Chapter Text
Team Year 4
Zatanna Zatara got off the phone with her agent, Paco. It was an early morning in Bludhaven, Zatanna and her boyfriend, Dick Grayson had been together four years. He had established himself as Nightwing while she continued her work with the Team and as a famous stage magician.
“Babe! Guess what!” She practically screamed at him with excitement.
“Uhhhhh… chicken butt?” He guessed, knowing that wasn’t funny to her the first time, or the last sixteen thousand times.
“No!” She rolled her eyes, “try again” He looked dumbfounded, unsure what to guess. “I just scored a four month residency in Paris!”
She couldn’t contain herself. It was one of the things Dick loved the most about her, that enthusiasm.
“Paris, Texas?” He smirked.
“No, silly goose! Paris, France!” She was overjoyed.
“Zee! That’s amazing!” He hugged her close. Zatanna was a skilled stage magician, and that was before all the added homo magi things. He couldn’t be more proud of how far she’d come.
——
Meanwhile in Paris
It was the night that Monarch (the villain formerly known as Shadow Moth, and formerly known as Hawk Moth) had captured the Miraculous. The events of that night would probably haunt Ladybug for a long time.
Ladybug was secretly Marinette Dupain-Cheng, a normal girl with a normal life. After the events of that day, Marinette was having trouble sleeping. She called her best friend Alya Césaire to come stay the night.
“Alya, how could I be so foolish to mistake Felix for Adrien?! I’ve been in love with Adrien this whole time but do i really know him?!” Marinette was beginning to hyperventilate. “I feel like maybe my feelings have clouded my judgment.”
Alya hugged her best friend, “Girl, it’s gonna be okay. You may have lost the battle but you’ll win the war.” Alya was the only person who knew about her double life.
Tears formed in Marinette’s eyes,“But I lost everything. I lost the miraculous, I lost my team —”
“You didn’t lose everything. You still have me and Cat Noir. The people of Paris still trust you.” Alya cut her off. She truly was the best friend anyone could ask for.
Marinette thought about Cat Noir. He had been her loyal partner through it all, no matter how badly she treated him, how many times she rejected him, how many times she threw him across Paris. He was always there for her.
“Why don’t you and Cat Noir tell each other your identities, now seems like the most crucial time ever. Monarch will be watching for you guys, but if you two were scheming in your civilian forms, he wouldn’t know what hit him!” Alya suggested with enthusiasm.
“I’ve already told you. It’s too dangerous for us to know each other’s secret identities. If either one of us gets akumatized…” Marinette trailed off, images of Chat Blanc vividly in her memory.
“How bad could it be?” Alya covered her mouth as soon as the words slipped out.
“HOW BAD?! IT COULD BE THE END OF THE WORLD!” Marinette flailed her arms in panic. “If Monarch got a hold of both mine and Cat Noir’s Miraculous… if Monarch combined them to make a wish…” Marinette was struggling with getting the words out “Think of it like an equivalent exchange. If I wished for something like a hamster, someone somewhere else would lose their pet. If Monarch made a wish, whatever his wish may be, it could potentially destroy our current universe in order for the one he wants to be created. In theory, the Miraculous of destruction is needed to create a blank canvas, and the one of creation to build everything back up.”
Alya looked horrified, “okay, we cannot let that happen.”