Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had happened, but now was not the time to fear. There was only a moment to act. Marinette knew she had failed in having perfect control over her emotions, but what happened next would be far more important. She reached up and removed her earrings, she dropped them into her bag to give to Tikki. She knew she could trust Tikki to get away from her and find someone to help, maybe Fu, maybe Alya could take up this moment, it wasn't the time to think. It was time to listen to Hawkmoth.

"Princess Justice I will grant you the power to see that truth and make justice remain supreme, all I ask in return is the ladybug and black cat miraculous jewels." The voice vibrated through her being, she understood now how everyone else was so compelled, and she found she had lost herself. It was just too much in one day, the planted evidence, the accusations, no one was listening to her trying to belt the truth out. But now...she could pretend to be a victim of Hawkmoth. She could use this to her advantage, she could outst Lila once and for all, and maybe just maybe Hawkmoth too.

---

“ Queen Verity. Your daughter has been hurt and wronged, I will give you the power to get to the truth at hand and protect her from all who seek to hurt her. All I ask in return is the ladybug and black cat miraculous jewels." Sabine heard the voice in her, and she felt compelled more than anything in her life to protect her baby girl. She let the power wash over her.

"My pleasure, Hawkmoth."

She then surveyed the room, some were on her side to strike down those against her daughter, and well it seemed there were some cowards in the room. She raised the scepter her powers had granted her and turned it to the one who had decided to ruin her daughter's life.

Lila felt like she was looking down at the gun's barrel. She needed to act quickly, to make a deal with this being, to turn her.

"Madam, I know how much it has hurt you to see Marinette do these nasty things, but please, please don't take it out on the innocent!" She pleaded, the half truths and lies spewing out.

"I would never be so cruel to the innocent, however, you have not been innocent to my daughter! It's time for the truth! VERIFY" With the declaration Queen Verity blasted a beam from her scepter directly at Lila. It was a direct hit, and Lila fell to her knees crying out in pain.

"What's happening?!"

"Oh, dear. I can't say I'm surprised. You see now that you've been struck down by the weight of any lies you have told will hold you down, till my daughter can pass her judgement."

Fear was all that was in Lila's eyes as she was trapped, her only hope was Hawkmoth, or some gullible heroes.

"Now, my Princess Justice, I have secured the first prisoner for your trial."

"Thank you, my queen." Princess Justice turned to Lila and drew the sword that her new found powers had given her. It was golden and the guard was a scale. Queen Verity used her scepter to move Lila to kneel in front of Princess Justice.

"Now Lila, have you done anything wrong and unjust?" Her blade, drawn high.

For the first time Lila was silent.

"Very well. Your punishment will be to right all of your wrong doings" She drew the sword high, and swung down quickly. And with that what everyone saw was lila in a zombie state moving to the closest person to her, Alya Cesaire.

In a monotone voice Lila began “Alya, I’ve been lying to you since the first day we met. When you interviewed me for the Ladyblog I had never meet Ladybug, and there’s no way we could be friends now, she’s my enemy….” And Lila continued on and on, how she only switched seats to get closer to Adrien to hurt Marinette. How everytime she babysat for her that she filled the twins heads with tales to get them to worship her.

Alya was hurt, not enough for any of the remaining scarlet butterflies to take hold, but hurt. She wanted to deal with this, but the bigger concern was finding a way to get her and Nino to somewhere that Ladybug could find them. But every step she took Lila just followed, continuing to reveal all.

---

This couldn't be happening, it was like hero's day was happening again before their eyes. Their friends and their rage had overtaken them. Nino, Alya, Adrien, and even Chole though in shock knew they had to remain calm and find Ladybug to help out. This was an all hands on deck kind of situation. As it crossed each of their minds their resolve and fear pounding at them, Marinette, though it all, had never lost her cool like this. They were terrified to find out what was going to happen to their everyday Ladybug snapped.

With barely anytime Lila had been transformed and began her confession to Alya. With those distracted Adrien slipped away to an empty closet. Adrien called out to Plagg, “Get ready it’s gonna be a tough one.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how we’re gonna win this one…if things get too bad please promise me you’ll de-transform and hide away from the action.”

The distressed tone from the normally witty Plagg caught Adrien off guard. “Don’t worry, Ladybug and I have got this! Plagg Claws out!”

---

Chloe knew she had to be strong, otherwise how else could anyone else be. She stood in front of Sabrina, no way was the little miss perfect gonna get her. No way was that lameo Hawkmoth gonna use her or her love to do his dirty work. She also knew that she needed to go to where Ladybug could find her. With the first bit of action started she took Sabrina’s hand and they bolted. Down the hallway. But then she heard Queen Verity’s Voice. “Oh Chloe now that we’ve taken care of Miss Rossi, don’t you know, you’re next.”

Chloe and Sabrina were trying to make a beeline out of the building, when Sabrina let go. Chloe looked back and saw that Sabrina was kneeling, and she realized that damn it, she had failed to help her friend. Ugg if Ladybug had just let her keep her miraculous then she would have been able to help out immediately. She knows this isn’t the time, but the tears began welling up as she dashed for the front door. There was no time to get a ride home; she had to get away from this if she was going to be any help. And as the hero she knew she was, she knew that she’d have to make sacrifices and take….public transportation… to get out of sight and home quickly. So she descended into the packed subway. Her eyes no longer only watering from the hurt of losing Sabrina, but whatever disgusting filth dared have odors near her.

It was a little less crowded by the time her stop came, but still all these other people were in her bubble, bumping into her. Paying no attention, she wanted to demand the crowd to part so that she could go be queen bee, but for the moment and from what she had seen, maybe blending in for a moment was okay. She eventually found herself at the door of her home. She found herself riding to the top floor. And on the patio of the top floor she stood out looking over Paris, waiting to gain her powers back.

--

Tikki had managed to phase out of Marrinette’s purse with her earrings, and avoid being sighted in the commotion. She watched the beginnings of this mess unfold from inside one of the lockers. The next step would be, who could be the holder. Adrien had disappeared in the shuffle to go be chat noir out there, and while it would have been great to have someone who at least had dawned the earrings before she knew that a full team would be needed, and that Chat noir experienced at protecting ladybug would be vital to whoever was to bear her. Alya and Nino were still here, loosely trapped by Lila’s ramblings. Both of them had experience with a Miraculous, but if she were to reveal herself right here right now. They, well Alya, might just realize why the regular Ladybug was unavailable and if there was a way to not reveal marrinette’s identity that needed to happen. Maybe she could make it over to Fu’s. Surely he would have had other candidates and one that could fill in without figuring out identities.

Chat burst into the locker room. He pushed Lila into one of the lockers and slammed the door shut. Her muffled confessions continued to pour out.

“Hey are you folks okay?” Did you see where Princess Justice and the rest went?”

Alya looked over to Nino before responding. “They left down the hall and tried getting Chloe.” She knew they were safe for now. She pulled out her camera and started a live stream. “Hey there bugheads an akuma was just sighted and it’s the scarlet variety. It seems Hawkmoth is amplifying his power again so stay positive out there and he won’t be able to use you. Princess Justice and Queen Verity are new, but others that have been seen include Dark Owl, Zombiezoo, Princess Fragrance, and Reflekta. They’re on the move from Françoise Dupont High School. Avoid the area. Most of them other than the standard enhanced physical abilities have some kind of mind controlling abilities. Chat noir?”

“Ladybug and I will have these people saved in no time.” Chat said cheerfully as he dashed out the door.

Wait…was something red following him. But before a second thought on it Lila startled them and began pounding on the locker, and Alya decided that recording live with Nino from the roof to get a view of the city would be best as the Chaos unfolded around her.

Chapter Text

This was thrilling. Different than when she was Ladybug. As Ladybug thrilling was slinging between roofs, narrowing dodging attacks and the thrill of combat. This was the adrenaline rush of people knowing you were on their heels, and that you could do whatever you wanted to them. Lila had just been the start. And while Sabrina wasn’t quite as nice as Chloe would have been to get, it was still nice to see her confessing that yes she knew what Chloe was doing was bad, but she didn’t care Chloe was just more important than them. She knew that maybe a little remorse would be good, but it seemed that ability was stripped from her for the power she held. A fair enough trade. She had a small army leading her charge, incapacitating people so that she could make the deciding blow. She knew that a Ladybug wouldn’t show up for a long while, if at all. All she had to do was keep going until she found someone who had anything to do with Hawkmoth, then she could find him and strike him down with the powers that he had just given her.

---

Chat dashed down the hall to try to keep up with the commotion when he felt a slight tug at his tail. He turned around excited that his lady had finally appeared to join the battle; however, it was just her kwami. Her kwami holding the earrings.

"Your name was Tikki right? Where's Ladybug?" he wanted to panic and flee, but if she needed him to step up and take this seriously he would.

"She won't be able to join you for this battle. I know this might be hard, but I need you to make a decision. It will be too much for you to handle both the black cat and ladybug miraculous at the same time. You have the most experience with the black cat one, but you're also the only one alive other than Ladybug to have used the ladybug earrings, and I can't say how much that experience might make the difference."

They had pulled to the side into a side room and were alone.

"How could she have been struck down by the villains out there?" Chat noir's depression was seeping through his unease.

"I'm sorry, Chat Noir, it happened so fast. Her last act before getting trapped in all of this was to give me the earrings. We can't give up hope!"

And with those big pleading eyes and fierce determination he turned to her and knew.

"Okay, Ladybug started this plan, I guess it's time for me to support her and finish the job. I know I'm at my best when I'm Chat Noir, so that's who I'll be. But I need to figure out who will be able to step in for my lady."

---

"Nadia Chamack here, don't be bemused it's just the news. We're seeing a spread of many akumas like we did early this year. It's important to keep aware and control of your emotions. Hawkmoth can only gain control if you give in to those negative emotions. Please be advised the areas on the map are the highest concentration of the chaos unfolding." A map of Paris was placed on the screen as Nadia continued reading off techniques to stay calm and aware. The darkest red was centered on Françoise Dupont High School and expanded out. Fu was wondering what could have caused so much sadness for Hawkmoth to try and succeed at boosting his powers again. The screen changed and showed some of the villains. Then he saw it, front and center on the screen. A transformed cackling Marinette.

---

This was a time for thinking and planning. "Plagg claws in. Ok, I know Ladybug has her reasons for keeping everyone's identity secret, but in this moment it feels like it's backfiring. I do know some of the users, but I don’t know how to get a hold of Carapace and Rena Rouge. I think they’d be best since they’ve done the most. With Chloe, she’s done more than others who have only been called on a few times, but, well everyone knows about her, Hawkmoth can use anyone she knows against her easy. Plagg, Tikki, what do you think, should be the next step?"

The kwami's looked at each other and nodded. Tikki began "Well, the first step will be going to see the guardian. Adrien, can I see your phone?" He took it from his pocket and passed it to her. "Okay I'm going to show you on the map where it is, but then you must disable any kind of way to track this device, or better yet just leave it here, we can't risk his whereabouts being discovered." Adrien took the phone, memorized the address, and what he thought was a hidden enough route there. Then he put the phone in a hidden spot in the room and headed out with both kwamis huddled in his shirt.

When he arrived at his destination he found a building that looked incredibly average and bland, with a sign on the front advertising massages and healing. He knocked on the door and opened it. Once inside Tikki and Plagg appeared. "He's just up here" Plagg led.

Adrien grasped the handle, took a deep breath, and opened the door. Inside was an old man sitting with an octagonal box in front of him. It wasn't just any old man he recognized him from the times he had been to his house as his 'Chinese' tutor. Well it was certain he was going to be learning a lot from him now.

"Hi," Adrien began, unsure of himself. "Have you seen the news?" Tikki flew from his shirt to Fu's side and whispered with him for what seemed like eternity, something he couldn't quite hear. Must be how Ladybug got attacked, and overtaken.

"I have Adrien, and this will be your most challenging battle yet. You will need to have the best allies you can afford yourself. Now do you have any thoughts on who you would like to come with you in this battle?"

