Chapter Text
Almost everything in Adrien’s life was not his own.
Every step, every breath was guided by his father, all planned and executed according to whatever he wanted. Adrien always felt like perhaps he could feel safe, or seek comfort in that protection; initially, he felt guilty at begrudging his father for protecting him.
Now, it just felt… stifling. Like he couldn’t breathe. Like he was being suffocated while simultaneously being told it was “for his own good”.
He had to fight so, so hard to be allowed to go to public school.
On the rare and rarer days they had dinner together, Adrien would tentatively bring up the topic. Whenever he would see his father in his office, he would try to bring it up. And he would talk to Natalie about it. Natalie was nice. She might have been her father’s assistant, but she’s wasn’t entirely his father’s person. Adrien was almost certain the only reason he was even allowed to attend public school was because of Natalie’s intervention.
When Natalie had told him the news, he had stared at her for a good second before looking quickly back down to the floor, a sudden, uncomfortable burning sensation sparking behind his eyes.
“He really said yes?” Adrien croaked, running a hand through his tidy hair. “He really… let me…?”
“Yes,” Natalie said crisply. “However, it’s not without it’s restrictions. You are to be picked up everyday after school by your bodyguard, and you will continue taking your Chinese and fencing lessons. If your father is displeased with the sort of grades you are recieving in your classes, he will revoke the privilege to go to the public school. Those are the terms.”
“So I can really go?” Adrien was unable to keep the tremor in his voice. Natalie’s face softened by a margin.
“Yes, Adrien,” she said gently. “You really can go.”
Getting out of that big, empty house… Adrien felt like he was breathing for the first time. Like he was seeing for the first time. It wasn’t like he’d never been out of the house before, but it felt like it was. He wondered if this was what freedom tasted like.
However, he had forgotten one, crucial thing.
Nobody knew about Adrien’s little secret. His accident.
It had been worsening over the summer. Was it because of the heat? His father suspected so, and so he shut Adrien in the house all day. It didn’t help a thing. His legs were weakening. He could still force himself to stand if needed, but a week before the first day of school he had been issued a cane to help him walk.
He felt angry and embarrassed to have to use such a device. Everytime he looked at it, he felt a flare of anger- and guilt. He’d suppressed the memories and thoughts of it very well; Adrien was always very adept at ignoring truths he didn’t want to hear. But somehow the emotions kept bubbling up to the surface anyway, lashing and angry. And he knew people would have things to say about it- oh yes they would, the same way Gabriel Agreste’s wife mysteriously dying provoked many, many discussions conducted by people Adrien didn’t even know. So many eyes on him, judging and prodding and poking him. People who had no business in doing so.
Despite his father’s best attempts to keep Adrien going to school innocuous, word got out, as it usually did. Paparazzi were practically climbing the walls outside their mansion when he got into the car with his bodyguard (his name alluded Adrien, so Adrien always referred to him as “The Gorilla”).
It was a little disarming- the dead quiet in the car mixed with the muted shrieking as reporters fired questions at Adrien and snapped pictures, even as the car started to drive.
“Adrien! What really happened to your mother?”
“Would you say your father has become more controlling of you ever since his wife’s tragic accident?”
“Is it true you’re attending a public school, Adrien?”
The voices soon faded away as the car began to accelerate. Adrien, who had realized how stiffly he’d been sitting, visibly relaxed a little, slumping against his carseat, staring blankly at the car ceiling, feeling hot irritation well up inside him, the feeling of freedom sliding away. Even outside his house, he couldn’t escape. He was still trapped.
And there was another thing he was worried about.
“Sir?” Adrien said, referring to the Gorilla. The man did not look away from the road, but raised his thick eyebrows in acknowledgement, letting him go on.
“Do you think… people will be nice about it?”
Adrien couldn’t specify. That very simple sentence meant so many things- would they be nice about his leg, would they be nice about his mother. He knew Chloe was going to be there; she attended school at Françoise Dupont. Although the thought made him feel slightly uneasy, at least that was one person he knew how to act around.
