; I don’t think he could do anything but cry when he tried yelling. And Maman, I’ve never seen her so tired before, or so angry, once I could finally stay awake for more than a few minutes to listen to her relentless scolding of my careless behavior for leaving home to rescue Alya in a winter thunderstorm instead of doing something “rational” like staying put by the heater and letting the superheroes handle getting her home safe and taking down Monarch without us “kids” getting in the way (boy, that’s a mouthful). She’s right. Marinette shouldn’t have been there. That was a job for Ladybug and her team, and even they we could barely handle it, hence my veeery unpleasant trip t o Pitié-Salpêtrière. 

How did I end up in the hospital? Well…I got stabbed. Technically, I got stabbed twice, once in my shoulder and also in my stomach (that one was a lot worse). Also, my shin was nearly fractured, I had severe bruising all over my neck and most of my body, and I lost enough blood that Alya said one of the nurses called me a “Halloween juice-maker” when they thought no one was listening. Not a very flattering title, but I’ve been called much worse to my face, so this is…it’s not…so bad. 

UGH!! I don’t think I’m getting anywhere with this. I should probably explain what happened, beginning with…what I remember from when I first woke up. 

It was a week after the battle when I could finally stay conscious for at least an hour. My body had been so overtaxed from all the fighting that it was a miracle I didn’t accidentally kill myself. To this day, my muscles still ache when I wake up in the morning, and it takes more effort than usual to move around my room (and don’t even get me started on trying to get down the stairs. My right leg screams at me every time I put a little too much weight on it). There are also…the nightmares, and sometimes when I’m outside, I’ll randomly feel nauseous and super uncomfortable in my own skin...but I’m getting better. I know I am. 

Now, I know what you’re thinking, dear diary. “Oh no, Marinette! Does this mean everyone now knows you’re LADYBUG?!?!?!” Well, I’m glad I can put you back at ease with this reassuring answer: No, they do not, and it’s all thanks to the unrivaled genius of my beautiful best friend, the one and only Alya Césaire. 

When Alya first came to visit me, I asked about what happened after the fight? How had no one realized I was Ladybug yet? What about the rest of the team who got hurt? I hadn’t heard anything from the doctors, and Maman and Papa didn’t seem to know anything either, but I didn’t understand why! I was freaking out! My heart monitor almost went off I was so panicked. Thankfully, Alya explained how she had used some on-the-fly thinking to create a plan so ridiculous and contrived, everyone ended up believing it was true (Lila should take notes ¬‿¬). 

Basically, Monarch (just writing his name out gives me chills) was convinced he’d learned Rena Rouge’s true identity, which was Alya, so he kidnapped her in an attempt to lure out Ladybug and the rest of her team so he could steal all their Miraculous for himself (all good lies have a bit of truth to them). What wasn’t true, however, was that Alya was on a live call with our class for a group project right while she was being kidnapped, meaning we all saw her get taken by Monarch. When he sent up his over-the-top signal for Ladybug to meet him at the Eiffel Tower, we decided to find and rescue Alya while the real Rena Rouge and the other heroes kept him distracted. Unfortunately, some of us got caught in the crossfire, like me, for instance, and since there was no one else there who could say otherwise, everyone still thinks Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Ladybug are two completely different people (it also helps that Rena put up a Mirage around me as we entered the hospital just before my charge ran out, so no one else on the team knows either). 

Alya also managed to work out the finer details, like why Luka and Kagami were there or why not everyone in our class was on that call I mentioned, like Alix or Juleka. It’s pretty ingenious, but honestly, just trying to wrap my mind around it all still makes my head spin, so I’ll save that for another day’s entry.

During my st ay at Pitié-Salpêtrière, I learned later that Nadja Chamack and TV News had coined the whole thing “The Battle for the Future of Paris,” though “Battle of the Eiffel Tower” caught on quicker and easier. Apparently, the entire city was so ecstatic the day after the fight that people were literally celebrating Monarch’s defeat in the streets all over Paris. There were several small-scale parades and block parties, but also a few instances of rioting, specifically in the fashion districts where some Gabriel-brand stores were looted or completely burnt down.

Oh, that’s right, I forgot to say. Gabriel Agreste is Monarch and was Hawk/Shadow Moth. It’s been so long that I forgot I hadn’t added that in here. I’d prefer not to talk about what that means to me. Not yet. 

I’ve only been out of the hospital for about a week now. The only reason I can even be back home in the first place is because of Grandmaster Su-Han. You wouldn’t guess it from his rigid exterior, but he’s actually a very gifted healer. Every night, he’d sneak into my room and use the same technique I used with Luka and the Turtle Miraculous to transform me into Ladybug so my body could cope with my injuries more efficiently. He gave me Black Lotus Tears * to drink (instantly making me wish I was back in that coma) and also used some new restorative methods I’ve never read about; most of the smaller scars I earned that night have almost entirely disappeared by the time I’m writing this. 

Even so, that first week was hell, despite the fact that I slept through most of it. I sweat through so many bedsheets I could’ve filled an entire laundry mat, and the doctors almost had to restrain me to the bed because I kept tossing around in my sleep like I was trying to escape. After waking up, I felt even worse. 

I heard about what was happening with the others: Kagami’s internal injuries, Rose’s face and hands, and Luka…. I just couldn’t stop worrying about them. That was around the time my family hired Dr. Cloutier; they noticed how “upset” and “anxious” I was beyond my own pain, and while they were right, I couldn’t tell them it wasn’t all just because I was concerned for my friends. Hell, I couldn’t even tell them the real reason I was so agitated was because I blamed myself for what happened to them—I lost my Lucky Charm twice! TWICE!! That’s just…just…UGH!! How can I even express how crazy that is?!! I can’t!! It’s too much! 

I…I didn’t know if they were going to make it or not. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so helpless before, stuck in that bed, knowing I couldn’t do a damn thing to help. I never want to feel like that again.

But aside from how angry it made me, it was a really weird experience too. Like, I used to write in this diary every day, and I usually couldn’t go through 2 to 4 or so entries before I was writing about ANOTHER Akuma attack. They happened so often it was like a regular part of my routine schedule, and any break that went longer than a week always left me with so much nervous energy I thought I would literally shake myself apart into pieces (I remember I once drew a sketch of that in here somewhere ಠ~ಠ). As I lay in that bed, I kept thinking, “When will the next attack be? Can the team handle it without me? Or without__” I just couldn’t help it, even though I knew Monarch was no longer a threat. We did take him down. But when you spend that long fighting…you sort of forget what real peace is like. 

