#and then chat leaving for adrien to reappear

[justaz]

ballerina marinette lives rent free in my head

[coffeebanana]

for the director’s cut ask game:

It was hard to recall much aside from how he'd awoken a few hours earlier to find his father's body splayed unnaturally across the floor, his vacant stare somehow still bearing traces of disappointment.

The ambulance had pulled away maybe an hour ago, with no sirens to accompany its departure.

Adrien only realized Ladybug was probably waiting for a response when she grabbed his hand, pulling him back to the present with a gentle squeeze. His stomach swirled. Couldn't she have reached for his other side?

She deserved better than the hand he'd used to destroy his own father.

When he finally managed to look up, he only felt worse seeing the sympathy in her eyes. He quickly looked back to his feet, panic drowning out any response he tried to cobble together in his head.

"Has anyone told you what happened?" she asked.

Adrien almost said no—which would be the truth, technically. Nobody had told him, unless he counted the clarifications Plagg had provided after the fact, details of what occurred after Ladybug and Chat Noir fell victim to Monarch's Akuma. Part of him wondered how Ladybug would tell the story, which parts would she soften or leave out. He wondered what she really thought.

But maybe it was better not to know.

Adrien cleared his throat. "I...ran into Chat Noir outside. He said he had to go, but he told me..." He took a deep breath, continuing in a whisper. "I know my father's dead."

It was the first time he'd said it out loud, and the words came out surprisingly clear. It was only afterwards, when they hung in the awkward silence following Ladybug's sharp intake of air, that he felt like they were eating him from the inside out.

Ladybug's grip tightened. "I'm sorry, Adrien. I'm so sorry."

His gut coiled tightly with some unbearable emotion. He tried to think up something else to say, lips parting as he raised his head to look at her. But the second he met her eyes—so wide and blue and sad—speaking was a lost cause.

His lips quivered. A sob clawed its way up his throat, tugging another one up behind it before the first had even broken free. Ladybug's hand rubbed up and down his arm, and that was all the encouragement he needed to finally release the tsunami inside him.

Adrien had killed his own father.

For months he'd been suffering. Adrien had assumed, when Monarch reappeared from his brief hiatus, that he was okay. That the Cataclysm hadn't been fatal. Instead he'd had a front row seat to his demise—to all the times he cried out in pain while cooking breakfast, trying to pretend everything was fine whenever Adrien noticed.

But if it weren't for that Cataclysm, if Monarch's health hadn't been weakened, then the world might have ended a few hours ago, torn apart and rebuilt in his father’s image. With his parents and Nathalie still alive.

Fic link, if anyone's interested: Pull Me From The Embers

This is already long, so I'll put the rest under the cut 😂

Man, okay. I tried to pull up past versions of google docs to see if I had anything interesting there to inspire my commentary but nope. Either I did not rewrite this part 20 billion times, or it simply wasn't immortalized mid-edit. But I did figure out that I wrote this fic in a funky colour scheme, so that's something:

OKAY about the excerpt then. I think this is one example where I'm very proud of like...how naturally I weaved the backstory in without oversharing? Like, I feel like that's something that's always so hard to get right and I definitely trend towards overexplaining. Less is more is SUCH A HARD LESSON TO LEARN ahahaha.

But here like. My slightly more fleshed out idea of what had happened is basically that Monarch's Akuma--whose power is irrelevant because I didn't think about that part--overtook both LB and CN in this. Which is why there's a chunk of the battle Chat doesn't remember here that Plagg filled him in on. And then Monarch was dying so he didn't manage to finish casting the wish, and yeah. But since LB and CN didn't wake up in the same place in the house, they don't know identities still. I imagine they both woke up, realized the place was destroyed, and immediately transformed because they really didn't know if the Akuma was still at large. And then...Adrien probably was alone when he found Gabe's body and just sort of stood there until Ladybug showed up. And Ladybug would have been too busy freaking out to realize how out of it he's been 😭😭😭

The ambulance had pulled away maybe an hour ago, with no sirens to accompany its departure. -- this is a line I was really proud of I think. idk, in my obviously biased opinion i think it conveys what it's supposed to very efficiently.

omg ADRIEN HAS SO MUCH GUILT HERE!!! this is making me want to play with that in one of my post-s5 fics, because I haven't let him piece together after how it went down in canon yet... (there's at least one WIP I have that's gonna touch on it though if i remember correctly)

huh this ask game just feels like a lot of me rambling kjbdfkbj i sincerely hope it's actually interesting LOL

Adrien having complicated feelings about his father's death is MMMMMM SO GOOD though. I could read and write a million versions of that aaaaaaaaah.

On a less serious note, the part where Adrien tells LB that Chat basically just dipped is so funny to me because like. In my mind Marinette absolutely does not question that. Because yeah okay, for one, she's more focused on Adrien, byt FOR TWO, it's absolutely normal and reasonable for her to think Chat just had some normal civilian obligation he had to get back to. He could have just showed up to patrol two days later like "Sorry LB that I didn't say bye after we literally defeated the dude we've been fighting all year! Had to get home for breakfast yk how it is!", and she wold not have questioned it at all. ajbfksdjbf love her <3

uh........i don't think i have anything else to say at this time. But I really enjoyed writing this fic!! ladrien after adrinette's gotten together is something that has become so special to me 💞

thanks for the ask!! 💜

[kasienda]

Celebrity Status: Ch 2 - Temporary Refuge

Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3

Read on Ao3

Chapter 2: Temporary Refuge

Ladybug was positively sick of akumas.

The week hadn’t gotten any better on the akuma front since Marinette had been grounded. There was at least one every day, and sometimes more. She knew she was playing with fire leaving her room for every one of them, but what else was she to do? 

And Ladybug hated this akuma in particular. First, its power set was particularly irritating. She seemed to be able to change her appearance at will. Everytime, Ladybug broke line of sight, the akuma would change forms and blend it with the crowd like some kind of chameleon. Second, she also seemed to have some kind of vision ability that allowed her to zone in on her target no matter how close or far away he was. And last, her target was Adrien. 

“Do you think we lost her?”

Ladybug scanned the horizon from their rooftop vantage point, too anxious about the potential threat, to even enjoy the fact that Adrien was currently pressed up against her.

His arms were literally wrapped around her shoulders completely at ease, like he casually hung out with Ladybug hanging precariously from the sides of buildings every day. Her free hand gripped his waist like they were about to dance, rather than launch skyward to flee a super powered villain that had it out for him.

“I doubt it,” she answered. 

Where was Chat Noir?

“I’m sure he’d be here if he could.” 

She glanced at Adrien, her cheeks warming. Had she said that aloud?

“Look, I’m just getting in the way,” Adrien said. “She hasn’t reappeared in several minutes. You should leave me here and do your thing.” 

She grinned. “My thing?” 

His hands drew a nonsensical pattern in the air before them. “Yeah, your thing,” he repeated. “You do it very well.” Pink suddenly dusted his cheeks.

Okay, she was enjoying this. 

“Ladybug?” 

And now her cheeks burned. “Right! Yes! I have a plan!” she exclaimed, jerking away from him, only to remember at the second they were suspended from her yo-yo, and if she let go she was going to fall. 

Luckily for them both, he had more sense than her. He grabbed her pinwheeling arm and stabilized them both.

“What’s your plan?” he asked, seemingly not fazed at all by her insane antics. 

“I umm… I need Chat Noir.”

The hue on his cheeks darkened. “He’s not here?” 

“Right.” And now she was repeating her nonsense. “But I can’t just leave you.” 

“Why not?” 

“She can literally track you!”

“Better reason for you to leave me here, so you can defeat her before she finds me.”

She hated it. 

But she also didn’t have a better idea other than waiting for Chat Noir to show up. And having her senses filled with all things Adrien definitely wasn’t helping! 

She looked around desperately, hoping for inspiration to strike her upside the head, but nothing happened. Where the hell was Chat?!

She waited anxiously for another several moments, her eyes on the helicopters hovering two blocks over where she assumed the akuma was wreaking havoc unchecked. It didn’t help that those helicopters were most definitely heading in their direction. Chat Noir still was nowhere to be seen. 

“Seriously. I’ll be fine. You should just go,” Adrien insisted. 

She pulled them both up to the actual rooftop, then swung them another four blocks away for good measure, tucking Adrien into a bell tower where he at least couldn’t be spotted from the ground. 

“Please, stay here,” she said firmly. 

He nodded in agreement. “Where else would I go?”

“I’ll come back to take you home when it’s safe. 

He nodded again, smiling. “Go get ‘em!” 

God, she loved his smile. 

With a salute, she launched herself back towards the akuma. 

“Where is he?” the akuma demanded. 

“Don’t you know?” Ladybug mocked. 

The akuma growled in response, and Ladybug threw herself into the fight. Chat Noir joined in thirty seconds later.

“Nice of you to show up!” 

“I apawlogize for my tardiness, m’lady! I had to wait until I wouldn’t be spotted .”

She rolled her eyes at the puns.

“Can we please make this fast? I’m grounded and it’ll be a miracle if my parents don’t discover my empty room before this is over.”

“Fine by me!”

Now that he was here to keep an extra set of eyes on the akuma before she transformed, it was harder for her to change without them seeing and the battle was over in a few minutes. 

The akuma transformed back into the jilted fan who apparently felt entitled to Adrien’s attention. Ladybug wasn’t all that sympathetic, but Chat Noir was gentle with her. He was good at this sort of thing - being compassionate and patient with everyone, whether or not they deserved it. She watched him fondly as he helped the girl back to her feet and said something that made her smile.

“How many spots?” she asked him, when he returned to her for their fist bump. 

“Three.”

She winced. It wasn’t ideal. “I gotta go grab Adrien and take him home.”

“Why don’t you let me do that?”

“What?”

“I’ve got more time left. And you said you were grounded? I will take Adrien home. You get back before anyone notices you’re gone.”

Normally, she would have been disappointed at the lost opportunity to spend a little time with Adrien even if she was Ladybug for the moment. But today, she only felt relief.

“Thanks, Chaton! That would be amazing. I left him over in that belltower there.” She pointed.

He followed her hand. “On it! See you later, Bugaboo!” 

They were about to part when his cat ears swiveled. The action had long ago stopped seeming weird. 

“What is it?” she asked. 

"We have picked up an extra tail," he pointed with his eyes. She glanced and saw the two reporters on bikes and groaned. These two were familiar and positively relentless, they had followed her almost all the way home before she had realized they were still there. 

"Thanks for the intel. I'll be careful."

He waved good-bye and they took off in opposite directions. Unfortunately, this meant she couldn't go straight home, which likely meant her grounding would be tripled if it somehow wasn’t already. 

Her earrings beeped. Two minutes.

She dove off the edge of the building, her yo-yo catching her at the last second and yanking her back into the sky. Some quick chaotic swings meant that a tail on foot or in a car would never be able to follow her, but she had to always set off in a different direction. She couldn't be seen always heading towards the same neighborhood day after day.

Beep. One minute.

She had probably lost her tail. But she wasn’t quite close enough to home. She needed an oasis.

She turned a corner and suddenly knew exactly where she was. She turned toward the Agreste mansion. Adrien had a window open and everything.

She should have just taken him home like originally planned.

She didn't think about it, just quickly dove towards the potential haven.  It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than throwing herself at the mercy of some stranger. Hopefully, if she didn't quite make it she'd be able to trust Adrien not to look.

She landed on the smooth marble floor with a thud.

"Ladybug?" surprised green eyes greeted her. “Did you need something, after all? Chat Noir said–”

"I'm about to time out," she interrupted.

He pointed to his bathroom. She dove forward. The door hadn’t fully closed when her transformation dissolved, and an exhausted Tikki fell into her hands. She let herself release a sigh of relief. That had been far too close.

"Uh... Ladybug? Are you okay?"

She suddenly realized where she was and exactly who was on the other side of that door. Heat flooded her cheeks.

"I-I'm fine," perhaps she should explain. She opened her purse, only to find it cookie-less. She cursed.

"You sure you're okay? Can I get you anything?"

"Ummm... Do you have any cookies? Or sweets?"

"Cookies? That's not fair..." his words faded into dissatisfied mumbling.

"Y-yeah. Cookies. Is that okay?"

"Just a second!"

His footsteps faded. 

She took the opportunity to check her phone. She had two texts from her maman, and several pictures from Alya. 

Maman: 

Where are you? You better not have snuck out to go to that concert.

Marinette winced. At least she had a ready made excuse to explain her whereabouts, which meant she probably needed to remain “missing” for a few more hours.

And Alya had provided lots of evidence in the form of pictures of the event. Marinette smiled at the last selfie. Looks like she had pulled off the shot with Fang. The picture featured an absolutely ecstatic Alya who had dragged a clearly freak out Nino into the frame with Fang on the other side. Marinette smiled. At least, they were having fun. 

Adrien tapped on the door, and she started, remembering where she was. She wasn’t Marinette right now. She was Ladybug. 

She opened the door a crack. And his hand slipped in, holding out the treat.

"You're in luck! My diet usually prohibits sweets. But my friend, Nino, occasionally hooks me up with some black market macarons from the best bakery in all of Paris."

Tikki inhaled the pale sandwich cookie in one bite. Before giving Marinette a nod.

"Tikki, spots on," and in a flash she felt the rush of Ladybug's power flow over her, somehow making her both less and more anxious. She opened the door.

She pasted on a seemingly confident smile worthy of a superhero. "I'm sorry for stealing your rare treat. I promise I will make it up to you."

He waved away her concern. "Don't worry about it. I'm always willing to make a sacrifice or two for my favorite superhero."

"Me? I'm your favorite?" she asked, heat blooming under her mask.

"No competition!"

"T-thank you."

They stared at each other awkwardly, before looking away.

"Uhh... Do you mind if I lay low here for a bit? I was trying to lose a reporter who was following me. I hope they lost track of me by the time I ducked into your room, but I'm worried they'll keep combing the neighborhood for a while. If they did see me come through your window, at least we have the excuse that you were the akuma’s target today."

"You don't have to explain. I completely understand." She was struck by his sincerity. His eyes were so soft and green like a meadow in the spring. She could stare into them for hours. 

She had stared into them for hours, but a magazine cover could never compare to the real deal.

"My room is your room!" he gestured grandly for her to take in the whole area.

She giggled. "I don’t know if this actually counts as a room," she commented, taking in everything from the grand piano to the foosball table to the rock climbing wall to the arcade. "It's more like an amusement park."

Adrien shrugged, some of the brightness in his eyes fading a bit. "My father tries to make sure I never have a want for anything."

"Do you not like it?"

He shrugged again. "It's pretty cool, but what’s the point if there's no one to share any of it with?"

She took another look around. With that context the room felt positively cavernous.

“Sounds lonely.”

He ducked into her line of sight, a smile stretched across his face. “I don’t have to be lonely today. You’re here.”

She blushed, and offered him a shy smile. 

“So, what’s it like being a superhero?” he asked, gesturing for her to sit on the sofa. 

He was obviously trying to change the subject. She allowed it.

"Flying over rooftops is pretty cool. Constant life or death situations are stressful. What’s it like being a supermodel?"

He laughed. "Lots of obligations. Very little freedom."

"Sounds boring."

"Yeah."

"Let's do something fun then." Alya and Nino shouldn’t be the only ones. 

“Yes!” And he was clearly so excited, she was suddenly glad that she had ended up in his room. If only she could make this a regular thing. 

…

[sweetcloverheart]

Read an MLB fic that kind of makes me want to explore the idea of Adrien genuinely thinking Chloe is Ladybug after "Lady Wifi" and asking her out.

Like - When they leave to protect her from LW, Maribug is forced to split from Chat, and she only reappears after Chloe leaves his sight. After two more contrived coincidental appearances/reappearance between Maribug and Chloe after the incident, Adrien comes to the (incorrect) conclusion that Chloe is Ladybug (he brushes off the times the two of them both appear at the same time as magic dopplegangers to protect her civie ID or something) and considers revealing his ID to her, with Plagg barely managing to talk him out of it in time. He does, however, unfortunately fail to convince him not to ask her out, as Adrien uses the same logic he engages in in "Chat Blanc" to justify the choice ("So long as I don't tell her I know, I can still ask her out and nothing has to change regarding our hero work.").

Marinette is devastated of course to learn her first love is now bound to her arch enemy and bully, and tries to figure out what's going on because clearly something is terribly wrong here and she needs to save poor Adrien from Chloe's wicked clutches. Chloe's, on the other hand, is absolutely over the moon that Adrien's finally reciprocating her feelings and plans on making them the most "IT" couple in Paris (and rub it in Adrien's fangirls and Dupain-Cheng's faces a little - and by a little I mean a whole lot). Meanwhile, Adrien's just happily dating Chloe while still flirting with Ladybug (and occasionally Chloe) as Chat, thinking the confusion either expresses when he talks about "their dates" or makes vague mentions of patrols just them committing super hard to the bit.

Eventually, Marinette does find out that Adrien only entertained Chloe's crush because he thinks she's Ladybug, and since this is post-Volpina, she knows better than to rush in truth-guns ablazing and decides to simply make a private visit to the hotel and "kindly" ask Chloe to stop leading on poor Adrien like this and tell him the truth for both their sakes...only for Chloe to be confused and Maribug slowly realizing that Oh - Oh, she doesn't know. Adrien asked her out thinking she was Ladybug but never told her (Wait, does this mean...Adrien was the one to trick Chloe into dating him? But - but that makes no sense! Adrien's so nice and kind! He'd never do something like that! There has to be a mistake!). Chloe thinks Adrien was actually finally accepting her feelings when it was really just him thinking he was finally going to get with his superhero celebrity crush.

Lucky for Marinette, Chloe doesn't (fully) connect the dots to what she's just accused her of, so she's able to play it off and make a hasty escape, but that doesn't really solve the issue. Telling Chloe the full truth would likely result in an Akuma and ruining Adrien's reputation if the reason he asked her out comes to light, and would destroy the two's relationship as friends as well as Chloe herself emotionally. At the same time though, should she really care - it's mean, awful, useless Chloe after all, the girl responsible for how many Akumas and miserable Parisians! Why should Marinette try and consider her feelings when she's never given anyone else the same courtesy? Besides, Adrien's the real victim here (isn't he?)! Poor thing when out with that horrible brat thinking she was her (Wait, does that mean Adrien is in love with Ladybug?) and doesn't realize he's been mistaken! If he finds out...oh, it'll just be terrible!

With few options, Maribug does the only thing she can - go to Chat Noir for advice! Obviously getting an outside perspective will help her find a comfortable solution for everyone, and there's no one she could trust better to both give her his honest opinion and keep quiet about the whole thing than Chat! It's perfect!

(Meanwhile, hearing what he's done from an "outsider's" perspective has made Adrien realize that 1) Plagg was totally right, 2)Wow I'm a bad friend, 3)WOW I'm a bad boyfriend, and 4)"Sacré Bleu what have I done!")

(And meanwhile meanwhile, Chloe starts looking back on her and Adrien's dates and paying more attention to his "M'lady" jokes)

[crescent14]

The New World

This is an attempt at a continuous story instead of a one-shot. I love Marichat but the show has me fawning over official Adrienette. If you are as impatient about season 6 as I am, you would know why I decided to write my own continuation till the season is released.

This story takes place after the official season 5 finale. The events in Awakening are not canon, so they did not happen in this story either.

AO3

It was finally here! The first day of school. Why was that so special? Because Marinette was finally going to start the school year with no worries about Chloe's harassment, amazing friends, the best bff one could ever ask for, and the most amazing boyfriend in the world.

The summer flew by with no huge problems for the heroes of Paris, and no one knew about Monarch's true identity. Everyone thought Gabriel Agreste lost his life helping Ladybug, but that did not stop the questions regarding Emilie's sudden reappearance. Ladybug made everyone believe that, with his dying breath, M. Agreste wished that his son had someone to care for him. Instead of granting Monarch's wish, the miraculous heard of Gabriel's desire and cured both Nathalie as well as Emilie. She also put a lot of thought around the fact that the person who stole the butterfly miraculous, probably knows Ladybug's identity. With the help of Su Han and the Order of the Guardians, she cast a spell over the world making everyone (except for Alya and the Guardians, and herself) forget the identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir (as a precaution). She deemed it unfair that Luka had to leave his home to keep her own and Chat Noir's identities safe, so she decided to free him of the burden of knowing. The scenario with their class knowing about Bunnix was something she wanted to amend as well, but Alix came out of a burrow to stop her- apparently, she didn't want to have to pretend she wasn't gone for months on end to keep the rabbit miraculous safe from Monarch- and Marinette respected her wishes.

Unfortunately, the Order informed her that the spell could only be cast one time by each Guardian of a Miracle box- meaning they would have to be even more careful about who learnt their secret, lest Marinette was to forget the existence of the miraculous altogether.

Marinette was still on her toes about when the new holder would strike, but all that worry evaporated when she saw him. Those peridot eyes that she could spend an eternity getting lost in, and that megawatt smile paired with that loving gaze he reserved only for her, could make her forget all the anxiety and fear to just be in the moment. When everyone settled into the new reality that Monarch was no longer a threat, Adrien took Marinette to the mansion to officially introduce her to his mother as his girlfriend. Emilie immediately took a liking to the young designer and even threatened to disown Adrien if he ever does anything to mess this up.

Just as Adrien returned to Paris to be with his mother and love, Kagami decided to stay in London to be with Felix. Their memories of telling Marinette the Graham de Vanilly family story are starting to fade with each passing day, but they couldn't care less, for their greatest enemy is no longer a threat. Madame Tsurugi was not happy about her daughter staying away but decided to learn from Gabriel's passing and allow her daughter some free reign.

All-in-all, they had an amazing summer, full of laughter and love, family and friends, and not a purple butterfly in the sky.

The changes in the new world were something to get used to, but they were not bad changes, not in the least. The new school curriculum meant that she and all her friends still be in the same school without having to give up their dreams of the future. With Gabriel out of the way, and Emilie deciding to support her son in whatever he sought to do, Marinette, Alya and Nino decided to take up a new project- help Adrien find a new passion- one he truly enjoyed.