"Well, I think it'd be good to have Rena Rouge and Carapace, but I don't know who they are."

"Very well, I can make sure they get their Miraculous. Any other thoughts?"

"Well I know who Ryuko is, and she's great under pressure, but she's also had her identity revealed and only used her miraculous once so I don't know if it's too much to ask her now."

"She might be a good candidate, but have you thought of who will wield the ladybug earrings, we won't be able to save Paris without them."

"I don't know, if Marinette hadn't been akumatized, she's not my lady, but I bet with how creative and smart she is she'd be able to pick it up quickly. And as great as it was to be Mister-bug, I just know down in my gut my role in this will be protector of whoever will take up the mantle of ladybug." He paused, it dawned on him. "Master fu, would anyone be able to recognize Chloe if she used a different Miraculous?"

"As long as she weren't to blurt it out… maybe."

Adrien's words were coming out faster now "Okay, well I've known her forever, and I know how much she also loved ladybug. And while she was focused on actually working she was great as queen bee, and the ladybug yo-yo isn't too different from the spinning top..." Adrien's words began to run together in his nervousness as he continued listing why he thought Chloe would be good. He wasn't the one to plan, but now he was taking on that role and making Chloe a big part of it.

"I appreciate your support of your friend, and I want to trust you. The most important questions to ask when considering her are will she give the earrings back when she’s done, and will she be able to keep a level head for this mission.”

Adrien paused, he knew Chloe could be a brat, but it seemed like in the last few months she really was trying to better herself, and anytime she was queen bee other than her first time she’d taken it very seriously. “I know it can be hard to trust her, but I think for this she’s the right person. She takes hero work very seriously. And if, only if at the end she won’t give them back, well I’ll get them back by any means necessary.”

“Very well Adrien, in that case what other allies would you like to bring.”

“Viperion is great on his own, he’ll be able to see things that others wouldn’t; though I don’t know how well his special power would be. Pegasus will be perfect if we need an escape.”

“Adrien, here are the miraculouses you have requested. I will deliver the fox and the turtle, you must deliver the rest, is there a place you’d like me to tell Rena and Carapace to meet you.”

“The Ballroom of Le Grand Paris, it’s a good central location. I’ll bring the others there. Plagg Claws out!”

With that Chat Noir pounced out of the building and went to find his first chosen, Max Kante. After he was out Fu pulled out his phone to check, the Ladyblog was still live from on top of the school.

“Wayzz it’s time to go.”

Chat found the window to Max’s apartment and was relieved to find him hiding. He knocked on the glass. Max and Markov turned to meet his face, then quickly opened the window. Adrien, while he didn't do much programming, could appreciate a nice set up when he saw one. But video games would have to come later.

"Max Kante, will you take up the role of Pegasus and help me save Paris?"

"It would be my honor. Kaalki, it's nice to see you again, maybe we'll even be able to meet when it's not a dire situation.

"This is the way it must be for now."

Max nodded “Kaalki, let's gallop." And with a flash of light where Max was now stood Pegasus.

"I have a few more...errands to run before things will really get started. Pegasus I need to meet me in the Ballroom of Le Grand Paris. I'll be there soon with more allies."

"Would you like me to come with you, or drop you off at your next destination? Wouldn't it be optimal to stick together?"

"As much as I'd like that I can't have you following me because, while it's probably fine if you learned the identity of someone who also temporarily holds a Miraculous. It's still a risk, and I'm hoping to minimize all the risks I can today."

"It seems like you and Ladybug always have a plan to keep on top of everything. Will there be enough time for my kwami to recharge if I use a portal there, or should I try to just make it stealthy?"

"With the trips I'm making it will be ok to use vortex, just make sure you take some food with you so Kaalki can recharge."

Max nodded "Vortex." A portal opened, and with that he was gone.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your friend Markov."

"It's no trouble at all, I see all the good work you and Ladybug do, it's an honor for Max to be able to help out as well.

---

Next was the Couffaine home on the Seine. With some creative paths through the streets of Paris Chat noir was at the Seine and took a quick dip to get upstream to the Liberty. He scaled the side opposite of the dock and entered through a tight window. And there he was.

Luka was playing a soft melody on his guitar, with his eyes closed seemingly in a trance that brought him far from here. Chat admired the beauty of the... calmness before snapping out of it.

"Luka Couffaine." Chat said with an exaggerated serious tone.

Luka looked up.

"I need you to take your role as Viperion and help me save Paris, will you take the snake Miraculous?"

With a Nod to Chat noir "Sass Scales on" and Viperion was with him.

"Viperion get to the ballroom of Le Grand Paris, whatever you do stay out of sight. I'll meet you there."

"Hey Chat, how's Ladybug?"

He paused, "I'm doing my best to follow her plan, but...other than setting things in motion she won't be with us." And was out the window.

Viperion stashed some pillows and some blankets, good enough for a mom peeking in, and probably a sister too. He was off, keeping out of sight of anyone even possibly akumatized.

---

Chat's final journey could only be described as eerie. It's Paris there's supposed to be people everywhere, but the only people Chat saw were those who had been struck and either were paralyzed in some way for their 'justice' or mindless banging on doors calling out some quite embarrassing things; presumably the people they were trying to confess to had made it inside.

Then with some quick building scaling he found himself on the top balcony of Le Grand Paris with Chloe sitting there somehow making a lounge chair look like a throne beneath her.

"Chat Noir, so good of you to finally arrive. I can tell you what's brought on all of this. It's that Marinette girl, everyone loves her for some reason. So when she got akumatized like half the school did too and it spread from there. But enough about that I’m sure Ladybug already has a plan and I’m here to help out like the hero I am.” She stuck her hand out expectantly.

Chat hesitated and then placed a small box in her hand.

She opened it “Chat, this isn’t my Miraculous, these are Ladybug’s. And as awesome as I would be leading all the heroes in Paris, Ladybug, the real Ladybug is the most experienced with these.” Tikki had manifested, and was just hoping Chloe wouldn’t recognize her.

“Well as one of the heroes of Paris who works closely with her, you know she plays the long game, and always has a strategy in place for defeating the villain. And while you’re great as Queen Bee is, I…, She… Paris needs you to wield these for now.” If Chat had been anyone other than Adrien, he wouldn’t have been able to see how honored and scared she was beneath the confidence she was trying to wear.

Tikki piped in “Hello Chloe I am Tikki. Ladybug knows how hard you work to be a hero. She’s seen you training even when you’re not powered by a Miraculous. She feels terrible that it’s so dangerous to you and your loved ones to be Queen Bee, but she knows you can be a hero. Now all you need to say is Tikki spots on.”

The red bug was awfully familiar Chloe thought, but that’s probably because of how similar she is to Pollen. “Tikki, Spots on.”

It felt so similar to when she was queen bee, the strength was there, that feeling of being invulnerable. But it was also just different enough to feel off. Chloe went inside to look at the full mirror in her room. Her mask really did change how her face looked. It was about the same size of her Queen Bee mask, but instead of the harsh lines there were tiny ladybug dots all over it, almost like freckles. Her ponytail was now a braid accented with one red stripe and one black stripe in the mix with her blond hair, and topped with a bright red headband. She had kept the style of her long gloves and long boots, but with rounded edges at the top instead of the pointed elements. But then her torso from where her boots stopped to her neck was that iconic ladybug pattern, except the spots were bigger and bolder. Chloe could get used to this.

“Alright Chat, now that I’ve taken time to assess this, let's stop Hawkmoth.”

---

Chat and Chloe went down one of the escape staircases before sneaking into the ballroom where they found everyone else. Chat opened the door and stepped in first. “I’m glad to see that all of you made it here ok, focusing a bit longer on Rena Rouge and Carapace. Ladybug won’t be joining us today, but we won’t be without the power of the Ladybug Miraculous.” Chat turned to Chloe, “Would you like to introduce yourself?”

“Hello everyone I’m Duchess Beetle and we’re going to save every single one of Hawkmoth’s victims today.”

Chapter Text

Chat had only discussed so much with Chloe before they met up with everyone, but she was pulling together a plan. It was almost eerie seeing how natural it was coming from her.

“Ok everyone, first we need to gather those low tier akumas together so we can stop them and stop letting them make minions. Our biggest advantage right now is they don’t know how many of us are coming. We need to hold that advantage as long as possible.’’ Duchess Beetle turned to Rena Rouge. “ The biggest disadvantage we have is that our normal ladybug isn’t here, we can’t let Hawkmoth know that she’s out for this battle. Rena, your most important job is to make sure it looks like she’s here as much as possible. Can you do that?”

Rena had been sizing up this ‘ Duchess Beetle ’ since she entered the ballroom. She’s brash, kinda familiar, but she does seem to know what she’s doing. “Ok Duchess, Hawkmoth will be none the wiser.” 

“Uh thanks, I’ll be close to you so we can mix your illusions with the real thing,” she said while holding up the yoyo.

After a headnod between the girls, Duchess Beetle began again, “Now Viperon and Pegasus, you’ll be our eyes from the sky line. With your weapons being adequate for ranged attacks and your powers perfect for escaping focus on picking off minions. Notify everyone immediately if you see Hawkmoth or Mayura actually approaching on the scene.” The boys nodded at her

“That just leaves Chat Noir and Carapace.” Rena tensed up for a moment, but Duchess Beetle continued, “You two will need to be out and center drawing the akumas out. Between the power that Chat brings, and the defense that Carapace has it you’ll be too hard to pin down, but with that being said you still need to avoid at all costs getting hit by Queen Verity and Princess Justice, not only will you be out of the fight you’ll be giving up our secrets to Hawkmoth and That. Is. Unacceptable.” She concluded.

Chat hoped that there wasn’t too much of Chloe showing through, and luckily everyone else seemed too focused on getting ready to notice her quirks.

---

“Princess Justice and Queen Verity your domain over Paris is overwhelming, but it seems like Paris’s heroes are cowering and won’t make themselves seen. Draw them out.” Hawkmoth’s voice burrowed into their minds. 

Marrinette was going to push back on him “It does seem they don’t care that much about us, maybe if you came out and joined us they’d be forced to show their faces.” she responded.

Catalyst watched as Hawkmoth contemplated the idea. He had gotten closer to getting the miraculouses when he had brought himself out on Heroes Day. But, he turned to Catalyst, she had to use the peacock to save him, and now she’s getting weaker and weaker. Well one thing’s certain, she needed to stay here. But perhaps, if he ever was going to get those damned jewels he’d have to do it himself. In his...their lair he turned to Catalyst. “I think now is the time for me to go get those jewels.”

She was stuck between frustration and fear. Last time he was out he couldn’t cut it and that was when there was only 5 users, now who knows how many there were. Not to mention while she’d amplified his powers the same as last time there weren’t as many akumas that had taken hold. It was beyond risky. “Hawkmoth, you can’t do that alone! If we go out we need to go out together. While they may be children with so many of them we can’t let them get the upper.” 

“I know Catalyst, but your condition it’s getting worse. And by getting the Miraculous I’ll be able to Save Emile and you.

She couldn’t fight that logic. “Okay. Be safe.”

He embraced her in a hug “Soon this will be all over.” and she returned that hug.

---

“You ready?” Chat turned to Carapace.

“You know it.” Carapace turned back to him.

The two began to make as large of a scene as possible in front of the Eiffel tower. Calling out and taunting the akumas and their victims out. Perfuma appeared.

“It's time for you boys to hand over your miraculouses, oh servants go get them.” Perfuma said while sending a hoard after them. 

Chat Noir and Carapace nodded at each other. Chat took hold of Carapace and turned his staff downward. He extended it, sending the two of them skyward. And while they were at their highest, Carapace threw his shield, it landed and knocked Perfuma’s perfume gun out of her hands. 

She screamed “NO” and turned to get it, but found herself looking up at Ladybug who had claimed the gun, broke it and captured the butterfly in her yoyo. 

“Looks like you're not gonna make anyone else smell like gross fish anymore.” 