Why were people so confusing and hard to read? It would be so much better if people just said what was on their minds. Take his father, for example. Adrien had known him his whole life, and yet he felt as though he had yet to see the real Gabriel Agreste. He wondered if maybe he was just awful at connecting with people, or if it was because everyone had become such good liars. It was hard to tell. Maybe it was a mix of both.
The Gorilla clenched his jaw, seemingly in deep concentration. Then he shrugged.
Wow. So helpful. Adrien suppressed an eyeroll.
His bad mood continued all the way until they rode up to school, where reporters were forbidden entry. He knew there were probably a few skulking around, though. He’d learned that the hard way.
He had his schedule gripped tightly in his fist and started up the stairs. The school was huge- it seemed to stretch for miles, just miles of white brick. The stairs seemed elongated. Reality narrowed into two slits; and yet somehow he didn’t feel small, the way he felt small in his father’s mansion. He had barely entered the building when he noticed a girl hopping around frantically at the front.
Everyone had filed to their classes, hurriedly rushing to arrive on time on the first day. Some had shot him weird looks, but nobody seemed to recognize him yet, which was a miracle.
The girl looked… a little insane. There was something very interesting about the way her body contorted as she completely lost it; he didn’t think it was humanly possibly to bend the human body that way without breaking it, but somehow she managed to defy all logic. Also, it was a bit concerning. Adrien tentatively approached her, wanting to ask her what was wrong, when she suddenly hit him.
Her head snapped up and slammed into his chin. He yelled. She yelled.
“Oh my god, I’m sorry!” she cried, leaping up and holding out her hand towards his. “I’m so sorry! I don’t know what came over me-”
“I’m fine,” Adrien gritted out, his chin throbbing as he fumbled for his cane.
He could see her big blue eyes on him, assessing his every move. Her eyes fell to his legs, then his cane, and he could practically see the connection she was forming. Something akin to sympathy rose in her eyes, and he was desperate to make it go away. He said the very first thing that came to his mind.
“I wanted to know where Miss Bustier’s room was.”
A lie, a little white lie, but it wiped that expression clean from her face.
“You go to school here?”
He winced, feeling again that same flare of irriation. She definitely recognized him, then. Was it seriously that shocking? God, sometimes he hated his face. His name. He wished he were invisible so nobody would ever look his way again.
“Yes, I do,” he replied coldly.
He asked her then to show him the way to Miss Bustier’s room, which she eventually agreed to. And then, it turned out she- Marinette, as Miss Bustier called her- was his classmate, which was just fine. A bit awkward, but fine. Adrien wasn’t even thinking about her anymore as soon as class started.
Miss Bustier seemed like a nice person. She talked a lot. She gave Adrien a warm smile when he first walked in, and he could feel the icy wall he always had up melt a little.
Adrien thought the worst was already over.
“Oh my god, is that you, Adrikins?”
Adrien froze up, then slowly turned around.
Chloe. She looked the same as she always did- haughtily beautiful. She had her silky blonde hair in a high ponytail, and her eyes were sharp on his as she sidled up next to him with a simpering smile. “Hello, Adrikins.”
“... Hello, Chloe,” he muttered, angling his body away from her. Though Chloe had been his oldest friend, she has this intensity whenever he was with him that made being with her slightly unbearable.
A lot of the conversation was muddled after that. He had an unfortuante habit of tuning people out when more than one person was talking to him, or when he just didn’t want to listen. He was very, very good at ignoring things when he wanted to.
He didn’t want to tell her about how his father had kept him practically isolated from society after his mother died. He didn’t want to tell her about how his leg was hurt. Why he couldn’t walk properly. He didn’t want any of it.
Ah. They were still talking. He could hear Nino distantly, very distantly yelling at Chloe, Chloe sniping right back. He gripped the the edge of the table so hard he could feel the soft wood chip underneath his touch.
“Nino! Chloe! Adrien! All of you, down here. Now. The rest of you, continue your discussions.”
Adrien jerked his head up, painfully pulled out of his mind. Chloe rolled her eyes and dutifully walked down the stairs, Nino and Adrien trudging after her.