[ao3feed-ladynoir]

Not for You

Not for you by AirPralic

MariChat. Aged-up (university instead of lycee). Marinette and Chat Noir grow closer over time and build a strong friendship. Mostly Chat/Adrien POV. Chat struggles with his crush on Marinette and with lying to her as Adrien, pretending not to be the one who she spends most of her free time with. Marinette struggles with juggling all of her responsibilities and her feelings for Chat. I'm planning on more chapters including akumatized Nathaniel as the main villain of few of them. No explicit content yet - probably slowburn.

Everything is perfect as long as he holds her, as long as he sees her, as long as he laughs with her. And then, when he has to leave and go back home, it all hits him again. When he sneaks into his own room, lays in his own bed, he's left with the guilt of lying to Marinette and the torture of pretending the next day that he's just her classmate, when in fact he held her in a tight hug just a few hours ago.

Then, solving this problem once again becomes a priority. Until he opens her window again. Then the problem disappears. And reappears when he gets home. And the cycle repeats.

Words: 1793, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M

Characters: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Tikki, Plagg, Nino Lahiffe, Alya Césaire, Chloé Bourgeois, Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Lila Rossi, Akumatized Character(s)

Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Additional Tags: Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, My First Work in This Fandom, Aged-Up Character(s)

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45014281

[san-fics]

Behind enemy lines

Maribat: Robibug, Daminette, Robinette, Damibug

Ao3

Part 1

Marinette had a strange feeling of being watched. It had been following her for over a week.

In fact, almost from the day that Ladybug began to come to the patrols alone, it seemed to her that someone was following her. But every time she looked around, she never found anyone.

It was only two weeks since the day they found out that Parisian villain was non else then world famous fashion designer Gabriel Agreste. And perhaps it would be a good thing to know your enemy by sight, if only this knowledge didn’t bring some consequences Marinette never expected.

The fight was hard, but they were winning. Ladybug and Chat Noir not only defeated that akuma, but — thanks to the help of Rena Furtive — were able to follow Shadow Math to his lair, that turned out to be Agreste mention.

What they didn’t expect at all — was to find Adrien’s mother in the basement.

Chat Noir was shocked more then she was, and the next moment Marinette understood why.

“Mother.” Chat said, eyes wide open.

Both Ladybug and Shadow Math were stunned by the revelation, that in fact one of the most famous Parisian super hero was Adrien Agreste, not less famous Parisian photo-model.

“Son!” Shadow Math exclaimed solemnly. “Join me! We can save your mother together!”

“How could you?!” Chat Noir’s rage was almost perceptible. “How could you hold her here all those years?! Letting me think she could leave me!” Chat took a fighting stand. “I will never join you!”

“Then I’ll make you join me.” Shadow Math smiled, and let a dark butterfly out of his staff. “You feel the bitterness of betrayal and injustice...” He started, while the butterfly was making its way towards masked Adrien.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Ladybug yelled, catching it with her yoyo, and letting out the purified one.

This woke Chat Noir up from his anger. He blinked and nodded to his partner.

“Thank you, m’lady.” He turned back to his evil father. “Now let’s take him down.”

“Ha-ha-ha!” Gabriel’s laugh was loud and sounded insane. “Do you think two teenagers can ‘take me down’ that easily?” He asked, grabbing another white butterfly, that immediately became dark in his palm.

“You won’t be able to akumatize us!” Ladybug said, making a step towards him.

“I don’t need to akumatize you to win this battle, fools!” He yelled and let the akuma go, distracting the heroes with an attack.

Ladybug repulsed the attack and left the fight to Chat, while she turned around to catch the akuma. But it was too late, as she saw Natalie standing behind her, already enveloped in a dark mass.

A moment later at Natalie’s place was a dark figure with some sort of white cloak.

“I am Shield.” She said. “And I will protect the once I care about.”

She lifted her shoulders along with the cloak and, turning around herself, disappeared into a white wall of light. The next moment she appeared beside Shadow Math, wrapped a cloak around him and they both disappeared from sight.

The last time Shield reappeared next to the capsule containing Emilie, surrounded the capsule with a wall of light and vanished in the air.

“No!” Chat Noir yelled, rushing towards the capsule, but it was too late.

The silence around them was hard to listen.

*

Ladybug shivered at the memory, sighed, and continued her patrol.

Almost two weeks since Adrien gave up his miraculous to her.

All three — Ladybug, Adrien and Plagg were silent for a moment. The decision was obvious, but it didn’t make it easier.

The ring couldn’t stay with Adrien, as his identity was known by the worst enemy. Just like he couldn’t use any other miraculous, because his close connection to Gabriel was making him one of his most likely future victims.

Just changing the costume or hiding like Alya did wouldn’t work this time. And Adrien himself wasn’t sure he could keep cold and resist the akuma in case of butterfly coming for him with everything that fell on him that day.

And it was where their next unpleasant, but important decision was made: Adrien had to leave Paris.

Shadow Math was likely to use him somehow, and though Adrien didn’t know Ladybug’s identity, he new some other heroes by name, as well as their strategies, superpower-upgrades, and Ladybug’s weaknesses, that he used to help her to overcome, supporting in her moments of self-doubt.

Plus, staying in the city where people just got to know that your father was a villain — wasn’t the best idea, when you couldn’t really defend your family name.

Maybe Ladybug would keep things about Gabriel being Shadow Math on a low profile if she could, at least for now. But the journalists followed them fighting that day’s first akuma to the Agreste mention, so their conclusions were on the news before Ladybug and Chat noir left the place.

Adrien wanted only one thing — to take his father down. And he wanted it strong enough to understand that the best way for him to help — was to stay as far as possible.

That day, holding crying Adrien in her arms, Marinette understood how much care she had for the boy. She could only see his true self now, the one he used to show as Chat Noir — her funny and brave, cheerful and sensitive friend. And she wanted to take care of him.

As Marinette she promised to Adrien to call him every day, saying that Ladybug gave her this task in case it wouldn’t be safe for her to contact him. She called him ‘Kitty’ by accident, still processing his two guises in her life.

Adrien looked at her with a long studying gaze, and she felt he probably had his suspicions about her identity that moment. But he knew better then to ask her directly, or even think about it for too long. If Shadow Math was to reach him somehow, it was better for Adrien not to know for sure, and they both knew it.

But something changed between them, when they held each other at the airport.

That day Marinette’s feelings for Adrien as a close friend overcame her crush. She could finally see him as a real person, and not as a picture from the magazine. And she treasured it.

Adrien flew to London the next morning. And though they were so far from each other now, Marinette felt like they never were closer, as never their friendship was so strong, not disturbed with her bubbly fangirl adoration anymore.

He was her partner, and it wouldn’t change. Ladybug would return the ring together with Plagg to him once.

Once their enemy was defeated.

*

Ladybug had another weird feeling of being followed and turned around sharply. She thought she saw a shadow moving behind a chimney, but when she reached it, no one was there.

It was becoming her paranoia.

Ladybug had her own spy — Alya with the fox miraculous in camouflage costume, who was following the fights, but not interrupting, in order to be able to find Shadow Math. It was her that saw him hiding not far from their fight with his akuma that day.

She send this information to Ladybug and the moment she and Chat Noir won over the akuma, they followed the main villain to his headquarters.

It was a good thing Alya haven’t revealed herself that time. They could repeat this trick again and find Gabriel’s new hiding place...

The thought of the spies made Ladybug shiver though. She had the feeling of being followed ever since she came on patrol alone two days after Adrien left. And it never fainted since.

To be honest, she had her suspicions, that now not only Shadow Math could be after the miraculous. If before they could keep some resources, including Ladyblog, on local level, in order not to invite unnecessary attention to the magical jewelry from around the world, now that Gabriel Agreste’s name was involved, the situation was totally different.

Alya analyzed the information, spreading on the global net just a day after the first news report mentioned his name, and concluded, that the news were already all over the world.

So the possibility to fight more power-hungry maniacs on Parisian streets was high, and the shadows, following her patrols, could easily be real, and not commung from Marinette’s tired imagination.

And as far as Ladybug knew from the mayor, Gabriel himself was smart enough to transfer most of his funds to international banks in advance, and perhaps not only under his own name. And until his guilt wasn’t proven and the authorities couldn’t influence it in any way, he had enough financial support to acquire a new den and build new plans for attacks.

For a moment Marinette felt so small and lonely in the world...

No. She shook her head and pursed her lips together stubbornly. She was the guardian. And she wasn’t alone. She had Tikki, and Adrien, and Alya, and Plagg, and all the rest of the qwamies. She had her temporary heroes, ready to help too.

And maybe if the news about the miraculous spread around the villains, they could spread around the heroes as well?

Ladybug turned again, and this time she definitely saw a figure, flashed into hiding behind the wall, and a cape that followed.

“Who are you? And why do you follow me?” Ladybug asked loudly.

[about this au]

[part 2]

[more MLB fanfic]

[December 2021 posting schedule]

Tag list (ask me to join)

@mochegato

@thepapillonnoir

@snow-leopard-777

@loves-books

@turiankitty

@toodaloo-kangaroo

@readingismyoxygen

@aespades

@starlightshield

@apasponsor

[totebagchiqbarista]

can we have a chat noir x reader x ladybug where chat and lady are constantly trying to out due in battles each other for the reader’s attention, even in school with adrian and marionette

a loving feeling

Pairing: Adrien/Chat Noir, Marinette/Ladybug x GenderNeutral!Reader

Here's the first request I got! I literally love this idea so much oh my god. I hope you like it :)

“Adrien, dude, go talk to them. Now’s your chance!“ said Nino, reassuringly patting his best friend on the back. Adrien’s palms sweat just because of the thought of talking to them. It had been so long since he felt anything other than platonic love for somebody and was losing his mind. Adrien knew he wasn’t the only one who saw Y/N as potentially someone who was to be more than a friend. How could he be? 

“Go! Now!“ Nino pushed him closer to the infatuating dream of his best friend. Disappearing in a split second he rebounded with his girlfriend. 

Adrien made a few steps. It has seemed the person of his dreams was way too far away from him. Fear grew with each step and his heart was now beating in his throat, unable to catch a breath. Yes! They are so close! He can see them, just a bit more. He is already there, just hanging by the tip of a finger... And suddenly he was in a broom closet. 

“Oh, Plagg I chickened out again“ Adrien cried, clenching his fists against the wall. The kwami flew around his head in an attempt to catch his gaze. 

“Honestly Adrien, you could only talk to them when you were Cat Noir. But when you’re...well you, you lose your mind!“ he spoke “You see, cheese doesn’t do that to a person“

“You’re a kwami“

“My point still stands.“

Adrien banged his hair against the wall. It’s true, he could always talk to them when he was dressed in black. “I'm going to talk to them, today!”

“You go to the same class, you talk to them every day “ Plagg rolled his eyes, getting tired of the same old story his owner has been playing over and over

The blonde boy shook his head trying to talk to Plagg on a serious note “You know what I mean”

Upon entering the class, Marinette stumbled over her thoughts. She had decided she will talk to them today. She had no idea how, but she had put her mind to it. She is doing this.

"Hi, Marinette," said Y/N when they saw the bluenette deep in her thought.

Marinette's eyes widened in surprise, her breath hitching in her throat. She had to process what is happening before she could open her mouth.

"O-oh, hi, Y/N. Are you how? I mean, how you are?" she felt embarrassed by the inability to speak as she tried to collect herself "How are you?"

"I'm good, thanks. Do you want to sit next to me today? Nino and Alya sat together." they questioned, pointing to the couple in love, sat in the second row.

Marinette's face lit up in joy as she shook her head in approval "Yeah, I will". The two sat down in the first row, waiting for the class to start.

"So, Y/N, tell me, um do you- want to-" Blue-haired girl started as the duo collected their bags and headed towards the door. Y/N watched the girl carefully until she was interrupted by a loud cheer behind them.

They turned around, meeting eyes with a pair of green ones that lit under the blonde hair. "Hi, Adrien!" they waved in response.

Marinette's face reddened. It wasn't just because of the Adrien himself who too, made her blush a little. But it was because he could not have found the worse time to come by...

Her fingers twitched as she watched him smile sweetly and sly to the person she was just about to ask out. He had a kind, heart-warming smile on his face, and he was talking so softly to them. His fingers twirled in his blonde hair as he...

Marinette's face widened at the realization. The guy was stealing her date!

"Actually, we were talking you can come back by later" she interrupted blushing Adrien, taking Y/N's hand in hers and walking off. Without thinking, Adrien reached out, grabbing Y/N's hand. His fingers wrapped around their wrist. "Why can't I join you?" he blurted.

"Of course you can!" Y/N exclaimed

"No, you can't. Don't you have a fencing class to attend to?" Marinette fought back, crossing her hands on her chest.

"It got postponed"

"It never does"

"But today it has so I have an hour of free time"

Y/N watched as the two held a strong eye contact filled with rage and jealousy. Their bodies came closer and closer as they fought back and forth for their attention.

Suddenly, the door of the school burst open, shrieks fulfilling the building. A woman dressed in black entered, her ripped dress falling to the floor. Silver hair of hers flowed in the wind as she wrapped her fingers tighter around the machine in her hand. Two rat ears grew on the tip of her head and a tail that followed the theme.

She walked around, shooting every random passenger and turning them into...rats?

"We have to hide!" Y/N exclaimed as they took both of their hands, leading them into a classroom.

Marinette stuttered, ripping their hands apart even though that was the last thing she wanted to do. "I forgot my bag in the other classroom, I have to get that, it's important, you guys go hide now!"

Y/N nodded, running again, leaving Adrien to follow along. "Locker rooms! We can hide there" he said, grabbing them by the hand and running to the secure place in school.

"Chloe! Where are you Chloe!" the rat lady yelled, leading her way through the corridors of the Françoise Dupont High School. "Hide here," he said, showing them a safe place in one of the lockers.

"You too." They said pointing to the one across. Adrien only nodded in response and faking it once they were completely safe. The blonde's legs carried him to the bathroom by the speed of light.

Closing the door he took a moment to take a deep breath and rest his back against the wall. His kwami reappeared in front of his face, waiting for a word. Something. Anything.

"Don't you have a significant other to save, Adrien?"

Adrien got himself on his feet, away from the daydreams. Plagg was right, he did everything better when he was Chat Noir, so saving them should be as easy too. Maybe then he can finally talk to them without interruptions or his own fears.

The blonde nodded. "Plagg claws out!"

Although they knew they could be in danger, Y/N couldn't take being locked up in a locker anymore. She stepped out, only to be met by Adrian's open locker. The rat lady must have got to him.

"Stupid" they hummed to themselves as they looked around, figuring out what to do.

Suddenly, the door to the locker room opened and the infamous black cat costume appeared before them, taking their breath as always. "Well hello I guess we're stuck in danger together," he said flirty "Might as well make the most out of it" he bowed down before them.

"Poor kitty, and where's your lady?" They said, teasingly to the cat boy who so desperately tried to get under their skin.

"Said she will be right back."

And just on queue, the lady in red stormed into the room. Taking a look at Chat Noir once she sighed. "I'm sorry to do this, but it's important. Multimouse, I need you." She handed the already well-known miraculous box to them as they nodded in response.

It was safe to say Chat Noir was losing his mind. His eyes widened at the sudden information, as he stared at them in amazement. "You're Multimouse?!" he squeaked. Thinking back on the previous times Multimouse came to help and he did nothing but flirt with them. There was something that stood out about them and he never knew what. Now, it all made sense.

Then yet again, he wonders how whenever Multimous was around, Ladybug also got way more talkative and goofy and eager for their attention. He remembers all the fights over Multimouse he and the lady had led. It all came together now.

"Of course I am," they said, tying the necklace around their neck and meeting with Mullo, once again.

"I've missed you Y/N," Mullo said, happily flying around.

"I can say the same" they responded, ready to transform "Mullo, get squeaky!"

"Wow," both of the Paris' superheroes were smitten. Stealing a dirty look from each other for one last time they created a plan with Multimouse to defeat Ninkilia. As Ladybug said, she is completely sure the Akuma is in her hand machine.

"That's the plan, just follow my lead" she finished her speech

"As you wish my lady" Multimouse chimed in before Chat Noir could say anything. Ladybug's hot cheeks were prominent through her mask, and the cat looked nothing but jealous.

"R-right, let's go" the girl with spots exclaimed, her cheeks still burning red.

Jumping from the roof, Multimouse teased the villain. "A mouse? No!" Ninkilia yelled. "If you can live in the garbage now, why can't you do it in a form of a true rat itself" she cried as she shot around random people on the street.

"We have to get to her hand machine quickly," Chat Noir said fighting the lady in black. "And maybe then we can go somewhere just the two of us."

He winked at Multimouse who only laughed, and earned a look of pure hatred from Ladybug. Expecting a comment on his own behalf, Chat Noir was surprised by the lady's response. "You don't want to go with him trust me. I know the best ice cream in town."

Multimouse only laughed "Let's get rid of this rat lady first," they said "Multitude!"

"No, not the mice!" Ninkilia desperately tried shooting the little mice around her as they climbed up her legs. Ladybug's yoyo wrapped around her, pinning her to the ground.

"Chat Noir!" Ladybug exclaimed.

"Cataclysm"

The Akuma has been purified and the trio has once more, saved the day. "Pound it!"

"It has been a pleasure working with you" black cat smiled sheepishly, taking the mouse's hand and kissing it softly. "Will I have the pleasure of seeing you again soon?"

"We'll see," they said, signalizing Ladybug it's time to go.

Ladybug pulled them close, taking them by the waist and already feeling her heart beat faster. Multimouse, or precisely, Y/N placed their head in the crook of her neck and sent shivers down her spine. Soon, they were flying through the air, holding just by her yoyo.

"Thank you for choosing me," they said, as they scootched closer to her body, clinging in fear of falling down.

"How could I not?"

Marinette's heartbeat raced faster as they shared a soft smile. If it were up to her, she would like to fight alongside them all the time.

[capesandshapes]

Didn't You Know? (Post Reveal/Pre Relationship)

Summary:

Marinette is sick and realizes that Adrien has a secret to tell her.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The music was loud.

Far too loud.

But she knew at the same time that she was drunk, far too drunk; so that might have played a part in it. Adrien sitting at the bar with girls surrounding him—draped on his shoulders and with hands on his knees— might have also played a part in it. Because she’s tired, and sick, and lonely; and he’s there like he always is, waiting to take her home, waiting to take care of her because he feels like it’s his duty.

Because he’s Chat Noir and she’s Ladybug, and he promised one day however many years ago that he would always take care of her. Now she has to live with that. Now she has to live with wanting him, but still not fucking saying it.

And just when her night seems like it can’t get worse, some guy dumps a pint of whiskey on the front of her dress and makes to clean it up, his napkin at the ready to blot it like this totally isn’t some pre-planned thing—

“Oof,” a familiar voice says beside her, placing his sweatshirt around her shoulders before she can even protest and pushing the hands away before the man can try to ‘help’. “Thank you for that, but she’s already taken care of, I think I’m gonna take her home.”

And immediately the guy, some big burly man likely in his thirties, is flinging accusations and acting like he knows everything. “And who are you to do that?” Like he wasn’t just trying to do something awful.

“I’m her husband,” Adrien says, flashing a black and green ring while throwing a cheeky smile over his shoulder as he pulled the two edges of his sweatshirt a little bit closer around her. “Happily married,” he mutters, his eyes softening as they landed on hers and he saw her pull the sweatshirt on to really sell the statement. He leaned forward to zip it up, throwing the man another smile, this one verging on a warning as he placed his hand on Marinette’s shoulder.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize,” the man began, blinking as Adrien made to herd her away.

“It’s fine,” Adrien said, his arm around her shoulders and his eyes staying firmly on her. “She’s going home.” In a stage whisper, he added, “you’re sick, aren’t you sweetheart?”

Which was only half because of the other man and half because she actually was sick, and he wanted an answer.

She had been wondering how long she could keep it from him that night, how long she could last dancing with Alya and accepting only water. Now that he knew who she was, Adrien had a way of seeing through all of her other disguises too. Like her telling herself that she wasn’t sick and trying to act like she wasn’t sick.

Even though a small part of her was afraid she might have caught the flu or been suffering from some sign of overwork…

“I’m going to get your coat,” he said, guiding her near the door.

“Are you also going to go and tell more people that we’re married?” She asked wearily, swaying on her feet.

He laughed, leaving a small kiss on her forehead that almost made her cross her eyes. “I tell everyone I’m married; it keeps them from hitting on me and technically I am…” He raised his hand, waggling his eyebrows at her, “married to the job,” he joked. “I’m taken in more ways than one.”

She wished she didn’t laugh, if only because it encouraged that type of thing. As his friend, she shouldn’t have been happy that he was sitting in clubs with his miraculous on his ring finger, turning away girls who could have been something to him. As his friend, she shouldn’t have raised the sleeve of his sweatshirt to her nose as he walked away, smelling the soft cologne that he’s taken to wearing instead of the Agreste branded stuff.

She really sucked at this whole being his friend thing. More so now than ever.

He reappeared with her jacket, her housekeys in his hand. He didn’t, of course, make any moves to replace the sweatshirt around her shoulders, just another addition to the list of many things that would always make her wonder about where she actually stood with him.

Alya always insisted that he liked her and was just waiting for the right time to say anything, but two years had passed since they’d revealed their identities and Marinette had started to doubt that. If it was more than a childhood crush, he would have told her by now.

Then again, she thought as she watched him wait for their taxi, she hadn’t told him.

***********************************

Adrien unlocked her door and hauled her stuff inside, Marinette following closely behind. He reached around her once she was safely inside, closing the door and locking it.

“I’ll stay on the couch tonight in case you need anything,” he informed her. Adrien was often overbearing when she was sick, a trait that he’d picked up from her once she learned that no one was really around to care for him when the boy was sick. It almost became tradition for the man to sleep in her living room whenever she was ill, another reason why she didn’t want him to know.

It was almost painful how much he cared.

That was the problem with the two of them, someday he would get a girlfriend or she would have another boyfriend, and they would tell him how weird this was, that he cared way too much for the young woman and she cared too far beyond reason for him as well. Then it would end.

She didn’t want it to end.