Rose turned to her, still in her daze after coming out of being transformed. “Oh Ladybug, thank you so much!” She went to give a hug, but was stopped.

Ladybug had put out her hand and said “This isn’t over yet, go hide and stay out of our way.” 

It wasn’t the normal reaction from Ladybug that Rose expected, but she supposed there was a lot going on and that was for the best. So she dashed away to try to get home.

Chat de-extended his staff and brought Carapace and himself back to the ground. They joined Ladybug in herding the former Perfuma army to safety. 

“Alright guys, one Akuma down, only what like a million left to go.” Ladybug said and turned to them. 

Beyond the view of Ladybug, Chat Noir, Carapace, and anyone else there was Rena Rouge watching her illusion, making sure it was holding. She continued to watch them fight. It was lucky that the yoyo Duchess Beetle used was identical to the one Ladybug did so her illusion only had to cover the body, and she was free to weld the yoyo as needed without collision worries. It was less lucky that this girl was taller than the real ladybug, so there were a few close calls where the illusion and reality weren’t meeting as well as expected. But in the excitement of battle nobody seemed to notice. 

The battle was going well for the heroes. More akumas had flocked to the fight, and they continued to be taken down by Chat Noir, Carapace, and ‘Ladybug’. Viperion and Pegasus had been watching from the roofs. They had stayed out of sight and were waiting for the right moment to use their powers if need be. Rena was down to one beep on her necklace; she used her flute to call all of them to get ‘Ladybug’ out to recharge. “Get out of there Duchess, I’m almost out of juice and won’t be able to hold your cover for much longer.” Duchess heard from her ear bud. She looked towards Chat Noir and Carapace to let them know, but then Hawkmoth appeared.

“Well it looks like the three of you have been quite busy. You look tired, give me your Miraculous and this can all be over.” Hawkmoth extended his hand and waited.

‘Ladybug’ began “Ok old man, nice to see that you’re not hiding behind these victims, but it's time for you to give us your Miraculous.”

“I see you’re not going to play nice; very well. Queen Verity, Princess Justice immobilize them!” with that the mother and daughter floated down on the battlefield. 

Queen Vertiy began to send blasts to try to hold the heroes in place.

---

Up on the roofs Viperon and Pegasus had taken notice of Hawkmoth. That was the moment. Viperon activated Second Chance. Now he was going to wait and watch.

---

While Queen Verity had been able to send off several blasts of her Verity ability with her scepter, so far the heroes had been able to dodge those moves. But it was getting harder as Hawkmoth was diving in getting blows on the heroes. 

Princess Justice was focused on one thing, and one thing alone. The Ladybug that she should have been was going around dodging attacks, but also returning the fight with her yoyo. How did this happen, she wondered. But the pull of the akuma was getting back to her, she needed to deliver justice no matter what. Lila had already been taken care of, as well as many of the crooks of this town like that corrupted mayor. She wanted to use her power on this imposter!...or Hawkmoth? It was too hard to focus with her mind blurred like this. Wait, where did that imposter go? In the chaos of the remaining akumas, Hawkmoth, Queen Verity, Chat Noir, and Viperion it seemed like she slipped away, but to where? 

---

Rena Rouge had called Pegasus and Viperion to let them know her time was almost up and to keep an eye on ‘Ladybug’ and to get her out if anything happened. 

They watched and waited, but then. One of Verity’s beams got her, she was down! “Second Chance”

Then they were back. 

“Peagus, in just a moment ‘Ladybug’ is going to get struck, when that happens open a vortex and grab her and bring her here.” 

Pegasus Nodded.

“Ok any second...NOW!”

“Vortex!”

A portal appeared between the two of them, Pegasus reached in, and pulled out ‘Ladybug’ 

She was dazed for a moment before catching on “You guys did exactly like you were supposed to, way to go.” She was trying to be genuine but she felt some of her sarcastic tone slip through, when she saw their confused faces. “Ok, Ok, so Viperion you’ve been watching, what can we do to get ahead and get Hawkmoth?”

“Well right now with the akumas you guys are pretty evenly matched. Though now that we’ve pulled you out, it's hard to say for those two.” he pointed down at Chat Noir and Carapace.

And then Chat Noir was hit. Carapace rushed to his side “Shelter” and the two now had time.

The Ladybug illusion fell and Duchess Beetle was standing before the two. “Ok now seems as good as time as any. Lucky Charm!” A weighted fishing net fell before her feet. “Well that's not what I was hoping for but let me think.” She looked around, and then she knew what she had to do. “Ok so here’s the plan Viperion, you’re going to do another Second Chance. Then Pegasus you’re going to grab all three of us away from there. Then I’ll resummon this charm, we’ll drop it on Hawkmoth, get his Miraculous, and end all of this!”

“Second Chance” He was back again. “Pegasus grab Chat Noir, Carapace, and ‘Ladybug’,” 

“Vortex” A portal appeared between the two of them, Pegasus reached in, and pulled out Chat Noir, Carapace, and ‘Ladybug’.

“Ok part two, ‘Ladybug’ summon your lucky charm.” Viperion said

She was a little confused, it felt like they were just getting started with Hawkmoth, but with Viperion’s time travel, I guess she had been doing more. “Lucky Charm” A weighted fishing net fell before her feet. “Well that's not what I was hoping for-

She was cut off by Viperion “ Ok you don’t have much time before you lose your illusion, in the last time line you said we’ve got to drop this on Hawkmoth to get his Miraculous.” 

---

Hawkmoth had just gotten started with those brats, and then out of nowhere a portal opened up and took the three of them. Those damn cowards, it also means another miraculous user is out there. “They probably didn’t go too far. Princess Justice, Queen Verity, find them!” The mother and daughter began searching for those heroes.

---

“She may be an imposter, but she is doing my job.” Princess Justice thought to herself. 

“She’s lying, just like Lila. Stealing your identity, get justice on her” a darker thought entered her mind.

“No she’s protecting my identity” She internally battled with herself.

“How can she be protecting you and Paris if she’s running away” the negative thoughts beckoned.

“Not every battle is fought out in the open, I need to stay close to Hawkmoth, to use these powers on him.” she was able to grab reason from herself. And she changed her route to stick closer to that Villian.

Chapter Text

Hawkmoth, Princess Justice, and Queen Verity began combing the streets of Paris looking for the disappeared heroes. Queen Vertity kept watch of their backs while she flew up and scanned from the sky. 

Princess Justice was trying to get a hold of herself; trying to get Hawkmoth’s miraculous, and figure out and get justice on that lying ladybug. All the while she was wandering the streets, and then something caught her eye.

---

Alya had released her transformation. She was filming Hawkmoth from the alley she’d been in, no sense not getting what she could while Trixx was recharging. Then she froze.

She and Princess Justice were staring eye to eye. Please let there be some of Marinette in there. She was her best friend! Please look the other way and don’t see this kwami that I can’t explain. All she could offer was a pleading look. 

And apparently that was enough.

---

It all made sense to Princess Justice. She was a little disappointed at how out in the open Trixx was. But with most of the streets empty, and that they were tucked away in an alley, she supposes she’s not going to hold on to that. Instead she’s going to move on. If Rena Rouge had been here, and Carapace, who knows who else was out there helping Chat. She continued ‘scanning’ for heroes and returned to Hawkmoth’s side.

---

Duchess Beetle turned to Viperon. “Ok so all of us are here except for Rena Rouge, where is she? I can’t get back on the field to use this without her.”

Viperion turned to her and gestured, “Last I saw she tucked herself away in that alleyway, but remember she is going to need sometime to recharge before she can get the ladybug illusion back up. In the meantime you need to stay low, and we,” he gestured to all the other heroes, “Need to figure out how to get to Hawkmoth so we can use the lucky charm on him.”

“Uh dudes we have a more pressing issue,” Carapace called to the rest of them. 

As Queen Verity floated up above all of them she called out, “Oh there you are! the troublemakers preventing me from holding down wrong doers that need to experience justice. Hawkmoth, Princess Justice, I've found them!” She called down.

Chat and Carapace had taken to the front of the group and were using their baton and shield to block the bombardment of halting rays that Queen Verity was sending down. Duchess Beetle was standing in the middle with Viperion and Pegasus, as nice as getting her disguises back on, it was too late for that. The only question now was is this the moment for the lucky charm? It had to be, right? So she tossed the net and hit Queen Verity. Perfect!

Queen Verity began to sink down under the weight, but Princess Justice cut the net apart.

Now she had the remains of the lucky charm and those heroes were just sitting targets up there. So she and her mother flew back to the roof this time flanking the heroes and each of them trying to bring the pain. Five Heroes were there with the fake ladybug in the middle, that was her target. And while she missed, her mom didn’t.

“SECOND CHANCE”

---

He was back again. “Pegasus grab Chat Noir, Carapace, and ‘Ladybug’,” 

“Vortex” A portal appeared between the two of them, Pegasus reached in, and pulled out Chat Noir, Carapace, and ‘Ladybug’.

“Ok part two, ‘Ladybug’ summon your lucky charm.” Viperion said

She was a little confused, it felt like they were just getting started with Hawkmoth, but with Viperion’s time travel, I guess she had been doing more. “Lucky Charm” A weighted fishing net fell before her feet. “Well that's not-

She was cut off by Viperion “ Ok you don’t have much time before you lose your illusion, and we’ve gotta get out of here Queen Verity, Princess Justice, and Hawkmoth are almost here.”

The group took off looking to get distance between the villains. Viperion started, “Duchess Beetle, previously your cover was blown, so both Queen Verity and Princess Justice targeted you as the new girl. We could actually use that and have you be bait.”

“Ugg, if I’m bait then who’s going to use this?” Duchess held up the lucky charm net.

“Well I think it’s gotta be Chat Noir.” He turned his head to the hero. “Duchess we’ll get you down in a visible spot where you can be bait, and Carapace can shield you so you don’t actually get hit. Then once they are focused on you we can use the lucky charm to stop them.” 

Viperion had led them down and circled back to where he knew the villains were.

“Ok you’ve got this, and we’ve got you.” 

Duchess Beetle nodded. She dashed into what was going to be her center stage, leading Carapace and Pegasus, “Hey losers looking for something?” She called out to Queen Verity and Princess Verity who were looking at the roof they had just been at.

---

“Wait, that’s not the real ladybug, that’s a fake. This will be too easy” Hawkmoth thought to himself before running towards the easy prey.

“That old guardian must be desperate if he brought someone so inexperienced against me and all of my akumas,” Hawkmoth said to Duchess Beetle while using his cane to attack.

“No more desperate than some old man trying and failing over and over to steal some jewelry from some kids.” Duchess barked back

The combat was heated, with hawkmoth directly involved Queen Verity had resorted to hand to hand to avoid hitting him with a halting ray. It was heated, everyone was not only fighting but trying to grab a miraculous or akumatized object. They were getting tired. 

Carapace positioned himself close to Duchess Beetle and Pegasus, “SHELTER!” He had meant for only the three of them to be there but Queen Verity had dashed into his dome. Pegasus managed to knock away her scepter and Duchess beetle broke it to capture the akuma. 

Sabine was back, she was in a dome, with 3 heroes. Princess Justice and Hawkmoth took their sword and cane, respectively, and began to carve at the shelter dome. It was only a matter of time before it fell. To top it off the other scarlet akumas had almost taken Paris entirely. Hawkmoth felt assured in his victory.

---

Viperion and Chat Noir watched from the shadows. Chat Noir was desperate to get in there and join the battle, but Viperion held him back. “Let’s get Rena for one more distraction.” 

So they snuck around to find a recently transformed Rena Rouge.

“Viperion! Chat!” She dashed to hug them, “I just had the tensest moment, Princess Justice stared down my civilian form, but then just left me alone! I’m betting that the Marinette girl is still in there!”

“Well we’ll need one more illusion. And if it’s true that Marinette is still in there we can use that to our advantage. Let’s get back to the fight.” Viperion led.

