Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Well, if this whole nonsense was teaching Danny anything, it was that Paris sucked in the middle of winter.

He stifled a yawn and shoved his hands deeper into his hoodie pocket. It wasn’t the cold, really. He liked the cold. If anything, it was probably warmer here than it was in Amity Park. 

It was how gray everything seemed. The sky, the buildings, the roads, even the people. All boring and bland and gray . Nothing at all like being at home, with the promise of seeing his parents’ bright jumpsuits around every corner, or the intermittent flashes of greens and pinks and blues when he tangled with another ghost. No excitement in the air, no curious wonder watching the skies for the next supernatural occurrence. 

If anything, the people here seemed to be in eternal anticipation, waiting for something that would never come. Wasting their time, really.

Paris was definitely nothing like the Ghost Zone, either. Even with the threat of nearly every single one of his enemies residing in the Realms, there was still always a sense of underlying thrill, the kind of butterflies he got in his stomach whenever he thought about exploring space. A constant buzz of energy would tickle at his skin and core and heart and ignite some unearthly need to exist .

Not here. Here, the atmosphere felt as if it would put him to sleep, and not just because of the time difference.

In other words, boring.
He grumbled wordlessly as he kicked absently at a loose pebble. It skittered into a pile of slush against the side of a building. “I swear I’m gonna soup that eyeball the minute I get back there,” he mumbled under his breath. “Could they have sent me anywhere worse?”
Probably not. That was probably the whole point of sending him here in the first place. The Observants had never been particularly fond of him, and even less so once he’d been crowned. They all seemed to make it their afterlife’s mission to make his own life miserable out of some need to get back at him for receiving a throne he’d never really been keen on having in the first place.

The echoing sounds of the nasally voice of the Head Observant made his teeth grind. Of all of them, Cthenth was easily the worst. Haughty, on a power trip, condescending, and just about as married to the so-called ‘rules’ as Walker was. Basically everything that Danny hated and more.

On any other day, he probably would’ve done what any self-respecting mischievous Crown Prince ( not King, thank you very much) would’ve done and explicitly ignored Cthenth’s long lecture (with a few sassy jabs thrown the eyeball’s way, of course). The only reason he’d actually listened and gone to Paris as he’d been instructed to do was because Cthenth had made it a point to emphasize the severity of this situation.

As much as he liked to push the Observants’ buttons and try to downplay the importance of his crown, Danny couldn’t find it in him to push back when the fate of the worlds was at stake.

Priorities and all.

“ Things have gotten too far out of hand, ” Cthenth had said. “ The magic runs rampant, ignoring its parameters and threatening the balance. These spirits belong here, from whence they were born. It is His Majesty’s duty to maintain the balance and wrangle his subjects. ”

He hadn’t been too particularly keen on being called His Majesty. Or the idea of him having “subjects.” 

But he couldn’t deny the crown bonded to him, whispering to his heart, reminding him of his responsibility to both the mortal world and the Infinite Realms and of the desire to keep peace and balance. 

So he went. Borrowed the InfiMap from Frostbite to guide him to a portal to Paris. Thankfully didn’t end up hundreds of years in the past or anything. Just six hours ahead of Amity Park and very jet lagged. Unless if it didn’t count as jet lag if he didn’t take a jet.

Hopefully his parents wouldn’t be too upset. He’d already get enough of an earful from his sister and friends for not bringing them with him as it was.

He sighed and folded his hands around each other in his pocket. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to bring them, of course. If Cthenth hadn’t issued a summons in the middle of the night and insisted the situation be handled now (because of course it couldn’t wait until morning, when he’d be more awake), he would’ve probably brought at least one of them. Maybe Jazz. She’d appreciate Paris way more than him. And keep him from getting lost.

Because that’s what he was now. Lost. 

The way Cthenth had talked about these super-powerful spirits and the broad, intense range of their magical abilities, Danny had figured it would be a snap to find them. Surely it had to be difficult for ancient spirits like this to hide, even in a city as big as Paris, right? Spirits like Undergrowth and Vortex hadn’t exactly been inconspicuous. And even if he couldn’t find them right away, he should be able to sense their power, right? Whether through his own sixth sense or the enhanced intuition offered to him by his crown.

Only that wasn’t the case, as it seemed. He’d been aimlessly wandering the streets for at least two hours, by his estimate, and there were no spirits to be found. He couldn’t feel them or their magic. Couldn’t feel the electric tang of ectoplasm in the air. Couldn’t smell or taste the distinct buzz of supernatural energy at all, really. Not a trace.

Maybe that’s why Paris seemed so boring. Maybe he was too used to the constant flow of energy from the Portal and what it brought into the human world. 

It was strange, to say the least. To feel so distanced from the Ghost Zone, especially as its Prince. As much as the crown kept pushing him to follow through on his responsibility, it yearned for the Realms as much as Danny’s core did. Just a few hours were enough to make him homesick. For Amity Park, for the FentonWorks, for the Ghost Zone, for signs in English for the love of God …

And it wasn’t the only strange thing about the city. Though it showed no evidence of it, it wasn’t completely devoid of the supernatural. That anticipation he kept seeing in the eyes of the Parisians, for one thing. He didn’t know how, but he knew the cause couldn’t be something mundane. 

There were also the ghosts themselves. Very few and far between, never anything bigger than a housecat, but they existed. 

Well, not for long, anyway.

The math was simple. Ghosts needed a constant source of ectoplasm to survive. Paris clearly did not have a constant source of ectoplasm. The end result was… sobering, to say the least.

He didn’t like it.

Danny, being a powerful ghost with a uniquely regenerative half-ghost biology, usually served as his own source of ectoplasm. Unfortunately, it was not a blessing he could share with others. As much as he tried to grant what he could to the already-Ending ghosts he passed, his efforts were futile.

Thankfully, he wasn’t completely powerless. Being the Prince did offer him a few perks. And the ghosts he’d encountered so far had appreciated his ability to bless their End and ensure their spirit would not be lost to the Void.

Still, it made his heart throb painfully each time.

He shook his head. Focus, Fenton. You’ve got a job to do.

Catch these rogue spirits. Bring them home. End of story. Unless if Cthenth gave him another tiresome task.

Now if only he could find them. 

He stopped in front of a large advertisement column. The bright blue sky and laughing blonde boy stood out against the gray city and only amplified his homesickness. Not that it would probably be much sunnier in Amity Park, but at least it would be his sky. He could fly up and up and up, all the way above the low-hanging clouds, and he could savor the feeling of the sun in the cold, knowing his town still hid below the clouds. 

The thought made him pause. It wasn’t a terrible idea to try here. Not flying high enough to get above the clouds, that wouldn’t do him any good, but maybe scouring the city from above and being in his ghost form would afford him a better chance to find a trace of the spirits. He’d have to do it invisibly - he didn’t really feel like causing a casual Thursday morning panic in a foreign country - but that wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

A gust of chilly wind blew mist into his face. He inhaled deeply, savoring the cold and allowing it to embrace him. Yes, a flight really did sound nice right about now, even if the sky was unfamiliar and the scent on the air was different. Wet, heavy, foreign, and -

- oh .

There.

Faint. Very, very faint. Almost nonexistent. But it was there, undeniably. 

The smell of magic.

He felt a little silly, raising his nose in the air and inhaling again, but he’d been searching for way too long to let up on this lead. And the last thing he needed was to lose the scent completely. 

He nearly tripped over his own feet as he set off in pursuit of the trail. He found himself nearly running to follow it, anxious about losing it. It was only when he noticed the first few bewildered stares of the passing Parisians that he remembered this was not Amity Park and a) he wasn’t the fly on the wall here as he was there and b) the people of Paris were not used to such strange behaviors, like teenage boys suddenly taking on the affect of a dog on the hunt. 

Thankfully, sixteen years of living with the last name Fenton had taught him how to ignore the stares. He pushed past them, choosing instead to focus in on his core to draw on his more supernatural senses. It didn’t do much to enhance the scent itself, but it did enhance the effect it had on him. Like the way it buzzed through his blood and bones and left him feeling like he’d just taken a shot of espresso mixed with purified ectoplasm. 

The scent that he could only describe as being glittery poked at his core and taunted it, almost as if daring him to try and fail to track it down. He closed his eyes but kept moving, determined to prove it wrong. 

And he was proving victorious. The smell was growing stronger, slowly but surely. Not much stronger, not more than a faint odor in the heavy wetness, but still growing stronger. 