She wanted a thousand different things in her life, like to start her own fashion line and see the world, but she didn’t want Adrien to leave her.

She was in love with Chat Noir. How long? She couldn’t tell you. Before the reveal, probably. Before she knew that he shared those green eyes with the other guy who made her chest feel heavy and her breathing weak.

“You should shower,” Adrien said. “Are you hungry? We didn’t go out to eat this time.”

“I had a microwave meal.”

“You didn’t eat then,” Adrien proclaimed, marching into her kitchen. Ever since he learned how to cook one summer at Nino’s grandparents, he was a storm in the kitchen. He made food for her whenever he could, always watching her closely for her reaction to that first bite. It reminded her of her father in a way, that excitement to watch her experience new things and know that he was responsible.

She sighed, lumbering into the kitchen on exhausted legs and wrapping her arms around his back, burying her face into it and murmuring her thanks. “I love you,” she mumbled, such a common phrase from her that it always just slipped out.

“I love you too,” he stated, his hands wrapping around hers and giving a reassuring squeeze. “You can put on a new one of my sweatshirts when you get out of the shower,” he said, because eventually she had started a whole collection of them without thinking about it.

She nodded, bending over to remove her high heels before traveling further into the apartment. He was already at her feet by the time she’d managed to overcome dizziness and bend over, beginning the process of unbuckling her heels and tossing them aside.

She blinked at him, feeling his soft blond hair brush against her leg and immediately giving into the urge to touch it. Her hand wove through the back of his hair and he pressed a small kiss to her leg as he finished the last shoe, tossing them aside. “There,” he said, smiling up at her.

She really hoped he thought she was red from the fever.

Freed from her shoes, she felt the world blink in and out as she stumbled to her bathroom, turning the shower on cold to combat her fever despite her body’s pleas not to. She practically fell into the shower and she knew that he heard, rushing to the door as quick as possible. “I’m fine,” she called before he could so much as knock, blinking at the mixture of shampoos and soaps before her. When would she finally make room for Adrien to have his own shelf? She shook her head, tempted as always to see if there was some magic in his fifty-dollar shampoo, but settling for her strawberry-scented one instead. Adrien had teased her the last time she’d used anything on his recommendation.

Finally clean, she emerged from the bathroom, walking the short distance in her towel before ending up in her room. “It’s almost done,” Adrien said from the kitchen as she pulled on a pair of joggers and one of his old sweatshirts, pulling her hair into a sad attempt of a bun.

Deeming herself close enough to presentable, she moved back into the kitchen, steadying herself on the wall when he noticed her and his face broke into a smile.

“You didn’t have any chicken stock, so I made leek soup,” he said, gesturing to the bowls, one for her, one for him.

She nodded, grabbing the bowl and moving to the living room, scooting too close into his side when he settled on the couch beside her, flicking on the tv. He threw on the show they’d been watching recently, a bad soap opera about werewolves that had the sets falling apart around them. She let out the softest yawn when the theme music began, sinking further and further into him until he finally finished his food, placing his arm around her.

“When is she finally going to realize that he’s in love with her,” she grumbled. “I mean, they’re dating, aren’t they?”

“I don’t know,” Adrien said, pulling the empty bowl from her lap and pulling her on top of him, the two laying together as the show continued to play. His eyebrows furrowed, concern for the characters showing on his face, “I mean, she has stuff at his place and everything.”

That didn’t mean anything, Marinette had things at Adrien’s place. She had more than one drawer, a whole closet even. “I mean, he said he’s in love with her, right?”

“Yeah,” Adrien agreed. “And they go practically everywhere together, people invite them as a couple.”

“And he sends her all these texts every day of things that she’s into!” Marinette complained. “I don’t know much about love, but that seems like it’s part of it.”

“Mhm,” Adrien agreed, pressing his lips to the corner of her mouth. “Thank you for the recipes the other day, by the way.”

“No problem—” she began, and then stopped, her eyes sliding over to him. He still watched the tv with the same expression, not even giving what he’d done a second thought.

“I think he’s finally about to say it,” Adrien stated with a frown. “It’s taken long enough.”

But Marinette couldn’t focus on the show at all. All she could do was stare at him. “You almost kissed me,” she marveled.

He cast her a questioning look, looking over at her just slightly before turning back to the tv. “Do you want me to fully kiss you, or?”

Marinette straightened, using her forearms to jerk back from him, her eyes wide.

He blinked, turning around to look at her, his eyebrows furrowed. “Marinette?”

“You kissed me,” she repeated, deciding at the corner was good enough and reaching to touch her mouth with her hand almost absentmindedly, tumbling against his chest in the process.

“Yes?” He said, peeling her off him to look him in the eyes. “I mean, that’s what people do when they’re dating—”

Her mouth fell open.

“Marinette..?”

“We’re dating?!” She yelled, her eyes wild.

He immediately flattened against the couch, looking almost as shocked at the statement as she was. “Marinette, I have stuff at your apartment, you have stuff at mine. I cook for you, we have shows. We watched all of Naruto together. You tell me you love me every day, and I say it back.”

“But that’s—We—” She floundered, almost falling off the couch.

Adrien’s hand caught her. “Marinette, be careful, you have a fever—”

“How long?” She asked, slumping into his hand. “We haven’t even kissed—”

“To be fair, we have kissed plenty of times before and I just assumed—”

“How. Long.” She repeated, and she could see the pure terror grow in his eyes.

“Two weeks?” He said, quickly explaining, “I mean, I sent you that long text about how much I liked you and you sent me back that you would be lucky to be my girlfriend, any girl would—”

She gasped, almost falling backward this time before his hands plastered themselves to the small of her back, the young man sitting up beneath her.

“Marinette?!”

“You’re my boyfriend,” she said loudly. “Oh my god, you’re my boyfriend.”

“Is that a bad thing?” He frowned.

“But you tell people that you’re married—”

“As a private joke,” he corrected. “I also tell people that I’m taken, not as a joke.” His hands pulled back from her, his voice almost unsure as he asked, “do you not want to be?”

“Of course, I want to be,” she squeaked. “I mean, that’s like asking someone if they want to be rich, or have a room full of puppies, or cure cancer—”

The corner of his mouth rose in a smirk.

“It’s just that I didn’t know,” she finished. “I haven’t even kissed you. And now I’m sick and I have this boyfriend here to take care of me, and he’s going to sleep on the couch…” Marinette struggled to list everything else wrong.

Adrien didn’t give her a chance.

No, instead he grabbed the side of her face and pulled her down, pressing his lips against hers in a firm, inarguable kiss.

“Well, I don’t have to sleep on the couch…” he said as he pulled away.

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Ch. 13: To the Death (Death)

AO3

Prev

Their last few days in Gotham went by smoothly. No rogue attacks, no akuma tacks. The only negative was Mr. Wayne refusing to allow her on patrol again because she was “injured” and “could have died.” Gotham has been nice for the most part and was full of surprises, but Marinette was relieved when the plane landed in Paris. The entire trip moved to the back of her mind, almost like a dream. Like it hadn’t really happened. Until Hawkmoth sent out his next akuma.

---

Taking in a shaky breath, Marinette blinks back tears. Everything was suddenly real. Hawkmoth might win.

She despised akumas with weapons. Specifically, the lethal weapons. Creative weapons or blasters she could handle. No problem. Legitimate swords or guns? Not so much. Instead she was left with a feeling of dread and uncertainty.

Pushing forward, she’s just about to call her lucky charm when she feels it. Choking slightly on the blood- why is there blood- she looks down at the sword sticking out of her chest. Oh. That’s why there’s blood. Blood. She coughs, wincing as she watches the blood pour out of her mouth. Huh. That’s not right. She almost hears Chat screaming. But why? Why does he sound so upset? Why- Oh. OH. She’s dying. She realizes this with a start as the world around her darkens and she begins to sway. She’s dying, and Hawkmoth is going to get her Miraculous. Hawkmoth is going to win. Oh, no- please-

“Chat.” She manages to say, watching as he runs towards her and scoops her up, carrying her out of the way of cameras and prying eyes. A place she can stay. A place where Hawkmoth won’t take her Miraculous. He won’t. He can’t. She frowns, black spots covering her vision, but not enough to hide his tears.

“Take them. Save them.” She manages to say, shaky hands reaching for her earrings. His lips move, so she knows he’s saying something. She wishes she could hear it. Wishes she’d thought of this possibility. She thinks Chat will win. But it’ll be so hard. She should’ve wrote a will. Should’ve planned ahead. Should’ve been more like her father. She blinks at Chat- Adrien- and realizes he’s still talking. She hopes it’s not important, that maybe he could tell her later. Her thoughts continue to jumble, just like her vision. Shifting into one incoherent mess. Words become shapes, pain dulls until she’s numb. Until she can’t feel it. Until she closes her eyes and lets the darkness carry her away.

---

Immediately after finding out about his Parisian daughter, Bruce Wayne had installed the akuma alert system in the Batcave. And on his phone. He wanted to be absolutely certain that he would know what was happening when, and maybe even find some way to help. Do something. Stop the emotional terrorist that had taken over his daughter’s childhood.

Sitting in his study, he takes a swig of coffee, thankful for a relaxing Saturday. He wanted to avoid WE, stay as far away as possible. They’d been bombarding him with questions about Marinette and the (true) rumor that started when her class first arrived in Gotham. Wanted to know if it was true, what they could say, what the official statement was. He wasn’t sure. He wanted Marinette to be able to make that decision. But it wasn’t something you could just ask after only a week of knowing each other.

A shrill ring breaks him out of his thoughts and he glances at his phone. That’s odd, he thinks, looking at the screen. Until he reads closer and realizes why it looks different. The Parisian news stations, who had never seemed too distressed by attacks before, were urging people to hide. Not just shelter in place. But hide. Making up his mind quickly, Bruce makes his way to the Bat Cave. Sure he couldn’t jump over to Paris to assist his daughter in battle, but he had to know that she was safe. He had to know Marinette would be okay. Miraculous cure or not. Walking into the cave, he’s unsurprised to see Tim already there, the news feed pulled up on the largest screen.

“It’s not looking good B. Casualties have already passed fifteen hundred. LB and Chat both look exhausted and the fight just started.” Tim informs him, frowning into his unnecessarily large cup of coffee. Bruce simply nods, trying to ignore the sudden tension in his jaw.

“How’s she holding up?” Dick asks, arms crossed as he walks in, Damian trailing in behind him.

“She’s giving ‘em hell but she also took a coupla good hits.” Jason says, watching his phone as he walks in through another entrance. Bruce’ chest feels warm at the obvious concern and care his sons have for their sister. He had no doubt that Cass (who had returned to Hong Kong before Marinette returned to Paris) was also watching the stream. Although not necessary, it was still nice of them to check. To care. As the fight goes on though, Bruce becomes antsy. The cameras are too far away to pick up the conversation between the heroes and the akuma, but it doesn’t look good. Marinette looks anxious, nervous, almost frenzied. All emotions he’d never seen on her (as Ladybug).

“Call your lucky charm.” Damian hisses, glaring up at the screen. Bruce silently agrees. As odd as the power was, it hadn’t failed her yet. There’s no- his blood freezes. The world shuts down as he tries to remember how to breathe. To remember that it’s okay to breathe. Because standing in front of the akuma is his daughter. With a sword protruding from her chest. The entire cave is silent, everyone waiting. Trying to process. The sword is pulled back and Bruce watches, sick to his stomach as blood falls out her mouth. As she sputters, more blood falling out. The dazed look on her face as she sways on her feet, not quite seeing her surroundings breaks his heart. She stumbles, her legs giving out, and he stares, unable to look away as Chat Noir manages to grab her and swing away.

“Shit.”

“She did not even dodge! She could have-”

“She’s not- she’s okay, right?”

“Is she-?” Bruce is barely able to hear the chaos around him. Barely able to focus on the video in front of him. He lets out a shuddering breath, turning his complete focus to watch for her to come back. Surely someone would heal her. The Miraculous cure could heal her. It had to. He desperately watches the screen, waiting for her spotted costume to come back. She had to come back. He sees spots, but squints. Something’s wrong with the spotted costume swinging towards the fight. The colors are right, but the flash of blonde hair and distinct male figure- it’s not...it’s not her. Not Marinette.

“It appears Mr. Bug is on the scene. Ladybug is down. I repeat, Ladybug is down.” The news anchor reports, a distraught look on her face. But the look on her face is nothing in comparison to the agony that shoots through Bruce. How? Why isn’t she up? Why would Adrien use her Miraculous? Why not heal her now, let her finish her battle? Unless...could she not be healed? Was the Miraculous cure unable to bring the Ladybug holder back? No. No, he couldn’t think that. Couldn’t accept that. She had to be okay. He couldn’t lose a child. Not again. Never again.

“The Cure will save her.” Damian says stiffly, tugging Bruce from his thoughts. He looks over to his youngest, torn by how young Damian suddenly looks. How broken he looks, staring at the screen in front of them. Braving a glance at his other sons, Bruce suddenly feels sick. His phone rings suddenly, and Bruce jumps, hoping the name- but no. It’s Cass, requesting a facetime. He answers, giving his daughter (is Marinette okay? Will she be okay? What if he loses her right after finding her?) a quizzical look.

“Little sister is okay, right?” She signs furiously, a frown on her face. Bruce grits his teeth, trying hard to push down the emotions threatening to overwhelm him.

“I’m not sure.” He answers, leaving his tone flat and without emotion. He couldn’t break. Not right now, not when his children looked so scared. Not when they all looked horrified. He couldn’t afford to be scared or horrified too. He had to hold it together. Even if he was screaming on the inside. Screaming and begging and pleading with whatever powers there were. Pleading for his daughter’s life. For her to wake up. For the Cure to work on her. He watches and waits. Wincing as Adrien is thrown around even more than usual. His hands twitch, wanting to do something, anything to help. Bruce finally stands, ready to put on his suit and just take the damn Zeta tubes to Paris. Who gives a damn about Hawkmoth, his daughter needs him. He’s just about to walk away when he sees it. The pure white butterfly flying out of Mr. Bug’s yoyo. Bruce inhales sharply, watching the wave of light and tiny ladybugs sweep across the city. He watches as Adrien slides the victim a card before swinging away. Watches as he doesn’t reappear. The camera zooms in to the area he’d flown off to, but there was nothing. Zooming back out, the camera focuses back on the news anchor.

“And that’s another akuma, taken down by our brave heroes. Back to you, Jean Marc.” She says with a tense smile. And the footage cuts out. It’s no more. No one moves. No one speaks. Everyone just stares at the blank screen. The screen where they’d watched Marinette be stabbed. Where they’d seen a sword go through her chest. Bruce clenches his jaw, trying desperately to stop himself from crying.

“I’ll be back.” He says gruffly, leaving his seat to go and put on his suit. There was no way she was gone. He wouldn’t accept it. So, he was going to go to Paris. He’d find her and wrap her up in some goddamned bubble wrap and make sure that his daughter didn’t get stabbed again. God, she has to be okay. His thoughts are frantic as he moves swiftly towards his suit, his thoughts only of getting to Paris. Getting to Paris, and finding Marinette. A sudden flash of light brightens the cave and Bruce instantly gets into a fighting position, watching the light turn into a circle. A portal, right in the middle of the Bat Cave. His breath catches as he watches two figures fall through the portal. Adrien, obviously still in spots. And the girl next to him….he frowns, not quite recognizing her.

“Kaalki, dismount.” The girl says, a soft light flashing over her. Bruce freezes, eyes scanning his daughter as she smiles awkwardly. Glancing over her, reminding himself that she’s there. She’s alive. He crosses to her in three large steps and drops to his knees in front of her so that they’re on eye level.

“Never do that again.” He begs, voice breaking slightly as he wraps his arms around her, pulling her close. She’s alive. She’s okay. She’s alive.

---

Marinette buries her face in her father’s shoulder, tightening her hold on him. He was the only parent that knew she was Ladybug. The only one who would be affected by seeing her stabbed on live tv. Coming to see him directly after the battle was all she could think of when she woke up. She knew she had to see her dad and her brothers. Reassure them that she was still there.

“I’m so sorry Dad.” She chokes out, tears running down her face as she remembers the pain of being stabbed in the chest. The way her vision went dark. The way the blood felt as she choked on it. She squeezes her eyes shut, breathing shakily as she holds onto him for dear life, barely registering when more warmth surrounds her. She doesn’t have to open her eyes to know what it is. Her brothers, all hugging her. Surrounding her, making sure she’s there. She sighs in relief, glad that they’re all there. Glad that she’s able to hug them again.

Next

Master list

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[tumbling-darkling]

Miraculous Ghosts

Danny and friends visit Paris and come across trouble, as well as the cities local superheroes.

Lately, Hawkmoth has been recycling villains. There are only so many people in Paris and not everyone gets emotionally vulnerable strongly enough or long enough to be akumatized. Those that do, and commonly like Mr. Pidgeon, usually had a certain fixation that was easy to exploit. The thing was, both Marienette and Chat Noir already knew their weakness, the items that would most likely get akumatized, the whole schtick. So the battles were really fast and easy.

A new face always had to be met with caution, the lack of knowledge regarding the person was dangerous and if the pair wasn’t careful, they could end up losing the battle. And their Miraculous.

With the start of summer came tourist season, and tourists could be victims of akumatization. Which seemed to be the case within the first week. 3 villains, all new faces, but the pair had gotten lucky with the similar powers that the heroes had faced before and the three were all defeated in a timely manner.

There was a short week of nothing happening.

And then all hell broke loose.

—————————————————————

Marienette knew the start of the tourist season had begun just based on the filled streets of strange faces, sunglasses, cameras, and the use of foreign languages. This also was noticed based on how busy her parents' shop had become, and how rarely she was managing to escape outside to enjoy some of summer's freedom. The good thing was she was able to brush up on some of her English, since the tourists usually spoke the common American language and the experience was always welcome to help boost her grades in the upcoming year. Even if it was a few months away.

She’d figured out the best way to sneak off during any attacks was to ‘use the bathroom’ or ‘accidently’ make a mess and excuse herself to clean up. It had worked during the first week and she didn’t have to do anything the past week since Hawkmoth seemed to take a break. She finished serving a young pair of Americans, a tall girl with orange hair, and a lanky boy nearly the same height with raven black hair.

She had to admit, some Americans had a certain charm, but the bustle of the kitchen quickly caught her attention as she was back to serving the next person in line.

Just as Chloe waltzed in, basically knocking the american boy over as she strutted to the front of the line, causing people to cast glares in her direction. The boy hissed when he fell, the American girl offering to help him up in English as he shook his head and stood up, dusting himself off as Marienette went to deal with the walking form of pure rich privilege. “Urg, Dupain-Cheng’s dingy little cafe? Of course she works here, it just smells like burnt bread.” She huffed.

Marienette bristled, but put on her customer service smile, noticing the poor Americans victim to Chloe leaving the shop. She was hoping to offer them a replacement after dealing with Chloe but it was a little late now. “Ma’am, unless you are here to pick up an order, you will have to wait in line like everyone else.” She strained.

“Ma’am? I am Chloe Dubois! I don’t need to wait in line like some sort of peasant! Just give me whatever you didn’t make.”

Marienette had to swallow down any returning insults and put down one of their most expensive items, handing it over with a clearly strained smile, “have a nice day.”

Chloe huffed with her baked goods in hand but left as soon as she appeared, allowing Marienette some relief. Very little damage. A little annoyance but nothing worthy of an akuma-.

An explosion was heard from outside, and Marienette groaned internally.

She just had to jinx it.

—————————————————————

Ladybug dove off to the side as the villain shot out a ray of white, plasma-like energy. Adrien, fighting as Chat Noir, and his partner were having a hell of a time with this dude. He spotted the chaos on the news, the villain calling himself ‘Black Hole’ and giving his poor Lady a hard time. When he finally arrived on the scene, he wasn’t able to do much either.

The villain was basically a godly powerhouse, floating in the air, shooting burning rays of heated plasma, or even ice! Ice and plasma! Sometimes he MIXED the two beams to create an even WORSE beam! Whenever either of the heroes got close enough to land a hit, their punches and kicks would go right through him. Then he would DISAPPEAR. REAPPEARING AND LANDING ANOTHER HEAVY BLOW. He would fly around like gravity was non-existent, and these abilities didn’t stop there. Every so often, he would yank out this thermos looking thing and shoot out these wormholes. Or… possibly black holes. Calling them black holes felt wrong though… since they glowed green and swirled before disappearing after a few moments.

The villain's outfit was a change of pace too. It was impossible to figure out his age since he was completely covered in a thick fabric material that reminded him of space suits. Yet looked a lot less bulky than actual space suits, thin yet sturdy metal covered his forearms, and formed a backpack that was attached by a wide metal collar that spread to his collarbone and slightly covered his shoulders, as well as a metal strap that wrapped around right under his chest. A plated, metal belt circled his waist with a clip for the green black hole thermos, and thigh high boots with a similar fabric to his suit covered most of his legs, thick plastic looking platform soles attached at the feet. Black bands wrapped around the ankles of the boots. A helmet covered his entire face, a metal frame covering the bottom half like a muzzle while the top was a tinted glass dome following the shape of his head, the inside of it entirely black except for the eerie glow of a single, left eye. The helmet had a tube on the back of the helmet that connected to his backpack, but neither he or Ladybug could figure out if it was essential or for decoration. His entire colouring was monotone, much bleaker than their previous villains. His suit was black, the boots, forearm cuffs, belt, backpack and collar were all a middle shade of grey, the only flash of colour being the glow of the single toxic green eye amongst the darkness of the helmet.

The dude was disturbing. He didn’t make any sound, in fact he seemed to ABSORB the sound around him. Like they were in space.

Paris was getting destroyed more and more by the second and the two didn’t know what to do. The Lady’s lucky charm turned into a thermos, which she didn’t have a clue how to use in the situation in front of them. Maybe it was a hint? A clue about soup? Or getting the villains thermos?

The problem with the last idea was that neither he or Ladybug could TOUCH this villain. And each of them were getting worse and worse for wear by the second. He could tell Ladybug was getting ready to get some sort of help, but who could make something untouchable… touchable? Chat even tried to use cataclysm on the villain's thermos while Ladybug had distracted him, but he twisted at the last moments and grabbed Chat's hand, draining cataclysm before he tossed him aside like it was nothing.

