Chapter Text
A knife, jabbed into the air at the correct angle, would have refused to fall; such was the tension on the top floor of the Dupain bakery. Tikki, the Kwami of creation and being older than most of the universe, flitted about nervously as she watched her companion. The last few hours had been a whirlwind of events, first the entire ordeal with Love Eater, then the disaster of Miracle Queen and Wang Fu renouncing the guardianship of the Miraculous. Marinette had seemed to be on autopilot after the fact, agreeing to Alya’s idea to gather as many of the class as possible to go and get ice cream from Andre without much of a thought. She had excused herself quickly once everyone was settled, apologising to Luka for leaving him with most of the treat, but she was in no mood to eat. She returned home and had been silent ever since.
“Marinette?” she said, voice uncertain as she drifted a little closer to the girl, who was sat on her bed, arms around her head. In her lap, a large red and black egg, and around her on the bed was a collection of seemingly innocuous trinkets.
“Arrrgh! I can’t do this!” Marinette snapped suddenly, flopping back against her pillows with a grunt of annoyance. “How am I supposed to figure this out without a guide? I’m not a monk! I’m not some super genius!” she lamented, covering her eyes with her hands.
“Don’t sell yourself short Marinette, you’re the cleverest Ladybug yet!” the spotted creature said in a cheery voice. Marinette let out another little groan and rolled to one side, accompanied by the gentle clatter of the trinkets around her.
“I don’t feel it. I’m in way over my head Tikki, I need help… mast… I mean… Fu, he trusted me with the Guardianship of the Miraculous, but I don’t know anything about being a guardian! Why aren’t the Kwamiis coming out, and why did the miraculous box turn into an egg?” she asked, shifting back to look up at her Kwami.
“I… don’t know. I’m sorry Marinette,” Tikki said softly.
“Is there any chance at all that Fu remembers anything?” she asked.
“It’s unlikely. Renouncing ownership of a Miraculous makes you forget using it. I wish I could tell you more, but we Kwami are kept in the dark about most of this, in case we get used like Nooroo is…” Tikki said, glancing away from Marinette as she spoke.
“Nooroo… Hawkmoth…” the young girl mumbled, her fists balling tightly. She took in a shuddered breath, and tried to ignore the faint prickle of tears in her eyes. “He knows the identities of so many of my friends now. Alya… Nino… he’s sure to target them even more now. And it’s all my fault!” she said, curling back into herself again, hitching as a sob escaped her throat.
“Marinette! It’s not your fault!” Tikki exclaimed, dashing in to nuzzle up against her crying friend’s cheek. “Hawkmoth was already closing in on Master Fu, if you’d transformed he might have seen your civilian form, and how could you know Chloe was going to side with him?”
“Chloe…” Marinette muttered, anger filtering through her sadness as she sat back up, wiping away her tears. “She’s gone too far this time. I need to… I’m going to go see her. She can’t just get away with whatever she wants to, not this time,” she said, pushing herself to her feet and gathering up the trinkets; the Miraculous. She glanced around, and chose a suitably unassuming box to hide them in, putting the box and the egg inside one of her lesser used wardrobes. Stepping away from the wardrobe, a flash of inspiration ran through her, and she returned to the box, grabbing a small handful of the trinkets.
“What are you going to say to her? What are you going to do?” Tikki asked, a worried look on her face.
“I don’t know… I just… I need to talk to her, I need to do something to get my mind away from everything else,” she said. “Spots on!”
Chloe sat at her dressing table, staring forlornly into the mirror. She had been denied her Bee Miraculous, twice in the same day. She had been left out to dry by Hawkmoth. She had been denied moving away from the riff raff of Francois Dupont. She had been snubbed by the very same riff raff who had gone off without her yet again. She has been questioned by the police, and worst of all, she had been grounded.
“Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous!” she snapped to her reflection, as her thoughts bubbled over. “My whole evening’s plans, ruined! How am I supposed to complete my homework without Sabrina here to do it for me!?” she lamented, crossing her arms indignantly. She looked down at the book that sat on the desk, and glared at it, willing it to burst into flames or to teleport away or to do… anything other than sit there as yet another reminder that nothing was going her way.
“How am I supposed to survive without my phone? Without my lackey? This is child abuse!” she yelled, throwing a shoe at the door to her suite, which was locked from the outside. There came a muffled laugh, and she span around in her chair, but there was no-one to be seen in the room.
“Who’s there? Show yourself?” she snapped, before letting out a little gasp. “Pollen, is that you? Have you come back to me?” she squeaked, hopefully.
“A Kwami will usually not return to someone who abused them, especially someone as spoiled and self-centred as you, Chloe,” Ladybug said, dropping from the roof above the balcony. She tried the handle of the door, only to find it locked.