The trail took a sharp turn right, and he turned with it. Something hummed within his core, and he knew instinctively he was getting closer. Maybe this would end quicker than he thought. Maybe he’d be able to get home and catch at least a couple more hours of sleep before having to get back to school. Maybe he wouldn’t need to worry about trying to explain this whole thing to -

Whumph!

Danny grunted as he collided head-on into something and tumbled to the pavement. It didn’t hurt, but it was enough to shake him out of his near-trance. 

A girl’s voice in front of him began speaking in rapid-fire French, and he opened his eyes. Said girl was on her hands and knees, scooping up the papers and books that had flown out of her bag in the collision. He winced before fumbling to help pick up her strewn belongings.

The girl paused to take a breath, and Danny took the opportunity to jump in. “Um… parlez-vous , er, English?” he asked with a sheepish grin. Mentally, he smacked himself. This is what you get for listening to Tucker telling you to take Spanish because of the end-of-the-year taco bar.

The girl looked up at him with wide blue eyes. “Oh!” she exclaimed, her face flushing red. Then, in English, “You must be a tourist. I am so sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going! This is so embarrassing…”

“It’s alright.” Danny offered her another awkward smile and a stack of her papers. “I’ve got a knack for being a klutz, I should’ve been paying better attention.”

She reached out to take her papers but hesitated. He tried not to flinch under her wary gaze. Idiot , he scolded himself. No wonder she seemed so startled. With all of the core activation he’d been doing, he was probably giving off major ghostly vibes. More than usual, anyway. In Amity Park, where the presence of ghosts was constant, people probably wouldn’t have batted an eye, but here, where the supernatural seemed virtually nonexistent…

But when her hand brushed against his as she finally took the papers, it was his turn to stare in shock as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Sure, it wasn’t the same feeling of coming into contact with ectoplasm, or even a trace of an ectosignature, but he’d encountered enough magic in the Realms to know its feeling well.

And this girl was covered in it. 

But before he could even attempt to figure out whether the magic was coming from her or if it was simply on her, she’d taken the papers with a quiet “ merci ” and gone back to frantically collecting the rest of her belongings.

“I really am sorry,” she said, this time a bit louder as she shoved the last book into her bag and snapped it shut. He barely had time to blink before she stood up and swung the bag back onto her shoulder. “Have a good day!” she called, and then she was racing off in the direction he’d come from.

Danny blinked again. “What just happened?” he whispered to himself. His hand still tingled from the leftover feeling of the magic. He stared down at it.

That magic had definitely been old. Powerful. Maybe it only felt so intense because of just how much there had been, and he certainly wasn’t an expert by any means, but this had to be the magic he was looking for, just judging from its feeling.

It had to be. 

Right?

His brain finally caught up to him and he whirled around. “Hey, wai-” he shouted, only to see that the girl had already disappeared.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he considered the idea that a girl his age being absolutely covered in arcane magic in the middle of a supernatural desert was very fishy. Except you’re one to talk, Mr. Half-Dead Prince Of A Parallel Dimension , he thought to himself dryly.

Either way, he wasn’t about to let his lead go that easily.

He inhaled again, trying to regain the scent of the magic that he’d found in the first place (because the source had to be the girl, right?), but he paused when he realized that the trail had not, in fact, followed the girl. Though still blending nearly perfectly with the atmosphere, the concentration of magic was strangely strong. Relatively speaking, anyway.

Brow furrowed, he spun around in a circle, trying to find the source of the scent. Passing Parisians gave him odd looks, but he ignored them, especially as his eyes were involuntarily drawn to the alley to his right and to the ground littered with loose garbage.

In there . The source of the smell of magic was in there. Every ghostly nerve in his body was screaming at him as such.

Jazz definitely would’ve scolded him for going into the alley without checking for danger first, or without making a plan, but Danny wasn’t a plan-making kind of guy. He preferred to take on a much more on-the-fly style, as literal as it could get sometimes. 

It had gotten him this far, hadn’t it?

As he entered the alley, he decided that while Paris and Amity Park may have been two completely different cities, their alleyways were strangely similar. Dumpsters with overflowing garbage, pavement covered in gunk made from Ancients-knew-what, a dank, wet smell, a jewelry box thrown to the side, shadows that hid -

- wait, what?

Danny did a double take. Sure enough, sitting half-hidden underneath a dumpster, a little black jewelry box laid forgotten. He didn’t know how, but somehow, he knew. The smell alone was enough to give it away.

This was the source of the magic.

Maybe not all the magic. Cthenth had said there were nearly twenty of these spirits in Paris, and Danny, imaginative as he was, couldn’t fathom how all of those uber-powerful spirits could fit in that tiny box. But maybe that was part of their uber-powerful-ness. Phenomenal cosmic power, itty-bitty living space. That was a thing, right?

Slowly, he knelt down to pick the box up. He hissed and drew back his hand as his skin brushed up against it. It hadn’t hurt, but the magic on and-slash-or in the box was even stronger than that on the girl, and such potent magic was definitely a shock to come into contact with, even for a ghost as powerful as the Prince of the Infinite Realms. 

In the back of his mind, he realized that it must’ve fallen out of the girl’s bag when they’d collided. It would explain why she was drenched in magic. With something this potent on her, how could she not be?

But it didn’t explain why she had it.

Danny shook his head. Priorities. His job was to wrangle the spirits back to the Realms, not figure out why teenage girls had ancient magic in their bookbags. That was not his problem. Maybe he could delegate it to someone else.

He picked up the box. He knew to expect the prickly buzz of the magic this time around, but it still didn’t make it any less startling to pick up. The only other objects he’d ever held that had a power this strong were the Crown and Ring he’d received along with the throne. Of course, the Crown and Ring were stronger than this box, and he’d long since gotten used to their power, but the idea that he was holding something that began to come close to matching two of the most powerful artifacts in existence made his stomach flutter a bit.

He turned it over in his hands. The red design etched into the dark wood didn’t look familiar to him, but it seemed old. Felt old. Even if he hadn’t been told this magic was almost as old as the Realms themselves, he would’ve suspected as much just from running his finger along the intricate design.

Danny bit his lip. He was standing at a bit of a crossroads. On one hand, he didn’t need to open the box to confirm its association with the magic he was hunting down. Opening it would probably create more of a mess than he was qualified to deal with. Or that he wanted to deal with. His bed still called to him, after all, even from thousands of miles away.

But… on the other hand…

He was dying to know what was inside. No pun intended.

Cthenth hadn’t given him many details about these spirits - what they looked like, what their powers were, nothing. It was probably the eyeball’s way of sticking it to Danny somehow, but either way, it left him wondering. What could be inside a box this small that had the Observants freaked out enough to send him here in such a rush? What sort of powerful magic could a tiny container like this hold?

Well. Curiosity had already killed him once. Surely it couldn’t do it again, right?

Sucking in a deep breath, Danny eased the box open. A bright light burst forth from inside, and while he was used to bright lights flashing in front of his eyes (his transformation rings were pretty bright after all), it didn’t prevent him from throwing up an arm to try and block out the light.

It died away quickly. When it did, he lowered his arm.

And saw the little creature floating in front of him.

Chapter Text

“ Your piano lesson has been pushed back to Monday. Your teacher is sick with the flu. ”

Adrien nodded absently as Nathalie’s words drifted to him. Truth be told, he wasn’t entirely focused on her and her schedule updates. His eyes were trained to the rooftops speeding by outside the tinted windows of the car. 

He exhaled wistfully. Despite the gray clouds and the chill in the air, he would’ve loved to be on those rooftops. His morning commute would be much more fun leaping between buildings and vaulting with his staff as Chat Noir.

“ Next week, you’ve been scheduled for an appearance at the Grévin Museum. The curator requested a representative of the Gabriel brand for the opening of the Parisian Fashion exhibit. You’ll go as the face of the brand for your father. ”

That wasn’t too much of a surprise. These days, his father made fewer and fewer public appearances. He was being sent in his father’s stead more and more. No one questioned it too much; Gabriel Agreste was always known for being the reclusive type, and the press usually loved getting to hype up anything Adrien Agreste was present for. It was essentially a win-win.

Well, for everyone except Adrien. 

He sighed again. Hopefully this appearance wouldn’t conflict too much with the Kitty Section concert he and his friends were trying to plan. He hated having to cancel on them. 