Adrien noticed that same black-haired, pigtail girl standing nervously on the side. The sight of her made his blood boil.
Did she just… tell on the teacher? What is she, six?
He glared daggers at her; she ducked her head and dove back to her seat. Unbelievable. Unbelievable! His father was going to hear about this for sure. He wouldnt’ be surprised if his father was demanding that the school report Adrien’s every interaction. It was like his father to micromanage every single tiny detail of Adrien’s life. He hated it, he hated it.
When he passed by, he couldn’t help but snap at her slightly, his facade of calm cracked.
Rationally, he knew it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t her fault that his father felt this staggering, toxic urge to protect him the way his father failed to protect his mother. But emotions defied all rationale.
Goddammit. Even now, far away from his father’s presence, he still lurked somehow. He could practically feel that frigid gaze on him, chilling him to the bone.
The next few periods passed by blurrily for Adrien. He was overwhelmed- he was angry, he was bitter, he was… he didn’t even have the vocabulary to describe how he felt. He could feel people’s stares skittering over his skin like long-legged spiders, their whispers grating into his mind. Perhaps he was wrong- he didn’t want freedom from his father.
He wanted freedom from himself.
At lunch, he tried to seat himself away from everyone. But that was a mistake. Everyone started to crowd around him. He couldn’t even force himself to smile at them the way he did with reporters. It was just so much harder. Even beyond the crowd of people, there were eyes, constant eyes searing into him, watching his every action.
And that was when the blast happened.
The sound of it shook the entire room. The lights flickered. When Adrien glanced up, another boom occured, and part of the wall caved in.
His mind went oddly quiet as the rubble nearly buried students alive. He felt something like pain around his knees, a burning sensation around his mouth. He realized that he’d thrown up.
And his leg. God, his leg was burning. He couldn’t move, he was trapped again- he could practically feel the hot, compressing metal melting into him, fire in his lungs, the muffled shouts-
“Adrien!”
Warm, solid fingers wrapped around his shoulder, jerking him from his daze. “Adrien, we have to go.” It was the same girl from Miss Bustier’s, her eyes wide and fearful, her pigtails coming slightly undone.
“I can’t.” He gritted his teeth, the feeling in his lower body completely gone. “My legs, they won’t… they won’t move…”
She glanced around, and quickly grabbed his cane, holding it out as well as her other hand. “Let me help you.”
“I don’t want your help!” he snarled, his mind clear for one crystal moment. He didn’t need her in the classroom, he didn’t need her now. He was so sick and tired of people trying to help him. He was sick and tired of being treated like a child-
“I don’t care about your stupid pride!” she snapped right back, and he blanched. “You’re going to die if you don’t move, and I’m going to die because I decided very stupidly to help you, and I don’t want to die, so take my hand now!”
He stared at her palm uncomprehendingly, then looked back at her face. It was pale, all the blood drained out of it, but her eyes were determined. She was here for him, trying to save him, even at the cost of her life.
“Put your arm under my arm so I can get up,” he said, surprising her and himself. She hooked her arm underneath his, and yanked him up with surprising force.
They started to run outside the cafeteria into the bleached sunshine. There was a noise, an inhuman shout of rock and gravel; another noise, and Adrien looked down and realized he’d stepped on a
Bloodied.
Human.
Hand.
Adrien swore, frantically trying to get away from it, slamming into Marinette.
“MYLÈNE!”
Adrien hid beside the boulder he was standing by, forcing Marinette down as well. The voice sounded more familiar up close-he had heard that voice today somewhere, hadn’t he?
But when he peeked over, his stomach curdled. He didn’t remember seeing some sort of stone monster wandering around grounds.
“What is happening?” She cried, her voice high-pitched “What- what i-is this? Why is this h-happening? Wh-”
“Calm down Marinette.” He felt a shiver of annoyance.
“Don’t tell me to calm down when you were just throwing up 2 seconds earlier!”