 

I still haven’t adjusted completely; I’m like a firefighter living in Antarctica-I just keep waiting for the impossible. Everything has become an emotional stressor to me,  from breaking news alerts to police sirens. It all makes me want to jump out of my skin. Hell, every time I see a butterfly fly past me, even one that’s not white or dark colored, I almost have another panic attack. This underlying feeling I have that something could happen at any moment, that it’s not over yet; it still hasn’t gone away. It’s almost definitely some sort of PTSD symptom from 2 straight years of Akuma-related incidents(I’m sure I’ve got more of those than I can even count), but I can’t tell Dr. Clouteir or any other psychologist in the city that I moonlight as an animal-themed superhero and expose myself the worst humanity has to offer without guaranteeing myself a spot in a mental asylum.

But that’s enough of that. I’ve talked about what happened to me (for all the good it did me •̀ ᴖ •́ ). Now let’s catch you up on everyone else, my dear diary. 

Alya, thank God, is doing better than most of us, despite how badly she was abused and exploited by Monarch that night. Anyone else who might have been put into her position would’ve become a pile of broken eggshells with their brain all scrambled. But not her. She’s the most driven, courageous, and competent person I know; her stories on the Ladyblog earned her a spot in every university with a journalism course in Western Europe before we even reached our final school year. If anyone was going to make it through that night and remain sane, it was definitely her…though she’d probably be the first to admit out loud she never could have done so unless her sisters had been found.

Shit! I forgot to mention that too! Kidnapping Ella and Etta was how that connard Monarch got her to remain Akumatized in the first place! Thankfully, those little scoundrels are more crafty than he realized. Turns out, that shitheel had stashed them in his largest store in Shanghai, probably thinking they didn’t already know how to jimmy their way out of a locked door. It took them a few tries, but they accidentally set off the store's burglar alarm as soon as they got it open. It all turned out okay, though, because Ladydragon was close by and got there before the police, and once the girls told her where they were from, it was just a matter of time before Pegasus teleported them back home to Alya and reunited the Césaire family. 

As far as I know, her sisters are the only ones who didn’t buy her fake story and know she’s actually Rena Rouge, but Alya told me they’ll keep her secret safe, so long as she takes them out for André’s ice cream every Friday after school (those cunning little kits ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶).

There’s not as much to say about Nino; he’s mostly been hanging out with Alya every day. Apparently, he promised not to let her out of his sight for the next 50 years of her life, and neither of us was sure if he was exaggerating or not. Still, I guess that means their relationship is in a good place for now. It’s…nice. I’m happy for them, really. No need to over-analyze the foundation of their perfectly healthy and functional relationship and how everything is going great between them, no siree. 

Heh…let’s move on.

Kagami was the first of us who got seriously hurt, so I guess it makes sense to start with her. Truth be told, I haven’t seen much of her since that night. As soon as she was well enough to be moved, her mother, Tomoe Tsurugi, had her flown to one of the best medical facilities in Europe, where she received the best care possible from some of the best doctors in the world (you get a lot of “bests” when you’ve got the benefit of a healthy wallet (not that Kagami is the kind of person to wrongfully take advantage of her privilege!! It was for the best reasons!!)). She wasn’t able to heal with Longg while having that many eyes on her, but the quality of her treatments more than made up for it. 

We talked once she got back. I went to see her as both myself and Ladybug separately, and she was…quieter than normal both times. I think she believes she bears some responsibility for what happened to the others, but that’s a load of crap from someone who's always too hard on themselves. She did the best she could even after she got hurt and would’ve done more if she could’ve. It wasn’t her fault. I…I should know that too. We both care…maybe a little too much sometimes. I wish we had more time to talk about that.

Rose…I still see her face sometimes when I close my eyes. Not the scorched flesh that was entirely…what was left, but what it used to be. No one else could smile as brightly as her. No one exuded such…happiness like she did. She’s different now too. She’s received skin grafts for the damage to her head, and her left hand is in a special cast, but her right hand wasn’t…they couldn’t…

She’s being kept in the hospital for a couple more weeks until the doctors think she can handle home life with minimal assistance. Daizzi’s been helping her along, but even the power of Jubilation can only do so much when you’ve gone through this kind of hell. I saw her a couple times while I was still there. Even with all those bandages and painkillers working to keep her comfortable, her smile was only an imitation of its former self. I could tell she was doing it for me, trying not to show how much it really hurt just to move her lips again and speak. I could still see that encouraging optimism in her eyes, but it didn’t come as naturally as before. Hopefully, she’ll be released from that place as soon as possible once she’s ready.

And then there’s Luka…

I will never be able to find enough of the right words to express just how grateful I am to Grandmaster Su-Han for saving his life. That’s right, he SAVED Luka’s life. There’s no question about it. Remember when I said he’d sneak into Pitié-Salpêtrière to turn me into Ladybug and accelerate my recovery? Well, once he’d done the same with Rose and the Pig, he’d spend the rest of the night watching over Luka as he wore the Turtle Miraculous (it was the best suited for his wounds with the Snake destroyed). Luka's spine was…if the Snake Miraculous didn’t grant his body extra flexibility, he would’ve been torn in half! He would have died…and I’d never get to tell him how I still felt about him.

Luka was in a coma for 2 weeks before he finally regained consciousness in, again, no small part to Su-Han and Wayzz. I went to see him as soon as I could just to check up on him, but it turned out he had a free hour until his next checkup and had been wanting to talk with me since he woke up. Seeing him again, alive and…just alive, almost made me forget how utterly miserable I’d been for the past several days. 

We tried being more…umm…” formal” with each other at first to try and not make it too awkward or weird…as if that was ever going to be possible. Luka almost hurt himself from trying to hold in a chuckle (which wasn’t funny!! It scared me so much ˵•̀⤙•́˵). He had it worse than the others by a mile; he couldn’t use his right hand or even turn his head a few inches to look at me directly, yet he just wouldn’t stop…being himself. It was really reassuring to see that. 