Another blast of plasma sent the two tumbling away from each other, and then a blast of ice caught Chat off guard. Cold shot up his arm as his muscles convulsed, a scream caught in his throat as the ice trapped his arm in such a tight and sturdy prison. He twisted to try and use his free arm to claw the other out of the ice, a shadow in the corner of his vision causing him to twist and jolt in surprise as the villain stood right in front of him. The glowing green eye was cold as it bore into him, and the villain grew closer and closer, drifting off the ground and absorbing every noise around him, the air around them dropping to freezing temperatures. Chats breath formed in front of him as gasps, panic clear in the quick breaths, fear intensifying as the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat and blood roaring through his veins.

The villain's hand shot out and grabbed his free one- the one with his miraculous.

Chat heard Ladybug cry out as the villain gripped onto the ring, a quick glance showing she too was trapped.

That she was next.

Chat tried to keep his fingers curled, but he was battered and weak, and the villain hadn’t even broken a sweat during their fight. Prying open his fingers was easy, the ring vulnerable. This was it. He used cataclysm too soon and now he was powerless. He couldn’t escape. He couldn’t save anyone. He was a failure. This was the end of Paris.

They lost.

—————————————————————

Fucking. Vlad.

This entire trip had Danny on edge and it was all because of Vlad.

At first, he thought maybe, for once, Vlad wasn’t being a piece of shit when offering the family a fully paid trip to France for two weeks. He was suspicious. He probably just wanted the family out of town to do some shady shit. But a two week trip to France wasn’t the WORST thing a man could do. Especially in comparison to kidnapping and cloning.

But then his parents got sick. A common flu. Right before the trip. And they wanted Jazz and him to experience Paris. Then Vlad offered to be a chaperone.

It was all a play to get Danny alone for two weeks and try and manipulate him.

He did manage to get Tucker and Sam to tag along, something about friends being his family and the two unused tickets his parents left behind. But Vlad knew how to separate the group. How to corner Danny at the worst moments and whisper annoying remarks in his ear as he tried to get away.

He survived a week. He only had one more week to go. Tucker and Sam were off checking out some places for lunch while Jazz and Danny went to pick up sweets for everyone to share after their meal.

Vlad was off doing who knew what so Danny had put him to the back of his mind.

The cafe they found was… well it smelled incredible. There were so many baked goods on display and the air was filled with the warm and sweet smell of the goodies. He let Jazz do most of the talking, she wanted to practice her French and Danny had recently discovered that being dubbed the ghost king meant that now he had a natural grasp on all verbal languages, including the dead ones. This meant his speech in French was almost flawless, and his understanding was like he was listening to someone speak English. He couldn’t read other languages though, just speak them. He was told though by a few locals he had an odd accent. It wasn’t an american one, just… odd.

So Jazz ordered the treats and the pair was headed out to meet Danny’s friends.

Then some blonde girl with way too much make-up basically knocked him to the ground, not even sending him a glance that indicated she knew what she did. It was annoying, but he dealt with bullies on a daily basis back at Amity Park. Well… used to. But he knew better than to waste any thought on some jerk like her. He sadly looked at the ruined cat paw shaped cookies, the icing ruined and the cookies crushed under his weight when he fell.

Standing up with the help of Jazz, they left the shop as Danny insisted on finding somewhere to wash off the icing stuck to his shirt. He liked this shirt too… he hoped it wouldn’t stain too badly. It was better than ectoplasm at least, that stuff needed to be burned out, there was no such thing as washing out ectoplasm.

Jazz asked to help, but Danny brushed her off, telling her he could easily clean himself off by himself.

And then Vlad chose that moment to corner him.

—————————————————————

“Hello Daniel.”

Danny splashed water wildly as he spun around to glare at the older Halfa, hissing out an ‘Ancients!’ in surprise. “What the hell, Vlad?” He spat, “sneaking up on a kid in the bathroom? I should just call the police and tell them about all that stalking you like to do.”

“Aren’t you tired of this childish game?” He hummed.

“Not really, seeing as I’m a child and I love games,” Danny sneered.

“I’m older, more experienced, and stronger. I am also patient, little badger. And it’s easy to wear you down. By the end of this trip, you are going to be begging to be my-.”

“Son? Pet? Little slave that does everything you ask? Sorry, Vladdy, but I ain’t the type to listen to crazy fruit loops. How about you go enjoy the company of your French rich friends like that Agreste dude instead of stalking me and trying to get with my mom and kill my dad. Might do you some good to make more friends than just your cat.”

“Oh Daniel, you throw your petty insults but I know ways to break you even further. You know, a lot of accidents happen in Paris. Terrible things.”

Danny felt his eyes flash as he spun on his heel, “listen to me, if you even consider-!”

“Not to mention your brand new ghostly responsibilities as… the ghost king? Imagine that. A child as the king. You don’t even know everything about ghosts.”

“Neither do you!” Danny spat.

“Oh but I know so much more. And I could easily teach you-.”

“Just shut up!”

“When you mess up, when the ghost zone begins to fall apart, you will wish you took my offer, but I may not be as forgiving when that happens.”

“I said shut up!”

“And we both know the moment the ghost zone falls apart, so will this world. All because a boy became king and didn’t take help he was so graciously offered.”

“SHUT THE HELL UP!”

Something inside him shifted, and Danny suddenly felt his mind cloud, a deep voice echoed his mind.

“A cruel man harassing a young teen that wants nothing to do with him. A shame when someone can’t take a hint.

Black Hole. I am Hawkmoth. I can give you the power to show this old man that he never should consider looking in your direction ever again.

All I ask is for Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous. Do this for me, and Vlad Masters will never be an issue for you ever again.”

Danny’s clouded mind and building rage smirked at the offer, his voice echoing as he glanced up at Vlad who was giving him a confused look. “Yes, Hawkmoth.”

Darkness engulfed him and then his memory began to fail him.

—————————————————————

A boomerang slammed into Black Hole’s head, causing it to jerk to the side and a small crack formed on the glass that was hit. The metal boomerang dropped to the ground and Black Hole slowly looked down at it as a robotic voice cried out from it, “ghost detected!” And then a recorded voice spouted out, “take that, spook!”

Black Hole’s head slightly tilted at the noise it made, a hand subconsciously rubbing the crack it left behind. Then he twisted his gaze back to Chat Noir, going back to taking the hero’s miraculous.

Then a shout came from behind Black Hole and Chat caught the eyes of a teenage girl yelling and holding a bat over her head. Black Hole twisted, his body turning that transparent look whenever Chat or Ladybug had tried to hit him before, and Chat knew that it was useless. “No! Stop! Get out of here-!” He screamed at the citizen, but stopped when the bat connected with the villain's head and sent him flying into a wall.

Chat was at a loss for words for once in his life, watching the villain slowly pry himself from the wall from being hit by a baseball bat when he and Lady couldn’t land a single hit. He looked back at the citizen and shrieked as she raised the bat above her head and swung down at him, flinching and squeezing his eyes shut. She hit something, causing it to shatter and then- his hand was free!

He opened his eyes and looked at his hand in awe and then back at the girl, “who the heck are you?”

She huffed, dropping the bat casually on her shoulder, “Sam Manson. Friend of the idiot that didn’t do his research before taking a trip here. I’m surprised this didn’t happen earlier.”

Chat blinked, “you- you know that’s your friend? And knew this would happen?”

Sam shrugged, “the booo-merang is never wrong. And yeah, my friend there is not exactly the most emotionally stable person on the planet. Sorry it took us a while to get here. You guys really do move fast.”

Chat just opened and closed his mouth a few times, then yelled as she suddenly swung the bat again and smacked the villain in the gut as he got close during their exchange, knocking him sideways but not down like the first time. Black Hole turned again, making a snarling sound before he was blasted by some sort of green ray and sent flying sideways, rolling along the pavement before smashing into a car. Another teen jogged over with Ladybug behind him, dropping his hands to his knees as he wheezed, “I have ran… way too much for this to be considered a vacation.”

“M’Lady-, what is going on?” Chat asked.

“This is Tucker, and his friend Sam, and they know how to help,” Ladybug quickly explained, glancing back at Black Hole. “We need to draw his attention and get that thermos off of him, then Sam and Tucker can use this,” she held up the thermos from her lucky charm, “and we can get his akuma.”

“Akuma is in the thermos, knock it off,” Chat summarized. He heard his miraculous beeping, a sign he was close to his limit.

“Let’s end this fast.”

—————————————————————

Ladybug held the booo-merang in one hand as the two teens and Chat drew Black Hole’s attention, the teens equipped with weapons that seemed to get past some of Black Holes abilities.

She narrowed her gaze, waiting for the perfect moment, then threw the weapon, watching it arch in the air then knock the thermos off of the villain's waist. The thermos clattered to the ground and drew his attention, he quickly twisted and dove to try and retrieve it, which was when a bright beam erupted from the polka dot thermos Ladybug had given the teens. The beam caught the villain's legs and he was tugged back, his form pulling towards it like taffy as he twisted and a horrid scream of anger burst from him. He tried to escape it, flailing and reaching for anything to hang on to, but in a matter of seconds he was pulled into the canister and Sam slammed the lid shut. The screaming stopped and Ladybug made her way over to Black Hole’s thermos, stomping on it and crushing it, releasing the Akuma hidden inside. With a flick of her wrist her lucky charm turned back into its original form, dumping Black Hole onto the street, then the butterfly was caught and purified, and another click of her miraculous, she let the little bug flutter away harmlessly. With a shout, ‘Miraculous Ladybug!’, everything around them was engulfed in black and red as the damages were undone around them.

At last, the villain's form was released of Hawkmoth's influence and it left a lanky teen laying on the street. He slowly sat up with a groan and a hand to his head and she then realized it was the same teen as from the shop. So once again, this was Chloe’s fault. She turned her attention to the two teens that helped her, noticing Chat let out a hasty farewell and thanks and disappeared around a corner. “Thank you, both of you. Without your help… well, without your help we may have lost that battle. But how in the world did you do that?”

“What the fuck just happened?” The teen groaned, “I feel like the booo-merang smacked me in the head like… fifty times.”

“That’s because I may have smacked you a few times with the fenton creep stick,” Sam shrugged as she helped her friend up who gave her wide eyes in return.

“You fucking what?”

Tucker took a step forward to answer Ladybug’s question, “let's just say back in our town, we have very specific supervillains that have abilities that make it hard for regular attacks to land. So we have specialized gear. Sam and I did a bit of research before heading here and figured if any of us got Akumatized, we may reflect some of those traits.”

“I… see…” Ladybug hummed, “and where did you say you were all from?” The three cast a few glances between each other, but before any of them could answer, her miraculous beeped angrily as she quickly realized she was out of time. “Thank you again for your help, if we could meet again to exchange some of that tech to make sure this never happens again-,” she quickly tried to set up a meet up before Sam held up a hand.

“This won’t happen again. A lot of what happened here is very unique to Amity, so once we finish our vacation, you won’t see this kind of thing ever again.”

Ladybug only had more questions but the angry beeping only forced her to nod and bid a quick farewell before getting out of sight to let Tiki take a rest. Marienette held out a few macaroons for Tiki as her thoughts swirled in her head. The questions about the odd American trio and how they knew how to deal with a villain as unique as Black Hole.

She may be able to corner them later. They did say they had to ‘finish their vacation.’

And in the meantime, it was time to do some research on this place called ‘Amity’.

—————————————————————

Danny didn’t remember a lot of what happened while he was the villain, Black Hole. It was like a dream, he kinda remembered the feeling, vague details, but nothing specific.

What he wished he remembered was whatever he did to Vlad. He must have done something because his memories cut out right after Vlad harassed him in the bathroom and after the event, the froot loop avoided him during the entire trip. Even refused to make eye contact!

What he would give just for a few seconds of that memory! Or for someone to have recorded it!

For now though he got to reap the rewards, flashing his eyes green when Vlad would glance over and causing the man to flinch. Oh man, he was going to abuse this newfound intimidation ability till the bitter end.

[emixion]

Protect - Day 18 - Maribat March 2021

I know you guys have been wanting this one. So here’s Damian chewing out Lila (finally) @maribatmarch-2k21 ao3 link Marinette life was usually full of unexpected occurrences, she was a superhero for crying out loud, yet nothing could have prepared her for the absolute whiplash her boyfriend caused her today.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when Damian announced that he and his family were visiting Paris. He had convinced his father to move up a business meeting he had in a few months so he could see her. Marinette had been very excited and waited eagerly for his arrival.

Unfortunately, news travelled fast and it wasn’t long before her entire class knew that The Waynes would be in town for a few weeks. Lila of course took the opportunity to slip in another lie, and proclaimed that not only did she know the Waynes personally, but that she was also dating their youngest son.

Marinette had been furious.

While she’d tried taking the high road these past few months like Adrien asked, dragging her boyfriend into the fray was crossing a line. She would not stand for it.

“That’s not true.” She bit out. “You’re lying.”

Aaaand cue the crocodile tears.

Lila immediately put on her faux waterworks, blubbering out the usual spiel about Marinette being a bully and targeting her and blah, blah, blah.

When scolded, Marinette told the class that she knew Lila was lying because she was the one dating the youngest Wayne, not her.

“What’s his name if you’re supposedly dating?” Marinette prodded, taking satisfaction in the way Lila’s eyes widened ever so slightly.

“Oh, come on, Marinette.” Kim butted in. “Everyone knows it’s Damian.”

Marinette could’ve strangled him right there.

The class immediately turned on her, deciding that she was the liar and was just jealous of Lila’s connections. Marinette nearly banged her head on the desk out of pure frustration.

-

After class had ended and Marinette sulked home, she video called her boyfriend and told him everything, watching his face darken as she described the way the class immediately dismissed her.

“Your class is full of imbeciles.” He huffed.

Marinette giggled. “They’re…easily persuaded.”

“They’re moronic is what they are.”

“Damian!” She exclaimed, scandalized.

“I mean it, Angel. They’ve been doing this for ages now, when will they wake up and realize that they’ve succumbed to the mercy of a complete liar?”

Marinette sighed. “I wish I knew, Dove. Nothing I do seems to work.”

Damian’s face twisted with thought. “Marinette. Are you still opposed to exposing the Rossi girl?” He asked, voice serious.

“I mean…” She trailed off. “I was, but…”

“But?”

“She dragged you into it, Damian. I can’t just sit by and watch her lie about you. You don’t deserve that.” She said softly..

“You don’t deserve it either.” Damian added.

“I know, I know.” Marinette looked down at her shoes. Damian’s thinking face reappeared.

“I’m gonna pull a few strings.” He stated. “And we’re going to fix everything.”

“What?” Marinette asked, confused.

“I’ve got to go, Angel. There are things I need to arrange. Just trust me, alright?”

“Oh, um, alright?” Marinette answered warily. The couple said goodbye and Marinette was left sitting at her computer completely stumped.

-

Two days later, Marinette sat in class, discretely checking her phone every once in a while. She hadn’t heard from Damian since their call the other day and she was starting to worry. It wasn’t like him to not answer her.

She was pulled from her thoughts when one of her classmates shouted something and pointed at the window. Marinette blinked herself into focus and followed her peers to look out the window.

Her jaw nearly hit the floor when she saw her boyfriend step out of a stretch limo in front of the school.  He dusted himself off as he exited the limo, his green eyes hard.

The other students were awestruck, chatting excitedly.

“Look at the limo!”

“Oh my god, it’s the Waynes!”

“Aren’t they not due in Paris until next week?”

“They must’ve come early so Damian could surprise Lila!”

Marinette’s daze started to clear as she realized what her boyfriend had been doing for the past thirty-six hours. Clever little sneak.

Once the lunch bell rang, every kid in Bustier’s class booked it out front, eager to see Lila reunite with her ‘“boyfriend.”

Damian stood waiting on the front step and oh my god was he holding flowers?!

Her classmates were trying to push a suddenly very shy Lila forward to see Damian, thoroughly convinced he was here for her.

They were not expecting him to march right past Lila and up to Marinette, kissing her sweetly as soon as he reached her.

Marinette let out a small ‘mmph!’ as his lips met hers, but quickly relaxed into the kiss as Damian pulled her against him. Once he pulled away, Damian smiled softly at her.

“Hello, Angel.” he whispered, handing her the flowers. “I missed you.”

Marinette’s cheeks burned. She couldn’t believe he’d just done that in front of her whole class. “I-I missed you too.” She smiled shyly and lifted the flowers to her face to sniff them.  “Thank you for the flowers.”

“Anything for my angel.” He said fondly, brushing the girl’s bangs out of her eyes. The moment was interrupted by her peers’ outrage, some of them demanding to know what was going on, some grilling Lila, some coming to her aid.

“Hey!” Damian yelled, and everyone went dead silent. “Which one of you is Lila Rossi?” He asked.

It was comical, the way the crowd parted away from her.

Damian stomped over to the petrified looking girl, putting on his best Al Ghul glare.

“Listen to me,” He began, his voice dripping with venom. “If you ever try to use my family’s name for your own gain again, I will sue you for everything you have. And if you ever hurt Marinette again, I will make you regret the day you were born. Understood?”

The liar just nodded meekly, her face drained of all color. Damian glared at her for another moment before returning to his angel’s side, wrapping a protective arm around her waist.

“That goes for every single one of you in her class.” He continued. “Marinette tried to warn you about her lies this entire time and this is how you repay her? You are all pathetic.” He spat, taking pleasure in the way their faces dropped in shame.

Turning to look at Marinette, his face instantly softened. “Would you like to go to lunch, Angel? My siblings are desperate to see you.”

Marinette beamed. “I would be delighted.”

As they walked away, Damian suddenly stopped and turned to face the stunned class.

“Oh, yeah, not only was Rossi lying this entire time, but Agreste over there knew it and didn’t say anything. Go wild.” He said and then led his angel into the limo as the shouting at Lila and Adrien began.

Marinette laid her head on his shoulder as they drove away, leaving the burning class behind to face their own mistakes.

[fanficmaniatic]

The "Anti-Chat" Theory.

(Which is also why Chat Blanc 2.0 wont work and why Ladybug needs to be akumatized).

This is a turducken on my thoughts for S4 and the future of the show so just roll with it.

So, Season 4 has been wild so far, and if clues given by the writers and people involved in show are any indication, this is only the beginning, we are in for a bumpy ride and things are just going to keep getting worse.

In all the discourse revolving season 4 something that we are all mentioning is how “Chat Blanc” is still a thing and there is no guarantee it won’t happen again. If anything it now seems more likely Chat Noir will get akumatized considering the imminent Ladynoir fallout, and how Adrien is still living with his Father, as his isolation keeps getting worse. And though I am always In for some good Character angst, and I feel like it is necessary for Adrien to know about Chat Blanc, and/or for Chat Blanc to reappear, I don’t think Chat Blanc 2.0 is something Adrien nor the show needs right know.

This theory has many parts, I promise it all ties neatly at the end.

First things first, I may be a little biased, Chat Blanc is an episode I really enjoy. I love Time Travel shenanigans, and I was dying to see Adrien finally find out about his father. The heavy consequences of the episode were obviously erased, but the impact of it all still remains trough Marinette, whom we see in the episode ‘Sentibbubler’ is having nightmares about the whole thing. But still, I love the episode, and I really don’t want an “Stormy Weather 2”… which is an episode I heavily dislike, compared to THE BEST formulaic episode of the Whole show, a.k.a “Stormy Weather” a.k.a My favorite episode. So yeah, this whole first point is just me REALLY not wanting an episode called “Chat Blanc 2.0” But there is more to it, and is the fact that I don’t see how it could work out.

“Chat Blanc 2.0” is unnecessary, and the reason why is that bringing him back wouldn’t actually do anything besides perhaps bringing Ladynoir further apart. Ladybug still CAN’T know Chat noir’s identity, (Let’s be honest and admit that’s prolly s4 finale OR happening during s5) so the show would go out of its way to make his dialogue as plain as possible without mentioning his father being hawkmoth. And yes, I do realize that Chat has been bottling his emotions and it all is likely to come out during THE ladynoir fall out… But people are ignoring the elephant in the room which is that Chat Noir DOES NOT fight Ladybug.

I promise this is relevant.

Chat Noir, unless mind controlled, would never attack Ladybug. The most clear example of this is in “Gamer 2.0” when he straight up says “I could never bring myself to fight you” as he sacrifices himself for her, that added to their classic “Is us against the world, My Lady” every season finale, and Marinette’s “In case something happens to me” In ‘Optygami’, it all could pretty well be a foreshadowing of a Ladynoir fight, where Ladybug is akumatized, and Chat has to willingly fight her. Yes, one could argue that he did fight her during ‘Chat Blanc’, but it could also be read as more of him trying to make her listen.

Where am I going with this? Chat Blanc 2.0 would be unable to bring the nuance the story needs right now. Chat Blanc still wouldn’t fight his father, because I doubt they won’t leave that for season 5. Chat Blanc still doesn’t have a motive to actually fight Ladybug. But the most important part is… What would happen at the end? What would be the change? What conversation are we having? What would be different than what we got in the original Chat Blanc?

To be fair, maybe I am wrong, maybe it can work out, this is just a theory. Maybe all the things I crossed out as impossible will actually happen, but I have been watching the show for 6 years, and If I have learned something about it, is that it is a slow burn, in ALL the aspects.

So yes, I believe Ladybug/Marinette needs to be akumatized, but I also think that Adrien has to learn about Chat Blanc, and that Chat Blanc needs to reappear, having a bigger Role than just a nightmare. So… how does that tie with everything I just said? Easy, the “Anti- Chat” Theory’

So you probably remember “Anti-Bug”, one of the best episodes from season 1, where Chole tries to help Ladybug, she doesn’t listen, and Chloe ends up being akumatized into “Ladybug but evil” … In theory, that is the deal, and is no wonder I am picking Felix Graham De Vanily to fill this role.

From an animation perspective, Felix is the obvious choice, he is identical to Adrien, and if following Anti-bug’s logic in costume desing, that would mean they can reuse Chat Blanc model with no alteration needed.