Especially since canceling on them meant less time to hang out with them.

“ And lastly, your father has asked me to tell you that he won’t be home for dinner tonight. He has important business with Ms. Tsurugi. ”

That wasn’t too much of a surprise either. It was rare he ever got to eat with his father. He felt like he should’ve been used to it by that point, but somehow, hearing Nathalie tell him night after night that he’d be dining alone never got any less painful. In fact, it was even more painful these days, what with Nathalie’s illness keeping her from joining him more often than not.

Just another day in the fabulous life of Adrien Agreste.

“ Adrien? Are you alright? ”

Adrien’s head jerked up from its resting place on the window. “Huh? Oh… sorry, Nathalie. I’m fine.” A perfectly timed yawn bubbled past his lips. “Just a little tired is all.”

He could see how Nathalie’s brow furrowed just a slight bit, even through the tablet screen. Despite the concern in her eyes, Adrien’s heart warmed. He really did love Nathalie, and seeing her and his father growing so close recently meant the world to him. Like they could really be a family.

But now, her sickness…

He blinked the thought away. Focusing on that… He didn’t want to go down that train of thought. Not now.

“ I’ll have the car sent to pick you up after school ,” Nathalie said after a moment. There was something different in her tone, though. Less of her official assistant voice. More of something gentle. Caring.

Adrien loved it.

“Thanks, Nathalie,” he said before ending the video call. How his father had managed to get someone as amazing as her as a live-in assistant, he’d never know, but he would always be grateful that they’d found each other.

His gaze returned to the rooftops. The idea of being Chat Noir and bounding across them with perfect grace (or purr -fect grace, he thought to himself with a little smile) was even more tantalizing now that he felt a little lighter. 

If only his father didn’t insist on having him driven to school each day.

Not that it mattered too much. He and Ladybug would spend Saturday morning on patrol. He’d have plenty of opportunity to run around the city then.

The remainder of the drive to school was uneventful, as always. His bodyguard pulled up in front of the staircase, and he climbed out with a “thank you.”

“You know what this means, don’t you?”

Adrien’s eyes flicked around the vicinity. Most students were already in the courtyard, and the few that still dawdled outside were too engrossed in their own conversations or their phones. Still, he took care to only pull his bag open a little and make it obvious he wasn’t staring down.

“Know what what means?” he asked Plagg.

“Hello? Nothing on the agenda this afternoon? No dinner with your father?” Plagg grinned up at him. “You’ve got a free night! You can do whatever you want for once!”

Adrien smiled sadly. “You know Father doesn’t take too kindly to me making last-minute plans. He probably wouldn’t agree to anything.” Especially nowadays. As Gabriel Agreste became more and more reclusive, his grip on his son’s extracurricular activities became tighter and tighter. 

It was a bit suffocating. 

But he couldn’t disobey.

Plagg groaned. “Don’t make me spell it out for you! C’mon, no supervision plus a super-awesome kwami that can grant you superpowers? Even I can do that math! And since when has Chat Noir needed anyone’s permission to go out?”

Adrien blinked. That… was true. Somehow, the thought hadn’t crossed his mind. Of course he snuck out of his room as Chat Noir enough, but that was usually only for patrols or akuma attacks. Never for his own personal agenda.

Not too often anyway.

He had to admit the idea was tempting. Sneaking out of the house was always risky, especially being such a public figure, but…

… would his father even notice? Always holed up in his office?

Probably not. Somehow, that was bittersweet.

“What would I even do?” he said aloud. “I don’t think my friends have anything planned. And Ladybug and I aren’t supposed to meet up until Saturday.”

“That’s the beauty of it! You get to decide what you wanna do for a change! You can make your own plans!”

“Make my own plans,” Adrien repeated slowly. The idea was so foreign, and yet… exciting. It wasn’t often he got to choose what to do with his time - even when he had free time, he usually went along with whatever his friends already had planned - but the thought sent a thrill through his stomach.

A grin slowly blossomed on his face. “You’re right! I can - well, I mean I could… um…”

“You have no idea what to do, do you?”

“Hey! You try coming up with something when all your life has been planned out for you! Besides, I’ve got the whole school day to come up with something.”

And he did have ideas. Ideas of the “date with Ladybug” variety. Granted, it hadn’t gone very well the last time he pulled something like that, but… 

… well, surely if he didn’t say it was a date, she wouldn’t get mad, right?

Adrien smiled to himself. Yes, it could work. He could transform as soon as he got home and leave Ladybug a message. As long as she was transformed too.

He entered the courtyard, pushing Plagg back into his bag. His classmates were spread all over the courtyard in their typical groups. Ivan and Mylène sat in one corner, the latter eagerly telling the former about an upcoming protest. Max, Kim, and Alix were in the center, with Max refereeing some sort of arm wrestling match between Kim and Alix. Alix seemed to be winning. And then over by the stairs, Marinette and Alya huddled together, animatedly talking. Very animatedly, in Marinette’s case.

Adrien stopped in his tracks.

Now there was another idea…

“What’s up dude?” 

He started, but quickly relaxed when he saw who had snuck up on him. “Hey Nino. I was just thinking…”

He stopped himself. Sure the idea of asking Marinette (and Alya) if she wanted to hang out with him (and Nino) that night was enticing, but now that the idea of a “date” with Ladybug had crossed his mind, he couldn’t rid himself of it.

Even though Marinette, as scatterbrained and tardy as she could be, would be fun too, and a much more reliable date.

Hang-out. Hang-out friend. With Alya and Nino of course.

“Do you think Marinette is busy tonight?” he asked before he could stop himself. 

It wouldn’t hurt to ask, right?

Nino scratched his ball cap. “Uh, I dunno. I thought she and Alya were doing something, but they’ve been hanging out a lot more lately.” He paused. Then, as realization struck him, a sly grin blossomed on his face. He knocked a playful elbow into Adrien’s side. “Marinette, huh?”

Adrien balked. “No, no! It’s not like that. I meant her and Alya. And you. Obviously.” He laughed, though he wasn’t sure why he sounded nervous , even to himself.

Marinette was probably his closest friend besides Nino. He hated the idea of disappointing her somehow. Her bubbliness always seemed to make him smile; he didn’t want to be the one responsible for taking that away.

Though why the idea of upsetting Marinette specifically turned his stomach, he had no idea.

And even still, he couldn’t shake Ladybug from his mind…

Nino’s laugh was far more confident. “If you say so, dude. Let’s go ask!”

“Wait, now?”

“Sure! No time like the present!”

Before Adrien could protest, Nino steered the two of them over toward the girls, still talking animatedly. As they got closer, Adrien could begin to hear their conversation, even if they were trying to keep it low.

“What do you mean you don’t have it?” Alya hissed. Her voice was tinging on the edge of panic.

“It’s not here!” Marinette’s voice, on the other hand, had clearly already devolved into panic. She was scrounging madly through her bookbag. “I had it with me this morning, I know I did!”

“Are you triple sure?”

“Yes! I made absolutely sure! I swear it was in there, even when -” Marinette cut off abruptly. Her eyes widened to near comical proportions. “Oh no! No, it must have fallen out when I ran into - Adrien! ”

Adrien grinned shyly when Marinette noticed the two of them approaching. Though she stayed tightly wound ( typical Marinette , he thought with a fond smile), Alya’s panic dropped instantly. “Hey Adrien! Nino!” she greeted, leaning over to give the latter a quick peck on the cheek. “What’s up?”

“Not much,” Nino said with a shrug. “Adrien just had something he wanted to ask Marinette, didn’t you?” The last part of the sentence was directed at him, punctuated with a playful elbow to the ribs.

Marinette’s face froze, and Alya’s broke into a wide smile. “Oh! Well by all means, don’t let us get in your way!” she said, taking Nino’s hand. “We can leave you two alone to talk.”

That seemed to snap Marinette out of her catatonia. “What? No! Alya! You can’t -”

“It’s fine,” Adrien said, holding up his hands. “It, uh, was gonna be a question for both of you, really!”

Marinette seemed to relax by a slim margin upon hearing that. Tension Adrien didn’t know he’d been carrying drained from his shoulders. 

He really hated the idea of upsetting Marinette.

Although, come to think of it…

“Did you lose something, Marinette?” he asked, the girls’ hushed conversation replaying in his head. Maybe that was the reason she was more anxious than normal. Hopefully, anyway.

Not that he wanted Marinette to have lost something.

But then he’d know it wasn’t him at least.