“You’re acting irrational. I’m telling you that you can’t panic right right.” He wasn’t sure where the words were coming from; he was scared and panicked just as she were, but here he was, getting angry at her for a perfectly reasonable reaction. The words continued to pour, angry and sharp.”What I did earlier has nothing to do with you hyperventilating now.”
“What else am I supposed to do?! How are you so calm right now?”
That was the thing. He glanced at her angry, scrunched-up face, feeling troubled. “I… don’t-”
“LET ME GO!”
“Mylène,” Marinette breathed, paling further, turning her attention away from Adrien. “She- it-”
“Mylène,” The rock monster spoke. “Mylène, Mylène, Mylène. I’m sorry I startled you earlier today. I awant to do that. I want to protect you from that, Mylène.”
“Ivan?” Mylène gasped from the rock monster’s grip.
“Ivan?” Marinette echoed. “Are you serious? How?”
“Who’s Ivan?” Adrien asked. She jumped; she had nearly forgotten he was there.
“Just some guy Mylène kind-of rejected,” Marinette explained quickly, and Adrien blinked hard. Ivan was someone who went to school with them? But then how did he go from being that to this?
Marinette seemed to have the same questions. “I don’t know why he’s… that… though…”
“Are you telling me he was a student at this school?”
“Yes, Adrien, that’s exactly what I’m telling you!” she snapped, sounding at wit’s end.
“I know no IVAN,” Ivan rumbled again, angrier this time. “I am reborn of stone and earth; the almighty STONEHEART! I will keep you safe, Mylène.”
Ivan suddenly swept a hand in front of him despite Mylène’s protests. A huge blast of wind and cement ripped through the air, and Marinette and Adrien were both seperated; Marinette flew to the right, and Adrien flew to the left.
He crashed into a tree with a yell, hitting the sidewalk with a thump as he groaned. He was lucky; the branches and leaves had broken his fall, leaving him with only a few bruises.
The issue was, he didn’t know where his cane flew to.
He laid there on the sidewalk for a good 2 minutes, struggling to stand, before banging his fist on the cement and sobbing out a harsh expletive.
“Goddammit!” he started angrily hitting his leg, shaking it. “Why? Why are you fucking broken? Why won’t you work? Why can’t I do anything?”
He screamed the last bit, and he didn’t care if that Stoneheart thing heard him, he wanted to be heard for once. He wanted someone to acknowledge Adrien Agreste needed help.
He felt a sharp pain at his side.
He jerked back a little, realizing he had been laying on a tiny, black box. It looked like a ring case, with dark wood with numerous little details etched upon its smooth surface.
“What is this?” he muttered, grabbing it off the ground and opening it.
A great green light shot out of the box, causing Adrien to yell and throw the box at it. The box passed through the light easily, and the orb burst, and in its place was a small, black, cat-like creature.
The creature took one look at Adrien’s face and groaned. “Seriously? Again? Haven’t we been through this whole Miraculous holder thing too many times?”
“Wh-what-” Adrien had never stuttered so badly in his life. “Who- wh- what are- you’re-?”
“And you’re a shrimp! A baby, practically!” The creature ranted, completely ignoring Adrien as he zoomed up close, inspecting his face. “How old even are you?”
“14,” Adrien said automatically.
“14?” The creature bellowed, and Adrien shrank back. “What is wrong with that old man? No way! I refuse to let a child be the Miraculous holder to me!”
“I’m not a child,” Adrien managed, feeling a little put down. The creature rolled his eyes. “My name is Adrien.”
“Yeah, okay. And I’m not a sentiment abstract concept conjured by abnormally powerful jewelry bestowed upon humanity for the protection against supernatural forces!” he folded his arms; there was another crash somewhere in the distance. “Ugh. That wouldn’t happen to be a supervillain, right. Please tell me it isn’t.”
“I don’t know about supervillain,” Adrien said, feeling a little delirious. “Are you real? Am I hallucinating? Did I hit my head too hard?”
“I just told you I’m a sentiment abstract concept conjured by abnormally powerful jewelry bestowed upon humanity for the protection against supernatural forces!” The creature turned upside down, squinting at Adrien through green cat eyes upside-down. “Also, if this really were a hallucination, I wouldn’t tell you it’s a hallucination.”