When they did get back the shelter dome was holding, for now, but Hawkmoth and Princess Justice were alone. “Okay, Rena Rouge create an illusionary hero and get it to go after Hawkmoth and Princess Verity. And while that's happening give us an invisibility illusion cover.” 

“Mirage!” Rena Rouge said as she summoned a Viperion copy. 

It was weird seeing a double of himself, but it would work great. It was even weirder seeing, but not seeing, through an invisibility illusion over Chat Noir, “Alright send it in.”

And like that the Viperion illusion tried to sneak up on Hawkmoth and Princess justice. It was now standing in the middle of them, dodging the blows that were coming for it.

---

“Why would they send out Viperion to confront us so directly?” Hawkmoth wondered, unless, of course! “Viperion was all that was left other than Chat noir, they were getting desperate!” With 2 against one he could easily get the snake miraculous.  “Princess Justice use the powers I gave you to defeat him!”

She didn’t like listening so directly to hawkmoth, but as long as Viperon kept jumping out of the way it would be fine. She took her sword mustering all her power to hit him and saw it go straight through Viperion and hit Hawkmoth dead center, before she found herself being knocked down and tangled up in a net and hearing a whisper.

“Got you Princess”

Chapter Text

Hawkmoth began spewing what was supposed to be an explanation and apology, “I’m not surprised that even with the quantity of villains at my command that they’ve failed me. The people of Paris are nothing but ants for me to crush. The only regret I have is that I had to be Hawkmoth in the first place and that those at my command are so pathetic. Their lives are worthless in comparison to my wife. I don’t care how much danger anyone is put in my wife is sick and the only way to save her is with the wish that can be made from the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous. My wife is the only important person in this world and I’ll do anything to get her back.”

Hawkmoth’s sentence just like everyone else so far. Say what he’d done wrong and make it right. But, it appeared that in his mind he truly believed the lie that he was just a man trying to get his wife back, and not the monster terrorizing Paris that he had become.

Chat Noir had secured Princess Justice with the lucky charm, so it was just him and an off edge Hawkmoth. Though with him forced to spill his wrong doings it was short work for Chat Noir to remove the Butterfly brooch. The Scarlet akumatizations fell, and Gabriel Agrest stood before him. 

All the heroes were stunned. And they couldn’t even say anything about this being one of their friend’s dad without risking their identity-that’s still important right?

With the danger passed Carapace ended Shelter and the heros approached.

Duchess Beetle was fuming, this monster was her Adrienkin’s father. How dare he. She needed to take a moment, being a substitute ladybug was a temporary thing, but being the Major’s daughter, and being the daughter of a fellow fashion juggernaut she would have more power to punish him. But no, now's the time to repair the immediate damage. 

She went over and picked up her lucky charm, “Miraculous ladybug!” The magic filled the city and all damage was undone. She looked down to Marrinette, this girl who even though she’d been akumatized, had landed an important blow to Hawkmoth, and she offered her hand. 

“Thank you uh-”

“Duchess Beetle”

“Thank you Duchess Beetle, that’s incredible you beat hawkmoth on your first go” Marrinette was tearing up.

“Yeah, I did. But... I couldn’t have done it on my own, I had a powerful team backing me up.” There was some nervousness to her voice, “Anyway it's time for me and the others to head out before our identity is revealed, we’ve gotten Hawkmoth, but who knows what other villains are out there.” She turned to Chat Noir and said “I’ll see you around.” Before dashing off. 

The other heroes, all of them had their Miraculous beeping to warn them of the change back, looked to Chat Noir. He hadn’t needed to use his power and would be able to clean things up here. Chat Noir said flatly to them, “Go ahead and head out, Ladybug and I will collect your Miraculous when we get this settled.”

With the akumazation lost Gabriel fell silent, and tried to look around for a way to dash-get out of paris-get something to make this right. 

Chat Noir looked at the butterfly brooch in his hand, this damn thing not only had caused him so much trouble as Chat Noir. But had also enabled his father to be a monster. He pocketed it, and went over to Gabriel. 

“If this was all about your wife, why didn’t you ask for help!?” Chat’s Anger was rising. “We could have looked for solutions. Was… was your wife so cruel that she wanted this terror on her home?” Chat’s voice was trembling now.

---

With all the other heroes headed out Marinette went over to her mom who had seemed confused at first but after seeing Gabriel detransform pulled out her phone. “Hello, Police? You need to get here immediately. Hawkmoth is Gabriel Agrest. Chat Noir and the heroes just defeated him”

Of course her mom was on top of this part, and since she was also akumatized she couldn’t really provide much more detail, it was so hazy as she replayed what happened. She had been at school, Lila had lied again, but this time… she had gotten her expelled! She got Tikki the earrings before losing herself. But she did remember feelings, the intoxication of power, some smugness of publicly proving herself right, and, damn that pull from Hawkmoth was so strong, no wonder she and Chat Noir had never been able to talk to someone into giving up their akuma. She needed to get her earrings back, but first she had to thank Chat. The fact that he got everyone together, and even though it stung, her replacement had been effective. She looked over to Chat who was holding Gabriel Agrest’s arms behind him and seemed even more stressed out than he had in any of their battles.

She approached “Chat Noir, thank you for saving me and my mom-”

“If your wife was half as good as you claimed she was, she would have never wanted this!” Chat was seething.

Gabriel had gone silent, just looking to the middle distance.

“Hey Chat Noir.”

“WHAT!” He yelled at her, before the anger in his face melted to regret 

“Uh… my mom,” Marinette pointed back” just called the police and they’re going to take him away. And...Uh… I was saying thank you, for saving us. You really are incredible.”

The anger was still there, and it wasn’t going to go away anytime soon.

“I’m...I’m just doing my job.” Chat noir was off. 

---

She couldn’t believe it, Hawkmoth was on the cusp of failure. It was time for her to use the peacock miraculous again to save him. At least that is what Natalie wanted to do, instead as soon as she transformed she passed out in Hawkmoth’s secret lair.  

---

It took only a few minutes before the police showed up and handcuffed Gabriel.

“Chat Noir, can you and any other witnesses come by the station later to make official statements on this?” Roger asked him.

“Yeah, I have some matters to take care of, I’ll stop by tomorrow.” Chat flatly responded. 

The officer gave him a nod and put Gabriel in the car and went over to Sabine to ask her for a statement.

Angry tears were welling up in Chat Noir’s eyes.

“Hey Chat Noir, uh...this is alot, but uh… I’d like to thank you again-” she hesitated, maybe Marinette wasn’t the best person to ask this, but it seemed like Chat was hurting so bad right now “Um is there anything you want, or want to talk about?” Marinette was looking at him with concern in her eyes.

Chat realized that he could feel tears on his face now. “Thank you, for uh asking, but no I’ll be okay. It’s just uh, alot to take in” his bluffing was terrible.

“Ok, well uh I’m betting ladybug would like to hear the details of what all this is when you get a chance to see her. I bet she’ll be able to talk to you about whatever you want.” Marinette really hated seeing the pain on his face, but he didn’t talk to her about really deep things. Maybe once she was ladybug she could help him. “Oh and I’d like to give you a thank you hug for saving me, give it to ladybug once you see her too.” She was trying to cheer up

“Sure.” His voice was flat, and she went in for the hug. He was shaking so hard, what could possibly get him this messed up?

“Anyway I think I need to give my statement to Roger, but I’ll see you around Paris. Oh and stop by whenever at the bakery, I’d love to give you some thank you goodies if you’re interested.” She tagged on

“Yeah, sure.” His voice was still so flat “I’ll see you around Marinette.” He patted her on the head and used his staff to head off.

But where would he head out to, he really, really didn’t want to go home. Maybe he should just lay here. Hawkmoth was his father. His father had hurt all of his friends and so many innocent people just to try to bring his mother back. Mom wouldn’t have wanted that...would she? No. This is just too much.

---

“Nadia Chamack here, don't be bemused it's just the news. The heroes of Paris have done it! Filmed from a window near the end of the fight, we can see Chat Noir removing the butterfly miraculous from Hawkmoth and him detransforming. The film quality is too low to see who it is, but we will keep you posted once the police make an announcement.” Fu watched the news. 

They had done it, he could finally breathe easy, someone had managed to help repair the damage he did by losing the miraculous in the first place. The only thing left to do is get the peacock miraculous, but that shouldn’t be too hard now that Chat Noir knows who Hawkmoth is. Soon everything would be right.

Chapter Text

Ok, so everything was terrible, his father was the terrorist he was fighting for almost a year now. And damn he just wanted to use his cataclysm, but that wouldn’t do anything. Ok, first he should get the miraculous back. 

He went to get the horse first.

“Hi Max, Kaalki, Markov.” His tone was a little more normal.

Markov started, “Hello Chat Noir, you and Max have addressed Kaalki, but I sense no other beings present.”

“I was trying to explain that tech does not see me, and that’s why he can’t sense me, but well, he can’t sense me.” Kaalki was slightly annoyed. 

“Yes, it's been quite interesting to have both of them here. But I suppose testing and modifying Markov to see Kaalki will have to wait for a different day.” Max said, and pulled out a glasses case from his pockets. He opened it and offered the glasses back to Chat Noir. “Til next time Kaalki.” He smiled and she went into the glasses. 

Chat noir took the glasses and stowed them into his pocket. “Thank you for all your help today, we wouldn’t have won if it weren’t for your help.” While it was genuine, it wasn’t the voice Max expected from a victorious Chat Noir.

“Yes, I’m glad I could help you. And well, I’ll be here if you ever need anything else.” Max smiled and waved.

“Thanks Max,” and Chat Noir was off to the Couffaines. 

---

The Couffaines boat was still docked in the same place on the Seine. Chat Noir Climbed around the outside, and checked to make sure Luka was the only one in his room before knocking on the window. 

Luka opened it up for him. “Hi Chat Noir, I suppose you’ll be here for this,” and Luka removed the bracelet from his arm.

“Yeah…” Chat Noir took it. “Thank you for everything today, we couldn’t have done it without you.” 

Chat Noir’s inner music was nothing but disharmony right now, that seemed very odd considering the victory they just shared. “You’re welcome Chat,” Was it because Ladybug hadn’t been there, was she not ok, or was it something else? “Hey I don’t want to pry if you don’t want to talk, but... are you and Ladybug ok?” Luka asked.

“Yeah, Hawkmoth is defeated, and Ladybug didn’t have to risk anything for that to happen.” Chat was tense again, but ugh, he’s not mad at her for getting attacked by an akuma, it happens, just with hawkmoth being his father, that was too much. He just needed to hurry up and finish collecting these miraculous and be done with it all. “Uh, what I meant to say is that it’s a good thing that Hawkmoth is defeated, and I’ll be meeting up with Ladybug later.” He hoped.

“Of course, well if you ever need to let the music out, I’ll be here” 

“Thank you Luka.” 

It was now time to get those Ladybug Earrings, damn did he just sound like his father now?

---

He touched down on the roof of the Le Grand Palais. He then went over to Chloe’s room and knocked on the outside window. Chloe appeared and opened the door.

“Chat Noir, I’m so glad that Hawkmoth is defeated. But I can’t believe that Monster was Adrien’s dad! I can’t believe how many times he hurt me, and all of us, even when Adrien was around. And I’ve tried to call Adrien he won’t pick up, you think that monster has him locked up somewhere?” Chloe was furious.

“I don’t know where Adrien is, but I’m sure he’ll be glad to have you on his team when all this shakes out.” Chat realised this was the first person since finding out that had been focusing on Adrien and his wellbeing, even if it was in an intense way. Why couldn’t his dad be this supportive of him, when Chloe was still just figuring caring out. “I mean this from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for helping out today. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.” He extended his hand just like he had done before to ask for the bee comb, but this time it was for the earrings. 

“I,” Chloe was taken aback, that was the nicest thing anyone had said to her.