Marinette’s hand flew up to the back of her head. “Oh, you heard that? That, uh, it’s nothing! I was, you know, gonna give the… math book I borrowed from Alya back to her! Yeah! But, um…”

Alya slung an arm around Marinette’s shoulder. “You know this girl. Can’t even keep her own head on her shoulders sometimes!”

Adrien’s brow creased. True, Marinette’s behavior wasn’t deviating much from the normal, and Alya had slipped back into her cool demeanor, but there was still something… off about the two of them. The way Marinette seemed like a coiled spring, ready to burst at any second. Or the glint of panic still stuck in Alya’s eyes.

He shook his head lightly. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t any of his business. 

He just couldn’t help but worry for Marinette. And Alya.

“Right!” Nino said, clapping his hands together. “Anyway, what’s that thing you were gonna ask, Adrien?”

“Huh? Oh, right.” Adrien scratched behind his ear. “I was wondering… if, er…”

At that moment, he wondered if some of Ladybug’s luck had rubbed off on him as the bell rang.

“Oh! Whoops, I didn’t realize how late it was,” Adrien said with a little laugh. “We’d probably better get to class before we’re tardy. See you girls in class!” Without waiting to hear the girls’ response, he pulled Nino up the stairs.

“Whoa, what happened to Mr. Confident Teen Model?” Nino asked, the teasing evident in his voice. 

Adrien hoped that his cheeks felt red because of the cold and not for… another reason. “Sorry,” he muttered, casting a glance back down at the girls, who had resumed their animated, hushed conversation. “I guess I wasn’t as sure as I thought.”

It wasn’t a lie. The idea of trying to organize something with Ladybug and the idea of doing something with Marinette (and Alya and Nino) were at tug-of-war in his head. Neither seemed to be winning.

Nino fell into step with him. “You sure you’re alright dude? I didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that.”

Adrien’s heart warmed. Nino could be brash and impulsive, but Adrien had no doubt that he truly cared about him. “It’s alright,” he said, shooting a genuine smile towards his friend. “Maybe I’ll have it figured out by lunch?”

As they entered the classroom and slid into their seats, he couldn’t help but wonder if his heart could really figure it out in just a few hours.

Or why it seemed like such a critical choice.

“Magic jewels?”

The leftover jet lag had to be clogging Valerie’s ears. Surely she had misheard Vlad. 

To her surprise (and dismay), Vlad nodded curtly. “Indeed. I stumbled upon their existence while researching other ghostly artifacts. I couldn’t quite believe the legends myself when I first heard them.” He turned his head to look out the tinted window of the limousine. “Lo and behold, they seem to be of common knowledge in these parts.”

“But… magic isn’t real.”

“Isn’t it?” He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “What would you call that suit of yours, then? Or the source of the wishing ghost’s powers? Or the source of any ghost’s powers, for that matter?”

“I dunno, I’d just call them ‘ghostly.’ Or ‘supernatural.’”

“Precisely. At the end of the day, they all come under the same umbrella. Believe me, dear, magic is just as real as any ghost.”

Valerie’s face twitched at hearing the name “dear” pass through Vlad’s lips. As if a disgusting man like him had the right to call her that. 

She inhaled deeply. Focus Gray. Keep it in check . There was no room for error with a man like Vlad Masters. 

Or Vlad Plasmius.

“So… are they ghost things?” she asked slowly. “Like, what would ghosts want to do with magic jewels? They already have a bunch of powers on their own.”

Vlad hummed and began to drum his fingers on the car door. “Perhaps it’s best to think of them as ghostly in origin, rather than ghostly themselves. The research I could find on them was… limited, at best, so I am rather unsure of their specific nature or origin, but what I was able to uncover hinted at the jewels being created by powerful spirits.”

Valerie chewed the inside of her lip. Though she was grateful to finally know the truth about Vlad (as painful as it had been to learn), it made everything harder. Every time he sent her to hunt down a ghost, she couldn’t help but be reminded of poor Danielle, screaming for help as Vlad watched on, uncaring in the slightest. Valerie had been the one to deliver Danielle to him. 

Maybe most people would write it off as her being blamelessly ignorant to the truth, but the thought that she had almost ended - or Ended - that little girl still haunted her even weeks and weeks after the fact.

She couldn’t trust a word that came out of Vlad’s mouth now. Not when she knew he’d been two-timing her.

But… there also wasn’t much she could do about it. She wasn’t dumb; she knew just how powerful Plasmius was. Going up to him and revealing she knew his dirty secret and taking him on one-on-one would just end up with her dead. And he was smart. If she let on that she knew anything about his true nature, he’d do away with her just as easily as he’d tried to do away with Danielle.

There was… one person who could potentially help her out of it. One person she realized must have known Vlad’s secret all along.

But he was out of the question. He only complicated her life.

And the last thing she needed was more complications. Especially if what she suspected was true…

So when Vlad had “kindly” offered to take her to France as part of a prestigious internship, she’d had no choice but to accept. Even if she’d managed to find a way to worm out of it, she couldn’t bear to disappoint her father, who’d been ecstatic for the opportunity for her.

It didn’t take a genius to deduce that the trip to France was not, in fact, a prestigious internship, but rather a mission . Vlad was clearly gunning for these magic jewels ( Power-hungry fruitloop , she thought bitterly). What concerned her was why he felt the need to bring her along as his lackey. 

What sort of dirty work did he expect her to do in his stead?

No matter. She’d sworn to herself she wouldn’t fall for his smoke and mirrors ever again. This time would be no different.

But… she also couldn’t sit back and do nothing. If these magic jewels were as powerful as he was alluding to, then whatever Vlad wanted to do with them could only end in disaster. Even if she managed to distract or delay him, he would not rest until he found them and gained control of them.

So Valerie would have to find them first.

“What sorts of powerful spirits?” she asked, careful to keep the “Huntress gathering information” tone out of her voice and instead drive the “clueless underling trying to please her boss” tone.

She half-expected Vlad not to answer her, but he laced his fingers together and hummed thoughtfully. “It’s difficult to say. The texts I discovered were not thorough by any means, and the information I could decipher from them was even less thorough.” He fixed her with a critical look, and Valerie forced herself not to squirm under his intense stare. “The texts, from what I could understand, mostly spoke of the jewels’ powers.”

Valerie hesitated before asking her next question. “What powers?”

If possible, the critical look in his eyes only intensified. She could practically see the gears in his head turning, trying to determine how much - if any - information to reveal to her.

“Supposedly,” he began slowly, “they grant the users varying abilities, depending on which one is worn. The specifics are, again, muddy, but the texts indicated that the powers can be very potent. Powers like invulnerability. Or teleportation. Or even dangerous ones, like elemental powers or… possession.”

Valerie’s throat ran dry. “Like ghost powers…”

Vlad nodded. “The jewels do not grant the exact same abilities as a ghost, but they do allow for humans to have limited access to abilities unable to be contained by the physical world. The users cannot fly like a ghost, for instance, but they are more agile, able to quickly and easily traverse great distances, unlike an average human. They cannot use invisibility or intangibility as they please, but they are also not as adversely affected by threats from the physical world.” He paused briefly. “Even with limited access, I’m sure you can see why humans having access to supernatural abilities is far too dangerous to leave unchecked.”

Dirty hypocrite. That, along with several other… colorful names flitted through Valerie’s head. Of course Vlad would be extremely paranoid about others being able to gain powers like his, even if they were limited. 

But it still begged the question: what could Plasmius want with magic jewels that could grant powers he already had? Other than to prevent others from having access to them, but that couldn’t be the sole reason. True, Vlad was a paranoid man, but everything he did had purpose to it.

She’d have to revisit that later. Right now, she needed to find out as much as she could about these jewels without tipping him off. “And… you think they’re here? In Paris?”

“I don’t think, I know ,” Vlad replied smoothly. From his fancy leather work bag, he pulled a tablet. “As it would turn out, they are something of common knowledge in these parts. Most everyone here knows the jewels by their name - the Miraculous.”

“Really? But if they’re supposedly these super secret things, how does everyone know what they are?”

She regretted the question as soon as Vlad’s lips curled into a wicked smile. “That’s why you’re here, my dear. Because you have experience with… similar types, shall we say.”

“Similar types of what?” She didn’t know if she wanted to know the answer, but she had to. She needed as much info as she could gather.