“Right…” There was another boom.
The creature gave another groan. “Why is the kwami of destruction always relied upon to save the world? Like, helloooo! Isn’t it against my very nature? Also, I have much better things to do!”
“Kwami? Destruction? Saving the world?” Adrien felt so lost. “I don’t…”
“We don’t have time for chitchat. I’ll give you the crash course.” The creature rose up to look at Adrien in the eye, holding up a ring. A ring that had fallen out of the box; it was entirely black, with a slight green cat paw in the middle. “Hi, what’s crackalackin’, I’m Plagg. I’m a kwami, which basically just means I’m a spirit animal sprite thing.”
“Like a fairy?”
“NO!” Plagg practically screamed. “I am not a fairy! I am a kwami! Ahem… but like I was saying, I am the kwami of destruction. This is the Miraculous of Destruction. You need to put this on, say, “Plagg, claws out”, become a superhero, save the world, and then we can be on our way!”
“But- I- me?” Adrien was still reeling; he shook his head frantically. “Saving the world? Up against that thing? Plagg, I can’t, I’m jus- I can’t walk, for God’s sake! I can’t even protect myself, my father has to do all the protecting for me because I’m so- so weak. How can I protect the city?”
“Look, Adderall-”
“Adrien.”
“-whatever, same difference! No matter how insecure you feel about yourself and no matter how many daddy issues you have, my Miraculous master chose you to be the holder. Somehow. For whatever reason. I trust him, so I guess I have to trust you. There’s something in you, kid! Something you don’t see in yourself. Also, if you don’t do it, who else will?”
Adrien stared at him. “I have never felt so insulted and/or complimented in my life.”
“It’s a talent.” Plagg held up the ring, his green eyes serious. Adrien held his gaze a moment longer, before taking the ring. He slid it on his finger; it fit perfectly.
“Plagg, claws out!”
A warm, green shimmer enveloped Adrien, wrapping him around in black leather. A mask. A suit. Black cat ears on his hair, his golden locks free and wild.
He stood, blinking at himself. “Jesus, okay,” he mumbled to himself. “This might be overkill.”
Wait.
Back up.
He. Stood.
He tentaively put weight on his foot. No pain. He stomped it. No pain. He started walking, the running around, whooping, screaming.
No pain.
“Oh my God! Oh my god, I can walk? I can really walk? Plagg? PLAGG, I CAN WALK!” There was an insane, childish glee that filled him. He looked around; the world had never looked so bright before. He glanced down, and realized there was something in his hand. A short, silver cylinder.
“The hell is this?” he said, pressing a random button, then yelling as the cylinder extended greatly, launching him through the sky.
He plummeted downwards, slamming into someone.
The person screamed as he fell on top of them, squirming.
“Sorry! Sorry,” he apologized, scrambling up, scratching the back of his head. “I’m still getting used to this whole thing…”
He glanced up, and he did a double take.
The girl in front of him looked just as bewildered. She was wearing a suit too- one red with black spots all over. Red ribbons tied her hair back, and she had on a mask that matched her suit.
“Woah. Okay.” The girl breathed in and out, gulping for air. “Okay, uhm… woah. Well, first off- are you alright?”
Adrien nodded hesitantly. “Yes, I’m fine. And you?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. That hardly hurt.” She lifted an arm, marveling herself. “These things are crazy.”
“Tell me about it. I can’t believe that my le…” Something in him blared like an alarm; an instinct that cautioned him from telling anyone who he really was.
She hadn’t recognized him as Adrien yet. And it felt… good.
She was still looking at him expectedly, so he scurried to finish his sentence. “... legendary luck lead to you! I’m surprised to bump into someone like me.”
“I know! Tikki said I was going to have to save the world. I wasn’t aware there would be someone else to help me!” she smiled, and held out a hand. Only the hand had a yoyo; it launched forwardly, nearly hitting Adrien in the face and bouncing up. “I’m Ma…”
The yoyo hit her on the head. She winced, giggling nervously. “... madly clumsy. Hehe.”