“Well I had to do my part as one of Paris’s heroes, putting on a new costume was just the role I had to do today.” She slowly reached up for the earrings that she was still wearing. Hadn’t she proven that she was the best for these earrings deafening Hawkmoth in one go? No she had to be better, if she really wanted to be a hero she had to be one on and off the battlefield. She took the earrings off and gave them to Chat Noir.

“Thanks for taking a chance on me, I know I come off strong, but I’m a damn good hero! And next time you need help you better come to me for it, seeing as I had no trouble with this second miraculous I bet I could master all of them in no time flat.” Chloe was all mixed up inside, Ladybug and Chat Noir had trusted her again. But she still had to lose the miraculous at the end of the battle. And Gabriel was the one who had hurt so many.

“This is just too much Chat. I still can’t believe it was Gabriel along. Once the news is out I’ll make sure daddy and mommy make him pay.” Chloe was still fuming. 

Maybe Adrien would give her a call, maybe he could come back here. That might be good. “Sounds good Chloe. I’m glad that we can rely on you. You know, if you keep your identity secret this time. If I’m ever in need Duchess Beetle might make a return.” And Chat Noir went in for a hug with a head pat.

That wasn’t like Chat, but this wasn’t like any other day and Chloe could use a hug so she leaned in. “Ok. I won’t tell anyone, even Adrien. And you can touch my hair this once, but if you mess it up you’ll never regret it.”

Chat chuckled, “Of course, you can bill me for the extra salon trip. Until next time, Queen Bee.” And with that Chat Noir made his exit.

---

Chat now had all the miraculous that he could collect himself, and that was getting to be too much. He pulled out his lady’s earrings to look at them, and that damn butterfly brooch. It was incredible that these tiny jewels held so much power and prevented him from seeing what was right in front of him. This was too much, it was time to get these back to Master Fu.

---

After getting their statements Marinette and her mom were escorted home by the police. It was still the middle of the day and there was some school left, but both her and her mom agreed going and staying home after all this was the best option. 

“Mom I’d like some time alone for now if that's okay.” Marrinette said after they had gotten into their home.

“Sure thing dear,” Sabine reached out to hold her daughter’s hand. “But I would like to talk sometime soon.” It was a comforting hold.

“Yeah, I’d like that mom.” Marinette gave her mom a kiss on the check and went up to her room.

“Hey Tikki, I-” She looked down into her open purse, right. She looked around and realised this was the first time she’d really been alone in nearly a year. Well she might not have tikki or her earrings but she could call Fu to let him know what had happened. And Dial.

The phone did its standard ringing before being picked up.“Master Fu are you there?”

“Yes I am Marinette, I just saw the news. Congratulations.”

“Yes about that, I’m worried though. Hawkmoth was Gabriel Agrest.” 

Fu Froze “...Are you sure?”

“Yes, and I’m worried about Adrien.”

“Ok, Marrinette go ahead and come here as soon as you can.” 

“Well Master, um I’m not sure the best way to do that now, my normal exit route required using my ladybug skills. And I don’t know if I could sneak past mom and dad with all that’s happened.”

“I understand Marinette, but please do all that you can to get here as soon as possible. I’m afraid with Gabriel being Hawkmoth there might be some complications.” Fu begged her.

“Ok, I’ll see what I can do.”

“And Marinette, if you see Chat Noir, do whatever you can to help him out.”

“Uh sure. I’ll see you soon Master Fu.” Marinette said and hung up the phone.

Tom and Sabine had retreated to their room, so sneaking out was a lot easier than Marrinette thought it’d be. It took no time at all before Marinette found herself at Master Fu’s door.

“Hello, it’s me, Marinette.” she said as she knocked on the door.

Master Fu opened the door. “Please come in and quickly there’s something very important I need to tell you.”

Marinette walked in and took a seat. 

“I’m sorry to break this to you, but you need to know who Chat Noir is.” Fu said bluntly.

“Oh, is that ok? I mean we only defeated Hawkmoth, Mayura is still out there.” Marinette was scared as this had been completely off the table beforehand. “If that’s the case I just have one request, out of respect to Chat Noir, I’d like to be the one to ask him myself.”

Fu thought to himself, ‘this isn’t ideal, but even with all the pain Adrien was going through he probably would come here right?’

“Ok Marinette, and one more thing, if you wish, you can reveal yourself to him as well. This has been a lot on both of you and now that the risk of being akumatized and forced to tell you might find strength in knowing. Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?” Fu Asked

“Well we still need to get the peacock miraculous, and I’m not sure what the best way to go about it will be. It’s probably at the Agrest manor since Mayura had been working with Hawkmoth, but I’d like to talk to Chat before deciding anything.”

“Very well, please sit back in this room and we’ll wait for Chat Noir.”

Chapter Text

It was finally time for a rest. “Plag Claws in.” Adrien looked at the ring on his finger and the other jewels he now held. 

“It is camembert time-Thats alot of Miraculous you have there Adrien”  Plagg started.

“Yeah I suppose it is,” Adrien said flatly.

“What’s going on Adrien?” Plagg was concerned now

“It's my father, he, he, he was Hawkmoth.” And the anger came out in his tears. He was gross sobbing now.

Plagg went to awaken Tikki, and put a paw on Adrien. “I knew your father was a jerk, but to be this big of an ass.” Plagg didn’t know what else to say. 

Tikki awakened the other kwamis that Adrien held, and upon seeing the distress they gave him what hugs they could give.

A good while passed with all of them like that. Before Adrien began to compose himself. “Norro, can you tell me what he thought he was doing?”

Norro was hesitant “I’d like to tell you while we’re with the guardian, it will be alot. Can we head over to him?” Norro was pleading.

“Yeah, we can do that. But I’ve got to know, why was he doing this? He said he was doing it for mom, but mom’s been gone for over a year, and she’s never coming back.” Adrien was tearing up again.

“He wanted to use the wish to bring her back, that's the only thing that drove him.” Norro went quiet. 

“Ok everyone, hide so we can head over to Master Fu’s.” And with that Adrien was off to the man and building he had collected the miraculous from before.

---

There was a small knock on Master Fu’s door. So he went to the door to answer. And there Adrien was, face red from crying. “Come in, sit down, I'll get you some tea.” 

Adrien sat down and placed the miraculous, save for his ring, on a table, and sank into his seat. Fu returned and placed a warm mug in his hands.

Adrien wanted to say something, but there weren’t any words that could come to him. Instead he pointed to the Butterfly brooch, and whispered “Norro can tell you about my father.”

Fu awakened Norro. “Hello, it's been quite some time. I’m sorry that I lost your miraculous all those years ago, we barely had any time together while I was in training.”

“I take it, it's Master Fu now?” Norro playfully asked, even with all the tension in the room. “You were just a boy and now you’re an old man.” Norro said a bit more seriously.

“I am older, but we can catch up later. I’d like to hear more about your previous holder. But before that could you come with me, Adrien?” Fu Gestured.

“Ok,” Adrien said flatly. 

Fu picked up the earring from the table and began walking toward a door in the back. “These are Ladybug’s, you should be the one to give them back to her.” Fu placed the earrings in Adrien’s hands, and knocked on the door. “Ladybug, Chat Noir is back now.”

---

Marrinette’s heart was racing, with hawkmoth no longer a threat this shouldn’t be a big deal. But the person that had become a best friend was on the other side of that door. What would he think of her out of costume, a total klutz and loser for failing to overcome an akuman attack? No, she couldn’t let herself think that way. She and Chat would always be a team no matter what, now they could just share more. “Hi Chat, it's me, Ladybug. And I’m so incredibly amazed by the hard work you did. With the threat of Hawkmoth gone, I’d like for us to share our identities with each other.” Marinette said, “If that's okay.” She tagged on.

“I’d… I’d like that very much, but I don’t know if you’ll want me to be your Chat Noir for much longer… Hawkmoth, he’s… my father.”

It all clicked. She burst through the door and began hugging Adrien. “I’m so sorry my poor kitty.”

Fu walked back to the front room while the teens hugged and cried.

“You’re not mad that I was under his roof this whole time?”

“I could never be mad at you for something someone else did.”

“But he, he was there. Just in my home, lying to me and hurting so many people. How could I not see it?” Adrien sobbed

Marinette took a deep breath “You see the best in people, you don’t go looking for the bad part that people hide.”

“But if I’d only known I could have stopped him, taken it in his sleep!”

“But you didn’t, he kept that secret from you. You’re not wrong for trusting your father, he’s wrong for hurting you and everyone else!” Marinette’s temper was surfacing. “And now he’s going to be in jail for a long time, you don’t have to do anything with him anymore. You’ll be safe” Marinette hugged tighter.

After some more quiet tears and hugging they broke their hug.

Adrien realised he hadn’t taken a good look at Ladybug in all of this, but now. It all made since. Standing before him was Marinette. Oh dear he’d gotten snot and tears in her hair, but she was still there with care in her eyes. And now there was a small smile on his face.  

“Oh my god I’m so sorry, he looked around for some towels or something and found some tissues. It got my grossness all over your hair” he offered her the tissues he found.” 

“It’s fine,” She patted ineffectively at the wet parts of her hair. “Besides, if you’re ok with it. I’d like to transform and go search for the peacock miraculous.” 

“Yeah.” He paused. “That is what we should do.” He passed her the earrings. “Let's finish this.” His tone was almost normal.

“We can wait if you’d like.” she said tenderly.

“I’d really just like to be done with this.” he said a bit more flatly.

“Ok, hey Tikki, I missed you.” Marinette said as she put on the earrings and Tikki awakened.

“It’s been a busy day, I’m sorry I couldn’t calm you down in the heat of the moment.” Tikki responded.

“It’s ok, I was the one who let my guard down, but now we can finish this and make it right. Tikki Spots on.” She said confidently. Pink light enveloped her as first her mask, and then the rest of her uniform appeared.

“Wow,” There were still good things in this world Adrien thought. “Oh yeah my turn. Plagg Claws out!” Green light enveloped him and then he was back to being Chat Noir.

It really was him all along. Marinette thought to herself.

They headed to the front door.

“Hey you two. Before you go, do you think you’ll need some help?” Fu offered the miracle box to them.

“I think we’ll be ok, what do you think Chat?” She turned to him.

“I’m actually super exhausted from all the miraculous decision making I’ve done today, and I’d really just like to follow your lead.” He offered a hand.

She grabbed it. “Alright it’s you and me.”

They checked to make sure the coast was clear before leaving the building to approach the Agreste Manor.

Chapter Text

When they arrived the Agrest Manor was being blocked off and patrolled by police. 

“Let's check with them to see if they’ve found anything before we go in.” Ladybug led, and swung down to the officer who appeared to be in charge. Chat Noir Followed.

“Hello Officer, what’s the situation here?” Ladybug started.

“Ladybug, when we went in earlier the only person we found was the Agreste bodyguard, and he doesn’t seem to know anything. We haven’t found anything else.” They reported.

“Ok, that makes sense. I didn’t really think the bodyguard would be Mayura, but I wasn’t sure if he was helping in other ways.”

Chat Noir looked a little hurt, and a little disappointed. His bodyguard wouldn’t do anything that bad, would he? He just didn’t know who to trust anymore.

“We’ll go ahead and do our own sweep to see if we can find anything.” Ladybug said.

“There’s one more thing Ladybug, we haven’t been able to locate Adrien Agreste or Natalie Sancour anywhere, we’re not sure what all they know or have done so they are to be arrested on sight.” The officer told her.

She maintained her professionalism despite wanting to laugh at how stupid an idea that Adrien helping Hawkmoth was, but they didn’t need to know that. So she nodded, and she and Chat Noir went inside.

The house was dark and eerie. It had never really felt homely, but now with all the flashing lights outside the windows it felt even worse. Chat Noir was uncomfortable. Ladybug took his hand to reassure him.

“Hey Chat, I’m here. I’m going to stay here with you, and we’re going to finish this up, and then we won’t have to worry about the superhero side of this.” she reassured him. “Where do you think he might have kept the peacock miraculous?”