Vlad tapped at his tablet. “It would seem that most those who possess these jewels - the Miraculouses - fancy themselves to be superheroes .”

“Oh…” Then, as realization hit her like a truck, “ Oh .”

Vlad nodded. “They romp around the city, pretending to be saving the lives they are putting in danger by their very existence.” His eyebrows rose in earnest. “Much like a certain ghost boy you are very familiar with.”

Of course. Of course he’d somehow get brought up. Of course he’d manage to occupy her mind, even thousands of miles away from Amity Park.

Vlad was watching her carefully. Gauging her reaction, most likely. Pushing away the sudden bout of nausea that had overcome her, Valerie forced a scowl on her face. “Figures,” she said, trying to throw as much disdain in her voice as she could. “They think they’re so much better than us regular humans because they have powers.”

It was actually much easier to throw the disdain in her voice when she could make jabs at the true target of her hatred.

“Well put,” he agreed, turning his attention back to the tablet. “There are two that appear to be the leaders of this faction of ‘heroes.’ It is said that their Miraculous are more powerful than any of the others.” 

Vlad turned the tablet towards Valerie. She squinted her eyes at the video he had pulled up - some sort of news report, though it was all in French. She’d chosen French as her foreign language elective, but one year was hardly enough to make her fluent.

Instead, she focused in on the video itself. The footage seemed to be taken from a helicopter positioned above what looked to be a fast-paced battle. A giant, golden girl was swiping madly at two, much smaller figures - one in all black, the other in red. 

Valerie watched in wonder as the two smaller figures (a girl and a boy, it seemed, as the footage zoomed in) dodged each attack with precision and grace, jumping impossible heights and distances to launch their own attacks at the giant girl. The way they moved was most certainly inhuman, and the weapons they wielded seemed to operate on impossible physics too.

It was a much more contact-heavy fight style than she was used to. Had the footage been from Amity Park, the two opposing sides would have been shooting blasts of energy at each other, only occasionally coming in for close blows. Usually when it was her engaged in the fight, she had to avoid close-quarters combat, what with her hoverboard limiting her agility. Seeing the way these two fought the giant was intriguing, if not somewhat bittersweet. She was a ninth degree black belt, but what good did that do her against enemies who could turn themselves intangible or shoot her down before she had the chance to get close?

“Their names are Ladybug and Chat Noir,” Vlad explained. “No doubt monikers chosen based on their Miraculous.”

“What does that mean?” Valerie asked before she could stop herself.

Vlad pursed his lips in thought before answering. “From the research I’ve been able to pull up on these two, it would seem that their jewels - and, most likely, the others as well - are each associated with an animal of some sort. Ladybug clearly wears the Miraculous of the Ladybug. Chat Noir wears the Miraculous of the Black Cat.”

Valerie couldn’t help but snort. “And I thought Dani Phantom’s name wasn’t creative.”

Truth be told, she still did. That girl deserved to get to call herself something much better than Dani Phantom.

Vlad’s smile grew smug. “Yes, they are rather unoriginal, aren’t they? That aside, my research on these two has been surprisingly fruitful.”

“How so?”

“Some of the limitations set by the jewels themselves. The powers granted cannot be used indefinitely, for one thing. Supposedly, there is some sort of time limit that forcibly reverts them into their civilian forms, should they exceed that limit.”

Valerie didn’t know what she would do if her suit decided to operate on a time limit. That had to be awful to try and work around. “Revert to civilian forms? So like… they don’t just put the costumes on themselves?”

“It would appear not,” Vlad said contemplatively. “My best guess is that the costumes are somehow donned through supernatural means. Very similar to your suit, I’d imagine.”

“Weird…” Valerie focused back on the footage. “What about the giant girl? Does she have one of these Miraculous thingies?”

Vlad abruptly turned the footage off and stowed the tablet back in his bag. “I am… unsure about it.” His voice remained even, and he folded his hands together in his lap. “I wouldn’t think so. Ladybug and Chat Noir face a variety of so-called ‘villains;’ it’s impossible for them all to have a Miraculous.”

“Then… where do they come from?”

Vlad didn’t answer right away. He turned to look out the window, and Valerie frowned. She might’ve been imagining it, but the air in the limo seemed to become thicker. Warmer. Vlad almost appeared stiffer, more standoffish than normal.

“I cannot say for certain,” he said slowly, after a long moment. “They may have been foolish enough to reveal key secrets about their powers, but they have kept a careful lid on where these ‘villains’ originate. As far as I’m aware, it remains a mystery.”

Well. That was a bold-faced lie if she’d ever heard one.

There was something about it he clearly didn’t want her knowing, at least not yet. And if he didn’t want her knowing about it, that probably meant it was important. 

Very important.

She knew she had to choose her next question carefully. “And you think it’s all… a ruse?” 

“They have clearly let themselves become corrupted by the powers the Miraculous offer them.” Vlad tapped his index fingers together. “Like Danny Phantom, they lull the Parisians into a false sense of security by their… ‘heroics.’ They are simply waiting for the right moment to strike.”

Valerie’s frown deepened. On one hand, any mention of Phantom was enough to set her blood pressure rising. 

Granted, the reasons why were… different these days. As much as it shook her to her core.

She knew this. She knew Vlad knew this. He had to be using it against her. Trying to rile her up on purpose so she would blindly trust him and do his dirty work for him. 

She wouldn’t fall for it again.

Did it mean this Ladybug and Chat Noir were trustworthy? That maybe they really were heroes? Possibly, but Valerie had long since learned her lesson about jumping to snap judgments. 

But for all his lying and manipulation, Vlad was right about one thing. Humans with access to supernatural abilities were dangerous . He himself was living (or unliving?) proof of that.

(Somewhere in the back of her head, she wondered if her suit counted as her having supernatural abilities. She shoved that thought as far away as she could.)

And so now, Valerie found herself at a crossroads. She could follow Vlad (that wouldn’t happen in a million years). She could turn tail on Vlad and deliberately mess up whatever he wanted her to do, to slow him down (that would probably only succeed in temporarily delaying his victory).

Or…

She straightened up in her seat and looked Vlad in the eye, determination in her gaze. “What do you need me to do, Mr. Masters?”

The smile Vlad gave her sent chills down her spine. “I thought you’d never ask. Here.” He reached into his suit and pulled out his wallet. “Take this,” he said, handing her a credit card. 

She stared at it with wide eyes; with how careful she and her father had to be with money, the idea that he could simply hand her a credit card and not worry about it was foreign. “What’s this for?”

“For any expenses you may incur. Transportation, food, and such.” Vlad seemed very flippant about the fact that he’d just entrusted a teenage girl with free access to one of his credit cards. “I, unfortunately, do have actual business I must attend to while here in Paris. I couldn’t very well advertise my trip as a treasure hunt - someone like Phantom may have tried to prevent me from coming if he’d found out.”

She really wished he would quit bringing up the ghost boy.

“So if you’ve got business, I’m just… supposed to wander around Paris?” Best to act clueless, she figured. Maybe it’d keep her from too much suspicion.

“I have a far more important task for you, my dear. While I am stuck in meetings and such, you are able to be my ears on the ground and my eyes in the sky. You are a talented young lady; I need you to track down these jewels and bring them to me.”

Valerie forced herself to nod eagerly. In spite of her discomfort, a plan was beginning to brew in her mind. “I bet I can get close to this Ladybug and Chat Noir. If they’re pretending to be heroes, maybe I can offer to team up with them. That would get me close enough to be able to take those Miraculous.”

Vlad hummed. “I’d caution against getting too close to them. You are more than capable, of course, but they are dangerous. The boy in particular - Chat Noir - I’ve heard tale of his ability to destroy virtually anything with a single touch. And the girl is cunning. Time and again, she’s shown an uncanny ability to turn any situation to her favor. They could very easily dispose of you, should they discover your true intentions.”

His words made her blood run cold. No wonder he was so good at fooling people. He didn’t outright lie, he simply told the truth, spun into a different narrative. 

Fear formed a pit in her stomach. Maybe her plan wasn’t such a good idea. If Vlad found out what she was trying to do, if he found out she was going against his wishes…

But she couldn’t risk his success either. The capability of destroying things with a single touch? How could she let Vlad get his hands on something like that? She’d sooner die than hand over anything that would just make him more of a threat. 

The task before her suddenly felt mountainous.

“I’ll make sure I get those jewels, Mr. Masters,” she said with a resolute nod.

And make sure you never get them , she added silently.

