Chapter Text
Lady Bug knocked on the door of Talia’s headquarters. A person all in black came out and patted her down, then escorted her into an inner chamber, where the Dragon herself was waiting.
“Lady Bug, so we finally meet,” greeted Talia. “You are more capable than I was hoping, evading my finest soldier for so long.”
The Red Hood was standing two steps in front of her and to her right, his helmet providing a blank expression.
Marinette bowed her head, folding her hands in her lap as she knelt.
The Red Hood was the Dragon’s general, and they had spent one night together. He wouldn’t help even if he wanted to, even if she wanted him to. She was just a hookup to him.
“I’m sure you know that you are trespassing in my territory, so why are you here? You’ve been quite quiet for having the famed Lady Bug mantle.”
“I have come on my own, not as a member of the Nieri Family.”
The older woman stood and circled her slowly.
“Yes, the Nieri Family is crumbling, isn’t it? And yet you decided to risk the Dragons helping it along that path…why?”
“I came hoping you would do a favour for an old friend, Madame Dragon.”
“Oh?” Talia sat at her tea table again, having sufficiently scrutinized her prey.
“Sabine Cheng is my mother and Tomoe Tsurugi is my aunt. I ask you to help the Nieri Family rid themselves of the Rossis, who are weaseling their way into the Nieri’s business, for the sake of your sisters-in-arms.”
“And if I refuse? We are hardly friends, after all these years. I could even truthfully say we are rivals.”
“Then I ask you to help the Nieri Family as the price of owning their general, Lady Bug.”
From her limited peripheral vision, Marinette thought Talia looked surprised.
“You came here, offering yourself for your family’s restoration?”
“If that is what it took.”
“And what exactly would you do after I helped your family?”
“Whatever you commanded, Madame Dragon.”
Talia sipped from her teacup, considering Marinette’s offer. Marinette herself scarcely dared to breathe. What she was asking was shameless.
When Talia had branched off from the Demon’s family after her sister Nyssa took over the everyday running of the family, she had offered her partner the chance to come with her and be her second-in-command. Tomoe turned her down and left both the Demon and Dragon’s families, an action worthy of death. She was lucky to escape only blind.
Later, she joined the Nieri Family under Gina, becoming her protegee in the paperwork side of things, though she still kept active.
Sabine Cheng, the first Lady Bug, had also left the Demon’s family to follow Tomoe, and also joined the Nieris, becoming Gina’s third and eventually falling in love and marrying her son, Tom.
Tomoe’s child, Kagami, and Marinette grew up close, considering each other sisters, and the other’s mother as aunts or second mothers.
Now as adults, Marinette was Kagami’s second, though their mothers were still the official heads of the family, providing guidance and assistance with their connections when needed.
This connection, however, was to be severed completely, making Marinette understandably nervous. According to the Demon’s laws, Talia could execute Marinette in place of her mother and/or aunt, as they were her immediate relatives and she their direct, high-ranked underling.
There was no need to make Marinette work for her, though she supposed there would be the shame of being a Dragon’s bootlicker.
“I shall help your family while I consider what to do with your generous offer, Lady Bug,” said Talia at last. She flicked her finger at Red Hood. “Take her to her quarters.”