Chat Noir was thinking to himself, the places that his father was left alone the most. There was his bedroom of course, Adrien hadn’t stepped in there in years. But there was also his office, which he knew already had a secret safe. Maybe there were more secrets in there. “Lets try his office… The painting of mom he has in there. There’s a safe behind it, and there might be more secrets.”

Ladybug nodded and they opened the empty office. She went up to the portrait of Emilie Agreste. “It’s a shame something as beautiful as this art and her was hiding something so nefarious. I’m sorry” Ladybug pushed the painting open to reveal a safe. Luckily it was just a dial combination lock, so she went to listen to the ticks and open it. And after a moment the door swung open.

Chat Noir stared slack jawed. “How? How do you know how to do that!?”

Ladybug slyly looked back “Look it's just easier to crack locks like this rather than trying and failing to remember the code.” Then she started looking inside. 

The peacock miraculous wasn’t there. Aside from the nice things like a lovely picture of Emilie the Grimoire was as well, though it seemed that was the only thing related to the miraculous there. “Well this will be good to get back” And then it was stored in the magical void of Ladybug’s compact. With the safe cleared Ladybug closed it all back up.

While Ladybug had been digging through the safe, Chat Noir had just been staring at the portrait of his mother, and how nice a painting this was. Though as the moments passed he realized. The painting was a single piece, it was lots of smaller pieces. He hesitantly reached out, and pushed one in. There was a small click. “Ladybug look at this.” He waved her over.

He pressed a few buttons, then she pressed a few. They all popped back into place after being released.

“Ok so there are a bunch of buttons on the back of this, which means that if there are other hidden things this would be a pretty good way to hide it. Do you think it’s like a grid, or something random?” Ladybug was in brainstorm mode now.

“Ladybug, what do you think would happen if we destroyed it?” Chat whispered.

“ I don’t know, it's possible nothing would happen, it’s possible it would short out whatever connected and unlock it.” She contemplated.

“Sorry mom.”

“What are-”

“Cataclysm!” Chat noir placed his hand on the center of the painting. It crumbled away.

“-you doing?” Ladybug finished. There was mechanical whirring and some clicks. Then a panel opened up on the floor right by Gabriel’s desk.

The two of them looked down, it seemed like this went deep. Ladybug lassoed her yoyo to get a good hold. Then she offered Chat her hand. “Are you ready, partner?”

He took her hand, and held on as the two of them descended into what could only be described as a super villain’s lair entrance. Was this always here Chat thought to himself, maybe it was built as a secret bunker or something. His father was always pretty paranoid. 

As they descended, quite a bit of it made sense. This was a small elevator shaft they were taking, but eventually it opened up into a wider area that was a big garden, with tiny butterflies everywhere. It was still beautiful despite knowing why it was there. When they landed they saw a second elevator next to the first, and a path that at the end of it was an illuminated case. 

Chat Noir’s eyes widened. He then sprinted down the path. “No… Why? … This isn’t right … she shouldn’t be like this…” he then began sobbing.

Ladybug ran to catch up with him and saw them. Chat noir was sobbing on a clear casket that contained his mother. “I’m so sorry.” She went and she put her arms around him. It was all she could do.

They remained there long enough for Chat’s transformation to fall. Plagg saw the casket and Emilie and was silent. He cuddled up to his holder. While he had seen some messed up things throughout his life, this was particularly cruel. 

“Hey Plagg, will you watch over him for me. I need a moment.” Ladybug said and stepped away after the kwami nodded at her. 

Ladybug took out her bugphone and called Fu. “Hi Master Fu, we found Adrien’s mom, it seems like she’s either dead or near death. Is there anything we can do?”

 “I couldn’t say. If it's something medical I’d say get her to a hospital as soon as possible or at least some doctors down here. If it has anything to do with the corruption of the peacock miraculous, then we’ll need to look to the grimoire.” 

“Understood, and I hate to ask this, but it’d be nice to have some hero back up, at least patrolling the perimeter of the manor.”

“Carapace and Rena Rouge still have their miraculous from earlier today.”

“Understood, we’ll regroup when we can, bye Master Fu.” Ladybug hung up the bug phone and went to dial Alya. 

---

After their transformations had worn off Alya and Nino met up and went to Alya’s place.

“Alya, can we adopt Adrien?” Nino looked at her.

“What?” Alya said with confusion.

“Look, Adrien's old man is Hawkmoth! That’s insane, there’s no way I’m letting Adrien stay connected to that lunatic in any way. There’s gotta be some precedent. If not us, maybe our parents.” 

“I don’t really know, if he has other family he’ll probably be sent to them.”

“Absolutely not, Adrien is staying right here in Paris.”

Nino took out his phone to try to call Adrien again, but it went to voicemail again.

“I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna kill Gabriel Agreste. I knew he was bad with the way he treated Adrien, but this...” Nino trailed off.

“Nino. We have to take a deep breath, this is a lot to take in. We don’t know if Adrien knows or has already been picked up by the police. We’ll be able to see him once things cool down. And I don’t know about adoption, but I bet we might be able to get him to be his own adult so he doesn’t have to worry about any of that nonsense. Then we can all go over and stay at his house and protect him from anyone who wants to hurt him.” Alya reassured nino.

Alya’s phone started ringing, caller ID just had a ladybug icon. “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Alya Cesaire?”

“Yes.”

“Alya, this is Ladybug. I need Rena Rouge and Carapace to come to the Agrest Manor.”

Alya was searching for words.

“Who is it?” Nino asked.

“It’s Ladybug” she whispered back “The real one.”

“Ok Ladybug, Carapace is with me now, we’ll be there soon.”

“Thank you, when you get here for now just patrol the perimeter. If we need backup inside I’ll let you know. Bug out.” Ladybug ended the call.

“Ok Nino, Ladybug needs us. Are you ready?” Alya turned to Nino.

“Yeah, let’s go.” 

Nino and Alya transformed and headed out to the Agrest Manor.

---

Ladybug looked at her bug phone as her call ended and the screen turned dark. “Adrien, we need to investigate this second elevator. Are you up for coming with me as Chat?” Ladybug’s eyes were patient.

“Yeah, if you think it’s the best option we can do it.” Adrien collected himself and transformed. Then they called the elevator.

“It seems like your mother is stable, so when we’re done here we can get her to a hospital. How does that sound Chat?”

“Yeah, that will be fine.” but why wasn’t she just in a hospital this whole time he wondered to himself.

It was a tight fit for 2 people, but they managed. The elevator brought them to another room. It was open and very nondescript except for the large butterfly window on one side. When they stepped out into the room they saw an unconscious Mayura. Ladybug dashed over to her looking to see if it was any kind of trick. But she was real, so Ladybug removed the broach. And now an unconscious Natalie Sinclair was on the ground.

Adrien was going numb, she had been in on it too.

Ladybug confirmed that she was still breathing before picking her up. “Hey Chat, she’ll also be arrested, but right now we should get her to a hospital. I don’t see anything else in this room, so we should get going.” 

“Okay.” Chat went over to the two of them and picked up Natalie. ‘Did Natalie and father only send me to school so they could have more privacy to be super villains? Did she ever care about me like I thought she did?’ Chat thought to himself as he went through the motions of getting out of the secret lair and back to the main part of the manor.

Ladybug and Chat Noir carrying Natalie emerged from the front door of the Agrest Manor. 

---

“Look down there Carapace. Ladybug and Chat Noir are coming out of the Manor.” Rena said. She and Carapace then went over to where Ladybug and Chat Noir were. 

---

Ladybug and Chat Noir approached the lead officer they had talked to before.

“Officer, we found her passed out. See that she gets taken to a hospital. She’ll need to be monitored as she is Mayura. We also found a secret room accessible through Gabriel Agreste’s office. In that room Emilie Agrest is in some kind of coma or something, she’ll also need to be brought to a hospital, but medical professionals should be brought in first to examine and make sure she can be moved.” Ladybug was relaying the info as Chat Noir stood there only able to offer the vocational nod. “It’s really over now, Hawkmoth and Mayura can no longer terrorize the city. But if you’ll excuse me, it’s starting to get late and us heroes need a bit of a break.” She gestured to herself and Chat, as well as Rena Rouge and Carapace who had joined them. 

The four heroes exited the area and found a secluded spot.

“Ladybug, dude, look I’m glad that Hawkmoth and Mayura are dealt with. And I’ll be ok to give back the miraculous, but we still have a big situation to deal with.” Carapace addressed Ladybug. “We don’t know where Adrien is, or if there are more secret rooms, or he’s locked up, or-” his rambling was cut off.

“Carapace, your care for Adrien is amazing, but I’ve already taken care of it. Adrien is safe. He’s not in the Agreste Manor.”

“Well, where is he then?” Carapace angrily questioned

As Ladybug was beginning to explain that he was ok, just needed to be out of view of the public Chat Noir cut in. “He’s going to be staying with his childhood friend Chloe at the Le Grand Paris. He’s doing this to stay hidden and away from the press once all of this comes out tomorrow. He’s probably turned his phone off to avoid a bombardment of messages. He’s safe like we said.” 

Ladybug recovered after the interruption and surprising news. “As I was saying, we’ve done it, we can get some rest now. Can I have your miraculous back?” She extended her hand.

“Uh Ladybug, in front of Chat?” Rena asked.

“With Hawkmoth and Mayura defeated we don’t have any immediate threat of any kind of mind controlling magic. If you’re comfortable sharing either of us will be able to find you if something out of the ordinary comes up. Besides, I think we’ll be stronger for knowing.” Ladybug responded

Carapace was hesitant, but with full trust in both heroes Rena Rouge removed her necklace to reveal herself to Chat as Alya Cesaire. “Now you know who you can contact if you ever need more help and LB is elsewhere.” she said with a smirk as she handed the necklace to Ladybug.

Carapace upon seeing the trust that Alya had removed his bracelet to reveal to Chat that he was Nino Lahiffe. “I’m trusting you because of Alya and Ladybug, and once I see Adrien for myself we’ll all have to celebrate.” he had softened as he returned the bracelet to Ladybug.

“Thank you again, we’ll be contacting you to help out when we give official reports.” Ladybug gave Alya and Nino big hugs.

With Alya and Nino just having left it was just Ladybug and Chat Noir and a quiet moment. It stayed quiet for some time until Ladybug softly spoke up. “Hey, it's late, let's get you over to your room.” she offered her hand, even though he was still solem. “I can carry you as we swing from street to street with my yo-yo.” The tiniest smirk appeared on his face.

“Plagg Claws in. Well since you’re offering, I can take you up on that.”

Ladybug picked up Adrien, and they were off.

Chapter Text

Tap Tap Tap. Chloe heard from the window, and she went to investigate. It was none other than the real Ladybug, and Adrien?

“ADRIEKINS!” She pushed open the door and tackled him in a huge hug. “I was so worried, no one could find you for hours. Are you ok?”

“Hey Chloe.” he regained his balance. “I’m as well as can be…all things given.” he looked away.

So he had heard. “I’m so sorry Adrien.” This hug was softer. “I have everything you need here, and you can stay here as long as you’d like.” She motioned for them to come inside. “And Ladybug.” This was who had failed today, and who she had proved she was just as good-better than. But she couldn’t say that. She had to keep her mouth shut. “Thanks for keeping him safe and getting him here.” her tone was short.

“I’ll be periodically patrolling here over the next few days if either of you need anything. Adrien will be expected to give statements in the near future. I’ll see you soon” Her eyes lingered on Adrien to make sure he was ok, it seemed he was managing. And she swung off into the City.

 “Adrien” Chloe took his hand, “Let me show you your room.” She guided him out of her room and to the next room over. She then took out two keys and handed them to Adrien. “Now this key is for your room, and this one is for mine. If you need anything at all don’t hesitate to see me.” Adrien’s eyes were unfocused as he took the keys.

“Thank you Chloe…” he had no idea what he wanted to do, but he did know he didn’t want to be alone. “I think I’d like something to eat and maybe a movie to watch; and for you to stay with me, for now.” He was quiet, it was so unnatural to ask for things for himself.