But seriously, it was good for us to work out our feelings, maybe for the first time since we broke up and, later, when he told me that he knew I was Ladybug. I don’t feel like I have to withhold the truth from him anymore…at least about us, so our conversation went so smoothly that the hour became a blur, but it was definitely the highlight of my week. I know I’ll always be in his heart, and he’ll always be in mine, but that part of our lives is behind us now. Together, we can make something new, something special,  just for us. 

As for everyone else, I can’t honestly say they have it worse, but for some of them, things don’t feel much better. Everyone, even those who weren’t there for the fight itself, still carry the scars of that night in one form or another.

Most of my homeroom seems to have figured out that nearly the entire team comes from our school and that we all seem to know each other from our personal lives. It’s created feelings of suspicion all around, the last thing I wanted for them. We’re supposed to be able to trust each other; it's essential for when we fight together. We’re literally putting our lives in each other’s hands every time we go into the field, but this battle did more than wound our bodies—it also damaged our spirits. 

Like I said, none of them know who I am (as far as they know, my clumsy ass fell down the damn stairs when the Monarch Mirage appeared and scared half the life out of me, and there’s still plenty of others who have their covers intact, but everyone in the hospital is completely outed, and Alya wasn’t up for lying to the team again after Rena Furtive. Also, Kim showed up to class with a pirate eye patch, so I’m pretty sure Nathaniel and Mylène, at the very least, realize he didn’t actually “sprain” his eye like it’s a muscle.

There hasn’t been much need for superheroes since we finally beat Monarch, so I’m not certain how this will affect both the team and our personal friendships, but it’s something I should address when I have the strength for it and once everyone is reunited again. The whole team…if we can. 

The only one of us who isn’t officially on the team yet is someone I’ve also visited personally as Ladybug. I went to see Alix; I had to, and I told her everything about what happened. How her future self sacrificed her life so I could go back in time and beat Monarch. I know it shouldn’t mean anything now that the timeline is fixed, but it didn’t seem right to keep my mouth shut, especially since not telling Alix made me feel like I was unintentionally leaving her in danger without a way to protect herself from the potential risks that come with becoming the Rabbit Holder. 

It’s hard to say how she took the news; she definitely seemed disturbed, especially when she asked me too…describe…how she died. I’m worried it will make her question whether she should even become Bunnyx at all, but I don’t want her to live with that doubt. Alux is one of the most unyielding people I know, and I know a lot of people like that—they make the most fearless protectors. I’ve seen the hero she’s meant to become, so I know she doesn’t deserve that uncertainty about herself. She’ll make a great Holder one day. 

...There was another reason I went to see Alix. When I woke up, I kept waiting to see if future Alix would come back from the future to confirm if the plan worked or not. I know I changed things, but…I don’t know if it was for the better. I’m…ashamed of my actions as Bunny Bug; I got so caught up in my grief, my rage, that I gave Gabriel the opening he needed to escape and steal the Snake Miraculous. I feel like I wasted my one chance to set things right, but without Bunnyx here to confirm anything, I can’t be certain, and it’s left me with a painful itch I can never scratch away. 

I thought maybe my Alix would have some answers; Bunnyx once said she knew how to keep vital secrets away from others, so I hoped she could’ve sent a message back in time or something absurd like that. Supurse surprise, Alix didn’t have anything for me, and she hasn’t seen hide nor hair of Bunnyx since Timetagger. …Maybe the reason she hasn’t appeared is because the Rabbit Miraculous was destroyed along with the Snake. That’s what I hope, anyway, because all the other options make me want to crawl under my mattress like a cockroach.

But my biggest concern isn’t about Alix—it’s for Juleka. 

I said Rose was slightly different now because of her injuries, and Luka hadn’t changed much at all, but even though she wasn’t there, Juleka has become an entirely different person since that night. 

When I went to collect Viperion before the battle, she was the same as always: eager to help but no different from the Purple Tigress I know and fought with. Now though…it’s like she’s taken the ferocity of the Tiger, the violent urgings to just hit something that you get with the power of Elation, and dialed it to max settings. She has a short fuse around everyone and just shows up to class to collect or deliver paper assignments for Rose, then disappears for the rest of the day. Kim accidentally walked into her the other day because his vision was still fuzzy, and I swear she almost tore his head off. Her shouting was audible throughout the whole school. She’s always angry now, and it’s not without good reason. 

One day, while I was wheeling by Luka’s room (forgot to add, I was using a wheelchair for a while), I heard them talking, though it sounded a lot more like arguing. Luka was trying to explain what happened without, I think, assigning any blame, and she just lost it on him. It got so bad that she was almost asked to leave the hospital itself before she’d even visited Rose. I heard her say she was angry at me because I lied to her about not having another Miraculous, so she wasn’t there to protect Luka and Rose. She’s obviously also angry at Monarch because not only did he nearly kill her brother and girlfriend, but he did so using her Miraculous, making her feel partially responsible, but also giving her another reason to hate me because they were stolen under my watch (as if I don’t already blame myself for that). 

But mostly…I think she blames Chloé. Luka must’ve accidentally made it seem like Chloé was the one who put him and Pigella in danger because that’s when the screaming started. If it’s possible for anyone else in the world to hate Chloé Bourgeois more than I do, then Juleka would fill that spot in an instant. Chloé enjoyed torturing her just as much as she did me, and that was the reason she was held back a year due to bad grades and absences from class. Luka once told me how depressed she was during that time, and I know I didn’t have it easy, but it sounded awful for her. Without Rose’s support, I don’t think Juleka would’ve made it through the next school year under those conditions. 

I’m scared to say it, but I think she meant every word of what she said she’d do to Chloé if she…. At the very least, I haven’t heard anything about a striped woman in maroon pajamas stalking le allées, so the likelihood of her hunting down Chloé anytime soon is pretty slim…I hope.

And speaking of Chloé…I know I said I was ashamed of my actions…but I don’t know if that means I made the wrong choice when I told her in a very “aggressive” way that she could no longer be Queen Bee under any circumstances. I…I punched her in the face…and it felt good. Too good, even, and I thought I was completely justified in doing so at the time,  but I got distracted and allowed Monarch to get away, forcing me to confront him in the Burrow and nearly die because of it. 

Still… was it the right choice? She hadn’t worn a Miraculous since Miracle Queen, and I thought it would stay that way, so it’s not like I’ve broken the status quo or anything. She…she shouldn’t be a hero. Bunnyx implied  that it was because of her the future was destroyed; as Guardian, I can’t take the risk of it happening again. For everyone’s sake, it’s for the best if Queen Bee remains in the past where she belongs.

