Chapter Text
“This is NOT OKAY, TIKKI!” Marinette tugged on her pigtails in a giant fit of frustration, regret, anger, sadness and fear all rolled into one pot of emotion soup set on fire.
After running from Marc and his transformation, Marinette had swiftly shut herself in the nearby janitor's closet. The whole place smelled strongly of cleaning substances and chemicals to the point where it hurt her head a little to be in there.
“I need to fix this and FAST!” Marinette bit her lip nervously as she gently held Tikki in her palm. “Otherwise Nathaniel will leave, Marc will never see him again, and I'll be the WORLD's WORST COUSIN!!!” She practically sobbed.
“Calm down, Marinette!” Tikki smiled up at her. “Everything will turn out just fine, it always does!”
Marinette let out a sigh. “I hope you're right…”
“TIKKI! SPOTS ON!”
The familiar warmth of the Kwamis magic enveloped Marinette until she was fully decked out in her red and black suit once more. Transforming has gotten complicated for her emotionally. While she used to love transforming and the ability to essentially switch lives with an infinitely better version of herself, that version is now saddled with too many burdens to make transformation feel as freeing as it did before. Now it just felt like trading one pair of chains for another.
Ladybug shook her head and gave herself a gentle slap on the cheek. She had to act fast.
Ladybug opened the closet door as softly as she could and peered outside. It seemed to be strangely quiet all around.
Usually when someone is akumatized it's very… apparent. You'll usually see chaos all around, perhaps a few burning buildings and almost always the sound of the villain yelling threats or demands.
It was almost entirely silent, though. Ladybug cautiously opened the door the whole way and stepped out, pausing to look around.
It had certainly changed a lot.
Barbed wire has begun growing and spreading along the walls like artificial vines, curving sharply around door frames and covering up windows with their spikes.
Ladybug cautiously walked towards the entrance courtyard, keeping her stance defensive for anything that could jump out.
When she reached the doorframe she felt her foot gently kick something. Ladybug gently lowered herself into a squat on the ground and picked up the foreign object. It seemed to be a strangely shaped gold ring, right in the place of where Marc was standing beforehand.
Ladybug smiled. Taking off his miraculous right before getting Akumatized… her cousin always was a smarty. Ladybug reached her hands down and unhooked her yo-yo, lifting it to her face and opening it up before gently placing the ring inside its strange sort of storage mechanic. Once Marc was De-Akumatized she'd hand it back as long as his identity hadn't been revealed. There was no sense in taking away his Miraculous for something so heartbreaking.
Stepping out into the courtyard the once beautiful scenery had turned into a brutalist piece of vicious art. Barbed wire covered the foliage and coated trees, piercing through their bark and making sap spill out and stick incessantly to its metal.
Here, however, was where Ladybug was able to see a difference from all the edgy seeming barbed wire. Growing alongside the wires in tandem were what looked like to be Green Carnations. The only reason Ladybug was able to tell what they even were was because of her parents. She remembers once helping out on a quite extravagant looking cake with Green Carnations pasted all over for some wedding if she remembered right. Why they chose that instead of something like roses always eluded her, maybe they were into some flower symbolism but she couldn't remember what they meant.
Ladybug slapped her cheeks gently with her palms to shake herself out from her increasingly long train of thought. Now wasn't the time to ponder symbolism, marriages and cakes. She had an Akuma to catch.
“Hm, seems someone needs to brush up on their decorating skills. Don't they, my lady?”
Ladybug looked up to her right, letting out a small relieved sigh at seeing her partner again. Dealing with Akumas was never easy nor pleasant but Chat being there seemed to always cheer her up no matter how terrible the situation.
Even if it was a really really really shitty situation.
“Hello, kitty.” Ladybug smiled as Chat Noire lowered himself down by his staff to her side.
“Any helpful intel, My Lady?” Chat asked, leaning lazily on his staff as he gazed at her.
Ladybug nodded, trying to keep the guilt she felt from seeping into her words as she spoke. “Marc Anciel. The Akuma flew into his choker.”
Ladybug paused for a second and looked up to take the sight in, the dark clouds, barbed wire coating the ground and the outlying Green Carnations before speaking once more. “It seems hes certainly not Reverser anymore…”
Chat whistled as he also looked around at his surroundings. “Do you know the motive?”
Ladybug took a sharp inhale before looking away. “Its not my place to say.”
Chat paused for a second but nodded.
“I suppose we should be on our way, then.”
“Huh? Where?”
“To the giant obvious birdcage in the middle of Paris?”
Chat pointed as he spoke, guiding Ladybugs' gaze to what was…. Yep, a giant bird cage in the middle of Paris.
“How did I not notice that…?” Ladybug muttered to herself while she unhooked her yo-yo once more.
“I dunno, maybe you're a bit of a birdbrain!” Chat turned to her and giggled as he readied his own staff.
“Hardy, har.” Ladybug rolled her eyes as she gazed upon the giant bird cage.
Her eye twitched slightly as uneasiness filled her stomach with anxiety. Not the usual anxiety of the intense responsibility that weighed her down like an anchor tied to either end of her legs, but a different feeling that told her instincts something was wrong… Or maybe missing.
“Hmm…” Ladybug paused for a second before gripping her yo-yo tight and tossing it up to the sky.
“Lucky Charm!” She cried out, watching as bright red light engulfed her yo-yo, molding itself into…
A small paintbrush.
“Lucky Charm already, My Lady? Bit early, don't you think?” Chat commented from beside her, his ears twitching in cute cat-like confusion.
Ladybug shook her head as she held the polka dotted paintbrush in her hand. “No. I know exactly what this means.”
Ladybug held out a hand, gesturing for Chat Noir to stay like he was some house pet (he practically was if she was being honest). “You stay here.” She said with a new glint of determination in her eyes. “I’ll be back soon."
Without a second to spare Ladybug threw her yo-yo, watching it sling off of ramparts and hook into perfect swinging spots.
“Cryptic as always, M'lady!” Chat called after her jokingly as he watched her swing away into the depths of the Parisian streets.