Now, How would this work? By giving Ladybug a jump scare. She thinks she has to live one of her worst nightmares again, to then find out “Oh… This is not Chat Noir” while still creating enough tension, by looking scared and distraught, that she HAS to tell him that she is scared of him being akumatized WITHOUT actually needing to mention the alternative timeline. This gives Chat noir the chance to lash out, once he realizes this is part of why ladybug is keeping him away, which can lead to Ladybug’s future akumatization.

Why this way? And please hear me out. Chat Noir NEEDS to let his emotions out, and I don’t think lashing out at ladybug is the best way but I see it as necessary. Adrien needs to take on more responsibility while being Chat, but he also needs to learn how to healthy express his emotions, because he is not allowed to do that in his current situation. Ladybug being akumatized because she feels guilty about Chat Noir allows Adrien to do BOTH. Because to save Ladybug he would have to realize “My emotions are valid, and is okey to let them out, but the way I did it was not the right one”, and both Ladybug and Chat Noir would have to apologize because this whole thing is not miscommunication… is a misunderstanding of their partners character. Ladybug needs to relay more on Chat and Chat needs to take on more responsibility… it won’t happen if Ladybug is the one that needs to save Chat Noir.

Adrien needs to realize that he needs to save himself, and that there’s people outside of his father that care for him. Ladybug is this figure that he looks up to and Admires, and is from a side of his life that his father has no control over, (At least from his perspective). So if she forgives him, if they are able to fix their relationship he will realize that things can get better.

Now, going back to Anti-Chat… his deal is way bigger than just bringing The Ladynoir fight… Is about setting up seasons 6 and 7.

What do we know so far? The Love Square and Gabriel’s Hawkmoth is going to come to an end by season 5. Which has left many fans wondering “Then what is happening on seasons 6 and 7?” And the best answer we have so far is in the episode “Timetagger” where Bunnix reveals that there is a whole team of miraculous holders fighting the Hawkmoth of the future, which is by the same episode confirmed to not be Gabriel Agreste. Besides this, I think it is safe to assume that the specials are quietly setting up themes that could come back In seasons 6 and 7.

Now, when speaking about characters that could be future villains the fandom seems to have its collective mind set on two individuals: Lila Rossi, and Felix Graham De Vanily.

Besides ‘Rocketear’, (E17), ‘Wishmaker’ (E18), and the special ’Shadow Moth’s last attack’ (Eps 25&26) we don’t know the names of the episodes of the second half of the season, which is really uncommon for miraculous ladybug, and the reason they gave us as to why is “You would know who is akumatized based on the names”… Which AGAIN, is really uncommon for ML. If you have been in this fandom for a long time you’ll realize that most people working in the show don’t really seem to care about spoilers. Now, this is kinda a conspiracy theory, but If you saw that there was an episode called “Anti-Chat” would you have assume it was any one other than Felix?…. No, right? That’s what I though. Miraculous has proven that it is good at subverting expectations, so when they are pointing at something (like a Chat Blanc 2.0 episode) it may not be as we want or suspected it to be. So I think an Anti-Chat episode makes a lot of sense.

Now, Why am I saying that this can set up future season? Buckle up, pals, here we go. What do we know about Felix?

He is evil, or at the very least seems to be ill-intentioned, if his attitude and look at the end of his episode is anything to go by.

He is after jewelry. Which, yeah, was only shown in that one episode he appeared, but this could pretty much be a foreshadowing of him later on going after the miraculous.

We know that he is bound to appear 3 more times

For this theory to work, I need it to happen in episode 22… Yes, the feared 100th episode of the show. It is not as important why Felix is akumatized, but what is happening WHILE he is akumatized.

Besides what has already been discussed, with Ladybug being scared, Ladynoir should not be able to work together. They are tumbling on each other because Chat Noir feels like she doesn’t trust him, but Ladybug NEEDS his reassurance right now, which he wont give.

This, is directly parallel with what is happening between Anti-Chat and Shadow Moth. Because Felix, even though he wants the miraculous, he won’t let himself be bossed around. He is demanding things from SM, and like in Robustus, Anti-Chat tries to, not just take Ladybug’s and Chat noir’s Miraculous, he wants to destroy Hawkmoth too. Which will lead to Shadow Moth being the reason he gets de-akumatized, instead Ladybug and Chat Noir saving him... bringing more fuel to the Ladynoir fire.

Now, Why should Felix have an attitude with Shadow Moth? Well, my friends… Do you remember, years ago, when the producers of the show said “The peacock miraculous holder will make Hawkmoth look like a baby”…. That’s not Mayura. Nathalie is a great miraculous holder, and she is really clever. But instead of making Gabriel look like a baby, she makes him look smart because he has someone like her on his team. What I am saying with this is that Felix, will suspect/ figure out Gabriel is Hawkmoth at the en of Anti-Chat, and that he will get the peacock miraculous during “The Last attack of Shadow Moth.” Thus, setting up a villain for future seasons.

This makes Felix 3 appearances be: In episode 22 (Anti-Chat), In episode 26 (SM last attack, part 2), and during S5’s finale. Felix situation will be much like Lila’s during s1 and s2 where she was introduced at the end of the first but not used until the end of the second.

Conclusion:

Felix Graham de Vanily has the potential to be a future villain and bring the Ladynoir conflict to finally surface.

And to clarify, The Ladynoir conflict, just like this Felix theory, is not something that will, nor can get resolved in one episode. If anything the fight will be around the end of season 4, and it will get resolved during season 5.

But again, this is just a theory, and I will probably be death wrong, but who knows?

[imthepunchlord]

Beewitched Ch 4 (Final)

Three

The crisp Parisian night air was preferred over the brightness of Paris' sunny day. Still lingering in Paris before going back London, Felix took the chance to wander on the roof of a building, see and compare Paris' cityscape to London's.

 It was the first time in about two months that he's been on a roof. Since the last time he had seen that fairy. Standing here, he wandered about her, if she was able to defy that prince and handle the witch. He supposes he'll never know. As she had said, that was her last appearance. He had kept an eye on the news, to see if she ever reappeared elsewhere, but she never did. 

 She had been the only thing of magic he got to discover. He had kept his eyes open for any other oddities, but nothing. Paris was the only other city to have magical activity with the curious Ladybug and Chat Noir. 

 "Most civilians don't come to hang out on roofs."

 Felix had a start, having a strong sense of deja vu. He quickly turned, wondering if she found him again, that he'd see those blue eyes once more. 

 Blue eyes did peer down at him, but they were set against red than the black and yellow. He tensed a little. He hadn't expected Ladybug to be a good sneak. And he could still feel a ghost pain at the punch she had delivered that afternoon. 

 Ladybug eyed him carefully, able to tell that he was Adrien’s doppelganger. She hadn't made a move yet, and neither has he. Cautiously, he asked, "Are you going to take me down? To the streets?" 

 She considered him for a moment before she answered. "If you're ready to go back down." 

 "No."

 She shrugged and plopped down on the chimney, releasing a heavy breath, like she was releasing all the exhaustion she felt. It was… very familiar. Felix sat down as well, facing the cityscape. While his body sat still, his mind was moving quickly. What were the chances? 

 Coming here, he got to learn of miraculouses. And that there was multiple, and among them was a bee. The probability to him was high that Ladybug came to London for a break. That she was the fairy that saved a garden from getting demolished.

 And he had tried to use her. 

 He turned to her, drawing her eyes back down to him. "I'm sorry," he murmured, "for trying to use you to tarnish my cousin's name." 

 She blinked at him, a spark going off in her bright eyes. She dropped down, crouching to his level. He caught the familiar smell as before, though the floral smell had lightened. With a tilt of her head, she asked, "You're Adrien’s cousin?"

 The soft tone of her question was familiar. He thought back to the video he intercepted from Adrien, of the last video of it, of the soft spoken girl confessing her love, her blue eyes warm with love. Out of all videos, that one had filled him with the strongest sense of longing. And looking at Ladybug now, he could see the girl before him; everything strikingly similar. What were even the chances that the girl that had confessed was before him right now?

 And that Adrien was the "prince" she referred to. To think he was allowing a "witch" to exhaust her filled him with a flare of aggravation. 

 A confused curiosity replaced it. Why did he care? Why was he even bothered? 

 He thought back to that second encounter, when she had the bee instead. How tired she looked, and how heavy her thoughts were that she’d share her woes with a random stronger on a roof. 

 He released a breath, opting to not answer her as he turned to face the cityscape. He could see her pout out of the corner of his eye, but she didn’t push. She sat down beside him, joining him in staring out at Paris. 

 “Was your vacation to London enough?” he wondered, watching the surprise flicker across her face before she relaxed. 

 Chuckling, she said, “No. But, a break was a break, at least.”

 “And the witch?” 

 “Still around,” she whispered. 

  He liked to ask how one of the brightest minds of Paris was being foiled by this “witch”, but Felix held his tongue. He didn’t know the situation, nor was he exactly in a place to comfortably put a girl with powers on the spot. 

 “Are you going back to London soon?” she asked. 

 “Excited to have me leave your city?” 

 “No,” she admitted, her tone passive and even. “I’m more curious and concerned about what went on this afternoon.” She spared him an inquisitive glance. “But I won’t ask if you don’t want to talk about it.” 

 A relaxing quiet settled between them, enjoying the glow of the city, the sounds of it becoming white noise to them. Felix spared Ladybug a glance, seeing her eyes were closed, soaking in what he suspects to be a rare moment of peace. He settled into it, enjoying the moment with her. But after a full minute passed, he spoke up, breaking the silence. 

 “Adrien has long since… irked me.” 

 He felt Ladybug’s eyes on him. Keeping his gaze on the lights before him, he continued, “His naivete. His spinelessness. His inability to grasp the reality of things.” Out of the corner of his eye, could see her move to protest, only for her to stop and sag. He wondered how his cousin disappointed her but didn’t ask. 

 “He’s made it difficult. Do you have any idea how many have approached me in the name of friendship, all to see him. Always him.” Felix cut himself off then. He said enough. There was no more to share. He might’ve already said more than he would have preferred. 

 He frowned, wondering how it was easy to roll things out to her. Was it the miraculous she wore? But she had done the same with him. Or perhaps that was just the sort of person she was, willing to share her woes with any who would listen. And he felt compelled to return the whim. 

 When he got no immediate response from her, he glanced her way, seeing her looking pensive beside him. With pity in her eyes. With more bite than he meant, he said, “I don’t need you pity, Ladybug.” 

 She winced, though her features smoothed out soon. She turned and offered him a smile. “How about friendship, then?”

 He raised a brow at her. “Really? After I tried to steal a kiss from you?”

 “Chat invades my personal space all the time, whether I want it or not,” she rolled out, sounding tired of the norm. Felix though raised a high brow. He wondered why Chat hasn’t gotten punched yet. “But, aside from trying to ruin your cousin’s reputation, you don’t seem like the sort to do that regularly.” 

 “Physical affection is reserved for those I genuinely like,” he told her. He was irked enough to be physical this afternoon, and he told her so. 

 “I suppose then I can give you a chance,” Ladybug said. She stood up, and for a second, Felix felt like it was just like that night she found him. As Ladybug, she hadn’t that same flare or mystery as she had when she had the bee. But there was still something… ethereal about her. The glow of the light in her eyes. The calm and warm feeling she gave, by being near her. Maybe it was all her miraculous, maybe that’s why he felt safe near her. Like it was all ok. 

 When she held out a glove to him, just like before, he easily slid his hand into hers. She pulled him to his feel, turning her gaze up to him. He peered back, feeling a little uncertain as he murmured, “I would like that.”

 She beamed and Felix has to turn away, feeling a slight heat as his cheeks. She voiced, “Now, is there anywhere I can take you? Or are you staying in Paris for a while?” 

 He pointed. “I’m at that hotel. Mum and I are taking the train this coming morning.” 

 “If you’re ok with it, I’ll get you there in a few seconds.” 

 He nodded. Yes, he could deal with a few seconds of touch. Like before, her arm came around him, and Felix could note how natural it felt, relieving the familiarity of before, as she threw her yo-yo forth. They dropped from the roof, rushing through the air as Ladybug expertly got him to the hotel they were currently. They dropped with ease, and Ladybug left with a promise that she’ll there if he needs her. 

 Watching her go, Felix slid his hands into his pockets, having a start when he felt paper there. He knows that wasn’t there before. When had she… 

 He brought it out, reading over the lovely writing before him. 

 ‘I can’t promise to always be available. But I will always talk to you as soon as I’m able.’

 ‘— LB’

 Underneath the writing was a number. Her number. He thought back to the girl he saw in the videos, her similarity with Ladybug. Was this her number, assuming they were one and the same?

 Either way, he felt delighted and warm, and with great care, he folded the treasure in his hands, conscious of the consequences of being careless with it. Pocketing it, he headed inside, wondering what his future will hold with this friendship. He smiled slightly, realizing he was now leaving Paris with two treasures. 

 One taken from his good for nothing uncle. 

 And one freely given by a greatly adored hero. 

 In his room, he swiftly added the number to his phone, the first that a friend’s number, dubbing her Lady B. He took care to rip up the letter she left, securing that no one would be able to recognize the numbers on it. Those were gifted to him and him alone. 

 His gift from the fairy. 

[unecoccinellenoire]

26. how dare you. Hawkmoth and Ladybug please?

"How dare you tell me what's right for my family," Hawk Moth spits at the impertinent chit in front of him.

He doubts she knows anything of love, of` loyalty, of legacy.

She can't. Just a child playing in adult affairs she doesn't understand. He hopes she annoys the newly-reappeared Guardians with her presumption at least as half as much as she annoys him. Emilie would be amused by that.

"How dare I?" Ladybug laughs from her perch on Emilie's coffin secure in the knowledge he'd never risk attacking, but the echoes of her laughter are a harsh and cruel thing, and her eyes are cold.

His nemesis stares down at him, "you dare ask me that when I've seen what you've done to your son? How he innocently grieves his mother but still hopes because you're told him nothing. How you isolate him so he doesn't know just how abnormal you are. How you fill his days with activities that drive him to exhaustion and I don't even know if that's to keep him too busy to notice you disappearing or because you just view him as an asset. You don't know a thing about family."

Ah. So that's her gripe. He can work with that.

"You see," he starts.

"I'm not done." Ladybug interrupts, "because you're a selfish excuse for a father but you're the only parent Adrien has left." Some of her forthrightness leaves her, "I can't save his mother. But I can give you a chance. That's why it's just me here. I haven't told Chat Noir. He wouldn't understand. But I do understand why you're doing this and if you just give me your Miraculous then I'll forget everything. Leave this path of destruction and be there for your son. Please."

He pushes the picture she conjures of Adrien's heartbroken face, with those eyes so similar to his mothers, aside.

Adrien won't be horrified to discover his father is Hawk Moth if Gabriel wins and gives his son the world their family deserves.

"Give you my Miraculous?" He scoffs, "I'd rather take yours."

Ladybug shuts her eyes, "I tried. I'll tell Adrien that."

"You can't stay there forever."

He can outlast her. He's got good at waiting in this long slog to bring back Emilie.

"Who says I'm here?" Ladybug opens her eyes, "you'll find a message on your phone when you detransform. If you change your mind text that number."

Then she fades out of existence.

-------

"Hey," Rena Rouge reassures her friend, "You gave him more of a chance than he deserves. Adrien will understand."

Ladybug just swallows back a sob.

[eostre94]

My Fair-y Lady Ch. 04: A Race Against Time (Part 02)

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Based on & Inspired by the: Lady Fairy AU by @beebeebombam​

CHAPTER 04: A Race Against Time (Part 02)

Opening Remarks:

This is the second part of Chapter 04 of My Fair-y Lady. Here’s more of where the episode rewrite’s action happens, the typical Superheroes VS Asura fighting you’ve come to expect from the series. I hope you all enjoy!

Stick around at the Endnotes if you want to read the notes and ramblings. I hope you all enjoy my story, and if you want, leave a comment since I would like to reply to them when I can, and I hope I can continue writing more on this!

AO3 Link          ( ~     Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ     ~ )          FF Link

——————————

‘I-I have to save her before she does anything more!’

Was all Adrien could think before he immediately stated his command to transform into his superhero persona. He was lucky that everyone around the area was more focused peering at the girl who just whacked the creature so hard it stagged away in absolute pain.

“Plagg, Claws Out!”

Using his heightened senses and physical attributes, Chat Noir made quick work using his body to tackle the Asura mid-rush towards the blind girl before he used his trusty staff to give himself an extra swing kick to further send the creature flying. Standing in front of Marinette, he glanced behind to see she was safe. The blind girl, somehow knowing she was saved, showed a relieved smile on her face; her infectious smile was starting to make Chat Noir blush before he saw the Asura getting back on its feet and now notice Paris’ hero in black. Snarling at the Cat themed Chat Noir, the Asura peered to its surroundings and found what it desired to regain its strength: fresh prey.

All in the form of various classmates.

All of whom coincidentally hid in small groups but in the same hidden area of the building. Not one to play games no longer, the Asura pounced and vanished only to reappear at the frightened hiding teenagers as it began feeding off their life essences and making each into grey-blue inanimate bodies. Picking them off one or two at a time, the fire on top of the now broken lamp on its head started becoming bigger and brighter as the humanoid cheetah feasted upon the essences of every classmate of the currently missing Adrien Agreste present in the area.

All except one other classmate.

As the Asura finished the last of those teenagers, the Asura looked around for the hero and the foolhardy cane-wielding girl only to find them no longer in the outskirts of the building nor the adjacent fountain areas. With the Peacock sigil glowing in front of its predator-like chest eyes, the Asura known by its master as Flauros and the master in question known throughout Paris as Le Paon were once again the fools of this ordeal as they allowed Chat Noir to escape their grasp. That and the girl who had severely hurt the Asura in more ways than just breaking a part of its manifested body. All of this caused the Asura to snarl out in intense anger, with Le Paon continuing to mend the Asura and his pride over their own follies for overlooking Chat Noir and the blind girl, and the latter’s audacity.

“Find them, Flauros! I will not allow us to run out of this chance of victory merely because of a setback like this! Time is of the essence and the essence of time is something you must continue to have if we wish to win! Do not disappoint me, my Asura!”

——————————

The hero in black with the blind girl on his back made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Thankfully, the area at the top seemed to have been closed off and vacated due to the Asura attack; thus, it saved the spectacle of a certain hero saving only one specific civilian from the Asura’s feeding frenzy at the Palais de Chaillot. Gently letting her down, he was expecting a compliment from the blind girl.

What Chat Noir got were mixed signals.

“C-Chat Noir! T-thank you so much for saving me from that attack . . . b-but you should have stayed to fight! I-I just know the others were getting fed upon, I just know it!”

Marinette couldn’t settle on what emotion she wants to fully convey to her savior because all the things she was experiencing were overlapping. She was thankful as the citizen for being saved by the hero; she’s even more thankful that she as the civilian Marinette was saved by the hero she finds herself fancying. But at the same time, she was cross with Chat Noir for his decision to carry her to safety when she thought she could continue helping even as just her civilian self. Factoring in the fact she also wished she and Chat Noir didn’t leave the others at the mercy of the Asura but also saw this as a prime hiding place when he leaves to finally be her superhero self, one can tell Marinette Dupain-Cheng was overthinking a lot of things.

It didn’t help with how she felt the person she was with seemed to be awfully quiet right now.

“. . . Chat Noir? Is-is everything alr—”

“Why did you do that?”

The way he said it so hushed without his usually enthusiastic, and dare she say it for herself, flirty personality when he talks to her caused Marinette grave concern.

“I-I am sorry, what?” With that, Marinette could clearly sense him looking at her gravely, but not out of anger, more so out of grave concern. His voice even presented it better as he spoke.

“W-why would you put yourself in harm’s way like that, Ma—Princess?! I-I mean not even questioning how you managed to just know where you were running to intercept the monster, you managed to smack it with your walking stick so well you cracked its lamp thingy . . . and you looked like you were ready for another round before I came in! What!?”

Silence was all that could escape his Princess’ mouth as she was processing what the hero just said. Realizing how tense the situation was becoming, Chat Noir took a deep breath and went closer to the blind girl he, both as Adrien and Chat, was crushing on and took her hand; he was too wrapped up with the tenseness to ever notice the pink blush apparent on the girl for his action.

“J-just please don’t do that ever again. . . you’re a civilian a-and I am one of Paris’ heroes.”

“I-I was just trying to help . . . I-I guess I got caught up in the moment of helping my friends that . . . I went for it blindly.” Not even Marinette getting a joke out was enough to dissuade the mood she made for her and Chat Noir to be in, but she felt he still acknowledged her words, nonetheless.

“I-I know . . . that’s what I really like about you, Princess. You’re always so helpful and considerate of other people and when they need help . . . but just please, don’t put yourself in intentional danger like that . . . I don’t think my own Cat heart can handle that.” Silence fell for both occupants of the top floor of the Eiffel Tower as the last words from the superhero finally got through to Marinette. In her impulsiveness of wanting to help, she made herself, not as her superhero form, a citizen with a dangerous drive to help if it meant endangering herself that even she herself would have thought was needlessly reckless on someone else.

“I-I am sorry, Chat Noir . . . I guess I did let myself get way too much back there.”

Squeezing his hand with her own for reassurance, the blind girl gave Paris’ superhero an apologetic smile which did help assuage the tension. It was soon replaced with a new yet familiar feeling whenever Adrien or Chat Noir are graced by Marinette’s serene smile. The tingly and bubbly sensations helped, and he felt that as much as he wants this moment to last, he was still needed elsewhere.

“I really wish I could continue to talk, Princess, but Paris needs me. Will you please stay here safe and away from the action, so you don’t involve yourself in any?” Letting go of her hand, Chat Noir was about to go before he felt a yank from his belt-like tail. Marinette had more to say before he got the last word as she had his whole attention towards her again.

“Chat Noir . . . please try to avoid looking directly at its eyes.”