I haven’t heard much about Chloé since I woke up, and while I would normally consider that a blessing, it does leave me a little concerned, knowing what she’s willing to do when upset. I heard she was sent to the same German treatment facility as Kagami, but I don’t think anyone’s seen her since she got back a couple weeks ago. Neither Zoé or Sabrina gave more than a few impromptu explanations when Alya and I confronted them, but Sabrina’s still doing all her school assignments for her, so I guess she hasn’t officially left the school for a second time. 

I also heard Mayor Bourgeois wanted to press charges against us for getting Chloé hurt ( completely ignoring how several other people had it SO MUCH worse than her, or that nobody wanted her there in the first place!!!), but since Chloé is already 18, she needed to testify that we had committed an actual crime against her. That never happened, and I have no explanation for it. The only thing I’ve come up with so far is that Zoé (who, by the way, wasn’t at the hotel because she was on a date with her phone turned off!) must’ve somehow talked her out of it because nothing else makes sense. Chloé would never pass up an opportunity like this, even if she was suspended over boiling tar and her life depended on it. She hates us that much, no doubt about that now…but I should probably just be grateful for small favors from on high…

And speaking of which…I think I’ve kept you waiting long enough, my dear diary. I’m ready to talk about…Gabriel Agreste. 

By now, everyone across the world knows the truth. The face behind the masks of Hawk/Shadow Moth and Monarch belongs to one man—Gabriel Agreste, the “Terror of Paris,” as he’s been branded by the media, and from the look of things, he’ll be remembered that way forever. As soon as the word got out about his true identity, Paris went nuts, and not just Paris, but the entire world. Everyone is calling for his head, especially those from the cities and countries he and his Akumas did the most damage to; America, China, Egypt, Australia * , you name it. For the entire past month, Akuma victims and the people hurt in his attacks have been speaking out in public, hoping their testimonies will get him to face justice in an international court. It’s hard to say what will stick, though. Most of the damage he caused was fixed by my powers, but there are people out there who haven’t recovered from what he did, and some who never will; Master Fu, Alessio Remus * , Nooroo…

I guess since I mentioned him, I might as well explain. Nooroo hasn’t had an easy time since he was rescued. He’s having trouble adjusting to a life outside of Gabriel’s strict control over him, and after being separated from the other kwamis for so long, he just seems so…out of place. He’s always skittish and speaks timidly, spends most of his time outside flying over the city rather than staying indoors, and when he tries to sleep, he…he doesn’t sleep well. Tikki told me that kwamis don’t dream like humans do, but both she and Nooroo have been having “visions” since that night, or something like nightmares. Su-Han couldn’t explain it either, but he thinks it’s just a manifestation of the collective trauma from the past 2 years, especially in Nooroo’s case. I’m not sure about that; none of the other kwamis who were kidnapped have mentioned these kinds of visions in their own sleep, but I don’t know as much about them as the Grandmaster. “Like all trauma, we can only hope it fades with time; if not, we learn how to bear with it.”

OK, sorry for getting overly philosophical. Back on track.

Alya told me that Gabriel didn’t say a single word after--after he was beaten and taken into custody. He didn’t even mention my name to the police when it should’ve been obvious how easy it would be for them to find me while I was in the hospital being treated for the wounds he gave me. My identity would be public, and I could never be Ladybug again. It’s what he wanted, at least without the dying part he seemed so happy about doing himself. I know he had brain damage, but still, I don’t get it. 

But since his identity was made public, I haven’t heard or seen anything about him on the news. Because so many people are after him, the government and the DGSI ( General Directorate for Internal Security ) are keeping his location a total secret from the public. I bet they wouldn’t even tell me where he was if Ladybug was the one asking. Su-Han wanted him to face Guardian justice, but Alya convinced him that he needed to pay for his crimes in the place he committed the most of them, though I’m not sure how the other Guardians feel about that, especially since they’ve existed for longer than any other modern authority. 

Personally, I want him to stay here in Paris so his victims can see their tormentor stand trial and pay for what he’s done the right way—before a jury of the same people he viewed as nothing more than sheep he could command as his living weapons. He’s had this coming for a long time. 

Unfortunately, Mayura may not face the same consequences as her former boss. No one has seen Nathalie Sancoeur, the woman who must be Mayura, since the day Gabriel stole the Miraculous. I didn’t see any sign of her at the manor the day after either, when Alya, Nino, and I went to check__on__ 

There was no sign of anyone there then, even when I snuck in as Ladybug for a closer look. So far, all the authorities can do is put out an All-Points Bulletin for anyone who has seen her, but considering the damage done to her body by the Peacock, I don’t think she’ll get very far on her own.

That also brings me to Emilie Agreste, Gabriel’s wife and…and the former Peacock Holder. From what I remember while Monarch was preparing to kill me, he was rambling something about her already being dead, and it caused him to freak out big time. But if that’s really true, then what happened to her body?

I was sure that if Gabriel was keeping her alive somehow, she must’ve been somewhere in his mansion. He’s too possessive and obsessive of her to do anything but keep her as close as possible. But even though I’m sure the police would’ve kept anything they found from being publicly disclosed, neither Alya as herself and Rena Rouge or Su-Han managed to learn what happened to her. They said there was a secret “mausoleum” deep beneath ground level with some sort of stasis capsule, but it was empty, and it looked like it had been for a while, but there were signs someone had been…staying there, right beside her. 

If Emilie really was being kept in there, where could she have gone? If she was still alive, who could’ve taken her in that condition without anyone noticing, and why would they?

On the brighter side, it turns out Grandmaster Su-Han was still able to find much more than I did after a thorough sweep of the entire place, including the room where Hawk Moth had been releasing his Akumas from all this time. He said he found a large collection of mystical artifacts taken from all over the world, most of which belong to the Guardians and have been missing for hundreds or thousands of years! One of them was a box containing several “aura shrouds,” devices that hide the presence of magic like the Miraculous, and are small enough to be hidden within one of the ascots Gabriel always wears. * They must’ve been how he went undetected for so long, even when other kwamis were nearby, especially Pla__ 

Besides those, it doesn’t look like Gabriel was interested in any of the other relics he’d collected and left them untouched, which is really good news. It would’ve been such a pain if he had figured out even more ways to hurt us.