“Tikki? Is that your kwami name?” Adrien asked curiously.
She brightened. “Yes! Do you have a kwami?”
Adrien rested the cylinder pole behind his head on his shoulders. “Yeah. Calls himself Plagg of Destruction or something.”
“I wish they were here to tell us what to do.”
“I kinda don’t.” Adrien couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t like being told what to do.”
She squinted up at him, blue eyes curious. “You’re almost like a street cat with that mentality.”
“Do I remind you of one?” Playfulness seized him; he tilted his head. “I certainly look like one. You look like a ladybug.”
“Wow. What a terrific observation,” she said dryly, causing Adrien to let out a surprised laugh. She grinned. “Oh! That’ll be my superhero name. Ladybug.”
“Boo. That’s so unoriginal.”
“You come up with one, then, kitty cat,” Ladybug challenged, putting her hands to her hips.
“Easy.” The name came to Adrien’s mind and fell on his tongue only a moment later. “Chat Noir.”
“That literally means black cat!”
“Yeah, but it sounds more sophisticated.” He winked at her. Never had he felt so free before. He could say, act, or do anything. Adrien melted away; the identity, the new person Chat Noir took his place. “More charming.”
Ladybug rolled her eyes at him. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Whatever you say, milady.”
“Milady?” Ladybug began to say, incredulous, but there was another loud crashing nosie coming back from the school. Her face immediately stilled, hardening to determination. “Do you know what’s happening right now?”
Adrien straightened, going serious as well. “Yes. I’m aware.”
“Stoneheart isn’t a monster. It’s a boy that goes to school there. Ivan. He’s been transformed somehow, turning from human into Stoneheart.” Ladybug grabbed her yoyo and pressed a button- it opened like a flip phone. Adrien stared at her as she tapped at the screen.
"How'd you do that?" he asked, amazed.
She rolled her eyes again, holding out a hand. "By using my brain. Here, just give me your weapon."
He handed it to her. She inspected it, turning it this way and that before pressing a button- his pole too slid halfway open, showing a screen. She handed it back. "Our weapons are multi-use. There's an instruction manual on how to use the miraculous on there. Read it, and follow me!"
She started sprinting towards the middle school. Adrien hesitated, before following her.
It felt unnatural, putting weight on his leg; it felt even weirder to be running as such high velocity. Not only had the Miraculous fixed his leg, it also seemed to have given him super strength and speed. He closed his eyes, bent his legs and leapt, just to see how high he could jump.
He reached approximately 30 feet before he landed on his hands and feet. Like a cat.
“You look pretty happy for a guy who’s most likely going to be having to fight a supervillain,” Ladybug remarked as they ran.
“How can I not be happy? This is.. It’s amazing.”
Ladybug stared at him, then smiled a little, her eyes shining with quiet understanding. “I see.”
The reached the school. Ladybug paused in front of the rubble, then pulled out her yoyo, throwing it so it attached to a pole on the top of her school. She gave a little yank, was hurled to the top.
Adrien inspected his pole. He angled it, pressed the same button that extended the pole, and launched himself forward. He landed a little messily on the building.
“Stoneheart is somewhere in this building,” Ladybug whispered. “In order to defeat the villain, I’m going to have to a function on my Miraculous… apparently I just have to say the words ‘lucky charm’, and th-”
She almost screamed; something big just fell from the sky and landed in front of her. It looked like a very large, ladybug-patterned onesie.
“Is that supposed to help us beat the supervillain?” Adrien peered at it
“Stop sounding condescending! I don’t know any more than you!”
“Maybe the solution will come to you once we’re down there,” Adrien offered. “My ultimate skill is apparently something called Cata- ahem. Basically I can destroy anything I touch. We can go down there and I can use it on Stoneheart-”
“We can’t do that! What if it kills Ivan?”
Adrien paused. “Oh. Right.”
“Let’s just try to incapaciate him for now. We can figure out the rest from there. The police might be able to deal with him after.” Ladybug sounded hopeful.