“Wait wha—”

“I-I know this sounds crazy— and it just might be actually crazy— but I-I felt like the Asura tried to do something to me when I felt its gaze after I struck it. I-I don’t know how, but I knew the short time from when it probably staggered away to when it rushed towards me seemed too long. C-call it a hunch and I am sure you have a better basis seeing it in action . . . but I feel like it does something with its eyes when someone looks at it at the wrong time. I-I don’t know if that might help, and I know you’re the amazing hero that you are, but . . . please stay safe as well, Chat Noir.” Hearing the potentially useful tidbit was something Chat Noir safely placed into his mind, but it was the compliment at the end that sealed the deal.

“I’ll take note of that. Thank you, Princess. Please stay here. Paris needs their heroes, and I’m one of them.” With that the Cat Miraculous wielder leaped off the ledge to find and fight the Asura once again, leaving his Princess alone in her tower.

And that’s the perfect opportunity for said Princess to have.

“Nooroo, it’s safe to come out now! Chat’s gone and we’re alone.” Running to where she felt in her gut was a more well-hidden corner not far from where Chat Noir dropped her, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was ready to take on her duty as the Butterfly Miraculous wielder known to many as Lady Fairy.

But it seems a certain Kwami wasn’t as ready.

“Nooroo? What’s the ma—”

“I agree with what Chat said, Marinette! What you did back there was so thoughtless and treacherous I would have almost jumped out and forced a transformation with you if you hadn’t surprised even me with that strike! What were you thinking back there!?” Never had she ever heard her Kwami be so angry, and the fact it’s towards her made Marinette realize she’s been pissing off people one right after the other. She knew she had to make amends with the way she acted.

“. . . I am sorry, Nooroo . . . I-I was so caught up with trying to help that I just placed myself in grave danger . . . b-but I don’t fully regret wanting to help because I feel like I have the means to do so, even without the Miraculous. B-but I am sorry, to you and Chat Noir for making you guys worried.” Stopping herself from tearing up, she heard a slight sigh from Nooroo as she felt him nuzzle at her cheek in comfort.

“Oh, Marinette . . . Chat Noir and I are just worried that you were putting yourself, as yourself, in situations like that. I know you want to help, but please don’t do it so directly in the line of fire that you could get hurt . . . or worse.” Nooroo gently patted away some tears lining her eyes threatening to fall from his Chosen’s face as she nodded to his words.

“I-I will try to be . . . I-I can’t promise I will fully stop b-but I will try to not intentionally get myself in the little crossfire. I should be more careful since I bear one of the Miraculous Le Paon is actively trying to claim.”

“. . . It’s not just that, my dear Marinette. You as my Chosen being safe and away from direct dangers that could harm you is just as much of my priority as the safety of my Miraculous. I love you Marinette, and I would be at a loss if something happened to you.” Wiping away his own tears over their shared moment, both Chosen and Kwami allowed themselves to emotionally settle before they felt all was good again. And they did need to still fight the currently ongoing fight with the Asura.

“. . . I guess we needed that little heart to heart. Time is of the essence, and I want to help Chat Noir but not as direct as I was. You up to it now, Nooroo?” Hearing a giggle and a reaffirming short nuzzle to her cheek, she knew her Kwami of the Butterfly was good to go. Putting on her brooch while readying her bottle charm, she called out her command.

“Nooroo, Wings Flutter!”

One transformation later, Lady Fairy opened the bottle charm as she allowed the Faes to manifest out, a soft command from her to one of them.

“Fly through the skies but please stay safe. We must find you a suitable partner.”

Fortune favors Lady Fairy and her Fae as it seemed to have found a suitable partner sooner than later. They found a strong-willed un-immobilized citizen skating through the bottom of the very tower they were in. The only one Lady Fairy could even find still not affected or victimized even.

One could even say fate allowed this to happen, as Lady Fairy could hear the person gasp seeing the Fae become absorbed by the object inside the girl’s pocket; thus, allowing Lady Fairy to finally communicate with the rollerblading girl she knew in her civilian self via the Miraculous sigil.

“Hello there . . . May I ask for your name before we begin?”

“I . . . I-I am Alix Kubdel! . . . Ho-oly shi-sheep, yo-you’re Lady Fairy, aren’t you!?” Giggling happily at how surprised she was it was Alix, and with how she stopped herself from cursing in front of the very enigmatic but ever so miraculous Paris’ Great Lady herself, Lady Fairy had a good feeling with calling upon her friend and classmate for this request.

“It seems so. Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you but I have a special request, Mlle. Alix. An Asura is on the loose and Chat Noir needs our help in defeating it.” The way Lady Fairy was serenely talking through her mind via the sigil was making Alix realize more and more what she meant by ‘our help’.

‘N-no way . . . is she asking me to—’ but her thoughts were interrupted by the very thing to confirm her mental inquiry from the superheroine herself.

“May I ask of you, Alix Kubdel, to be my Champion for this fight? Can you please help Chat Noir and me to take down the monstrous Asura?”

All the anger, sadness, guilt, or even anxiety seemed to have melted away within Alix’s heart as she felt the full weight of the magical woman’s voice calling out to her for her assistance. All that was left within Alix Kubdel was a sense of peace.

And the determination to help.

“I do, Lady Fairy. I am ready to fight for Paris!”

Bright magic immediately enveloped the girl so fast that she didn’t have time to gasp or blink in awe. All the birthday girl was experiencing was magic that was bringing out a sense of strength and wonder within her. From where Alix Kubdel used to stand was now a new Champion called upon by the ever-mysterious Butterfly wielder.

Alix in her Champion form wore a full-bodied suit that is almost like that of a fit racing suit. The portion of the suit from her chest to her lower thighs and knees going downwards was in black, whereas the area below her chest until her mid-thigh was in lime green. The suit also had various white line designs on it, mainly in-between where the green and black would meet while also giving some white line designs on the black parts of the suit, such as around the legs and to the covered arms and hands. On her chest, there is an emblem that looks to be a glowing green hourglass shape within a silvery-white circular outline. Her rollerblades are black with green lines running through them, each of them having two glowing white wheels, that on closer inspection are actually not attached to the shoe but are just hovering in place. Each of the rollerblades is also designed with a vertical speed bar on its outer sides. She is also wearing a stylized half-helmet with a tinted light green visor, her vibrant pink hair poking out at the back. The helmet also has the same white line designs and chest emblem while the back of her hands also has the same emblem but are instead inside glowing white half spheres. Before she could even be astonished by her overall look, the Champion readied herself in a rollerblading position.

She could get excited later, she needs to focus.

“Lady Fairy, Chrono-Girl is here at your service! Feel free to give me the rundown while I try to gain some speed if you don’t mind.” Already using her Champion rollerblades, Alix as Chrono-Girl was enjoying how much faster she was; she was even more amazed by how with a risky jump she managed to continue rollerblading on the side of the very Eiffel tower she was under; her wheels turning sideways and sort of causing an anti-gravity levitation to continue her rollerblading against the very laws of physics.

“Very well, Chrono-Girl. But do be mindful that we still need to help Chat Noir once you have enough speed. Your first goal is to use your powers to assist Chat Noir in defeating the Asura enough that you destroy its body, if not the very Soul of the Asura, to defeat it and Le Paon. If need be, I can also supply you with an extra power but using that will put both of us on a timer before we both de-transform. You must also ensure that the Fae giving you powers stays safe, it is currently on the half sphere on your right hand; losing the Fae automatically de-transforms you and that could be a cause of concern as Le Paon could try and take the Fae to find me. Please Chrono-Girl, I wish to remain elusive as to continue helping Chat Noir in our fight to save Paris.”

Stopping in her tracks as she fully internalized what Lady Fairy was telling her, Chrono-Girl realized that as fun as it is to be a Champion, her duty is to not only fight alongside Chat Noir to save Paris from the Asura but to also protect Lady Fairy from not being found. Determined more than ever but with the added need to be careful and responsible, Chrono-Girl spread out her right arm outward to the side as a sort of white spell circle manifested around her feet while the hourglass-like symbols on her helmet and chest started glowing. The spell circle was interesting as it showed to be an analog watch face, similar to one of Alix’s birthday presents.

“Understood, my Lady. I will be careful. Now that I think I have enough juice, I think it’s about time I help Chat Noir!” As with her command, the watch face of the spell circle started speeding up as Chrono-Girl could feel herself moving faster than ever before. Racing off to where she felt was where the action was, Chrono-Girl and Lady Fairy were ready as the Champion stated her command.

“Fast Forward!”

With time literally at her fingertips, it was time for the real fight to begin!

——————————

Finding himself back at the Trocadéro’s fountain area, Chat Noir has been having not really a fight but rather a battle of attrition. The Asura has become relentless in its attacks. The creature would try to catch the hero off guard as it would pounce then disappear, only to reappear near Chat Noir to try and fully grab him, which would lead to Chat Noir to just barely dodge or sustain a scratch or hit here or there. With the way the battle has been going on and the hero looking down from the Asura as though he was beginning to experience fatigue, the Asura did not need any command from his Peacock master to do one more sneak attack to fully takedown and pin the Cat Miraculous wielder.

The only problem was that, unlike the cheetah Asura, this Black Cat has been learning.

“Gotcha!”

With a confident swing, the Cat hero in black managed to catch the Asura as it was reappearing by managing to slug the creature away from him. Le Paon’s sigil appeared in front of the staggered Asura’s eyes as both monster and master realized that swing wasn’t a lucky hit, and what’s more was that Chat Noir wasn’t direct looking at the creature to do so. It didn’t help their egos with how Chat Noir was just casually holding his staff with his shoulders, his trademark cheeky grin plastered on his face while his eyes were looking at the creature but not at its eyes.

“I gotta say, I am starting to get the Asura’s whole shtick, bird brain. Yeah, I know you can hear me, Le Paon. It took me a while, but I am starting to realize that without the whole disappearing act, the Asura is just rushing at a straight line. It runs, disappears, then reappears as it lands its pounce . . . but I am willing to bet an unfortunate amount of cheese I currently possess that the whole vanishing bit is just torso face over there probably running so fast, it’s impossible to see.” The way the Asura was just silent but snarling at him, and the way he can almost tell Le Paon through the sigil was also just as angry, Chat Noir knew he was right in the money.

He decided to go double or nothing with his other new tidbit.

“Also, thanks to a generous tip I just got, I realized that the Asura needs to catch me looking directly at its eyes— weirdly on its boob area— when it also stares back if it wants to do that weird soul sucky thing it does and turn me into a rather dashing statue devoid of life. Alas, with the way I am not directly looking at its eyes, plus now knowing his whole disappearing act is so predictable enough for me to know where to batter up . . . well, it looks like you’re out of tricks, Le Paon. How about you just give up now— hand over the Miraculous while you’re at it— and we can all just walk away without someone getting hurt, hmm?”

“. . . Rargh!”

The creature screamed in rage as it began to relentlessly assault Chat Noir in an all-in offensive. To the Asura’s credit, the thrashing of claws and teeth did catch Chat Noir off guard for that split second before he parried, dodged, and deflected all the strikes to the best of his ability, getting nicked or clipped at certain points. Chat Noir was dancing his way through the onslaught but with how relentless the creature was, at the behest of its master based on the glowing sigil, he knew either of them would make a slip up for the other to take advantage. For Chat Noir, he was hoping the Asura would be the first to slip rather than him accidentally catching his eyes looking at the creature’s eyes during the barrage.

‘Shoot . . . it’s not letting up! I gotta keep strong!’

Sadly, the barrage ended in favor of the Asura as Chat Noir wasn’t fully able to brace the swift kick with his staff, tossing him away a few feet while he struggled to keep his footing strong. Even though both combatants were aggressively panting over that close-combative exchange, Chat Noir knew that the cheetah-like Asura would outclass the superhero in terms of endurance. All he could do now is to somehow keep up with the Asura until help arrives, even if a small part of him is starting to worry over the lack of even a hint of communication from his ever-elusive Miraculous partner.

‘. . . Crap, I gotta keep up!’

Before the stalemate of monster and hero was about to break for another exchange, something green zipped by him as he felt the rush of air. The very same speeding green object that landed a kick to the Asura’s upper torso as it was caught unawares of the new challenger.

Even more impressive was how the new combatant in green and black managed to turn the one kick she landed within the briefest of moments into a multitude as it became a flurry of kicks. The rapidity was so fast that Chat Noir swore he saw the motion blur make it look as though her leg actually contained hundreds of feet attached, all mercilessly kicking the Asura. It didn’t help the monster either as each of those kicks that landed onto its body were not the foot itself, but rather from the wheels attached to said feet of the new hero who made it to the scene.

“. . . and here’s the real kicker!”

Taking a short few steps back, the Champion’s wheels started spinning as she briefly held her position before launching towards the battle-weary and severely staggered Asura. She delivered a severe roundhouse to the Asura, which Chat Noir swore he thought he saw her somehow make that one roundhouse 2 or 3 more within the split second that it landed. The kick flung the Asura with enough force that it momentarily sailed away into the Palais de Chaillot from the two superpowered beings for the time being.

As the Champion was catching her breath over her massively impressive first impressions that took a lot out of her energy, Chat Noir picked up his jaw off the floor and rushed over to his apparent ally sent to him by his Lady Fairy. But not so much out of concern.

Rather, out of the total need to geek out.

“Oh. My. Kwami! Th-that was a Xiang Li’s Thousand Legs Technique from Iron Fist Fighters! I know that move anywhere! Aww man, that was awesome!” Surprised by Chat Noir’s enthusiasm more than his knowledge over video games, that was enough for the current Champion to break whatever feelings of needing to be professional in front of the seasoned Parisian hero as she just laughed at the giddy Cat hero.

“Y-yeah! I just knew that would be a great way to do a badass entrance. I hope Chrono-Girl could make up for her rather late entrance with that!” Extending her arm out, Chat Noir happily shook it seeing as this new ally of his not only saved his butt but also impressed the inner nerd within him.

‘Inner would imply you’re being covert with how much of a dork you blatantly are, Adrien!’ Shaking his head over the Plagg sounding thoughts, Chat Noir decided to greet the Champion back in kind, seeing as they still had a job to do. Fangirling about super cool video game fighting moves can wait for later.

“S-sorry about that! I got a bit excited seeing that badass move be actually done in real life. Please to meet you, Chrono-Girl! I am assuming with your name and how you pulled those kicks off, you have power over time? O-oh right! Hello to you too, my Lady Fairy.” Chat Noir even gave a dramatic gentlemanly bow in front of the glowing sigil in front of Chrono-Girl’s eyes to greet his Butterfly partner; said Butterfly partner blushed immensely on her end and just waved back as though he was there to see, careful not to say anything embarrassing that her Champion could relay back.

“Yeahp! Which reminds me, take my hand, Chat Noir! Also keep the sigil up, my Lady. I am going to try something!” Immediately following the Champion’s orders, Chrono-Girl spread her other arm outward as she began manifesting the timepiece spell circle beneath her. Both Cat and Butterfly heroes were utterly amazed at the spectacle, especially as they were feeling a sort of magic attached to them coming from the Champion herself.

“Temporal Resistance!”

With that, a small but bright white hourglass-shaped sigil appeared above Chat Noir’s head; without having her own sight, Lady Fairy could also imagine the same icon floating above her head as the magic latched onto them.

“There, that should give you guys means to bypass whatever time tricks me or the Asura has in store. Let’s you keep up with the fun and all.”

“W-wait, what did you mean time tricks of the Asura? I-I know from fighting the creature that aside from making sure you don’t look directly at its eyes when it’s looking at you unless you want to turn into a sculpture when it does its whole pouncing vanishing ambush, it just probably goes really, really fast. Luckily, it’s just a mad straight dash so you can easily predict and counter.” Taking in Chat Noir’s useful knowledge from his time fighting the Asura made Chrono-Girl smirk even more at the usefulness of her spell.

“Let’s just say you and Lady Fairy will actually see the behind-the-scenes of that pounce attack. Also, the whole freezing victims thing it does? I figured it out along the way. The Asura fed on their Time.” Readying herself for another spell, Chrono-Girl and Chat Noir could hear from inside the building a growl from the Asura, which meant there was going to be another round but this time it was 2 vs 1.

“The Asura fed on the victims’ Time? . . . You mean all the victims are just paused indefinitely?” Lady Fairy voiced out her realization over her Champion’s deduction which made her nod. Chat Noir also silently realized the implication.

“Correct, Lady Fairy. I saw some victims literally in the air mid-sprint or even birds frozen in mid-flight when I was on my way here. And seeing as I am a time-based Champion, I could easily tell that the victims’ Time was stolen. We have to stop that monster before people are permanently stuck on pause forever.” She looked at the bar on her rollerblades then to her ally to give her plan.

“Chat Noir, I am going to be running out of juice soon, so I’ll need to pick up speed to recharge.” Pointing with her finger, she allowed him to notice the bar on her rollerblades depleting as her charge was nearing the bottom before she continued.

“When the Asura comes to attack us with its dash, I’ll need you to catch it off guard. If what you’re saying is true about its eyes, I trust you can take care of it until I am ready to help you fully take it down!”

“W-wait what?!”

Said Asura leered far from where it was at the heroes, as Le Paon’s glowing sigil appeared in front of the monster’s eyes. No longer taking chances, it readied itself before it disappeared to ambush them.

Yet, the creature really did run out of tricks.

As soon as it began its vanishing sprint, Chat Noir could clearly see that the world around them has been temporarily altered. Even if there were only immobilized victims around them, Chat could tell time was at an almost griding stop, while himself, Chrono-Girl, Lady Fairy probably, and the Asura were not affected. In fact, Chat Noir could tell it was not affected due to the monster just running at them, no disappearing tricks or the like.

‘The Asura really was moving so fast that time around it was moving slower! . . . Take away that and the creature is just clearly running.’

Not giving the creature even a millionth of a second to fully process how the heroes seemed to move in stopped time, Chat Noir readied his staff as he swung it at the Asura. A satisfying smacking noise batted the running Asura away from them as time seemed to move back to normal. The Asura managed to stumble into a roll as it was in all fours, wincing and growling at the amount of damage it received, but also just as stunned as the superhero managed to strike it during the stopped time.

“Woah! S-so that’s what the buff did! Sweet!” Smirking at her partner, and even at her Lady’s amazement over also experiencing stopped time unaffected, Chrono-Girl realized it was time to fully end this.

“Chat Noir, take care of it while I build up speed to charge up. I trust you with an extra boost to really be a pain on the Asura and Le Paon’s ass with this!” With an outward wave of her right hand, she manifested the watch-like spell circle beneath her as it started speeding up. She gave her command as she depleted the last of her built-up charge as noted by the bar on her rollerblades.

“Fast Forward!”

A rush of power embodied Chat Noir as he noticed a new icon on the top of his head, in the symbol typically used to mean fast-forwarding. Chat Noir knew what that new skill meant, and he had a wide mischievous grin at the implications.

“Hehe . . . It’s always been my persona goal to be a thorn on Le Paon’s side, but to do so at annoying speeds at Maximum Overdrive?! A dream come true!”

With the increased speed and agility, Chat Noir gleefully rushed at the staggering target as he managed to trip the Asura before landing another high-speed staff smack behind its legs, causing it to flip in the air and fall on its torso face. Zipping back to where he was standing just moments ago, the hero in black was having the time of his life.

“Oh, man! This speed boost is awesome!” Dashing back to the Asura, Chat Noir continues his hyper-speed strikes at the disoriented Asura, zipping by it like a human-sized bullet. Too war-weary, the Asura controlled by Le Paon could only stagger in place as Chat Noir knew it was time. Hearing a confirmation from his partner who was circling back around building up her energy was all he needed to make the plan real.

“Chat, I am ready! Take it down!”

“Right!”

Running towards the Asura, Chat Noir readied his special move. It was now or never.

“Cataclysm!”

With a quick clawed strike using his right hand, the hero let loose the destructive energy gathered in that clawed hand onto the Asura’s eyes. The full destructive force of his special move seared away the creature's chest eyes, rendering it in complete blindness and complete agony. Sweep kicking the monster, he used the last of the speed-up boost to circle behind the Asura mid-falling to use finally bat it away.

Into the rushing Champion as she called out to her Lady.

“Lady Fairy! It’s time! I ask for your assistance!”

“Right, my Champion! I bestow upon you my special power . . .”

“Fairy’s Blessing!”

The sudden influx of Miraculous magic-filled up the Champion, but she was not stopping in her rollerblading rush. With all the energy within her reaching max levels, she caught the stunned Asura as Chrono-Girl called forth her command.

“Let’s do this! . . .”

“TIME WARP!”

Her speeding form started glowing a bright green as both Time Champion and Time Asura disappeared in a loud boom that came after the brilliant flash of green and white. Feeling the alteration of the world around him, Chat Noir realized time had stopped once again as soon as his ally and Asura vanished.

“W-where are they?! O-or . . . is it when . . . when are they?”

Left with no answers to solve his question, all he could hope was that his Champion partner was safe and would make a timely return. All while looking at the obvious greenish portal she left behind.

——————————

Where and or when the two time-based superbeings are is a good question.

Landing abruptly and skidding away from each other, the Champion looked around the seemingly surreal place she brought herself and the Asura to.

“W-where are we, Chrono-Girl?”

Said Champion was somewhat thankful that she could still communicate with her Lady Fairy, even if it was temporally impossible to do. Even Lady Fairy, who felt time has stopped in their present world, was amazed at how seemingly impossible their simple act of still communicating truly was. Chalk it up to the mysterious magic of the Miraculous and her Champion’s Temporal Resistance, maybe.

“We . . . are in the place where all of Time has ever existed, currently exists, will exist . . . and even things that may or may never be allowed to exist. This, Lady Fairy, is like the plane of all observable events . . . in time and space.”

“Oh . . . wow . . .” That was all the girls could say as they still marvel over finding themselves in a place that has only ever been theorized or fictionalized.

The vast open white world around them seems to be not of even their reality as it seems to stretch on infinitely. The only things in this reality were multitudes of various window-like panels; each panel vividly depicted various events in time as they float and fly in the seemingly limitless plane of higher existence. Even the supposed ground they are walking on doesn’t exist, as there are no walls or floors at all, just the various panels depicting events and the green and white portal Chrono-Girl made when the Champion basically tore open into this plane itself.

And the stubborn Asura weakly getting back up.