When Su-Han was telling me all this, I brought up what happened when Monarch Unified with the Snake and became that THING that nearly killed Alya and me. I randomly thought one of the artifacts he kept might have helped cause it somehow, but I was so, so wrong. 

I’ve only seen the Grandmaster this agitated a few times, and it’s always super unsettling. What happened to Monarch, and me by extension, is something he called “demi-Apotheosis.” * Apparently, each kwamis’ appearance as certain animals isn’t just for show; their presence on earth literally inspired the course of evolution for most of the creatures on this planet, with humans being some sort of weird exception due to a strong connection to magic, though nobody really knows if there’s a human kwami or not (I started to get a bit lost during his “explanation”, but the Grandmaster doesn’t like to be interrupted, so, yeaaaah…). Anyway, his point was that since kwamis and animals (which includes humans) aren’t so different, our brains work similarly too, and this is how he put it:

If a Holder, while transformed or transforming, begins having some sort of extreme mental breakdown that weakens their human cognition, it affects the more “savage” side of the kwamis as well, unintentionally drawing out their more beastial aspects while they’re unable to stop it. This changes the Holder’s appearance, as well as how they think and perceive the world around them, gaining the natural instincts of the animal they portray at the cost of their cognitive thinking. Under normal circumstances, this only happens rarely because the Guardians are careful about choosing Holders with the willpower and spiritual fortitude to resist these kinds of urges. However, a Holder can only access true Apotheosis if they are aware of what they’re doing and break down their mental barriers on purpose, which is why Monarch didn’t turn into a full-on snake monster with butterfly wings. The only Holders remotely capable of harnessing that power are those who wield the Miraculous of Domination, * and even they risk losing themselves to their own insanity if they aren’t careful.

If he had changed like that…if I had…like I almost did when I wanted to kill him so badly …Su-Han says no one who can do that ever survives for long, especially when Unified. Their bodies aren’t meant to handle that kind of power. 

I don’t like thinking about what I almost did, what I could’ve done if I’d given in to the power and transformed. I barely remember what happened, but I do remember the intoxicating surge of energy, how GOOD it felt, like I could do anything, and the voices…. I remember what they told me to do, and I hate myself for not saying no sooner. It didn’t break me. I found myself again and the strength to fight back, but the transformation almost certainly broke Monarch. The only thing that kept him from letting all the way loose was his ego’s need to taunt me and...whatever he saw in the Burrow. It…it couldn’t have been the same as what I saw…but what then? What stopped him and saved me? The past, or the future? 

Don’t worry, little diary, I’m almost done with the hard questions and all this moping. There’s just a few other things I want to mention…that I need to mention…and talk about. 

With Gabriel in prison and half of Paris trying to press charges on him, I’ve also heard back from pretty much every other hero and Miraculous Holder I’ve met over the past 2 years, either to congratulate us on our victory, check up on how the team is doing, or, in Luna Wolf’s * case, see if I really did know where he was being kept so she could make a “visit” (I’m glad I didn’t actually know because I’m sure she would’ve seen through any lie I could come up with). Most others, like Eagle and Ladydragon, wished they could’ve been there to help. I do too, but while Monarch had the Horse and Doorman was on another mission with the United Heroez, there was no way to get them all here in time. I get the sense each of them feels unsatisfied that they never got to see him defeated or be a part of it. I’m just glad no one else had to get hurt because I asked them to fight. They all would’ve done so willingly, but it still wouldn’t have been fair of me.

But if there’s one thing I still need help with, it’s finding that bastard Félix Graham! 

Nothing!  There’s been NO sign of Félix or the Miraculous he stole for the entire past FUCKING month!! I don’t get it. Alya can’t find him. Grandmaster Su-Han can’t find him (it’s hard to tell which of them is more frustrated about it, but I think it’s me). And…and I just don’t know what to do about it!! I can’t scream through this book, but if I could, the sound would break glass, I swear to God. 

Orriko, Barkk, Duusu, I can’t imagine what kind of horrible things he’s planning to do with them. He might have less Miraculous than Monarch did, but he’s smarter than his uncle, so whatever it is, the fact that he’s already a step ahead of us means we’ll never see it coming until he’s started, if he hasn’t already. That means we need to be ready and stay ready for as long as it takes. That’s why I’ve kept the remaining Miraculous split up amongst everyone—so Félix can never pull off the same Dog trick twice, and I can mobilize the team faster than ever before. We’ll be ready the moment he tries something, even if I have to wait another 2 whole years to pound in that conceited prick’s face into…

…

…

…I’m less certain than ever about what comes next. 

I don’t know…what I need to do. 

I keep thinking…this isn’t going to last. That there will always be another fight around the corner and no chance for respite. Félix is just one part of it. Who…is the Hawk Moth of the future? Who could it be that steals the Butterfly and tries so desperately to steal our Miraculous that they create Timetagger? What sort of future am I fighting for if we never win?  What if…

Am I ever going to know what it’s like to be happy again?

I know what you’ve been waiting for me to say. You know me better than anyone. You know that most of these pages aren’t filled with my best memories of my favorite childhood moments or idealistic plans for the future after Hawk Moth was beaten. They’re not about the influential lessons I learned from Master Fu or angry ravings for each time Chloé did something else unforgivable. It’s all…optimistic dreams, and even then, I thought that’s all they were. My pathetic schoolgirl fantasies about a boy like no other, perfect in every way I could measure. In every vision of my future, he was always there by my side, and we were finally together after waiting for so long.

My one true love, the man of my dreams…and I can’t even WRITE his name in this DAMN BOOK!! Every time I try, I fail! Whenever I attempt to make out one of those beautiful dreams, I see nightmares instead!  Every time I want to remember his gorgeous, genuine smile, I see…I see….

I want to believe I’m wrong. I want to believe I still love him. I want to! But I can’t do it. I can't even say his name or the name of my loyal and trusted partner because every time I try, every time I try to picture either of their faces, all I can see is…

Blanc

“I can’t do this, Tikki!” Marinette gasped as she slammed her diary shut and clutched at her chest, her heart threatening to implode from within. “I can’t-I can’t!!”

“Marinette!” Tikki streaked across the room to her Holder’s side as Marinette struggled to catch her breath. “What’s—oh no!”