“Ladies first,” Adrien said, bowing deeply. Ladybug rolled her eyes, and Adrien noticed with some relief that she seemed to be shaking away her nerves.
She hopped down the huge gaping hole, and Adrien followed.
Stoneheart was sitting right in front of them, a tower of rock cradling the girl Mylène in the middle. The look of terror had subsided, and it seemed like she was trying to reason with Stone heart.
“YOU!” Stoneheart bellowed suddenly, rising. He had locked his horrifying eyes on Ladybug and Adrien. “MIRACULOUS HOLDERS. DANGER TO MYLÈNE. DANGER TO HAWKMOTH.”
“Hawkmoth?’ Ladybug and Adrien muttered at the same time, then yelped, leaping out the way as Stoneheart lunged towards them.
“Ivan, we’re not your enemies!” Ladybug cried, steadying herself.
“I AM NOT IVAN! I AM STONEHEART!”
“I know who you really are, Ivan,” Ladybug insisted. “And this isn’t you! I know you just want to protect Mylène, and that’s really sweet of you. But look at her. You’re scaring her. She’s trying to tell you that, but you haven’t been listening.”
Stoneheart paused- he seemed to be listening to something or someone that wasn’t in the room.
“Don’t get it,” Stoneheart rumbled at last. “Only way to be… with her. She won’t accept Ivan.”
Mylène touched Stoneheart’s huge rock arm gently. “You just frightened me a little with the music, that’s all! I never meant to reject you, I was just…”
“DON’T GET IT!” Stoneheart screamed, and he screamed it over and over again, his body twitching like he was in pain.
“Someone’s controlling him.”
Ladybug glanced at Adrien, looking terrified. “What do you mean? How can you tell?”
“I know the look of someone who isn’t operating under their own free will.” Adrien narrowed his eyes. “All he wanted to do was to be with Mylène. Protect her. It’s pretty obvious something or someone took that feeling and morphed it into something horrible for their own gains.”
There was a faint beeping noise coming from Ladybug; she touched her earring. One black dot flashed, then disappeared. “I’m on borrowed time. After I use my Lucky Charm skill, I only have about 5 minutes before I detransform. We have to do something fast.”
“Then let’s stick to the original plan.” Adrien stepped up, extended his pole, and grabbed Mylène, pulling her away.
“NO! MYLÈNE!” Stoneheart screamed, lunging forward.
“LADYBUG!” Adrien yelled. Ladybug was frozen; panic glazed over her eyes.
“I can’t… I can’t do this,” she whispered, her yoyo dangling uselessly at her side.
Bizarrely, Adrien thought back to minutes before, when he was frozen and shaking, and Marinette had pulled him out of daze.
Warm, solid fingers wrapped around his shoulder, jerking him from his daze. “Adrien, we have to go.” It was the same girl from Miss Bustier’s, her eyes wide and fearful, her pigtails coming slightly undone.
“I can’t.” He gritted his teeth, the feeling in his lower body completely gone. “My legs, they won’t… they won’t move…”
She glanced around, and quickly grabbed his cane, holding it out as well as her other hand. “Let me help you.”
“You can,” Adrien urged, even as Stoneheart howled, trying to grab hold of Mylène. “Milady, look at me.”
Her hands clenched into fists, and she forced herself to look at him.
“You can do this,” he said softly. “We can do this. I promise. Everything will be okay.”
Ladybug stared a moment longer, and Adrien deftly jumped, avoiding Stoneheart’s giant rock paws.
“Now snap out of it! I’m trying not to die here!”
“Right! Right” Ladybug glanced around wildly, then paused; her eyes flashed, not with fear, but with an idea. “Wait! I have an idea!”
She ran back, grabbing hold of a fireman’s hose, running out of the school with it.
“Please have the idea faster,” Adrien muttered, and he and Mylène shouting as Stoneheart kept lunging at them.
Ladybug came back, hose still in hand. She quickly attached the end of it to the onsie and threw it at Adrien. “Chat Noir! Trade!”
“Yes ma’am!” He caught the onsie and pushed Mylène over to Ladybug.