“Ugh . . . will you give up already, bird brain?!” All Chrono-Girl got in reply was a growl from the creature as Le Paon’s sigil manifested where its eyes used to be, as though he is still commanding the creature to fight for its master. Readying herself, with Lady Fairy’s own sigil to communicate with her Champion, Chrono-Girl spread her right hand forward as she manifested her time-based spell circle. But seeing as the various floating panels were just around them, it gave the Champion a rather crazy idea.

“Lady Fairy, I don’t know if this will fully work but I’ve got a plan.”

“. . . I trust you, my Champion.”

The Asura began running towards the Champion as she manages to easily dodge or deflect the blind creature’s rather weak claw swings. Even with how it seemed to now rely on its rage to swing despite the loss of its sight, the amount of damage it has taken made it obvious the creature was running on fumes at that point.

Which made Chrono-Girl’s plan ever better.

“Stop!”

Dodging its left clawed arm, Chrono-Girl did an upwards palm strike as she caused a large white circular icon to appear around the wrist of the creature. At the circle’s center was a glaringly bright red square where the hand poked out. Chrono-Girl smirked at how the Asura could not budge its entire left arm at all, struggling with its entire body to nudge it out of mid-air where it was frozen in place.

As though it was permanently stopped in time by the symbol that looked like a stop button used in playing music or videos.

“What’s the matter, Le Paon!? Cat got stuck?” Chrono-Girl taunted the man she knew was still somehow ordering its monstrosity with its sigil. That got her a growl from the creature as it began using its other arm and even limbs to try and break free and attack the cocky Champion.

“Stop!”

With each flailing limb, the Champion of time shackled the remaining limbs in the same stop button icons, rendering the Asura unable to escape. She even placed a stop icon on its gnawing mouth to prevent any attempts to bite her should she get close.

“Alright, that should keep you there for a moment.” Chrono-Girl was about to deliver a kick when Lady Fairy stopped her.

“W-wait, my Champion . . . I-I see something in its mouth. Can you be a dear and inspect it closer? I am sure you’ve immobilized the Asura enough.” With her Lady’s words, Chrono-Girl peered into the belly mouth of the beast.

“O-oh! I see something! I-it looks like a crystal ball in its mouth?”

“Y-yes! That must be its Soul. The Soul of the Asura is what is keeping it manifested. If we destroy it or even the body enough, all that would be left is the tainted feather. May I request you carefully remove it from the Asura?”

Nodding at the Butterfly wielder’s request, Chrono-Girl reached in and took the notable orb from its gullet. Just in time as well, as the Asura managed to break from its oral restraint to try and chomp off the Champion’s arm. That alone was enough for Chrono-Girl, and even Lady Fairy, to yelped back in fright over the action, Soul of the Asura in the still intact hand.

“Son of a b— . . . ooh, that actually caught me off guard, Lady Fairy! Guess I wasn’t as careful or responsible as I thought?” Chrono-Girl sighed as she realized she literally almost lost a limb due to her actions. Taking extra precautions, she used up a chunk of her built-up energy, as noted by the bars on her rollerblades, to fully surround the Asura in a new stasis trap.

“Stop!”

Multiple large stop button icons floated around the fully inanimate Asura to ensure it can’t try anything. Looking around at the floating panels of the plane of higher existence they were at, one event panel caught Chrono-Girl’s eyes as she saw that as the best one for her plan.

“It’s time, my Lady. It’s time we destroy this Asura once and for all.” Feeling a nod from her Lady Fairy, Chrono-Girl started rollerblading around the creature to build speed. With the added fact that no physics really seems to exist in this place, the Champion even started rollerblading along what she thinks are sides. It did not matter to her as much as she was able to continue her speed in all ways of direction around the Asura. As she felt her power reaching maximum once again, Chrono-Girl decided to turn it up more.

“Fast Forward . . . to the extreme!”

Feeling a lot of her charge depleting from that command, Chrono-Girl was barely even a visual blur or blip as she was rollerblading at a high velocity around the still immobilized Asura, waiting for a specific panel to be in position.

“There!”

Seeing the direction lining up perfectly, Chrono-Girl in all the built-up speed and momentum she had accumulated gave all of it in turn to the Asura in complete inertia.

“Time’s. Up!”

In that millionth of a second, the Champion turned off the Stop spell surrounding the Asura as her kick connected hard with the creature’s body. The force of the built-up speed from her kick to the use-to-be motionless Asura was enough for it to blast off, far away from its attacker.

And into a window panel that seemed to be nothing but darkness, fully going inside whatever event was taking place in such a point where nothing seems to exist. Stopping her boost spell, she rollerbladed to where she kicked the creature at. The Soul of the Asura still gently floating in her left hand as she can hear Lady Fairy ask.

“W-what is this panel, my Champion? I-it’s just a black void?” Lady Fairy looked through her Champions eyes as she felt her smirk seeing a blip within that void being the Asura floating in it.

“Actually, Lady Fairy, this panel depicts an event that I am sure any high schooler is familiar with if they went to History class . . .” Feeling her Lady give her confused look in reply, Chrono-Girl skated back a good amount and smiled before answering.

“This panel that I shot the Asura in . . . is the beginning of our universe. The Big Bang!”

Immediately as she said those words, the panel’s nothingness was suddenly turned into a gigantic explosion of cataclysmic proportions. The blast was so strong and bright, the whole panel immediately turned into a bright myriad of white and other bright colors as it denoted the universe’s birth.

And the absolute demise of the Asura caught in the explosive crossfire.

The dark blue orb Chrono-Girl was still holding on her left hand immediately crumbled into dust as whitish-blue fiery essences flew out of it and into the very portal the Champion herself made to get here. Lady Fairy couldn’t help but cheer over the fact they just defeated a rather relentless Asura.

“We did it! Thank the stars we did it, Chrono-Girl! And based on that essence flowing back to the portal, I think it’s safe to say everyone victimized is returning to normal, ri— uhh . . . Chrono-Girl? Ar-are you okay?”

“. . . Mom?”

The Champion in question only mumbled out a word as she caught sight of a specific panel, finding herself compelled to rollerblade towards it. Unlike many panels that seem to be more universal or encompassing of certain historical or futuristic events, the panel before Chrono-Girl was more of a personal one as it was for the girl behind the Champion persona.

And Lady Fairy had felt it too when she saw through her eyes.

“. . . this was 7 years ago . . . when mom was leaving the airport. The last time I got to see her . . .” Lightly touching the panel, it brightened up as it showed a preview of what the event was taking place, like a video on a site before one fully plays it. Willing herself to speak, the Champion asked the Butterfly wielder for one request.

“. . . Lady Fairy, can I please just . . . I just really want to see her again.”

“. . . Chrono-Girl . . . A-Alix, I—”

“I-I promise I won’t do anything stupid . . . or like change the past or whatever! I-I’ve learned enough on my birthday of all days just how important it is to being careful, especially with something as grand as freaking time itself . . . but I-I just really want to see her again. E-even if it’s just for a moment . . . a-and I’ll be super careful, I swear!” Already racking up her brain trying to think of more ways to somehow convince Paris’ Great Lady herself for such a selfish request, even using the whole ‘it’s my birthday’ card on her hand, she was responded by a light chuckle and light sigh from Lady Fairy.

“. . . okay.”

Surprise shot through the Champion as she realized the inevitable ‘no’ she was expecting to get without her groveling or begging Lady Fairy was instead an ‘okay’. A surprise indeed for the time-based Champion and aforementioned birthday girl to receive.

“Wa-wait, a-are you serious?!”

“Yes, my Champion. I trust you enough that you will be careful with this decision.”

“Y-yes, my Lady! I-I will make sure we’ll just be onlookers, watch!” Lightly touching the panel of the event, Chrono-Girl manifested her spell circle as she began swiping her finger over it. A smile was fully present on her face as she realized she was being given this once-in-a-lifetime chance.

“I-I am sure it’s just because of my powers being all time based, but I could see how I can make it so that when we enter the panel, we’ll still be invisible observers to the event. I am being extra super careful now with this because I really don’t want to have to begin to think how accidentally messing with time would bring about . . . There!”

With a final wave of her fingers over the panel, it started lighting up in the same bright line of white and green like the Champion’s own. Entering the panel, the bright light momentarily enveloped Chrono-Girl as she went into the past.

——————————

‘. . . Mom.’

Eyes readjusting from the light previously, Chrono-Girl with Lady Fairy’s sigil saw themselves in the past. And the remarkable way Lady Fairy’s Champion circumvented the whole ‘just being in the past could already alter time’ issue.

“I see. You made a small area around us that no one could ever sense us. Excellent carefulness, Chrono-Girl.” True to Lady Fairy’s word, the Champion adjusted how they would enter the past with how a small circle around her and the panel portal was in an almost glass-like transparent dome or bubble. No one around sees the spectacle, and people walking in the area seem to avoid the general perimeter as though they all have an indistinct feeling something was there to avoid.

But none of that mattered for Chrono-Girl, or rather Alix Kubdel, as she continued watching the event play out.

“Jalil, make sure you hold your little sister’s hand. Wouldn’t want her to get lost in the excitement and all that.”

“Her excitement of seeing your plane can only ever be rivaled by your actual excitement of riding it off to your grand adventure, my dear. It’s quite obvious where she gets that from.”

A man and a woman, obviously married, were talking together; the woman, in dark pants, black boots, bomber jacket with a white shirt, and pink headband, was strolling her travel stroller case, while her husband, in his usual historian like attire, was carrying a large suitcase. Running past them were their two children.

“Come on, big bro! I want to see what airplane Mommy’s going to use!”

“Okay, okay!”

A little girl was running hand in hand with a slightly older-looking boy. Noticeably, the little girl herself had naturally burgundy red-brown hair color whilst the girl she grew up being in the present had her hair dyed into the pink she is known for. Rarely did Alix ever remember wearing a dress, but she now remembers that this was probably the last time as her child self was wearing a lime green with sandals. Stopping at where their 2 children were, gawking from the glass they were leaning on to see the airplanes, the couple known as M. and Mme. Kubdel looked at each other again. Taking off and wrapping his scarf over his beloved wife, the slight intimacy and closeness made her give a light kiss on his lips, making her soft-spoken husband blush just as softly.

“Also, for your information, this is going to be my last grand adventure . . . After this, I can’t wait to just do smaller travels and be around more as a mom to my adorable children . . . and a loving wife to a soft-spoken silver tongue handsome devil of a historian.” Her flirtations got a fuller blush and a warm smile out of him as he embraced her, which she took back in kind.

“I will miss you so much, my dear. I love you.”

“I love you too, Alim . . . please, take care of these two in my place. I hope you can carry this temporary burden of being a single parent with your patience in the meantime.”

“I will. Stay safe and please call often. Heaven’s forbid, Alix would start crying again if she doesn’t hear from her mother at least once a week.”

“H-hey! I won’t cry!”

The romantic moment the husband and wife had was broken when their daughter looked at her father with her own version of a glare over his teasing, which broke into their own fit of chuckles. Even Alix as Chrono-Girl herself couldn’t help but laugh at how adorable she was being all angry at 8 years old. She was also pretty sure she even heard Lady Fairy try to stifle a giggle as well at the admittedly cute display. Leaning down to her daughter as both parents stopped in their quiet laughter, Mme. Kubdel smiled at little Alix.

“Of course not. You are my brave, brave little Alix! You who have smiled at the face of adversity when you first crashed in your rollerblades! My, you are the bravest girl I know, even more than me.” Cupping her daughter’s face, she took off the headband she was wearing and placed it on her daughter. Even if it was a bit bigger for the little girl’s head, the little girl giggled and was in awe over receiving it.

“I think you would rock pink on your head better than I do, my little Alix.”

“Gee, Mom, are you asking Alix to dye her hair pink now?”

“Jalil, please don’t give your little sister any ideas.” Even with their father’s warning, little Alix’s eyes sparkled over the suggestion, and Alix as Chrono-Girl couldn’t help but shyly chuckle and blush as felt her own currently dyed hair. She even heard Lady Fairy herself chuckle at also realizing it.

“Thank you, Mommy! I hope this headband . . . or even one of your cool watches can fit me soon! That way I can join you on your awesome adventures!” Ever exuberant, little Alix proclaimed with so much confidence in her adorableness that it got even people hearing it to the sides lightly chuckle over the girl’s wholeheartedness, which made her mother hug her even more.

“Aww! I really wish so, Alix, but I need you to be a good little girl, okay? I need you here to help out Daddy and your big brother Jalil. I want you to continue what you love to do, like your rollerblading, but always be careful, that’s why you always wear your safety gear . . . You are my brave little girl, and I cannot wait for when I come home so that we can have our own adventures together.”

“In rollerblades!?” The little girl cheered out in glee.

“Absolutely! How else are we going to speed through the American canyons or the Swiss hills?! We will have the time of our lives!” Mme. Kubdel hugged her daughter with all the love she could imbue in her embrace while little Alix hugged back and giggled. She even opened one of her arms to have her son join in. Soon enough, the Kubdel family were in a group embrace, not knowing for them that it would be their last full family hug. The thought didn’t go un-thought of as the observing time Champion let her tears flow out of her eyes freely, thankful that no one was around to notice it.

Except, of course, the very person who gave her said Champion powers.

“. . . Chro— Alix, are you okay?” Slightly wiping away her tears, Chrono-Girl realized that she was taking too much time as it were, if not for the fact she and Lady Fairy both heard a beep on her Lady’s end.

A clear sign that they needed to return, back to their own time.

“I-I am okay, my Lady . . . sorry. I thought I was going to be strong enough not to cry . . . but I guess I was wrong . . . still, thank you so much for this. I-I really needed this chance to see her again.”

“You’re welcome, my Champion . . . I am truly happy that you are happy.”

Marinette, while being Lady Fairy, knew she may be toeing the line of being known as the benevolent Butterfly boon granter of Paris via Champions, and that of someone who personally knew this Champion and was happy for her friend. The Champion herself wiped away more of her tears as she felt much more relieved. It was as though the scene before her and the tears she fully wept helped wash away all the lingering sadness and dejectedness she had within her, from the moment she broke the wristwatch, to Le Paon’s cruel use of her as a Vessel, to even when she was told that the family will need to consider letting her mother, the very woman hugging her family in front of her, be laid to rest after so long. Facing away from the touching scene in front of her, Chrono-Girl was about to fully go through the panel portal when she blurted out something she felt like saying for so long.

Right at the same time, she heard her younger self say the same line. All of which made Chrono-Girl look back to the scene in front of her and time for her seemed to stop.

“. . . I love you, mom.”

“Mommy, I love you!”

Her mother looked at her.

Not at her 8-year-old self in this past event.

But at her.

��N-no . . . way . . .’

Or rather, the general area where Chrono-Girl was invisibly watching where no one from the past should be able to sense or interact with. Chrono-Girl’s heart started palpitating in her thinking, wondering if she somehow stayed too long and her temporal adjustments were making her apparent in the event. But seeing as no one else was noticing her, and still instinctively avoiding the perimeter, Alix couldn’t help but wonder now why.

“. . . Mommy?”

Her mother looked back to her family, as they saw her staring into space, Mme. Kubdel went back to the present situation in front of her. And it gave Chrono-Girl the relief that it was just all in her imagination.

But what she definitely did not think was her imagination were the last words she heard from her mother when the Champion entered back into the portal, to also finally make her way back to the present time. A final tear shed in the past as she left for her present.

“. . . I love you so much, Alix . . . never forget that.”

——————————

Time around Chat Noir was still at a pause when a minute or so after his Champion partner practically tore a hole into the space-time continuum to who knows where something amazing happened. After the first minute in stopped time and before he went close enough to consider getting into the portal, a mass of white and blue essence shot out of it and flew up into the sky, exploding into a firework of sorts as it created smaller wisps. These very wisps of essence started entering the victims he could see. Their eyes started showing signs of life once again as their color also returned to normalcy.

It was a clear indication that the Asura was most definitely defeated.

And within a second after that spectacle, Chat Noir could see the rollerblading Champion he had come to know and rely on, holding on her left hand a floating black feather. As she skated slowly out of the portal she made, it instantly disappeared and the Champion herself was buckling in her fatigue over the ordeal, more so of emotional fatigue than physical but the Cat Miraculous hero didn’t need to know the difference.

“I got you, Chrono-Girl . . . how— how did it go with the Asura?”

“. . . Well, I basically threw myself and the Asura into a freaking dimension where all of time’s events exist or do not exist. Then I super kicked the feline bastard into a point in time that started with a big bang . . . and now all that is left is this black feather that started it all. Would you do the honors, Chat Noir?” Raising the very black feather in question, Chat Noir didn’t need any second-guessing on what he needed to do. Accumulating all of the passive amounts of Miraculous magic of misfortune and destruction into his right ring finger’s claw, he made an indivisible black sphere or even dot and pointed it to the accursed feather as he stated his move.

“Black Scratch!”

The one claw swipe instantly disintegrated the black feather that caused the Asura running amok. Both watched its remaining particles fall away as all the heroes, Lady Fairy via the sigil included, could all finally release their tense breaths in relief. Raising his hand into a fist gesture, Chrono-Girl knew what it meant and raised her own.

“Pound it!” All three cheered as they finally completed the task of defeating the Asura and saving Paris once again from an Asura attack. With a slight wave of her other arm, Chrono-Girl caused all of time to move back to normal, even dispelling the boosts and buffs Chat Noir still had on. With their essences of Time returned to them and time no longer on a pause, all victims of Paris found themselves able to move freely once more. Cheering over it, everything was back to normal in time.

Well, almost all was normal.

“. . . O-oh Kwami! I forgot!” Readying his pole, he was about to jump off when he realized that would still be too impolite and ungentlemanly of him to do so.

“S-sorry to cut our post-fight banter short, Chrono-Girl and Lady Fairy, but I left behind someone, a-and I want to make sure they get back safely!”

“No problem, Chat Noir. I understand now more than ever what it means to be responsible, something a full-time superhero like you would know very well. Thank you.” Chrono-Girl gave him an understanding nod as she knew that he also needed to rest since he used his Miraculous special power before her. Smiling at his temporary ally while giving a quick salute, Chat Noir leaped into the air to return to the very person he saved.

“Time Pause!”

Or rather, stay perfectly in place, temporal resistances removed, just like everyone else as Chrono-Girl used the remainder of her power bar’s meter for that last spell. A spell that she and Lady Fairy were unaffected by, all the more that Lady Fairy became curious as to her Champion’s sudden decision.

“Chrono-Girl?”

“S-sorry if this was an impulsive act, Lady Fairy! I-I just want to make sure that before I fully give this magic up, I am in a position where I am not so out in public de-transforming for all of Paris to know I was your chosen Champion. I-I am being careful and responsible with this decision of mine . . . if that is okay with you though?” Despite feeling slightly frazzled at her impulsive act, Chrono-Girl received an affirmative hum from the sigil’s other end of the link.

“Very resourceful, my Champion. I did not consider that situation you would be in . . . shall we find a good place for you to hide first?”

“I-I think where you found me at the bottom of the Eiffel tower is good, my Lady. There are tons of well-hidden spots I can de-transform. I just decided to remove Chat Noir’s resistance as well since he seems to be going that direction too.” Rollerblading back to Eiffel tower, true to the Champion’s words, they found a secluded area not far from where Alix Kubdel was called upon by the elusive Butterfly wielder. And not a moment too soon, as the beeper of Lady Fairy’s Miraculous meant de-transformation was becoming imminent.

“Thank you once again for your help, my glorious time Champion. You have worked hard and true with Chat Noir and utterly defeated the Asura . . . I wouldn’t even be opposed to the idea of calling upon you once again, Chrono-Girl when the time comes. You have been of truly great help.”

“I-I . . . H-holy shi— sheep, Lady Fairy! I-it would be an absolute pleasure to be worthy enough to be called upon at another time. J-just know I will be ready to help if ever you call me again!” Still amazed that Paris’ Great Lady, Lady Fairy, herself was thanking her and even saying she could be recruited again, the Champion was slightly disappointed that she de-transformed back into her civilian self once more. The paused time zone even disappeared with her de-transformation, but Alix was still happy that she was learned a lot in being helpful throughout the fight.

A great birthday gift for herself to hold onto.

“Thank you again, Alix, and Happy Birthday to you!”

Lady Fairy’s words resonated from the butterfly manifestation before it zipped away into the sky, back to its mistress. It left a certain Alix Kubdel to stroll back to where she was, with no one being the wiser. Realizing the amount of worry or trouble she could be caused by not being at home, an idea immediately struck Alix. Alix realized she could do something on this birthday of hers to also make amends with her brother and father over what happened prior to the attack. Texting them in reassurance of her being safe and to meet with them later for the family dinner, Alix readjusted her helmet and sports safety gear before going off. The birthday girl patted gently her pocket, knowing the wristwatch of her mother was still inside, as she did a fast but careful skating beeline to the fountain area of the Trocadéro where her classmates were.

The people she will need for her plan to work.

——————————

Her Fae did not travel far from its mistress; as the Fae and its fellow unused ones returned into the bottle charm, Lady Fairy whispered a command to call off her superhero self.

“Nooroo, Wings Fall!”

Turning back to her civilian self, Marinette wasted no time in feeding her Kwami. Opening the purse she always keeps with her, Marinette managed to find the small plastic bag of chocolates she keeps on hand. Gently opening the bag and plucking out one of the wrapped chocolate pieces, she presented it where she had an idea her exhausted Kwami was floating. Said exhausted Kwami already caught sight of the delectable bag of treats and was happy to be presented with the chocolates Nooroo absolutely adores eating.

“Oh yay! The chocolates you make are always the best, Marinette!” Nooroo exclaimed before taking a rather large bite out of the spherical chocolate. The idea of her Kwami being so enamored by her sweet treats was enough to make the blind Chosen of the Butterfly giggle and blush over the compliments.

“Are you sure you’re not just pulling my leg, my little Faerie? You know Papa and Maman make way better chocolates than I do!” That only caused Nooroo to giggle a bit more as he continued to enjoy his chocolatey meal.

“I think the fact that it was your Intention to make these amazing chocolates solely for me is what makes them the best, Marinette! Truly!”