Marinette nearly fell out of her chair, a sudden affliction of dyspnea reducing her breaths to dangerously short gasps for air. Only by gripping her desk with one hand was she able to keep herself from collapsing onto the floor, but she still couldn’t slow herself down enough to relax. She recognized this for what it was—a serious case of hyperventilation caused by post-traumatic stress. If she couldn’t slow down, she ran the risk of driving herself into unconsciousness. 

“Marinette, please listen to me,” Tikki implored as gently as she could. “You’re safe at home. No one else is here. No one is going to hurt you. Just focus on my voice, okay?” 

She tried, but it didn’t work. Her flesh felt like it was constricting itself around her body. Her ears heard nothing but deafening thunder. Her vision was failing and going dark, leaving her feeling more suffocated than ever. For a moment, she thought she might be having another nightmare, but she knew that wasn’t true. All her nightmares were so much worse than this. 

“Tikki…” she violently exhaled. “Get…help…”

“Marinette, please hold on!”

“I…I…”

“Marinette?” A loud knocking on the trapdoor leading downstairs was enough to anchor Marinette’s attention away from the encroaching darkness and onto something real—her mother’s voice. “Are you alright, sweetie? I thought I heard something fall over.”

“I…I’m…I’m okay, Maman,” Marinette managed to answer once enough air had reentered her airways. “Just…lost my balance…for a second.  This damn leg…but I’m ok…now.”

“Are you sure? I can get your father and be right with you if—”

“No, I’m fine, Maman, really,” she lied. “I won’t let it happen again, I promise. I’ll…be more careful.”

“...ok honey. But if you need anything, please, don’t hesitate to ask, alright?”

“Alright, Maman. Thank you.”

“Of course, my love.”

Marinette made sure she could no longer make out her mother’s footsteps before she allowed herself to release all the emotions she’d been suppressing and weep into her hands. Tikki hovered beside her, watching as her Holder, one of the greatest Ladybugs in their five thousand-year history of endless heroes, was dwindled down into this broken reflection of her noble self, and not for the first time. 

These attacks were not common, but when they did happen, they were always brutal, and it took Marinette several minutes to regain a levelheaded complexion. However, this had been one of the worst scares Tikki had witnessed from her to date, and even though the climax had run its course, the aftereffects lingered in plain view before her. 

Marinette was at the lowest she’d ever been, even after the Miraculous were stolen. Even after Master Fu’s death. And…even before that, when they had encountered the Akumatized Chat Noir from a parallel timeline, and now that Marinette knew Chat had been her love interest Adrien Agreste all along… well, it was a wonder her heart was still intact. 

“Marinette…” the kwami tried after a moment. “Are you…can I do anything for you?”

“He tried to tell me, Tikki,” Marinette sobbed, her face and palms covered in salty tears that dripped down onto her thighs. “He-he tried to warm me, and I just wouldn’t listen to him! I didn’t …why didn’t I… ohhhh Gooodd!”  

It should have been the happiest moment of her life, realizing the two men she cared for most in the world had been the same person all along, always there for her, but in a different way with a different name, yet always with the same intention—to make her feel special and loved. Instead, she felt like she’d been tossed into a horrible hellscape picked from a sadist’s wet dream, and someone was trying their hardest to play the cruelest joke imaginable on her.

That’s how it seemed to her, but it was worse knowing she wasn’t living in a fantasy she could just wake up from. This was her reality now, and all she’d learned from it was how much of a stupid, pathetically naive person she was when it came to love. 

She once considered it her greatest weakness. Now, it had become her greatest fear. To care about someone else with all your heart, only for their secrets to collide with your own like two opposing bullet trains, and then suddenly, at that moment before impact, everything made sense. 

And then the truth hit you in the gut like a wrecking ball, leaving you with nothing but the desire for all the pain to go away. But it didn’t leave, and neither did the nightmares. 

The things she’d seen in her sleep…an unstoppable force slaughtering its way through her friends, her mother being ripped apart by an insectoid monster in front of her father, and…she watched him destroy everything and everyone she’d ever cared for in a single blast of horrid white light, leaving nothing behind but memories of the lives lost before they were taken away. It reminded her of his look when she traveled to the future; his smile, his eyes, her blood on his hands. What he said he needed from her…or else. 

‘I didn’t want this, Marinette, but I’ll be taking your Miraculous whether you like it or not. If you want to still be breathing when I do…then trust me. Trust in our LOVE for each other, and everything will be alrig —’

“How could I never see it, Tikki? Why can’t I—?” Her nails dug into her face, the punishing pain doing nothing to alleviate the twisting of barbed wire she imagined was wrapping itself around her stomach, winding its way up until it could crush her heart. “Why can’t I ever recognize the man I love for who he really is?!”

The little ladybug floated closer, gently pulling away Marinette’s hands from her head so she wouldn’t hurt herself any further. Watery eyes as red as the kwami’s skin stared back at her aimlessly. Tikki had seen many forms of human depression over her immortal life, but the kind that stemmed from heartbreak was often the most disparaging. “What do you mean, Marinette?”

“I’m a complete idiot, Tikki! A clueless, oblivious, gullible idiot!! I was fooled by Félix into believing he was Adrien , and I’ve been fooled by Chat Noir into thinking he wasn’t! I obsessed over him! I thought he was my entire world, the star I revolved around for warmth and light! And still , I never realized he was also the man fighting by my side for two. FUCKING. YEARS!!!” 

By this point, she was almost shouting out her words, so she quieted down again before her mother came back up the stairs. “How can a stupid mask and some magic keep two people so far apart from each other? How did I never know it was him? I thought I knew everything about him, and I was so dangerously wrong!”

“Marinette, the aura masking of your costumes is there for a reason; you weren’t supposed to know who he was. I couldn’t have told you even if I tried, and I knew how much it would have meant to you if I did.” Tikki pushed out a deep, sad sigh. “As long as you and I were together and he was with Plagg, it just wasn’t possible for you to know.”

“But how much grief could it have saved us, Tikki?” Marinette asked with an edge of sharp frustration. “How much pain and misery could it have saved Paris, saved me , if I knew just that much more about him? Maybe then, we would’ve discovered who Hawk Moth was sooner. That Adrien’s father, Chat Noir’s own putain de père was a goddamn supervillain! That all he needed to save his wife was the Guardian’s magic, not our Miraculous, and the reason she was sick in the first place was that their son was a—!”