Chapter Text

The lobby of Tsurugi Industries was sleek. Polished. The very hallmark of modernity. The kind of place anyone would step into and be instantly won over by the display of sheer wealth and power.

Vlad Masters, however, was not just anyone, and he was not won over in the slightest. 

He yawned as his eyes swept over the large room once more. Really, it was no more impressive than the lobbies of his own companies. Maybe even less so. That water screen behind the receptionist was tacky at best, and it had certainly been a couple hours since the custodian had come through to clean the dirty, slushy tracks off the once-shiny floor. 

DALV’s headquarters had state-of-the-art automatic floor cleaners programmed to sweep through every hour, on the hour, and not a moment sooner or later. Surely if Tsurugi Industries was as cutting edge as they claimed to be, they’d have something similar.

His brow furrowed. Then again, this company was supposedly on the cusp of unveiling AI-assisted space travel, complete with a new line of ships straight from the likes of Star Wars. And if the rumors about this project were true, the one he was here to hear the pitch for…

So perhaps Tsurugi Industries was slightly more of a formidable competitor than he originally assumed. Slightly .

“Monsieur Masters?” A timid intern appeared from behind one of the security doors. “Madame Tsurugi will see you now.”

Vlad thanked him and swept on through the door, carrying a grace and poise he’d perfected over the last twenty-some years. It had been one of the first lessons he’d learned - in the world of business, appearance was everything . Showing up and showing off were what primarily stood out to investors, after all. 

The intern led Vlad to an elevator. Inside, the intern leaned forward to allow his retina to be scanned, then his ID before being able to press a button for the top floor. Vlad simply watched with mild interest.

He wondered when Tsurugi Industries had introduced retina scanning as a security method to the company. VladCo had introduced it more than ten years ago.

He shook the thought from his mind. He was getting far too caught up in the actual business of the trip. The true purpose of this little excursion was far more important.

The Miraculous were not news to him. He’d learned of their existence many years ago while conducting other research on supernatural artifacts. At the time, he’d mostly brushed the mentions aside; why bother with hunting down dozens of magical jewels that granted one specific, limited power when he could be focusing on items such as the legendary Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage, both of which granted virtually infinite power?

But still, he’d filed the information away for later. Knowledge, after all, was powerful itself. Even a little tidbit here and there could be the determining factor in a power struggle.

Lo and behold, it seemed it would come in handy after all. After losing any viable means of gaining the Crown and Ring for himself - to Danny Fenton, infuriatingly enough - he had returned to his old research, desperate for something, anything to give to him the power he needed to finally reach his goals.

The Miraculous had certainly caught his eye then, as he discovered more about them and their magic. Not necessarily for the powers they granted - not when he already had many of those same powers and more - but for the legend associated with two of them in particular.

The power of Creation and Destruction combined… the ability to rewrite the world to one’s desire…

Why bother to fight for Maddie’s affections, for Daniel’s loyalty, for infinite power when he could simply will reality to grant it to him?

Needless to say, the thought was tantalizing.

Obtaining the Miraculous, however, became a task easier said than done. Literature on them was limited at best, even in the expansive libraries of the Infinite Realms. Even then, the literature he managed to find was muddy, contradicted, and vague. He really hadn’t been lying to Valerie when he told her he was unsure of their specific origin, only that they had had to have come from the Infinite Realms at some point.

He had nearly given up on ever finding them. From what little he could find, there had been some sort of disaster in the nineteenth century that had destroyed them all. There were no leads to be found hinting at their survival, and no leads even indicating that the spirits who created them were even in existence anymore.

And then he had stumbled across a shocking headline from France.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t seen red. Yet again, ultimate power had been taken from him by not just one but two self-righteous teenagers, wasting their abilities on do-gooder nonsense. Even worse, he found as he pored through news story after news story, they were, admittedly, quite good at being good. Always managing to evade their opponents, avoiding capture, keeping their Miraculous close and their identities closer.

Obtaining their Miraculous would be much easier said than done. Vlad prided himself on being the most powerful ghost around - Daniel’s crown be damned - but he wasn’t so foolish as to think he could go against the powers of Creation and Destruction and win, even if they were held by mere teenagers. He had lost against Daniel too often to be that ignorant.

But, perhaps, if he wasn’t working alone…

Valerie didn’t count. Vlad didn’t intend for her to be able to get her hands on the jewels; if he couldn’t, then there was absolutely no way for her to be able to. No, she would not be useful in actually obtaining the Miraculous, but she was perfect for serving as a distraction to their holders. 

Her presence was two-fold. Not only would it throw this Ladybug and Chat Noir off their game, but it would allow Vlad the time to find the person who would be able to help him. And then, once he did, and these little heroes were being attacked from two sides…

Well the jewels would be easy picking by that point.

The trick, however, would be finding this person. Vlad knew he existed, somewhere in Paris - the reports he read all indicated as such - but he was clearly reclusive and well-hidden. The one villain Ladybug and Chat Noir hadn’t been able to track down and defeat.

Unfortunately, finding him would be much harder if Vlad was going to be stuck in silly business meetings.

The elevator doors slid open, and the intern led Vlad down a long hallway to a set of impressive, mahogany doors, designed to look like the kind of doors seen on a Japanese temple. “They should be waiting for you in there,” the intern said.

Vlad raised an eyebrow. “‘They’? I was under the impression this was a one-on-one meeting with Ms. Tsurugi herself.”

The intern hemmed and hawed. “Y-yes, well… There’s been just a slight change…”

Instead of explaining himself, the intern pressed his name badge against the reader at the doors, and they parted to reveal a large office. Smaller than Vlad’s own, and a strange blend of traditional Japanese influence and modernity (a design choice he would not make himself), but the aerial view of Paris through the wall of floor-to-ceiling windows was something to behold. 

Ms. Tsurugi stood in front of those windows, hands folded serenely over a shinai. Beside her stood a tall man Vlad didn’t recognize, with slicked, graying blond hair and a sharp jawline.

“Madame Tsurugi, Monsieur Agreste,” the intern said, bowing politely to each in turn, “this is Monsieur Masters.”

Vlad lifted his chin and plastered his award-winning smile on his face. He inhaled, ready to properly introduce himself to Ms. Tsurugi and her colleague, and -

He faltered. 

That smell.

He knew it too well.

Magic. Somewhere in this room. Too diluted for him to pinpoint its exact location, but it was here.

Perhaps this wouldn’t be a wasteful meeting after all.

It was only when he met Mr. Agreste’s steely gray eyes that Vlad realized he had hesitated just a beat too long. It took considerable effort not to let his smile waver at that realization. Magic or no, it would be simply unacceptable to make himself look like a fool in front of a potential business partner.

“Madame Tsurugi,” he said, striding forward. “What a pleasure it is to meet you in person! And -” he turned to address Mr. Agreste “- I don’t believe I’ve had the honor. Agreste, is it?”

“Gabriel Agreste,” the man said, his voice gruff and curt. Something about his tone gave Vlad the impression that Vlad was somehow inferior for not recognizing him.

Heat boiled within Vlad’s core. Well, that simply wouldn’t do.

“A pleasure as well,” he said with a short nod. “Though I must apologize, Madame Tsurugi, your correspondence seemed to indicate this would be a closed-doors meeting.” 

Mr. Agreste’s eyes narrowed, and Vlad suppressed the urge to smirk. 

“Gabriel-san has worked extensively with my company in the past.” Ms. Tsurugi spoke softly, but with a severe firmness Vlad could appreciate as a fellow business mogul. “He has agreed to design the Alliance rings we are here to discuss. I welcome his opinions on the project.”

Vlad pursed his lips, especially at the barely restrained sneer on Mr. Agreste’s face. “Very well, then,” he said evenly. He had more important things to worry about than some insignificant upstart’s ego. “Shall we begin?”

And then two things happened simultaneously.

Firstly, the magic tickling his nose shifted. The smell grew sharper, tangier. 

Tainted.

The change was so stunning, so distracting that he nearly missed the second thing that happened.

Gabriel Agreste’s face twitched. Perhaps someone with less perception would have simply waved it off as little more than a facial tic, but Vlad was smarter than that. Better than that.

“If you’ll allow me, Tsurugi-san,” Mr. Agreste said plainly, turning to Ms. Tsurugi, “I would like to allow you and Monsieur Masters the chance to discuss a few of the more technical aspects of the Alliance project on your own. I have just remembered an… important call I must be available to answer.”