“Hmph. What are you doing here?” Chloe asked her, rolling her eyes as the heroine tried the handle another way. “It’s locked, they’ve trapped me in here,” she said. Ladybug took a step back and, with a swift kick, sent the doors swinging inward. Despite her anger, Chloe found her cheeks heating up with the beginnings of a blush. “H-holy shit…” she mumbled to herself.
“I’m here to give you a piece of my mind,” Ladybug practically growled, storming over to Chloe who scrambled to her feet and began to back away from the approaching woman.
“W-wait! Stop! Don’t come any closer!” Chloe shrieked, panic stricken. Though Chloe had a few inches of height over Ladybug, the hero seemed to tower over as she backed into the door with a soft yelp.
“What the hell were you thinking? Were you even thinking?” Ladybug snapped, slamming her palm against the wall beside Chloe’s head. The blonde let out a squeak as she slid down a little, heart thudding against her chest.
“I… I… Y-you didn’t give me the Bee Miraculous, and…” she stammered.
“I didn’t give you a Miraculous because Hawkmoth knows who you are! He could have used that information to get to you, by your family, and turn you against Paris. And lo and behold! He got to you, by your family, and turned you against Paris!” Ladybug yelled, slamming her hand against the wall again.
“Y-y-you’re…” Chloe began, trying to draw on her indignation, her anger at the whole situation, but she found herself faltering. The muscular arms that rested either side of her head, the angry and yet subtle and sublime features on her face, the mask only adding to the allure of the superheroine. Chloe took a breath to compose herself.
“Well?”
“Hmph! You’re the one to blame here, Ladybug! If you had given me the Miraculous, I wouldn’t have been on that rooftop to begin with! I’d’ve been helping you save my parents, which I should note, you failed to do! Hawkmoth did!” she snapped, noting that the hero practically flinched away from her initial accusation. The hero’s head hung for a few moments, and Chloe began to think she might have gotten the upper hand. When Ladybug looked back up at her, she knew instantly that she had made a significant error.
“How… dare you! How dare you accuse me of causing all this!” Ladybug shouted, taking a step back from the girl, who remained pressed against the door. “You are to blame for this, Chloe! You chose to take power from a corrupt villain, because you felt you were owed it. You chose to expose the other Miraculous holders, to put their friends and families at risk, all because you wanted to play at being a superhero. You’re no hero, Chloe Bourgeois. You’re a villain. You take and you bully and you demand and you never, ever think about anyone other than yourself, and until you change that, completely, and sincerely, you’ll never be a hero,” she continued voice getting a little quieter as she neared the end of her speech.
“I…” Chloe mumbled, tears welling up in her eyes.
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say tonight. Think about what I’ve said, because if I have to go against you again, Chloe… I’m treating you the same way I’d treat Hawkmoth. And mayoral father or not, you will go to jail,” Ladybug snapped, spinning on her heels and stomping to the window. Her Yo-yo span in a blur, and before Chloe could react, she was gone. The silence that filled the room lasted a precious few moments, before the girl’s sobs broke through.
Ladybug landed on the roof of the hotel with a thud, and moments later, a flash of pink shone out as she detransformed. Marinette stretched her arms up high as Tikki whipped around her, the girl with an oddly serene expression on her face.
“Marinette, don’t you think you were a bit harsh on her?” Tikki asked, as Marinette walked to the edge of the roof, gazing out over the Parisian skyline. Marinette shook her head slowly.
“How many chances has she had, Tikki? Queen Wasp, Zombizou, Miraculer? Those are just off the top of my head. I’m serious about what I said too, if she tries to twist some situation to her advantage and get herself a Miraculous, I’m taking that bully of a girl to jail,” Marinette said, a faint hint of maliciousness in her voice.
“Be careful Marinette. It can be cathartic to vent like this but if you take it too far, you could start down a dark path,” Tikki said, bobbing up and down in front of the girl’s face.
“It’s fine Tikki,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “Besides, it felt good to finally get that off my chest! I’ve been so pent up lately, so much stress, getting a release like that felt so good!” she said, a big grin on her face. Tikki shifted nervously.
“That’s fine, but taking it all out on Chloe wasn’t fair,” she replied.
“Hah! That wasn’t taking it all out on her, trust me, there’s a lot more where that came from,” the girl said.
“That’s what I’m worried about…” Tikki mumbled half to herself.
“What was that?”
“Noth… er… I mean… I’m a little worried, Marinette. Emotions are powerful, if you let them run away you could do something you regret,” she said, looking up at the human earnestly. Marinette’s expression fell for a moment, but she reached up and gently patted the curious creature’s head softly.