Stoneheart grabbed hold of Adrien with both paws, leering at him. “MIRACULOUS FOR HAWKMOTH,” he boomed.
Adrien struggled in his tight grip. His hand clenching, he began to say, “Catacl-”
“Not yet, kitty!” Ladybug had turned on the hose, and handed it to Mylène. “Keep it steady.”
She then swung the yoyo, wrapping it around Stoneheart’s hands like handcuffs. The water poured into the onesie, which inflated like a balloon, forcing stoneheart to open his grip. Adrien hit the floor gracefully, extending his pole and and swinging himself on it, using the force to kick Stoneheart away. Stoneheart hit the brick wall with a groan, and Ladybug started to tie his entire body together, restricting his movement.
“So that was what the onesie was for?” Adrien regrouped with Ladybug, putting his hands on his hips. “That’s a bit whimsical.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” Ladybug smiled proudly, and Adrien smiled back. Then Ladybug glanced down, eyebrows raised. “What’s this?”
She bent down, raising a blackened crumpled up wad of paper. It broke apart in her hands- from it emerged a purple butterfly, which fluttered away. There was a gurgling noise beside them; Stoneheart was enveloped in a purple energy, which melted away, leaving a bemused Ivan in its place.
“Ivan!” Mylène screamed, running up to him. Ladybug let her yoyo go, freeing him, and Mylène gave him a huge hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“Mylène? What?” Ivan blinked at her, then slowly looked up at Ladybug and Adrien. “What… What happened?”
“You were transformed into a being called Stoneheart. You caused a lot of damage.”
“Oh.” Ivan’s face darkened. “I… I hurt people. I hurt you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Adrien said lightly. “You can’t control how you feel. Especially when someone’s controlling you. Could you tell us a little bit about Hawkmoth, if you remember anything?”
“Hawkmoth… right.” Ivan’s confused look faded. “I remember after Mylène and I… after we talked, I remember feeling incredibly angry. Angry at himself, frustrated. And then I felt this heavy darkness, and a voice spoke to me. He told me he was Hawkmoth, and that he would grant me the power to protect Mylène and salvage our relationship. In exchange, he said I needed to weed out the Guardian of the Miraculous, and specifically find the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses.”
Ladybug and Adrien exchanged a look. “Guardian of the Miraculous?” Ladybug asked.
Ivan shrugged, looking helpless. “I don’t know what that means any more than you do. I don’t- I’m sorry.”
“Plagg did mention something about a master,” Adrien offered.
“We should detransform and ask them about it,” Ladybug said as her earring beeped again- 2 more dots had disappeared since the first one; she had 2 minutes left. She grabbed hold of the Lucky Charm. “Apparently, I can restore natural order and revert disasters caused by a supervillain using this.”
Adrien raised an eyebrow.
Ladybug hesitated, her fingers tightening on her Lucky Charm. Finally, she turned to Adrien, fear in her eyes- but it was a different fear. One that crept on the edges of the mind, dancing in the shadows. A quiet fear, not a wild one. “Do you think… that my powers can revert death? Or injuries? I’m sure so many people got hurt today. I can’t even imagine. If maybe we got here sooner, or if we did better, we could’ve…”
Ladybug trailed off. Adrien put his hand firmly on her shoulder, bending down to look her in the eye.
“You did your best,” he said quietly. “You did what you could. Don’t lose yourself in the hypotheticals.”
Ladybug nodded. Then she glanced back down at the Lucky Charm wavering one more time before squeezing her eyes shut and throwing it up, shouting the words, “Miraculous Ladybug!”
An explosion of magical ladybugs erupted from the Lucky Charm, spreading all over Paris. They didn’t stick around though- Ladybug had to leave soon after, for she was about to detransform.
“See you in the next disaster?” Adrien called as she zipped away. The thought of not seeing her again bothered her. In the short time they were together, Adrien had laughed and smiled more than he had his entire life. Ladybug turned back and smirked, waving before disappearing for good.
Adrien smiled after her, then left himself to go detransformed.
Neither of them thought again of that purple butterfly.