“This is highly unprofessional, Gabriel,” Ms. Tsurugi said.

“Believe me, it is in both our best interests.”

Vlad was not stupid. Far from it. He prided himself on being able to read the pieces set before him and put them together, figure out how to manipulate them to best serve his purposes.

And these pieces seemed to be putting themselves together for him.

While Ms. Tsurugi and Mr. Agreste were distracted, he closed his eyes and carefully activated his core. Silently, without so much as a single flash of light, a ghostly duplicate peeled from his form, invisible to all but himself.

“Very well,” Ms. Tsurugi said, though her tone had turned the barest hint tighter. “If you absolutely must.”

Mr. Agreste gave a short bow. “Thank you, Tsurugi-san.” He strode out of the room, but not before giving Vlad a very pointed sidelong glance.

Vlad didn’t rise to meet it. Instead, he directed his duplicate to follow Mr. Agreste out of the office.

As expected, the smell of magic disappeared along with him.

This time, Vlad didn’t bother to hide his smirk.

At this rate, he’d have ultimate power by dinner tonight.

“Now, Madame Tsurugi,” he said, settling himself into a leather chair, “where would you like to begin?”

Danny liked to think he had seen plenty of strange things since stepping out of that portal a few years ago. Heck, he was a strange thing himself, all things considered. Either way, between a portal to a parallel dimension sitting in his basement, coming face-to-face with godlike beings on a near-daily basis, and a family of blob ghosts who liked to steal french fries living in the dumpsters behind the Nasty Burger, he figured not much could make his brain go into blue-screen-of-death mode.

Somehow though, the tiny flying creature that had burst from the box made his brain do exactly that. 

The fact that it was talking didn’t help matters.

“ Finally !” it said, its voice squeaky and slightly raspy. “I’ve been waiting forever for her to - wait…” It seemed to finally notice Danny. Too-large eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You’re not -” it started, only to be interrupted by a stream of tiny bubbles pouring from its mouth.

Danny tried to formulate a complete thought, but it was difficult being stared down by a talking Beanie Baby wannabe. “Uh…”

The creature began to twist side to side, scanning around the alley. “Where’s the Guardian?” it snapped. “Did she give you that?”

“I - what? The guard?”

“Did you steal it from her?”

The accusation was enough to finally jumpstart his brain. “I didn’t steal anything!” he protested. “It fell under a dumpster . And seriously, who’s this guard?”

The creature continued to eye him, the distrust still very much evident in its eyes. “The Guardian ,” it repeated, exasperated. “She’d never just leave a Miraculous lying around!”

“What? Miraculous?” Danny’s head spun in all sorts of directions. This was definitely not what he’d been expecting when Cthenth had dragged him out of bed.

The creature rolled its eyes and put tiny paws on tiny hips. “Boy, you’re not that bright, are you?”

“Wow, okay. Rude.”

“Wait a minute.” Danny blinked in surprise as the creature zipped right up to his face. “You smell funny.”

“Is this how you talk to everyone you meet?”

It leaned in even closer. Danny went cross-eyed trying to keep it in view as it took a deep whiff. Which… was only slightly less weird than Skulker claiming to smell his fear or whatever. 

“No way!” It backed up. The suspicion in its eyes was quickly replaced with amazement. “You’re the Spirit King?”

“Prince,” Danny corrected automatically. No way he’d allow himself to be called by the k-word. “Ghost Prince. Yeah. I gue- whoa, whoa, wait! Timeout!” He shook his head. “Who are you? And how do you know who I am?”

The creature rolled its eyes again. “I can smell your magic, duh. The Spirit King always has super powerful magic. Pretty unique, too. And you smell like you’ve been swimming in it.”

“Ghost Prin - hold up, magic? I don’t have magic.”

“Right! I forget your type doesn’t like to call it that.”

“My type ?”

“Well, yeah. You are a spirit, right? You keep calling yourself a ghost.” It circled him, examining different parts of his body. He had to twist to keep it in sight. “Then again…” it muttered, poking him in the arm (to which Danny complained with a “hey!”). “You’re a lot… fleshier than a real ghost.”

“I feel like I should take offense to that.”

The creature shrugged. “Hey, I’m just saying, if I hadn’t smelled your magic, I wouldn’t have recognized you. You don’t exactly scream ‘High Ruler of the Infinite Realms’, you know? Not like the last guy, anyway. What happened to him, anyway?”

Danny’s nose wrinkled at being compared to Pariah Dark. “I kind of put him in forever naptime. It’s how I got the job in the first place, I guess.”

“Wow.” The creature’s eyes widened. “You must be packing some serious power to finish off a guy like that.”

Danny sputtered. “I didn’t End him! Ancients, I was being literal, alright?”

“Whatever floats your boat, kid. Hey, you don’t mind if I call you ‘kid’, right? I know you’re the king - sorry, prince and all, but -”

“Danny,” he interrupted. “My name’s Danny.”

“‘Danny’? Weird.”

“Again, rude. It can’t be any weirder than your name. Which you still haven’t told me, by the way.”

“And you still haven’t told me how you got a hold of my Miraculous,” the creature said, jabbing a tiny paw at him. 

Danny had to take a deep breath to keep from shouting in frustration. This conversation was just going to keep going in circles, at this rate. “I told you, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said slowly, trying to keep his voice even. “What the heck is a Miraculous?”

The creature snorted. “You’re telling me you’re the King - fine! Sorry! Prince of the Infinite Realms, and you don’t know what a Miraculous is?”

“I haven’t been at this very long, alright?” Danny snapped. “I didn’t even want the job in the first place! If I had it my way, I’d still be at home and in bed, not in some foreign country with a spirit constantly nagging me!”

“Kwami.”

“What?”

The creature sighed, though there was something less feisty behind it this time. “I’m not just some random spirit. I’m a kwami. Ringing a bell at all?”

Strangely enough, it did, though not a bell that Danny could put a finger on. Like it was a word he was supposed to know but forgot to study for. One thing he did know, though… “That’s ghostspeak.”

“Technically it’s spirit speak, if you want to be accurate. You ghosts aren’t the only ones who come from the Realms, you know. You should really be more inclusive.”

“Duly noted,” Danny said dryly. “So does that mean you’re from the Realms too?”

“Well duh. Everything magic and supernatural comes from the Infinite Realms. Where do you think it all comes from?”

Danny shrugged. “Hey, in my defense, I’m still learning all this. And the Observants kind of like the throw-me-in-headfirst-and-leave-me-to-figure-it-out method of teaching me.”

The creature pulled a face. “Those snooty eyeballs? They’re so annoying.”

Danny cracked a grin. Finally, something they could agree on. “I know, right? It was like, two in the morning when they dragged me out of bed! On a school night!”

“You go to school?”

Right. Though he kept a tight lid on his secret in the human world, Danny was used to ghosts - or spirits, apparently - knowing it, even if he’d never met them before. The dead loved their gossip, after all. If this spirit had been hanging out in the human world for the past few years, though… 

“I guess you wouldn’t know, huh?” he said with a nervous laugh. Out of habit, he twisted his head to glance behind him. Thankfully, if anyone noticed some American teenager standing deep in a random Parisian alleyway, they didn’t seem to care. “I’m not exactly just a ghost. I’m only half. Half-human, half-ghost.”

For once, the creature was speechless, only blinking up at him with those too-large eyes. “Huh,” it said after a moment. “I guess that explains the flesh.”

“I still don’t know if I should be offended by that or not.”

The creature hummed noncommittally. “So what is a half-human Spirit Ki- Prince doing in Paris with my Miraculous? I still wanna know how you got it away from the Guardian.”

Danny shook his head helplessly. “If I tell you, will you please tell me what a Miraculous is? And this Guardian?”

“Probably,” the creature said with a shrug. “Can’t exactly say no to the guy in charge. Even if he is just a human kid.”

“I’m going to choose to ignore that.” Danny sighed. “Anyway, the Observants sent me to round up some rogue spirits. They said their magic is getting out of control or something.” Realization hit him like a brick wall, and he added with a wince, “I’m guessing you’re one of them? Cthenth didn’t exactly give me a lot of details before shoving me out the door.”

The creature’s face mirrored his. “Uh-oh. I didn’t realize things were that noisy over here. Must be worse than I thought…”

Something in Danny’s core stirred uncomfortably. He could feel his crown prodding at it, rousing it into action. If there was trouble… “What do you mean?”