She couldn’t make herself say it. She couldn’t say or even imply that Adrien “wasn’t human” because that was still the last thing she believed, even after she witnessed his creation as a sentimonster. Adrien, Chat Noir, they may have been different people in her eyes, but that didn’t mean they were any different than they were before after these revelations. They- he was honestly good-natured and cared about his friends; he’d been willing to kill his own father to protect them. 

That’s what she told herself, at least. That he wasn’t really like…like the monster who almost killed her. 

‘It was our love that did this to the world, Marinette . ’  

Marinette’s head involuntarily twitched at the echo as if she could turn away from the memories. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of something she hadn’t thought about, almost purposely, since she’d returned from the hospital. 

Tucked between her school textbooks and jewelry box was a string bracelet of brightly colored blue and amber beads. Such a simple gift from someone who could afford the most expensive jewelry in the world, but to her, it was more priceless than any diamond or golden crown she could’ve received as a birthday present, all because it had been created for her by him. It was the intention behind the act that made her love it the most, and just like Tikki’s Kwagatama she wore around her neck, she wouldn’t give it up for anything.

Marinette reached out for the self-styled “lucky charm,” a simple trinket compared to those magically conjured by her Miraculous, and ran her fingers over each individual bead, her fingers tracing across the familiar smooth textures as they had countless times before. Despite its unassuming composition, it was nearly identical to her own bracelet that she had given to Adrien years ago for good luck. The one she assumed he still had, anyway. 

“Tikki…you remember what… he said to us? About how the world ends?” 

Tikki identified who he was without further explanation and nodded back. It wasn’t as if a creature that remembered the age of dinosaurs with near-perfect detail could forget something so tragic from only a few months ago.

“When he said that, I thought…I knew it could never happen. Chat Noir and I could never be together in that way, but I was okay with that…because of Adrien. He was the one I’d always loved.” She clutched the beads firmly. They were sturdy but not unbreakable, and the pressure she placed on them was putting their stability to the test. “But now that I know the truth, I know that our love was doomed to fail from the start.”

Art by anshi_lazy

“It couldn’t have been that simple, Marinette. Chat Noir was Akumatized in that future. With Nooroo free and Gabriel Agreste incarcerated, you—”

“But for how long, Tikki?” she demanded, already knowing she’d be left without a suitable answer. “How long will Nooroo be safe? How long will Gabriel remain in jail, or worse, who will take his place?!” She shook her head grievously, another wave of droplets falling onto the charm and the wooden floor. “If I fall in love with Adrien, the world ends. If I fall in love with Chat Noir, the world ends. We can never be together because it’s the only way the world can survive our love. Doing nothing is the only–the only way to keep him safe…from me.” 

“Marinette…” the ladybug breathed wistfully, wanting to help but finding it difficult to direct her Holder on a path that, at this point, would make her the least miserable. As an asexual cosmic entity, Tikki had a hard time comprehending romance, an emotion she was wholly unable to reciprocate like most ordinary humans. But from her perspective, it wasn’t all that different from her relationships with the other kwamis. 

Because the union with each of their Holders was nothing more than a blink away from start to finish, the others of her kind were the closest thing she had to a lasting family throughout the lonely ages. Sometimes they would bicker, disagree, fight, and say things they shouldn’t, but as the kwami of Creation, it wasn’t in Tikki’s nature to allow things to end, and she always sought to improve or fix what was broken whenever she could. That meant in her eyes, the best advice she could offer Marinette was…

“Why don’t you go talk to him?”

Marinette looked up, majorly confused and startled all at once. “What?”

“Just go talk to Adrien, Marinette,” Tikki encouraged genially. “Work out how you feel with him, just like you did with Luka in the hospital. I’m sure he would love to see you again after so much time.”

Would he, though?

Marinette hadn’t seen Adrien since the night they’d defeated his father. Her last memory of him, before she passed out, was of his outstretched hand drooping downward as his strained but hopeful smile was replaced with anxious worry, then total distress, and then…what then? She couldn’t remember anything past that final expression, how his dazzling emerald eyes had gone dark, tarnished by a presumed mistake made on his behalf. What could he have thought she was thinking? She had been so shocked, so scared by what had just happened, what she had thought was going to happen, that she wasn’t able to give him the response he needed after openly confronting his father as…himself, maybe for the first time ever. And all she could do to help at his greatest moment of need was look at him like he was a monster.

Besides, she didn’t even know where he was right now. His last known appearance had been the morning after the battle in front of the Agreste mansion. There were videos of it all over the Internet, but Marinette hadn’t been able to watch any of them without spiking her blood pressure, so she’d asked Alya to describe what had happened for her. Her best friend said Adrien had called for a press conference with every major news outlet in France and several international media companies, then publicly announced that his father was the villain Hawk Moth and had been operating from this very house the entire time.

The uproar that followed this broadcast was tremendous, and the immediate backlash was probably why she hadn’t gotten any more admission acceptance letters. Being classmates with the son of the “Terror of Paris” didn’t look very flattering on a university application. 

Adrien refused to take questions and left without sharing anything further. His own identity as Chat Noir was still a secret only his closest friends knew about. 

There’d been no sightings of Adrien since then; he’d become as much of a ghost as his cousin, and that particular comparison was surprisingly nerve-wracking. Her intuition that Chat Noir and Hawk Moth’s disappearances were related had been astoundingly on point, so why not this as well? What if Adrien was searching for Félix alone and didn’t want to be found? What if it had something to do with his existence as a sentimonster? Did he suspect the same was true for Félix, or was he looking for revenge, the same as he had with Monarch?

Maybe…but it didn’t seem right for him to repeat a huge mistake like that. Plus, Marinette still didn’t know if Adrien actually knew what he was, and if he was going after Félix—who now wielded three Miraculous gems—he wouldn’t do it without backup, not after the way Monarch had almost killed them all with ease. Every Holder knew to call her or Rena Rouge if Adrien or Chat Noir were spotted, and she was sure they could be trusted to follow these orders.

Wherever he was, seeing her again was probably the last thing he needed right now. It would just be an unpleasant reminder to them both about everything they’d experienced together and separately that night, and she was already reliving enough of her greatest hits to the chest. 

“It’s…no, it’s probably for the best if I just give him some space, Tikki,” Marinette attempted, half-heartedly dismissing the ladybug’s fair suggestion. “If he doesn’t want to be found, then I can’t force him out of the shadows on my own. It wouldn’t be fair—”

“Fair? He’s your partner , Marinette,” the kwami frowned. “He needs you now, maybe more than ever before, and all you can offer is an excuse?”