“Thank you. You’re a good friend Tikki. I promise, if things go too far, I’ll stop,” she said, holding out her pinkie for the bug-like entity to shake. Tikki took hold of it in both of her stubby hands, and shook it, momentarily before it dawned on her what Marinette had said exactly.
“Wait, what do you mean, if things go too far?”
“Spots on Tikki! I have more catharting to do!”
“Whoa! You did it!” Kim exclaimed as he leapt to his feet, dancing like a loon as Max dropped back into his chair, letting out a heavy sigh. The screen in front of them was flashing a rainbow of colours and exuberant Japanese music was playing from the headphones that rested on the desk beneath it.
“Finally!” Max said with relief, adjusting his glasses after mopping his brow. “While a simple game in theory, mastering the subtle movements to navigate the patterns took longer than I had anticipated,” he continued, tapping the slumbering form of Markov to save the footage to the robotic drone. He nodded to Kim, who knelt beside him with a grin.
“Undefined Miraculous Object completed!” both boys exclaimed, facing the camera that sat on an adjustable arm behind the screen. Kim posed with a V sign and Max with a thumbs up. Max then tapped the robot again, and the light on the camera went dark.
“Phew! Wow, it’s like midnight, we have school tomorrow. I guess I, uh… should be going?” Kim said, a little hesitantly. Max spun his chair to face the taller boy, shy smile upon his face.
“Or, perhaps you could sleep here? I have spare blankets, and the futon pulls out. Statistically, it would be a safer option than navigating the streets of Paris this late into the evening,” he said, adjusting his glasses again in a vain hope of hiding the blush that was starting to appear on his cheeks.
“Ohh? Are you sure? Wouldn’t you rather spend the time with… Alix?” Kim said, leaning in with a conspiratorial waggle of his eyebrows.
“How many times must you insist on teasing me for that? We shared an ice cream as friends, nothing more! Both she and I lack the gastric capacity of you colossal forms, and as such could not have adequately consumed one of the treats each!” the shorter boy replied, arms crossed in a flustered huff. Kim chuckled, and leaned in against the boy.
“I know I know, just having a little bit of fun. Can’t blame me if... what was that?” Kim said, head twitching toward the curtains, which were billowing in the evening breeze.
“Staying up this late, boys? And on a school night too, tut tut,” Ladybug said as her suit/clad hands pushed the curtains aside, allowing her to lean into the room.
“Ladybug!” Kim exclaimed excitedly, prompting the girl to hurriedly shush him with a hasty wave of her hand.
“Shhh! I’m only here for a moment and I don’t want much attention,” she said in hushed tones.
“Why are you here? Is there an Akuma?” Max asked nervously.
“No, it’s not a bad… well, it sort of is a bad… anyway, what I mean is… no, let’s start again. There’s no Akuma, so you needn’t be worried about that,” the girl said, gesturing wildly as she spoke.
“So… what’s brought you here?” Kim asked.
“I wanted to speak to Max, but it’s fortunate you’re here too. I’m not here with good news, unfortunately. Hawkmoth knows you both as wielders of the Miraculous, which means, to protect you, your families, and the Miraculous, I need you both to renounce your ownership of them,” she said, running a finger along her Yo-yo. A small metal headband and a foldable pair of glasses emerged from the glowing light, and she took hold of one in each hand.
“Wait, Ladybug, does this mean…” Kim asked, looking down at the heroine with furrowed brow.
“We won’t get to use them anymore? We’ll be civilians again?” Max finished. Ladybug frowned, and glanced away for a moment.
“It means you will forget having ever used them in the first place. You will forget the Kwami, the powers, everything that you’ve done related to the Miraculous as a holder. I’m so sorry, but there’s no other way to protect you,” she said. The room’s air grew thick with silence.
“Will we remember everything else?” Max asked eventually.
“I… don’t know. I’m sorry I can’t give you a more certain answer,” Ladybug replied, eyes closing as she fought back at the prickle of tears in her eyes. Max glanced up at Kim, who nodded back at him.
“OK.” They said, almost in unison.
“What?” Ladybug almost gasped.
“We said we’ll do it. Better to keep our friends and family safe than get to maybe possibly use a superpower again once or twice,” Kim said, with a beaming smile on his face.
“Logically, it makes the most sense to remove our memories of the Miraculous,” Max added, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
“Thank you, thank you both so much. I promise, I’ll keep fighting, keep doing my very best to keep everyone you love safe,” she said, as they took hold of the offered Miraculous. She explained that all they had to do was to say that they renounced ownership, and the magic would do the rest. Words uttered, the Miraculous shone brightly for a moment, before returning to their dormant states again. Ladybug then took the time to make sure they were both uninjured after fainting, before making a swift exit once they began to recover.