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Chat Noir was barely conscious, and that broke Emilie’s heart. It didn’t get much better when he managed to look up at Emilie with wide eyes. “Maman…?”
Emilie didn’t hesitate. If pretending to be the young hero’s mother was the only way to convince him to let her help, she would do it. “That’s right; I’m here. I’ll sort you out, alright? You’re doing such a brilliant job, just stay right there for me.”
Should she use the Peafowl to heal him? Could the Peafowl even heal someone? Would his wounds go away when Ladybug cast her Miracle Cure? What if he died before then?
Why had she ever let Gabriel use Nooroo’s Miraculous? Why had she let it all slide?
“Maman…” Chat Noir repeated, and Emilie froze. “Maman, I’m sorry I lied. I wanted to do it on my own. I swear, I was gonna tell you, once Hawkmoth was gone. I swear.”
“You’re-” Emilie felt her throat go dry. “You’re going to be okay. I’ll- I’ve got to have some bandages somewhere…”
God, she hoped Adrien was okay…
“Timers almost out,” Chat Noir mumbled, holding out his hand and looking at the ring, which only had one green, flashing toe-bean. “Tell Plagg I’m sorry?”
“Plagg?” Emilie repeated. “Your kwami?”
Why did that name sound so familiar? It was as if she had heard it somewhere before…
“He’s… grouchy, but… nice, when you get to know him.”
Emilie couldn’t tell how much of what Chat Noir was saying was true and how much was delirium setting in from the blood loss. First thing she had to do was stem the blood loss. Passing Chat a towel, she directed him to hold it over the wound on his side. “As much pressure as you can, baby. I’ll be right back.”
When Emilie returned with the first aid kid, Chat Noir was gone.
In his place was a frantic kwami and a bleeding boy.
Her son.
Her son was Chat Noir.
Hawkmoth, Scarlet Moth - Gabriel - had tried to kill their son. Granted, he didn’t know… did he?
“Doesn’t matter if he knows,” a tired, nasal voice piped up. “He knows he’s a kid. That enough for you?”
Emilie turned to face the Black Cat kwami. In spite of his obvious exhaustion, she could read the serious look on his face just fine. “What do you eat?”
Plagg raised an eyebrow but didn’t push whatever he was thinking. “Cheese’ll do. Anything rotten’s fine.”
Emilie beelined for the fridge and grabbed the oldest cheese she had in the back. Plagg shouldn’t have been able to eat the whole thing, but somehow, it all fit without enlarging his stomach. It probably dissipated under his breath like Cataclysm…
Shaking her head, she took Adrien’s proffered Miraculous. “Adrien, my darling, please forgive me for keeping my own secrets.”
Adrien managed to tilt his head without aggravating his wound. “Maman?”
“Do I have your permission to use your Miraculous?” Emilie asked. “You have full right to refuse.”
Momentarily, Adrien looked more coherent than he had since she found him on the doorstep. “Y-yeah. Look after Plagg, please.” He hesitated for a moment. “Don’t kill Scarlet Moth… he should answer for his actions.”
“He’ll live, darling.” Heading towards a window to make her exit, she said, “I’m going to drop you off at the Liberty. The three of us will handle things from there.”
Plagg paused. “Wait, three?”
Emilie gave him a grave nod. “Explanations later, I promise you both. Plagg, Duusu, Unify.”
Paonne Noire was a sight to behold. Long black feathers with blue accents formed a wide skirt, with the entire ensemble bringing to mind an outfit a ballet dancer might wear on stage. To Adrien, though, she still looked like his remaining family. “You’re a Miraculous wielder, too?!”
“Again, dear, explanations later.” With that, Emilie picked her son out and hopped out the window.
At this point, Anarka had more than had enough of Hawkmoth. He’d left Juleka and Anarka alone this time (although he’d never come for Luka thus far), but Jagged and his assistant had been akumatized… again.
“I swear on everythin’ I have and am - I have a shotgun, and I will use it!” Anarka shouted at the approaching superpowered woman. An empty threat, but hopefully she’d be able to scare the akuma away.
The woman didn’t stop moving, and Anarka backed away, teeth gritting until she noticed who the woman was holding.
Adrien… did that mean…?
“Emilie…?!”
The woman put a finger to her lips. “It’s Paonne Noire, as of right now,” she replied. “Take care of my son for a bit. He was… injured.”
This pissed off Anarka big-time. “What did you do to the boy?”
The akuma scowled. “I did nothing. This is hi-”
“Emmy, just stop. Akumas will make any old excuse t’justify themselves, and ye know that. Hand over the item that connects ye, and we’ll protect our bairns together.”
Emilie paused for a moment. “Ohhhhhh… Anarka, I’m not an akuma.”
“Likely story, Emmy. What’s with the costume, then?”
“Same story as Ladybug and Hawkmoth. They need me right now, and I just need to make sure Adrien will be safe, and…”
Anarka recalled something while Emilie was blabbering on. Ladybug and Chat, before beginning their queerplatonic relationship, had done a kiss of true love to snap the latter out of Dark Cupid’s nefarious spell.
It may not be true love, but Anarka hoped one-sided affections would be enough.
Before Emilie could move, Anarka’s lips were pressing against hers.
She almost dropped her boy, though, so Anarka helped her steady herself. “Anar- I-” Emilie sputtered out, “What was that for?”