“Tikki—”

“Giving up on your friend is not ‘fair ,’ Marinette; it’s exactly the opposite. I know why this upsets you, why seeing him worries you now, but the monster your subconscious thinks he is isn’t Adrien Agreste.” Tikki whizzed over the desk, snatching up Marinette’s phone and shoving it just inches away from her face. “And you’re right, you can’t find him alone if he’s in hiding. So don’t . You can call Alya or Max for help. Maybe ask Nino if he has some ideas you could use. Let me go find Plagg. But don’t give up searching because you’re scared about who you think you’ll find.”

“Tikki, please!” Marinette said frustratedly as she took back her phone. “Don’t ask this of me right now. I need-I just need time to think about all this first.”

“Time? You’ve had time, Marinette, almost an entire month. You know that’s not the problem.” Tikki knew she was pushing it, and pressing Marinette like this in her current state wasn’t ideal, but her Holder was entirely ignoring her issues, repressing them when they needed to be confronted. At this rate, time would become her enemy, and if she ran out of time before she could face her demons, she’d be forever trapped in a hell of her own making. 

“Your fear is understandable, but I can tell you for a fact that the last thing Adrien would ever do is hurt you intentionally. You shouldn’t blame him for what a different version of himself tried to do as Chat Bla—”

“DON’T!!” Marinette cried, and Tikki realized she really had gone too far. “Don’t put that on me too! I know I’ve fucked up, Tikki! I know it!! It’s wrong and I know that, but I can’t help it because I’m such a FUCKING FAILURE of a person!!! I can’t even see the man who’s saved my life so many times as anything but the one who tried to take it once, and it wasn’t even his fault!! I failed, and it’s him I failed the worst!!”

“I…I’m sorry, Marinette. I’m so sorry,” Tikki backed away, not meaning to upset her Holder any more than she already had. “But…you haven’t done anything wrong, not to Adrien or Chat Noir. Everything terrible that happened that night was out of—”

“I could have stopped it, Tikki. I could’ve stopped Chat from the beginning and-and we could’ve talked and worked it all out! He was with his mother the entire time!! There, in his house, and he never left even after I did!!”

“But how could you have known that—?”

“I was there, Tikki, back in his house looking for him the next day, and at the same time he was down there by her side! All alone!!” Marinette pulled at her dark hair so tightly she risked ripping out entire clumps. “I’m supposed to be there for my partner when he needs me, and for that whole week I was the one thinking he’d abandoned me!! If I had just looked a little harder and found him before this all happened, I could…I could’ve…I…!”

“You could’ve what, Marinette? What would you have done if you’d known?”

Marinette stared miserably back at her friend and didn’t even bother trying to find an answer. The simple truth was…

“…I don’t know.” 

~~~

Several minutes of silence followed the end of that conversation. Marinette sat in her desk chair and didn’t move a muscle, her face routinely expressing the whirlwind of turmoil from inside with a periodic sniffle or the running of another tear down her cheek. 

Meanwhile, Tikki found a place in the corner where she could keep watch over her Holder. For now, the kwami was all she had, the only other person in her life who understood the whole picture outlining Marinette’s far-reaching trauma from the past year. 

No single Holder she’d served had ever endured this level of hardship in such a compressed period, and for someone so young…it was one of the few times she’d questioned if Master Fu had really made the right choice. In any other circumstances, no Guardian would’ve ever chosen her as the next Ladybug, and not without good reason. Children weren’t meant to fight in wars like soldiers. It always had a cost, and it was rare to see the burden of such a heavy price ever be lifted. Tikki knew that better than any human still alive. 

Marinette was right. None of this was fair at all—

Tikki’s antennae twitched, and for a moment, she didn’t even notice. Then they twitched again, antagonized by something she couldn’t see coming from outside the building. Something…familiar. 

~~~

Marinette barely noticed Tikki had abruptly risen from her nest by the windowsill and was tracking something with her set of tiny antennae. At first, she thought little of it. It was about midday, so maybe Papa had taken a new batch of pastries out of the oven just in time for the lunch hour rush through the bakery. Piping hot sweets were always best in cold weather, and most people’s stomachs tended to agree with that sentiment. The kwamis she cared for were no different in that regard. 

But that wasn’t it this time. Marinette’s full attention was only captured as Tikki started to rise towards the ceiling, entranced by something she couldn’t see herself. The kwami looked focused and lost in thought simultaneously, relying on invisible senses that exceeded the limitations of the human body’s capabilities. Marinette often wished she had natural powers like these, but they had never manifested in Ladybug the same way they had for Chat Noir with the Cat. It had always made her a little jealous, especially now, when she felt blind next to Tikki’s supernatural insight.

“Tikki?” she asked, her voice just above a whisper. “What is it?” 

Tikki didn’t answer. Her antennae just kept trembling. 

“Tikki?”

“Someone is here, outside on the balcony.”

“What?!” Marinette sprung up from her chair, nearly tripping over her feet before grabbing the railing leading to her loft and gawking up at the skylight hatch leading to the roof. “Who is it?”

There were many potential answers to that question, but only one managed to conquer all others. 

Adrien? 

No, nononono, she wasn’t ready! She-she looked like an awful mess like she’d spent the night drinking and she hadn’t seen him in so long! What would she even say to him and why did he even want to see her and…and what if she freaked out again? 

She had to get out of there. She had to—!

“It’s Grandmaster Su-Han,” Tikki responded with a distinguishable trace of curiosity. 

“Wh-what? He’s here? Now?” 

The kwami nodded.

Marinette hadn’t expected anyone other than Adrien to visit from the roof, so Tikki’s answer surprised her more than it should have. Su-Han knew better than to use the front door after the one time he’d been lured into the bakery by the aroma of cake, but she wouldn’t have figured him the type to make such a clandestine arrival when he was usually so straightforward. What was he doing up there? Did it have something to do with the search for Félix? Could it…be about Chat Noir?

“We should go, Marinette,” Tikki stated anxiously. “It’s best not to keep the Celestial Grandmaster waiting when he’s come to see you personally, especially since…” 

Her antennae began to flicker excitedly, and her bright eyes widened like blooming flowers. 

“—he didn’t come alone.”