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Paris was in turmoil. The worst possible situation had occurred. Ladybug had been akumatized and Chat Noir had already been taken out of commission by her.
In hindsight, Ladybug’s spiral downwards should have been obvious. The news and various other social media had been cracking down on her ever since she lost the miraculous. They claimed that she did it on purpose because she liked the attention being a hero gave her. They cried for her miraculous to be revoked. They even theorized that she was working with Hawkmoth.
All of these malicious messages had torn into her, leaving her vulnerable to one of Monarch’s akumas. She never announced her name, but everyone knew her new form, staring in horror as the villain roamed the streets.
"You think fighting akumas is so easy?! Let's see you handle it!"
From what Nathaniel could tell, she was sending people to different universes in which various akumas had won against Ladybug and Chat Noir. Some had escaped already, namely Alya, who had posted a video on her blog telling everyone that you could make it back if you defeated the akuma in that world.
He wasn’t exactly eager to find out if he was as resilient as Alya, but Ladybug didn’t seem to care much about that as she spotted him trying to sneak away in an alley, nabbing him by the back of his shirt.
“You caused an akuma. How about I make you deal with the consequences instead of pushing it onto me?!”
Nathaniel was sent flying as she lifted him up like a baseball, hurling him forward until he hit the ground, rolling across the rough streets until he eventually slid to a stop with a groan. He sat up, rubbing his head while gritting his teeth. His attention was quickly caught by the fires on the street and the awful smell.
The artist pinched his nose with a scrunched face as he wandered the city, looking for any sign of the akuma, or hell, even just another person. There was nobody around, although he supposed that was fair considering the streets were completely destroyed. It would’ve been nice to know who exactly he was fighting though.
Ladybug’s words echoed in his mind before Nathaniel grimaced. It wasn’t hard to guess which universe this was, with both that sentence and the trash from the space dumpsters. The real problem was going to be how to get Reverser to come close enough for Nathaniel to even attempt grabbing his glider, considering he was able to fly.
“Hello?”
Nathaniel turned on his heel, surprised to hear another voice. It didn’t quite register which voice he was hearing until he stood face-to-face with himself. The other him stared back in unnerving silence, only occasionally blinking, not offering up any extra words besides his first greeting.
Nathaniel gulped, clutching at the edge of his jacket, “Um… long story short, I’m from another universe. Can you take me to Reverser?” This was a fair shot, right? If Reverser wanted him so badly in his timeline, surely he would’ve reversed Nathaniel in a setting where he won.
To his moderate surprise, his double simply smiled and nodded, “Follow me!”
Nathaniel trailed awkwardly behind his counterpart, nicknamed in his mind as Nath to make this easier on himself, as he led him to Reverser.
It's strange though. For being a universe where Reverser won, Nath was surprisingly eager to show him where the Akuma was. Nathaniel thought he would have been trying to conceal his location at the top of the Eiffel Tower. But he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The elevator ride up was mostly quiet, Nath not making any attempt to say or even do anything unless Nathaniel did something first. It felt... extremely unnatural. He couldn't help but muse about what Reverser changed in the silence.
As it chimed to signal their arrival, the doors opened to reveal the akuma himself sitting on the railing of the tower, his glider floating beneath his legs like a footrest.
"Babe!" Nath chirped, happily approaching with light steps.
Reverser snapped out of his thoughts, turning to face him, "Oh, Nath, I thought I told you to spend some time by yourself."
Nath faltered, smile flickering into a confused look for a moment before it returned, "No problem!" He turned around, heading straight back towards the elevator.
Nathaniel caught him by the shoulder with furrowed brows, a bit of bite in his tone as he snapped, "Woah, hey, you said you were gonna introduce me."
Reverser spun around in shock at his voice, and the confused look returned to Nath's face for another quick second.
"Ah, right, sorry about that." Nath pouted and crossed his arms, "I'm being such a screw up today."
Reverser left his glider hanging in the sky as he swung his legs around to walk towards Nath, bringing him into his arms. In contrast to his kind actions, his expression was deeply somber as he comforted his boyfriend(?), "Darling, you've got to stop being so hard on yourself."
Nath immediately beamed, snuggling into Reverser's hold, "Alright."
Nathaniel watched, uneasy. He couldn't help but wonder aloud, "What did you do to him...?"
Reverser froze, guilt flashing across his face.
"I killed him, didn't I?" He looked down at the redhead in his arms, "This isn't you. It never was."
Nath peered back up at him, blinking innocently, "What do you mean?"
"You're... You're not Nathaniel anymore. I changed you too much for that," Reverser quietly admitted. "You haven't been able to say no to anybody since I..."
Even though the smile Nath gave him was warm, it sent chills down his spine at how easygoing it was, "Oh, Rev..." He placed a gentle hand on the akuma's cheek, pulling him down for a kiss.
"This is what you wanted, wasn't it?"
Nathaniel frowned. He remembered that in the comic they made, Reverser’s reversions couldn’t be taken back unless there was an outside force like Ladybug’s miracle cure. It must’ve been the same for his actual akumatization.
The artist slowly stepped forward, extending a hand much like he did to Marc under the Eiffel Tower all those months ago. "I see you regret this... I can help! Just... give me your glider."
Reverser turned to look at him, biting his lip as his eyes lit up with the smallest amount of hope he’d be able to fix this. He waved a hand to direct his glider to Nathaniel when Nath stepped between them, halting Reverser’s action as he shouted "Get away from him!"
Nathaniel had to fight himself to not yelp unceremoniously, stumbling back like a frightened deer at the sudden outburst.
Nath continued to yell, pointing an accusatory finger at his doppelganger while throwing a protective arm over Reverser’s chest, "Don't change him! He's sweet, and kind, and caring, and he's never done anything wrong, ever! He's perfect the way he is!"
Nathaniel stammered for a rebuttal. Not that he thought Nath had a point. More like he didn’t know what to say to actually convince the other. He floundered over his words before eventually looking over to Reverser, "Marc-"
"Marc... is like that. Everything he described," Reverser mumbled, eyes going unfocused. He growled at himself, "I'm... none of those now. I'm Reverser. A monster." He laughed into his hand, almost maniacally, as he buried his face in his palm, "This would all be easier if I just didn't have to feel this way!"
He stopped, a realization right in front of him. A wide grin spread across his face as he held out his hand.
"Reversion."
Nathaniel went pale, hastening the way he was backing away from the akuma.
"I'm going to get rid of any sense of guilt I have," Reverser stated as the paper airplane formed in his hand. His smile grew wider as he stared down his own projectile, "Then I'll truly be perfect."
He slammed the plane into his chest, the object phasing into him easily.
Nathaniel gulped as Reverser turned to him with a more unhinged grin than anything he had seen from the akuma yet, both in this universe and the one where he came from. Nath clapped happily at his boyfriend as the akuma snapped his finger to call back his glider, stepping onto it with all the grace and confidence as a king ascending to his throne.
There went any chances of an easy negotiation.