“Done.” Chloe announced. She pulled out her phone and ordered them food. Then they came back to her living area where she turned the tv on. She had been wanting to see the new Ladybug movie, but given today it wasn’t going to happen. So instead she selected the newest Mecha Strike. “Adrien, get comfy, the food will be here in a moment.”

Adrien sank down into the plush couch, he was more tired than he thought.

15, or was it 30 minutes that had passed when Chloe went to get the door to get the food. She hadn’t been entirely sure what Adrien had wanted given everything so instead of just a tray of room service it was a whole cart. She instructed the staff to place it next to Adrien and to be on call, just in case she needed anything else.

Adrien looked over the food, it looked great, some of which he’d need to sneak to Plagg. He took a bite out of the closest thing, and it didn’t really taste like anything. “Chloe?”

She turned to him “Yes Adrien?”

“Am I going to have to live alone from now on?” He asked with fear in his voice.

“No. If you don’t want to. You can stay here as long as you like.” She wanted to be angry at Gabriel for this, but that’s not what Adrien needed. “Adrien you’re absolutely amazing and you are absolutely adored by everyone.” He was perking up a smidge “We can have more over, do you want me to invite the class?” The entire class wasn’t Chloe’s idea of a good time, but it seemed like Adrien liked all of them, he’s just that nice. And obviously all of them adored him.

He nodded. “Wait, don’t invite Lila, she, she hurt alot of people today and I don’t want them upset.” It looked like the commoners were coming here tonight.

Chloe pulled out her phone, found the old class chat and sent everyone a message. ‘Come to Le Grand Paris now. I’m having a movie night for Adrien.’

“Alright they’ll be here soon.” Remember to be nice, and be nice for Adrien, because he really needs some niceness. Don’t focus on how everyone will wreck your hotel. Focus on Adrien, and make him the happiest damn person. 

---

Nino’s and Alya’s phones buzzed.

‘Come to Le Grand Paris now. I’m having a movie night for Adrien.’

Nino read the text. “So he really is there, let's go.” He pocketed his phone and began to put on his shoes. Alya followed

---

Max’s phone buzzed.

Markov relayed the text to him ‘Come to Le Grand Paris now. I’m having a movie night for Adrien.’

“What are the chances that Adrien knows his father is Hawkmoth Markov?”

“Considering this text came from Chloe and the time of day he has to know that his father isn’t at home. The news hasn’t reported that Hawkmoth is Gabriel, but considering the family ties there's an 84.2% chance that he’s been notified by the police.” Markov had also processed that there was more than a significant chance that Adrien was in fact Chat Noir, but as it was not his secret to share he kept quiet. 

On his way out Max Grabbed a few flash drives filled with more movies and playlists. Who knew where the night would lead them.

---

Juleka and Rose had been browsing the newest street fashions online when their phone’s buzzed.

‘Come to Le Grand Paris now. I’m having a movie night for Adrien.’

“Wow, this was sent out to everyone, that's so nice of Chloe. Let’s go Juleka” 

Juleka nodded, and looked to her brother who had looked down for a little while now. “Luka wanna join?”

“That’d actually be nice.” Luka said, pulling himself out of his thoughts.

---

‘Come to Le Grand Paris now. I’m having a movie night for Adrien.’ That’s what Chole’s text message to Marrinette said. And sure Chloe wasn’t going to make for a good time for her, but Adrien needed her. Though she really didn’t feel like sneaking around at this point, so she needed to ask her parents.

She went downstairs, they had come out of their room and were watching a film on the TV. “Mom, Dad. I’d like to go out, Chloe is holding a movie night with our class for Adrien, and I wanna be there for him.” She paused and waited.

Her dad started “It’s been a long day Marinette. I know you want to be there for Adrien, but after this business with Lila today can you really handle Chloe?” 

“Absolutely, look Adrien needs us, he needs his friends right now. And I want to be there for him. And being there for him right now means not fighting with Chloe.” 

“Honey, I’m just not sure.” Her mom followed up.

“Mom, dad. I promise that if anything even looks like it might go bad with Chloe I’ll come home immediately.”

Tom and Sabine exchanged looks at each other before Sabine started. “Ok, one more question. You said the whole class; will Lila be there?” 

Marinette hadn’t even thought of that as a possibility since this was for Adrien, but she went and checked her phone. “It’s in the group chat for the class that was made before Lila joined, so no, it looks like she’s not coming.”

“Ok Marinette you can do this, but since there’s going to be a lot of people there you should take some snacks from the bakery.” Tom softened as he hugged his baby girl. “We closed up early so we have alot and it shouldn’t go to waste.” 

“Thank you so much mom and dad.” Marrinette perked up as she gave goodbye kisses to them.

She bagged up an assortment of treats and then was off.

---

When Marinette arrived a hotel staff member escorted her to where her class was. Everyone else had already gotten there and settled in. It seemed like she wasn’t the only one who brought food; Sabrina, Alix, Juleka, Rose, Mylene and Ivan were around a table piled high with snacks. Max was near the tv and sound system; he had changed the lighting, display, and sound settings for the optimal experience with this many people. Luka was on the far side of the couch playing a soft tune. Marc and Nathanial were sitting close occasionally marking something down in their notebooks. Adrien was in the middle of an oversized couch in an oversized cuddle puddle. Behind Adrien was Kim, sitting on the back of the couch giving him a shoulder rub. On one side of him was Chloe, who was holding his arm gently, and on the other arm was Nino talking about something. Who would have thought the two of them could unite so fiercely. Alya gave Nino a quick peck on the cheek before going to greet Marinette.

“Hey girl, how are you doing after all that happened today?” Alya gave her a brief hug and then they walked towards the food table to set down all the snacks Marinette had brought. 

“Well, this morning with Lila was awful, but the Akuma stuff. I don’t know, it's so hazy.” Marinette started really thinking about it and she couldn’t pull much more than a hint of feelings from that time. 

Once she had placed down the snacks she was bombarded by more hugs. Alya started it and pulled Rose in, she was going on about how scary all that was. Then by Juleka in a warm silence. And then Alix and Mylene until there wasn’t any more space for anyone to get in. They all stayed like that for a moment as a quantity of tears fell. There were mumbled apologies about Lila, but those were met with rebuttals from Marinette of how they were just trying to be nice and it was hard to know all the facts. 

Marrinette had been so focused on Hawkmoth and Adrien since she had been saved, she had forgotten how much all of that had hurt. But she was glad that her friends remembered and wanted to help soothe that pain. Once her and everyone else’s eyes had dried the evening was lighter and actually nice. 

---

Even though it was a school night, and even though it had been such a long day. Every single kid had permission to stay the night. Even though there was still a somberness from learning about Adrien’s dad, there was also levity. While movies played, some broke into smaller groups for games; but there were some groups that didn’t separate. Nino and Chloe stayed with Adrien, no matter what; and Alya never strayed too far from Marinette.

Adrien was the first to fall asleep, about halfway through the third movie. Sometime after that, long after their arms fell asleep, Nino and Chloe did the same. Once that had happened more and more claimed where they would rest for the night, till eventually the only sounds were some snores.

Chapter Text

Adrien was the first to wake, it was too early. Luckily Nino and Chloe had slumped away from him in the night. He silently made his way to the bathroom and splashed some water on his face. 

“Plagg, was all of that real? My father being Hawkmoth, Chloe handling the ladybug miraculous really well and getting everyone together so I wouldn’t have to be alone last night, Nino and Alya as Carapace and Rena Rouge…and Marinette being Ladybug?” It was overwhelming, if he didn’t know the moth miraculous was safe he would have been afraid that he might get akumatized.

“It is kid. Now you’ll only be Chat Noir when you want to be.” Plagg was trying to lighten the mood.

“I do think I want to stay here for awhile, but I’ll need to get help to get some things from the house. Though I suppose I’ll need to go myself so I can get your cheese.” Adrien teased him at the end. 

Adrien did as much as he could to tidy himself up despite being in his clothes from yesterday. As he stepped outside of the bathroom his eyes met Marinette’s. And they both paused. 

Marinette broke the silence and shyly said, “Uh... can I use that room and then maybe... we could talk?” 

“Oh yeah, of course.” Adrien stepped out and held the door open for Marinette.

Marinette finished up in the restroom and stepped out to see Adrien leaning against the wall waiting for her. “I know everyone piled in here, but I do have my own private space. We could talk there if you want to.” Adrien offered

“Yeah that will work.” Marinette responded, as the two made it to what was Adrien’s room for the time being. 

Adrien unlocked it and stepped inside. “We could lock up if we want our small friends to wander freely.” 

“Yeah”

“ …So…”

“Um…”

“What’s going through your mind Adrien?” Marinette broke their mumbles.

“Honestly, too much. How did I not see him for what he was? What’s going to happen to me? How could I possibly go back there, let alone live there? I...I won’t have to give up Plagg right?!” The questions were spewing forth.

Marrinette took his hands and looked into his eyes. “You are the one and only Chat Noir and Adrien Agreste, Plagg and your miraculous will stay with you for as long as he’ll have you. As for the other things I don’t really know, but it seems like Chloe will let you stay here for a while and you’ll have everything you need taken care of. And if she doesn’t, well, I’ll make sure you have somewhere. Do you want to even try to go to school today, you don’t have to, we can take a break.” She looked to him

“Oh my god, school is still a thing, and damn it I’ve been so thoughtless. You were akumatized yesterday! Because of Lila, because I didn’t keep close enough watch over-”

She interrupted “ I got akumatized because Hawkmoth sent out an akuma, and because I was very angry at a bad situation. It had nothing to do with you.”

“I could have-”

She stopped him again “At the end of it I was hurt because Lila and Hawkmoth decided to hurt me, that’s it.” She got quieter “Please stop beating yourself up over this. Yes all of it hurt yesterday and it was terrible, but none of that was your fault. Right now the most important thing we can do is take care of ourselves. We can do that, we’ve been taking care of Paris for months.”

It was hard for Adrien to consider what he needed right now, considering his needs was something he was going to have to learn how to do very quickly. “I think for today I want to get some things from my father’s house… And I want Nino to help me.”

“Do you want a Ladybug escort, or something more covert?” 

“I don’t want eyes on me, it’s still early. Do you think we could get a car or something to take me over there?”

“Probably, you go wake up Nino and I’ll go down to the lobby and ask.” She started to get up, but Adrien grabbed her wrist.

“Thank you…for everything.” He shyly said. “I know that everything else is so big, but now that it’s just the two of us, I’ve got to know. I love you, and I love you even more knowing who you are. I don’t know if anything has changed for you now that you know, but what do you want us to be?” His eyes were staring deeply into her.

Marinette sat back down and took a deep breath. “I like you alot, but I can’t lie it’s been kind of another shocking thing from yesterday to learn about you. You’re just so different and I don’t know if I could say I know you very well if I couldn’t even see how you 2 were alike.” She paused, this was the clearest her words had been with him when even thinking about how much she loved him. “I care about you very much, and as Chat Noir you’re an amazing partner I can count on. And as Adrien you’re an amazingly kind and thoughtful friend. And I want to spend time with you.” She took a breath, “I need… I need time to get used to the idea that the 2 of you are the same.”  

He looked away. “I understand.”

She took his hands. “Adrien, you are one of the most important people to me. That is not going to change. I just need a moment to figure out myself.”

He smiled back at her, “Yeah, do what you need. I would like to ask ladybug a favor though.” 

She tilted her head.

“I have this kwamii that’s spoiled rotten and only likes this disgusting cheese that I happen to have a stash off at my father’s house. Would Ladybug be up for going to retrieve that before Nino and I get there so I don’t have to explain that.” He looked at her with big kitty eyes, and was joined by Plagg making the exact same face.

“I suppose she could do that, but it’d be easier if I had that little kwamii with me to show me where everything is. Would that be ok?”

Adrien and Plagg nodded to each other.