Emilie was telling the truth about not being under Hawkmoth’s thrall? Fuck. “I… thought it would snap ye out of your akumatization.”
“Oh, like during Dark Cupid?” Emilie paused before going a shade of red that, while very flattering, didn’t match the rest of her outfit perfectly. “Does that… are you…”
Anarka took Adrien from her and sat him down on an armchair. “We’ll talk about it after Mothboy’s done, I swear.” Looking her in the eye, she sharply said, “Go help Ladybug, Emmy. I can wait for this tale.”
Paonne Noire nodded firmly. “I intend to.”
Well, never let it be said that Emile was the type to take shit lying down. One of the things Anarka admired the most about her. Maybe even what she loved about her…
Huh… maybe that kiss hadn’t been for purely selfless reasons after all.
Ladybug was approximately two minutes away from a panic attack.
She’d been sorta on the verge from the moment Scarlet Moth reared his ugly mug, but Chat Noir being gashed with Riposte’s blade, putting him out of commission, had been the final straw. Queen Bee, Rena Rouge and Carapace were trying their best to help, but they were fighting dozens of akumas, as well as Scarlet Moth himself. They were severely outnumbered, and they couldn’t recharge often enough to make a dent in the akuma numbers.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ladybug saw a flash of black and blue darting through the streets. A flurry of feathers left a strange humanoid creature in its place, which rapidly started dividing into fluidly morphing humanoids with weapon-shaped hands.
Their mysterious savior took that opportunity to make themselves known. “Chat Noir is safe,” they said. “He lent me his Miraculous, which I am using alongside Duusu’s.”
“Duusu…?”
“My kwami, he of the Peafowl Miraculous,” the stranger said. “It allows me to create sentibeings with a variety of abilities.”
Whoa… if they could get this person on their side, her abilities would easily turn the tide of most of their battles.
“Where is Hawkmoth?” the stranger asked.
“He’s somewhere nearby,” Ladybug said. “We saw him a moment ago. He can’t have gone far.”
“I’ll deal with him, young lady. You focus on getting everyone deakumatized and home safely.” She pointed up at Dark Cupid, who was battling with one of her sentibeings, who used a grapple to grab him from the air. “Starting with him.”
As she started racing away, Ladybug called out, “What should I call you?!”
“Paonne Noire!”
Here they were.
The final fight.
Emilie was going to settle things with Gabriel once and for all. Even if it had to be Paonne Noire against Scarlet Moth.
In the end, Scarlet Moth hardly put up a fight. Gabriel had always been a little slow, and Emilie had always been smarter than him. Not that he’d ever admit that out loud.
In the end, Scarlet Moth hadn’t been watching his back.
In the end, Paonne Noire’s only real issue was disposing of Catalyst, Scarlet Moth’s minion.
It took one Cataclysm to destroy Catalyst’s tablet, one fan-chop to knock Nathalie unconscious, and one amok to conjure two pairs of handcuffs. Similar to Jagged, Emilie channeling a desire for Gabriel to be brought to justice.
“I told you what would happen if you laid a hand on our son again, Gabriel,” Paonne Noire hissed, her lips so close to his ears that he could feel her breath. “The only reason that you are not currently dead is due to his request that I spare your life.”
Scarlet Moth didn’t speak a word, simply struggling against his handcuffs.
“Go on,” Paonne Noire snarled. “Give me a reason to change my mind. I dare you.”
Scarlet Moth went still. “You wouldn’t…”
“I would.” Snatching Nooroo’s Miraculous, she grabbed Gabriel by his ascot. “We’ve been over for a whole year now.” Her anger finally boiled to the surface. “You’re going to learn to accept this the hard way…”
Emilie had promised she’d let him live. She wouldn’t have promised an absence of bloodshed, but her ex-husband would live.
After the beating she unleashed on him, though, he was going to take a hospital pit stop first.
“So… not an akuma, huh?” Anarka said.
It had been a few days since Gabriel Agreste was arrested for his crimes as Hawkmoth, and Emilie was simply thankful that no one had made the connection between her and Paonne Noire.
And that the old Guardian had let her keep Duusu.
Emilie frowned, rearranging her legs so she was sitting neatly on the chair. “No. It’s a little complicated but… I’m guessing Jagged mentioned the person who dragged him here a few weeks ago?”
“Yeah?”
“That was me, wielding the Peafowl Miraculous. I usually call myself Madamayuri. However, yesterday, I was working with an additional Miraculous, which was why my appearance was different.”
“Huh…” Anarka took a moment to absorb everything. “Ye really weren’t akumatized… sorry for kissin’ ya without asking.”
“You don’t need to apologize,” Emilie said. “It was nice that you tried to help… and I didn’t mind it.”
“... ye didn’t?”
“Not at all.” Emilie flushed shyly. “In fact, if you kissed me again… I do believe I would be even more receptive.”
“Oh, uhh…” Anarka had never been especially good at this part. “D-Do you wanna?”
“Immensely.”
This time, instead of being a last-ditch effort to save a life, the kiss was desperate and clinging, with teeth knocking against each other.
“Y’know,” Anarka said. “We’ve gotta tell the bairns about this.”
“All in due time,” Emilie replied. “For now, all I want is you.”
“Crazy…” Anarka remarked. “So do I.”