“Aww, Nooroo . . . does that mean I can’t take one of these for myself, like right now?” Teasing her Kwami, Marinette already knew she would get teased back.

“Hehe, not unless you want to get surprise-bitten by a territorial Kwami who wants these all for themselves.” Both Chosen wielder and Kwami of the Butterfly Miraculous laughed before they stopped as they heard someone call out to the former.

“Princess?”

Immediately eating the chocolate piece and hiding inside her purse, Nooroo stayed hidden as Marinette came out of her hiding spot, looking like she blindly wandered to a slightly hidden area. Thankfully, it was enough for the person calling out to her as she called out to him while walking towards each other.

“. . . Chat Noir?”

“There you are . . . I got a bit worried for a second there.” Relief washed over the hero’s being as he saw the blind girl looking very much safe.

“I can take care of myself, Monsieur Chat, thank you very much.” Crossing her arms but still smiling at the Cat hero in black, she said it not as so much of an affront to her but rather to prove a point.

“I-I mean, of course, Princess! Why else would I need you here away from that scuffle with the Asura? I needed you away to make sure us heroes don’t look bad.” Finding himself comfortable in this banter with Marinette, Chat Noir couldn’t help but continue.

“I wanted to make sure I was your hero, the dashing hero who saves his damsel in . . . well, not really in distress, especially with the way you squared up with the Asura. Which reminds me, please don’t put yourself out there in danger like that again, Princess. Okay?” Clutching her hands as to show how much he meant it, the gesture was enough for both of their faces to light up like red Christmas lights. It was the tension-breaking chuckle and smile from Marinette that helped ease back to a sense of comfortable banter.

“I-I will, Chat Noir. As long as Paris’ Heroes keeps the city safe, I am sure this damsel can keep herself away from danger . . .” Taking the risk despite how nervous and embarrassed she felt, Marinette took her left hand and tapped the bell she knew was on his suit’s collar. Marinette herself didn’t know what had compelled her to do so, but she stuck by it. She could painstakingly worry about it in the privacy of her bedroom later. Which she did.

“. . . since she knows this dashing hero will be there to rescue her.” Another smile from her beautiful face was all it took for Chat Noir to feel like he was as frozen as the former victims of the Asura. Only his mouth could function, and barely did it even make words come out as comprehensible.

“. . . I-I-I . . . uhh . . . o-o-oh okay.”

‘Great . . . Chat Noir is not working as intended . . . please reboot, my mouth! Please!”

Thankfully for his inner turmoil, another beep from his Miraculous ring was enough for Chat Noir and Marinette to be brought back to the reality of the situation. Clearing his throat as he tries to still calm his face from becoming redder than ever, he looked back to the girl who keeps making his heart acrobatically flip and flutter.

“I-I . . . h-how about I take you back to the Palais de Chaillot? You seemed to have been with those group of teens, right? I could drop you off somewhere inside so you can say you hid.” Getting a nod at his plan, Marinette gave her arms for Chat to carry on his back, careful as to keep the girl secure enough during his leaps and vaults. Thankfully, people seemed to still be rejoicing their normal states once again to ever notice the hero, or the girl latching onto said hero.

Or even how the hero and the girl seemed to still have some slight pinkness on their cheeks from the way they were physically close to one another.

——————————

Deep breaths.

He was taking deep breaths.

Another failure from his creature, the Asura Flauros, and now he was taking deep, deep breaths from the Black Scratch done to his Miraculous’ feather. He was so close, he thought that it was his time.

Alas, it was not meant to be this time around.

“Curses . . . no matter. I will continue in my quest for the Cat and Butterfly Miraculous. Past, present, or even future, I will not stop until I take what I want! This I swear!”

Standing back up, he took one more deep breath as the blue evil known elusively as Le Paon commanded his lair’s round window to close back up.

Another day, another defeated Asura. Le Paon will try once again soon.

After all, it may all just be a matter of time.

——————————

“Where are they?!”

“Calm down, Alya. You’re making Rose and Mylène worried constantly calling out for them.” Nino’s hand rested on the Heroes’ Scene blogger’s shoulder as she admittedly calmed down. She was just worried since they all remember, prior to them being frozen in time by the monstrous Asura, that they saw their blind classmate Marinette do something so courageous yet so stupidly dangerous by attacking the monstrous creature. All to protect Sabrina and Rose from harm. Now said friend and classmate were missing after they all returned to normal.

Not to mention their other classmate who has yet to appear, which was made very clear due to a certain classmate of their causing a scene in their attempts of calling out for them.

“Adrikins! Where are you? . . . this is utterly ridiculous! Where could Adrikins or even Dupain-Cheng be?! We all got turned back to normal anyways!” Chloé yelled out as she continued to search with the rest of her classmates around the area. Some people were initially shocked to see their haughty blonde heiress of a classmate show such concern. It makes sense for Adrien, sure, but she has even been caught yelling out for Marinette, even without the supposed disdain in her voice. Chloé actually was worried.

“Don’t worry, Chloé. They must have hidden in the deeper parts of the Palais de Chaillot. I want to thank them as well for trying to save me and Rose.” Her best friend / secretary Sabrina soothed the growing impatience of the blonde heiress as they continued to wait for them. Luckily, it didn’t take long at all. Emerging out slowly from one of the sides of the building, they saw their blind classmate. And not a moment sooner, from the other side but close enough, they saw Adrien also come out and see them looking for the two.

“Adrikins!”

“Mari! Adrien!”

Running towards their friends, the class was relieved to see them alright. And luckily for the duo, they had their own reasonable excuses ready as to why they seemed to take their sweet time in coming out.

“O-oh, sorry about this, you guys! I-I had to call up my bodyguard to tell him I was alright. I-I . . . got lost in the building when I was running away from the Asura. After hearing that everything started being okay, I-I had to re-find my phone so I can call him and Nathalie to let them know I was safe. You know how it is.”

“A-after my admittedly stupid stunt with trying to protect Sabrina and Rose, I was dragged away by Chat Noir. He told me that he was going to leave me inside a different hidden area of the building so I wouldn’t get victimized . . . It took a while for me to find the exit due to my blindness. Sorry!”

Taking their excuses, every one of the class group sighed in relief. They all just wish now a certain someone was with them to know if she was okay.

“. . . I hope Alix was safe throughout the attack. She was really brave in getting that Asura Alert out on the site.”

Alya’s words resonated around the group, but coincidentally for them, they didn’t have to think too long when they heard a certain someone holler at them from a distance.

“Hey! You guys! You’re all okay!”

Stopped at just the right moment with her rollerblades, she took a breather as she smiled at them.

“I’m glad . . . I’m glad that things are back to normal.”

“W-wha . . . Alix! Are you alright? You look like you went through a crying marathon!” Rose exclaimed as Alix realized her eyes were still lightly puffy, and it didn’t help she left some dry tear trails on her face. Rubbing her face more, she looked to her friend group.

“Y-yeah, sorry about that. A lot of things went down even before the whole Asura shtick for me . . . B-but I promise I am okay now . . . it-it’s actually why I came here to you guys — err, girls. I-I need the girls’ help with a request.” That last sentence alone perked everyone’s interests, most of all the females of their class.

“I-I . . . need your help since I want to formally apologize to my dad and my brother over the whole wristwatch and mom incident . . . can you girls help me? Let’s say this can be your birthday present for me?” Somehow knowing exactly what she was asking, all while Alix looking very embarrassed and meek over asking, all the girls started giggling amongst themselves as Alya grabbed one arm of Alix while Sabrina grabbed the other. Feeling trapped, Alix was starting to think she bit more than she could chew.

“Uhh . . . why do I feel like I going to seriously regret this?”

“You probably will . . . but there’s no turning back now, birthday girl! Ladies, let’s go!” Chloé of all people proclaimed as she led all the females of their class group with Alix in tow, looking very much like a prisoner being dragged off to the guillotine. Her eyes, looking back to the guys the girl group was leaving, gave that impression, all while the girls continued giggling and chatting amongst themselves about what their plan is.

A moment or so passed before all the guys had a faint idea of what just happened.

“. . . did you guys understand what just happened, or am I the only one confused?”

“No, we are certainly with you on the confused part, Kim. Somehow, the girls in our class group just knew and immediately went into action with Alix’s request.” Max pondered it out loud which had them just nod in agreement. Another moment passed before someone said something.

“It’s definitely a girl-only thing.”

“Right you are, Nathaniel. I’ve known Chloé for years. Something about the way she and Sabrina just immediately joined in on that request, I knew it was a girl-only thing.”

“Totally, dude.” More nodding in agreement happened before one of them finally vocalized another realization.

“. . . wait . . . did the girls just leave us here with all the picnic stuff for us to eventually cleanup for them, while they have that girl only thing?”

“Yeahp, Ivan. They totally did . . . we should probably just clean up in general. I don’t think those girls are coming back anytime soon.”

With Nino’s last remark, the guys all silently agreed to do just that. The girls will probably tell them what transpired anyways.

It was a girl thing; they wouldn’t understand.

——————————

“I wonder where Alix could be? She said she’d still come to the dinner.”

“Calm down, Dad. Alix did say she will still be attending. She said she wants to still talk to us about the thing that happened before the Asura attack.”

Jalil managed to alleviate their father’s concerns as both Kubdel men still waited in their seats for their missing family member. Coming back to normal after being turned into inanimate figures, Jalil and Alim Kubdel were originally very worried when they couldn’t find Alix at home or within their neighborhood. Before fearing the worst, they did get a message from Alix saying she was sorry about a lot of things, but she will still be attending their reserved formal family dinner to personally talk it all out.

Also, that she asked at the end of the message for Jalil to find a pink hairband she remembered mom giving her and bringing it.

“Still a weird random request, but I brought it which means she will be attending . . . she probably wanted to bring it so we can all take time talking about the family’s decision regarding mom.” The item in question was in an old small gift bag Jalil used to bring with them to the fancy restaurant.

“I know, son. I feel that I am just as at fault . . . I hope that we as a family can all talk about it together properly.” Soft-spoken as always, M. Kubdel waited with his son for his daughter.

Instead, something else entertained their focus at that moment.

“Why hello, Monsieur Kubdel! Fancy meeting you here.”

Looking up, the Kubdel men met with the bakers and owners of Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. Tom Dupain was in a baby blue long-sleeve dress shirt, rolled up to the elbows, gray formal pants, and black dress shoes. Sabine Cheng, on the other hand, was in a beautiful but modest pink cheongsam dress (a high-necked Chinese style dress) with beautiful white floral designs. It was more traditional in design as it had short sleeves and its dress ended above the ankles where Sabine wore simple white pumps for shoes. She also had a light pink flower hair accessory on, which overall completed the woman’s amazing look.

“Oh my, it’s the best bakers of all of Paris. To what do we owe the pleasure of meeting you both in such amazing looks?” M. Kubdel’s soft but earnest compliment made the couple chuckle in slight embarrassment before Sabine answered his inquiry.

“It’s our 20th Wedding Anniversary today. We reserved a dinner reservation here thanks to a friend’s suggestion. I take it you are here because it is also your daughter’s birthday?”

Nodding at the delightful couple, Jalil remembered now who these people were and their connection to his sister.

“O-oh, I remember Alix telling me she has a friend and classmate in school who lives above a bakery.”

“Yes, that is our Marinette. In fact, I remember her calling us saying she was with Alix and a bunch of other friends to help her with something. Isn’t that right, dear?”

Hearing about Alix, both father and brother perked up as Sabine added to what Tom said.

“Yes, I remember her telling us she was apparently with friends in the hotel suite of the mayor’s daughter. It’s probably where they spent the rest of the afternoon, possibly helping your Alix.” Sabine couldn’t give any more since she knew her daughter was with a bunch of girl friends, and that when girl friends are helping another girl friend out, it was usually a spectacle for the guys around them.

“It’s a girl thing.” She chuckled to herself over that, leaving the Kubdel men and even her own husband confused at her remark. Especially to the Kubdels as they knew that while Alix was a girl, she never really got into girly or effeminate things.

“Well, we should get going to our seat. I am sure my daughter will not keep Alix for long. Have a lovely dinner. Come now, Tom.” Lightly waving goodbye, Sabine started walking away while Tom also waved goodbye to the Kubdels, still wondering what his wife meant.

A moment passed before M. Kubdel gave a reassuring smile to his son over that revelation.

“Well, that’s good to hear. I am happy as well that Alix is hanging out more with other girls her age.” The father mused out in happiness over knowing his daughter was having fun. If only she were there right now, could she describe it in detail.

“. . . Dad? Jalil? . . . I am here. Sorry for the wait.”

Looking over where the familiar voice was, they were greeted by a stupendous sight.

Instead of her usual sporty attire, she was dressed in a simple but stunning black dress. It was a knee-length A-line dress with short lace sleeves, the sleeves having some floral design on them. She accentuated the dress with a thin silver belt, a small grey purse, manicured white nails, and a silver bangle on her left wrist, while for footwear she was wearing one-inch kitten heels in black and white. Her face was lightly done in makeup, such as some light pink lip gloss and mascara, and her vibrant pink dyed hair was curled into light waves that further accentuated her facial features even more.

Overall, Alix Kubdel looked truly beautiful.

“Oh my word . . . look at you, my beautiful daughter even more beautiful than ever!” His words made Alix blush over the compliment, before remembering something she asked one of them to bring.

“Jalil, did you bring the headband?” Getting a nod and an outstretched hand holding on the gift bag for her to take, Alix took out the piece and gently placed it on her head, fully completing the look.

“Now I am completely set for our family dinner.” Sitting down with her family, they all quickly ordered their food while the Kubdel men still wanted to inquire about Alix’s sudden decision.

“So, what made you finally decide to wear a dress today, sis? It’s been like a decade since you’ve worn one.”

“Hey! For your information, the last time I wore one was when was like 8 . . . and I wanted to dress up nicely since . . . we do have to talk about what happened before the attack.” The mood shifted back to a slightly somber feeling as Alix cleared her throat to be the first to talk.

“Dad . . . I am really sorry for breaking mom’s watch. I-I didn’t mean for it to get broken. Jalil had every right to get mad at me for being careless and irresponsible . . . I just . . . I just really wanted to keep wearing it close to me since it made me feel closer to mom. B-but I realized that I was holding too hard onto that feeling, never wanting to let go . . . so when you and Jalil told me about the decision for us to consider her gone-gone and to like plan what to do . . . I felt like everything I was holding onto was slipping from my fingers . . . that I was losing mom again.” Taking a deep breath as to not ruin the eye makeup the girls meticulously worked hard for her, she continued.

“I realized during that Asura attack, seeing you both stuck as statues, that what I was more afraid of than losing my hold on the past was losing everything I held near and dear to me in the present. I-I know now that while mom might be gone . . . I realize she’s not really gone forever. She lives on in our memories of her. We will never forget her as the amazing woman that she is. So . . . what I am saying is . . . is that I also accept the idea of putting her to rest. I think it’s good for all of us, to let ourselves finally be at peace as well.”

“Alix . . .”

“Sis . . .”

“A-and also, Dad? I promise to get the wristwatch fixed. Sabrina told me her family knows a great watch repair shop where I can get it fixed. I have some money leftover saved up, but I want to help fix the watch if that’s okay with you. I am going to be more careful and more responsible with stuff like this.”

A warm smile graced M. Kubdel’s face as he saw how much his daughter had truly grown in front of him. Reaching out to hold her hand, he squeezed it which helped ease Alix’s tensions.

“You have truly grown into a remarkable woman, Alix. I am so proud of you. I am also sorry.”

“F-for what, Dad?”

“I am sorry if I thought springing up the news to lay your mother to rest on your special day was the right call. It wasn’t, I know now. I am sorry as well that you had to carry that feeling or burden alone since your brother and I miss her just as much. I wish I could have done more but I guess . . . I was also still hurt over everything with her disappearance. I guess that’s why I thought laying her to rest would be my way of also letting go of the pain . . . but you’re right about never forgetting her. I never want to forget the woman who lighted up my world, nor will I ever forget the wife who gave me such amazing children.”

Both children stared in awe as their father’s eyes started tearing up as he took his glasses off to wipe his tears away, trying to stifle a sob or two trying to escape from his mouth. Both of his children reached out to one arm each and squeezed in comfort to their father.

The Kubdel family was there for each other. Even if one member was currently not with them, they felt whole together.

“Dad . . . thank you as well for being one amazing parent.”

“Yeah, like what Alix said. You have been an amazing father to us both. Mom would have been so proud of you . . . Hell, I think she would be proud of all of us being this close and me and Alix not going at each other’s throats right this second.” Jalil’s joke helped break the tension as the 3 Kubdels chuckled amongst themselves after that heart-to-heart they all needed. After an appetizer was served to them, M. Kubdel looked to his daughter as she was fiddling with her phone from the purse she brought, which made him need to further question how she pulled the ensemble off.

“Alix, my dear, where and how did you get this outfit of yours? I don’t recall you ever having those in your closet before.” That got her to blush immensely at having realized she needed to come out with the answer.

“A-actually, I asked my girl friends from my class if they could help me out with this plan I had to dress up nicely for this dinner.” Remembering the lovely bakers talking about this prior, Jalil and Alim allowed her to continue talking.

“So, I originally was just going to ask for their help in like borrowing their outfits, but the girls said that won’t do . . . they were really serious about this, by the way. So, we went to the mall to buy the stuff. They helped me find this dress and Alya with the shoes, all within my budget. We went back to Chloé’s place, where Juleka did my makeup, Mylène fixed my hair, and even Marinette helped do my nails. Chloé even insisted that I be driven here, which she did not take no for an option. I-I am just texting some of them who are currently staying at Marinette’s that you guys liked the look . . . and because they begged me to send them a picture with the headband on.” Alix even took a picture to prove her point.

“Well tell them they did a great job . . . it does take a lot of skill in turning this tomboy into a real girl, but only until midnight . . . because then she turns back into a rollerblading pumpkin!” Jalil snickered, which got her to just stick her tongue out at him. All this just made M. Kubdel laugh at their typical sibling dynamic and antics.

The rest of their formal family dinner was now enjoying their meal whilst talking about what they plan to do with putting Mme. Kubdel to rest, and more so with remembering her fondly. As Jalil was grilling their ever-growingly embarrassed father over how he met their mother as the main course was being served, Alix found herself smiling so much fuller in the present she is now.

She was embracing the present in front of her, while never truly forgetting about the past. She feels lighter in her heart after seeing that this was the right way. One could say it was a refreshing birthday gift for herself to have.

Alix Kubdel is now going to keep moving forward.

——————————

The lone figure kept walking forward.

Even as there was no more floor below their feet, the lone figure was floating but walking forward.

They needed to make sure they were at the exact spot they needed to be.

Nodding to themselves silently at seeing they were meters upon meters above the very point they desired, it was only a matter of time. The figure looked up to the sky, the moon was at a waning gibbous phase in a slightly cloud-filled night.

“. . .”

A barely audible mumble was possibly stated as something arcane and mystical flowed out from where the figure was standing: several meters above the Point Zero of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. As instantaneous was the overwhelming wave of something truly enchanting spreading out through Paris, the figure that seemed to have caused such an event was no longer present in the area. The all-encompassing wave was not felt by anyone who was possibly still awake at that point in time.

Or at least, anyone without a sort of resistance to the same magic it may or may not be utilizing.

Sadly, known users of such magic were not currently actively wielding such resistances, so only the once lone figure would truly know the act.

The act that can only be described and experienced as a miracle.

The wave finished its zenith as its reach has fully spread throughout the entirety of Paris before the minute was over. A second later and all devices of time would state the exact start of a new day; each timepiece that was now instantly fixed said the same time in perfect sync.

12:01 AM.

——————————

Endnotes (References & Ramblings)

— Regarding Alix’s Champion (Design). I went with describing her Champion as not something totally different from her Canon Akuma design. As much as I thought her Akuma design was cool, it felt like it was too villainous or evil looking for me (the full body suit with full helmet and tinted visors was giving me like Power Rangers Villain or even like their enemy grunts or minions that the Rangers battle in bulk). So, after looking at different inspirations (main one from the AU Originator’s designs of the teen / classmate heroes), I went with describing more white designs in her look while switching the full helmet for a half helmet. I am overall content with the description of Chrono-Girl’s design.

> Also, the Champion name Chrono-Girl is Timebreaker’s original French name Chronogirl. I liked the French name as it was, so I stuck with it but had it hyphened.

— Regarding Alix’s Champion (Powers). I already had a good base idea of what I wanted Alix’s Champion to be, both in design and in powers. In terms of powers, I wanted the Champion Chrono-Girl to actually have more time-based powers similar to say Time Magic from Final Fantasy (FF). As mentioned in the Lady WiFi chapter, I saw Akuma Lady WiFi having some moves that I felt would suit a time-based superbeing more. I also wanted Alix’s Champion to still keep the whole power bar on her rollerblades thing. After reading the AU originator’s post about what they thought could be Alix’s Hero’s form and ability instead, I decided to fuse all these ideas into what I presented in the story: Chrono-Girl can use certain time spells (ex: Fast Forward, Stop, etc.) but it’s at the cost of depleting her power meter on her rollerblades, which she can refill if she rollerblades and picks up speed; thus, I gave her Champion form some more ability variety while also giving a power limitation.

> Her special move, Time Warp, was an obvious choice for me to make her have. The time plane she tore into was inspired by Bunnyx’s pocket dimension (and other similar concepts from other media), but I wanted to make it feel grander than the Canon’s version. It’s also a cheeky reference to a song I really like.

> I also wanted to specifically give her the power to rollerblade against the sides of walls or even ceilings via anti-gravity wheels based on Mario Kart 8, while the watch spell circle she manifests was heavily based on FF’s Tifa in the fan-made Dead Fantasy series.

— Honestly, I want to say I had a lot of fun writing the scenes even if it was such a chore to do. I find myself really enjoying writing out what I think would be the natural flow of scenes since it makes me wonder how I can make it all flow out without being too much or revealing things too early.

> I just hope everyone enjoyed this new installment, and hopefully enjoyed the various amounts of references I love to sprinkle about since I love references or easter eggs . . . and because who knows? Maybe these references are or are going to be important soon as the story progresses.