“Ok, I’ll go ahead and get you a car for you and Nino to go over and grab all your stuff. Then while you’re waiting on that I’ll grab your snacks and bring them back here.” She took his hands again, “One step at a time, we’ve got this my kitty.” While her smile was mostly sincere there was a hint of flirtation with it. 

“The 3rd window to my bedroom is the one I keep unlocked.” Adrien let her know. 

Plagg and Tikki flew back into her purse as she left the room to get their plan started. 

Adrien waited a good 15 minutes before he even went to stir Nino. He knew Ladybug was quick, but didn’t want to risk bumping into her. It gave him time to look through the photos of him and Marinette on his phone, he’d have to take more now. He went to approach Nino who was slumped over on the couch. He took his hand and gently shook it, just like if they were in class and needed to wake each other up. 

Nino slowly lifted his head and let out a huge yawn. “Hey Adrien, come here I’m gonna keep you safe while all this blows over.” Nino brought him into a hug. It was nice. Adrien embraced back for a moment. 

“Thank you Nino,” he really was living up to the turtle miraculous. “Can I ask you for a favor right now?”

Nino got up and started becoming more aware of the world. “Yeah man, anything.” 

“Will you come with me to help me pack up my stuff from my dad’s? I’d like to go now while it’s still early and we won’t be noticed.”

“Of course let’s go.”

They headed down to the entrance where they waited for a moment before a taxi pulled up for them.

---

After requesting a taxi from the concierge Marinette slipped outside and hid before transforming. 

“You know Ladybug, I could show you Adrien’s cool secrets if we finish up the cheese grab quickly.” Plagg said mischievously. 

Ladybug started to blush at such a thought before pulling it together “C'mon Plagg you better keep up so we can get all your smelly snacks out of there.” They were off and soon after had entered Adrien’s room though the window he left unlocked.

“Alright Plagg how big of a bag do you need.” Ladybug was trying to keep focused because while this was just Chat Noir’s room and she was just grabbing some snacks for his kwamii, it also was Adrien Agreste’s room. It was just hard because the Ladybug and Chat Noir figurines on his desk were sweeter and funnier now. And Plagg had woken his computer up so now there was a big photo catalog of Ladybug all over the screen.

“Plagg! Focus.”

“Relax, I was on my way to this drawer which has some bags in it that you can use for my magnificent cheese. Going over the computer keys was the quickest route.” 

As Ladybug picked up a bag she chastised him “Sure, now where’s your stash?”

“It’s stashes Ladybug, and the first one is here.”

As they started putting the cheese in the bag Ladybug addressed Plagg. “He, just seems so different when he’s being Chat Noir.”

 “I don’t know about that, sure there are parts of him that he expresses more when he’s behind a mask, but deep down he’s all the same. Obsessed with seeing or helping friends, obsessed with you, doing ‘the right thing’.

“I just thought I knew everything I could about Adrien, but this has blindsighted me. And if that’s the case, did I ever really love him.” That last part was mostly for herself.

“What do you mean you thought you knew everything about him? There’s always more to you humans than you could ever know, isn’t that part of the fun of your friendships and relationships.” Plagg sassed at her.

“I just don’t know what to think of the 2 of them.”

“Well for starters you could think of him as just him.” Plagg offered. “Look I obviously haven’t been at your side through all of this like I’ve been for him, but whatever things you like about him are always there, mask or not. It’s not an act, it’s just him doing his best in extremely different situations.”

“You’re right Plagg.” She finished up packing away the last of the cheese she could notice. “I do want to be together, but I want to.. We got all of your food?”

Plagg smiled, “Yeah, let’s head out.

Chapter Text

While Nino woke up and got ready Adrien scratched down a note to let everyone know where they were and that they’d be back soon.

With Nino still waking up the ride there was soft and quiet. At the front gate there was an officer that escorted the boys in. As they approached the house it seemed more imposing than it had been before to Adrien. It was cold as they entered. When they got to Adrien’s room the officer began to follow them in, but Nino cut him off.

“Look we’re just going to get some clothes and things he needs while he’s away, can you give me and my bro some privacy while we get everything together.” 

The officer looked hesitant

In a quieter voice Nino said to him “Look, I can tell you that this room was almost never visited by Hawkmoth, there’s nothing in here related to him in there. 

The officer replied with some sympathy “Please quickly get your things. I’ll be here in the hallway when you’re done to inspect your bags.”

When they walked in it was still very dark and cold despite the sunrise trying to get in. Adrien flipped the light switch and went to a drawer to pull out some bags.

“Here.” Adrien held up a bag to Nino who was now alert and ready for action, well moving clothes into a bag. Adrien took a moment to look at him. 

The two of them started packing the bags.

“Adrien?”

“Yeah Nino?”

“Any idea what’s going to happen next?”

“Well,” Adrien started, “At least for the next few days I’m going to stay with Chloe, then I guess there’s going to be a bunch of legal things that will happen. After that… I’m not sure”

“I’m sorry about your dad. I knew he was a bad dude, but to be Hawkmoth? That’s crazy! Or I guess it's not.” Nino didn’t want to get stuck down that insult hole “Sorry, what I’m trying to say is I love you dude and I wanna do what I can to help you, you know? Cause all of this, it’s a lot.” 

Adrien put down what he was packing and walked to Nino. He started to open his arms up for a hug and Nino was holding him tightly. “Thank you Nino. You know you’re really good at being protective. You’re my best friend and I love you too.” After a moment they separated and finished packing up.

On the way out the officer stationed looked through the bags and gave them the ok. The placed the bags in the trunk of the car and rode back to Le Grand Paris.

Adrien noticed a red blur that seemed to be following at a distance, that was a nice comfort to all of this.

—---

Ladybug kept an eye on the taxi that Adrien and Nino got in. Luckily it was a smooth ride and no one bothered them. Now that they were in the lobby it was time for her to make it back to Adrien’s new room.

Once she slipped in the window she kicked the cheese bags under the bed and dropped her transformation. It was a good thing she came this way because it seemed like a few of her classmates had started waking up. 

“Ok Plagg, you wait here. I’m… I’m gonna tell Adrien how I feel.”

She was able to slip out of Adrien’s room without being noticed just before he and Nino came back in to drop off the bags. First thing was to get some quiet for the 2 of them.

“Hey Nino”

“Yeah Marinette?”

“Could you go and call the kitchen to see if they can get some breakfast up here? It seems like everyone’s starting to wake up. I don’t know if we’re going to go to school, but making the morning easy will be good for everyone. I can help Adrien unpack.” she finished.

“Sure thing, I’m starting to get pretty hungry myself. I’ll see what they can send up.” Nino said and then exited.

Adrien turned to Marinette. She made eye contact with him for a moment before turning to his bags. “Lets go ahead and get these into the dresser, you’ll be here awhile and that will be nicer.” She started digging into the bag, it would be easier without eye contact right?

“Yeah, sure.” Adrien looked down and joined her.

“I was thinking…Well…umm,” she paused and really focused on the shirt she was folding. It shouldn’t be this hard, I love him, and he loves me. So why can’t I get the words out. She held the shirt tighter, stumbled a bit more and said “Adrien I love you, all sides of you, and I wanna be your girlfriend.”

He dropped the shirt he was folding, and brought Marrinette in for a hug. 

“I don't know what will happen next, but I know I want to be there with you for whatever it is,” she said.

“I’d love to M’Lady,” he whispered to her before slowly ending their embrace. 

Chapter Text

Epilogue

---

With all the press and how invasive the trial was Adrien and Marinette agreed to stay private with their relationship until that was settled. Although, Chat Noir and Ladybug could now regularly be seen exchanging brief kisses.

Friday was Lila’s last day at Francoise Dupont College. After seeing how everything was unraveling for her she convinced her mom to let her finish up the year with her aunt in Italy. The class was sad that she had moved away without telling anyone, but they remembered the things she had said while under her trance. When the time came for it they sent her a birthday card wishing her well.

It took Alya about a week to pry the dating info out of Marinette. While telling her there was no way she could keep a big secret like that from her. After that Marinette and Adrien agreed that Nino could know. On the condition that he had to be the one to figure it out, much to Alya’s annoyance. Even with her clues it took him 3 weeks to figure it out. She was particularly frustrated with him that he didn’t get it after the first 5 days when all of them had hung out and Adrien and Marinette had been holding hands and hugging the entire time. He kept on telling her they’re just like that, they’re both huggy people.

Chloe was extremely suspicious during the first few weeks when Adrien kept on having her over and over again. It was like he was trying to test the both of them. After asking what was going on about 100 times a day it was actually Marinette who broke down after 2 weeks and fessed up that they were dating. That night the three of them watched some movie Adrien had never seen. Apparently it had the worst fashion that both Marinette and Chloe had seen, and was a mistake to have ever been made. Adrien smoothed things over and managed to get Chloe to keep her mouth shut to everyone. He told Marinette later that it was one of the cutest things to see his girlfriend, and his oldest friend united in angrily grabbing popcorn while letting out more and more gasps, or how could it get even worse?! 

Adrien tried to bring up who Lady Duchess was, just in case. From time to time, but everytime Marinette would make up excuses about identity because Hawkmoth wasn’t sentenced yet, and with the power vacuum of a major city without a major supervillain they had to be ready for anything. After the trial and Gabriel and Natalie had been sentenced for life he brought it up again. It had been months, there’d be no new villains, and while he wanted to respect privacy he just didn’t want any damn secrets. After that, and a talk with Tikki and Fu she decided it would be ok. After all she was great and if he trusted her to take on her role, it would make sense for her to know just who she was.

They had both transformed and met on a rooftop for privacy.

“Okay. I’m ready for it. Who was Duchess Beetle?”  She had her serious face on, but other than that was pretty relaxed.

His face lit up with joy. With this now both of them would know all the heroes of Paris. He wanted to see her face with that knowledge immediately, but this was a once the cat is out of the bag, it's out, moment. “Okay, but first I wanna know. Can you figure it out on your own?”

She squinted at him “You’ve wanted to tell me for months, and now this?” she looked at his big eyes “Ok, let’s see. It’s gotta be someone you know and fully trust. Which means it’s someone you’ve spent alot of time with.”

He nodded.

“Ok so that means it might be someone from our class, or the fencing club, or your chinese class, or maybe even one of your co-workers. Though you haven’t done much work recently so it’s probably not one of them. Can I ask questions to narrow it down?”

“That’s fine with me,” he said.

“Ok well based on their athletic ability my first guess is someone in the fencing club, is it someone from there?”

“While this person has some elite athletic training, no they are not in the fencing club.” His grinned 

“Ok, well to make this easier on myself I suppose the gimme question is, do I know them?”

“You do.” His grin grew

“Ok while we both know some people from other places the most obvious one is class. Is she in our homeroom”

“Yes!” his anticipation was ramping up.

“Ok, well we have been using she/her to talk about her so I’m going to assume it’s one of our classmates that also uses she/her.” Marinette bit her lip while she thought “Ok well I know it’s not Alya since Rena was there.  Rose, Juleka, and Miss Bustier were akumatized so it couldn’t be them. I had taken out Sabrina and Lila at the beginning of the fight. Which leaves Mylene and Alix…. Oh it was Alix! She is really athletic and she even used my yoyo before when we fought Reverser. What a good choice, though I have to admit it's odd that she gained that much height while transformed.”

“Not quite” Chat Noir’s eyes narrowed “You did guess right in that this person always uses she/her. And while everyone you eliminated was in fact not this person, you did forget one more person in our class,”  his grin overtook his face.

Ladybug listed off the class again in her head… “Wait…” Her eyes widened as he turned to him.

He had the biggest cheshire cat grin that she’d ever seen him with.

“…No…”

He nodded

“Chloe?” she eked out. Before she could bury her head in her hands he picked her up and started spinning her around. She half heartedly resisted before he set her back down.

“You are truly Adrien Agreste and Chat Noir.”

He smiled “Yeah, I am.”

This was a bit much, even for her. She needed a distraction. “Race you to the eiffel tower, loser has to give the winner a kiss!” 

With that the two of them dashed through the sky line.