“Weeeeelllll…” the creature drawled. “It’s kind of a long story. Somebody’s been using the Butterfly Miraculous to cause a lot of chaos. It’s been a whole mess.”

“What’s the Butterfly Miraculous?”

“Still can’t believe they didn’t even explain what a Miraculous is to the Prince,” the creature grumbled. “Anyway, it’s a magic jewel. They all are. That one’s mine.” It pointed down towards Danny’s hands.

Danny had completely forgotten about the little box he still held. He looked down and frowned when he realized that the creature hadn’t been the only thing inside it. Sure enough, a piece of jewelry sat innocently on the velvet cushion. When he brushed a finger against it, magic buzzed along his skin. Strong magic. So strong, in fact, that he had to shake his hand out to get rid of the lingering tingle. 

Again, he was reminded of his Crown and Ring. The similarities between this Miraculous thing and his own regalia were startling, not just in the fact that they were all powerful jewels, but also in the kind of magic they contained. Or at least seemingly contained, in the case of this Miraculous. 

This magic, like the energy in his Crown and Ring, was ancient. Incredibly powerful. As primordial as the Realms themselves. It coiled around his core and stirred it awake, but not in any sort of way he had experienced before.

A wave of dizziness washed over him. Yeah, this was way beyond anything he was really qualified to deal with.

“The Miraculous are how me and the rest of the kwamis get to interact with the mortal world,” the creature continued. “And when we possess them, they basically let humans have access to our magic.”

That caught Danny’s interest. “Humans? With magic powers?” He exhaled so hard his bangs fluttered. “Jeez, no wonder Cthenth was so pissed. He can barely stand me and my powers, let alone other humans having access to that sort of stuff.”

“Yeah, let’s just say the Observants were definitely not happy with us kwamis when we escaped the Realms and came here. They wanted us to stay in the Realms and keep all magic separate from the material world, but we wanted to get to use our magic and help the humans. The king back then had to step in and help mediate things. I still think we should’ve gotten to put those eyeballs in their place, but Tikki wanted to be ‘diplomatic’.” The last word was accentuated with tiny air quotes. 

Danny was beginning to like this creature more and more. “I’m with you on that one. I’d love to just shove them in the Thermos and be done with it.” He shook his head. “So what, did the king say you could stay?”

“Kind of. He said that the deal he made with the Observants was that we could stay as long as we didn’t let our magic interfere too much with the balance between the material and spirit worlds. That’s why we had to get a mage to help us and make the Miraculous.” The creature grinned sheepishly. “Turns out kwamis can’t use their magic in the material world without causing some major… uh, side effects. A human’s gotta be the conduit for it to work properly with the material world.”

“Huh.” Danny couldn’t deny that the creature’s story was fascinating. What could he say? Being half-ghost kind of came with the automatic predisposition towards an investment in the interactions between the mundane and supernatural. Hearing it from the perspective of a non-ghost only made it even more interesting. 

He blinked. Wow. That thought had sounded way too Jazz-like for his tastes. 

It didn’t help that the crown bonded to his core apparently had similar sentiments. He could feel it pressing on him, urging him to prod the creature for more details, find out more about this intersection between his worlds he’d never known existed.

He shook his head again. Priorities, Fenton. Chat with the Beanie Baby about history later. “And you said someone is using one of these Miraculous things to cause trouble?”

The creature nodded soberly. “Shadowmoth. Well, he used to call himself Hawkmoth, but then he got a hold of the Peacock Miraculous too and he changed his name. He’s been using them to try and get Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous.”

“And this Ladybug and Chat Noir, they’re spirits - er, kwamis like you?”

The creature tilted its head. “Come on, you can’t tell me you don’t recognize those names at least. You said so yourself, you’re part human! Like, don’t all humans watch the people on the screens? They talk about Ladybug and Chat Noir all the time.”

Danny threw his hands up in the air, nearly sending the little box flying. “Dude, I live in America! We don’t exactly get a lot of French news over there, and I definitely don’t have time to keep up with everything that’s going on in the world.”

“You really need to hire someone to tell you these things, then. Ladybug and Chat Noir aren’t kwamis, they’re the humans using those Miraculous. Theirs are the most powerful of them all; that’s why Shadowmoth is after them. He wants to use them to make a wish and rewrite reality!”

“Rewrite reality?” Maybe Cthenth’s concerns weren’t that unfounded after all. Not that Danny would ever admit that Cthenth had been right to his face. But still…

The creature wrung its paws. “It’s been mostly under control, but now that Shadowmoth has both the Butterfly and the Peacock Miraculous, and more of the other Miraculous have been getting distributed, things have been getting a lot more chaotic. I guess it’s gotten bad enough that word has gotten back to the Observants.” If it was possible, its eyes seemed to get even larger. “You’re not really gonna take us back to the Realms, are you?”

Danny blinked. “Well, uh… I don’t -”

“Please!” The creature zipped up close to his face again. “We all love being here so much! The human world is amazing! And we can’t just leave without Nooroo and Duusu! We want to get them back! Don’t make us go!”

Danny hesitated. His head was absolutely reeling. Yes, he was used to dealing with absurd situations on a near-daily basis back home, but trying to absorb all this at once was a little overwhelming. He could barely process it all, let alone make an actual decision about whether to drag these spirits back to the Realms or not.

On one hand, bringing them back would be a good way to keep this Shadow guy from getting his hands on yet another reality-altering power. Danny repressed a shudder as he remembered how bad it had gotten when Freakshow had the Reality Gauntlet. There was no way he could let anything like that ever happen again.

Especially with the responsibility of both Earth and the Infinite Realms on his shoulders now.

But on the other hand, as he looked into the kwami’s eyes, something else pulled at his core. He saw a genuine love sparkling within them, one that he knew intimately. When this creature said it and its fellow spirits loved the human world, it meant those words completely. 

Of both Earth and the Realms.  

He could relate.

Sure, Danny Phantom the hero would always throw troublemaking ghosts and spirits back to the Realms, but how could Danny Phantom the Crown Prince deny one of his own the joys of being in the human world, especially when they clearly cared for it as much as he did? These kwamis weren’t trying to cause trouble, they were just trying to help stop the bad guy. 

And if there was a bad guy on the loose…

“Well…” he began slowly, “if this guy didn’t have these Miraculous anymore, he wouldn’t be a threat, right? And the balance would be restored? You wouldn’t be breaking that deal you made, so really, there’d be no argument the Observants could have for making me bring you back.”

The creature’s face lit up. “Yeah! Exactly! Except… Ladybug and Chat Noir have been trying to get Shadowmoth’s Miraculous back for a long time now. We have no idea who he could even be! It’s not that easy.”

Danny beamed. “Trust me, I have plenty of experience dealing with supervillains. Plus there’s no way some butterfly can stand up against the Prince of the Infinite Realms!”

The creature whooped and flew in a loop-de-loop. “Now that’s what I’m talking about! Maybe you aren’t so hopeless after all, Prince Fleshbag,” it said, grinning at him cheekily.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t make me change my mind,” Danny said, swatting at it playfully. “So where can I find this Ladybug and Chat Noir? I’m thinking if we all go at it together, we’ll have a lot better chance at winning.” He shrugged. “And honestly, I’m curious to see how this Miraculous magic works. I should probably learn it better if I’m the Prince, right?”

“Exactly! Like I said, not so hopeless after all!” it laughed. “I don’t know about Chat Noir, but I think I can take you to Ladybug. We need to find her anyway so you can give her back my Miraculous. She’s the Guardian; she’s responsible for all of the Miraculous.”

“All the better then.” Carefully, Danny closed the lid on the little box and slipped it into the pocket of his hoodie. “Come on, let’s see if we can track her down. I don’t suppose you can turn invisible?”

The creature shook its head. “Nah, not my specialty. I’ll just hang out here.” It flew behind his head and nestled into his hood, close to the nape of his neck. “Nice and warm! And this way you can hear me better.”

“Suit yourself.” As he turned to exit the alleyway, another thought struck him. “Hey, you still haven’t told me your name. I don’t want to have to just call you ‘kwami’ or whatever.”

Although it had just gotten settled, the creature zipped back out in front of his face. As it bowed to him, it grinned widely, tiny little fangs poking out of its mouth. “The name’s Trixx,” it said, bushy foxtail swinging in the winter breeze. “Kwami of Illusion, at your service.”