Chapter Text
Perched on the edge of the roof the trio was standing on, Ladybug sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. Her bodysuit kept out the chilly evening winds, but it did nothing to shield her from her memories. She hated this part; telling the story. It never got any easier.
At least she had gotten Alya to put away the phone. She didn’t mind a civilian learning things, especially one who has dedicated so much of herself to such a small part of the story, but Ladybug drew the line at having the whole thing available online. She held back a chuckle at the girl’s stubbornness. It had probably been Chat Noir’s ‘bad luck’ influencing them that had the girl in hearing-range when Chat had mentioned the Egyptian artifact after Pharaoh had been defeated.
And Ladybug had sworn to herself that when her partner brought up their history, she’d tell him. She could justify hiding a few things, but the rest…
It always ended so hard when Chat Noir stayed oblivious to the true scale of the war.
“So…?” Alya spoke up when it became obvious neither of the heroes were going to. She glanced at Chat and his uncharacteristic silence. “You’re… really 4,000 years old?”
Ladybug took a breath and turned towards them. She managed a small, wry grin. “Older, technically, but I’ve long since stopped keeping track.”
Chat opened his mouth and let out a squeak. His face reddened as he cleared his throat. “How?”
Ladybug lightly tapped her earrings. “The Miraculous can do a lot more for their user then transform them and summon mystical attacks.” Chat rubbed a thumb over his own ring.
As soon as they had landed on the abandoned building, Ladybug had done… something to his Miraculous. She’d brushed it with a finger and the two remaining claws had gone back to a full paw and stayed like that. It had always struck him as odd that his transformation didn’t last nearly as long as hers; he’d never seen her earrings lose even a single dot. Was this why?
“What are the Miraculous?” Alya frowned. “Everyone knows Hawkmoth wants them—and that you two have them—but not why.”
“They’re… relics from a time when magic was more common,” Ladybug answered, turning back to the Paris sunset, clasping her hands behind her back. “They hold immense power within them and can do great things for their wielders: my longevity, for example.”
“And you only have one…” Alya mused, tapping her cheek. Her eyes widened. “Then with more than one…”
Ladybug nodded curtly. “And in the hands of someone like Hawkmoth… You get why I can’t let that happen.”
Chills ran up the two teenagers’ spines, and they exchanged a look. Definitely not.
Chat frowned. “If…” Ladybug looked back over her shoulder at him; he straightened up under her gaze. “If you’re immortal—well, the tablet had a picture of Chat Noir, too, so why…?”
“Why am I so ancient while you’re only a teenager?”
He nodded.
“That’s a story of its own; there… used to be more of us.”
“More?” Alya asked. “How many more?”
A nostalgic smile slipped onto Ladybug’s face. “Three.” She threw her arms out suddenly with ancient enthusiasm, as if she could hold the sky. “Five mighty warriors! Protecting mankind from whatever appeared to harm them!”
Her words were punctuated with a rueful chuckle. “And you would not believe how many dangers there were in ancient times. Powerful beings warred with each other for dominion; for eons, the entire planet was a battlefield.”
Her arms dropped back to her sides, solemn, energy gone as quickly as it had appeared. “And none but us were devoted to making sure humanity survived it all.”
Ladybug turned slightly and gave a soft smile to Alya, intercepting her no-doubt flood of questions before it could begin. “The Miraculous were created of humanity’s wishes and hopes; such things had a much more… dramatic effect back then. The kwami, wardens of the Miraculous, traveled all over the world in search of those who would carry the Miraculous and keep humanity safe.” Her smile turned fond as she caressed an earring. “And one of them found me.”
“…What happened to the others?” Chat asked, mind musing that Plagg, Chat’s usually exasperating, cheese-obsessed partner, was as much of an ancient guardian of humanity as his Lady. He couldn’t see it.
Ladybug drooped, bangs falling over her eyes as her hands clenched, drawing Chat from his thoughts.
“One was… lost. Two went off on their own to help the first, and never came back.”
Chat joined her at the roof edge, eyes flickering between the sky—stars were beginning to appear—and her. The pain in her eyes had him hesitate, and then decide against asking her to explain what ‘lost’ meant. Alya took a few steps forwards, but stopped before she got too close, feeling so much like an outsider.
“The first Chat Noir and I searched all over the world for them, but we couldn’t find the slightest trace of them. They were just… gone. It was... a blow to our fighting strength and our morale, not knowing what happened to them, but eventually we got used to fighting as just the two of us.” She chuckled dryly and nodded at the current Chat. “And we got very good at it; it’s practically instinct now-a-days with just the two of us.”
Silence fell. Chat reached out a hand towards her shoulder several times, but stopped, clenching it into a fist and dropping it to his side each time. Alya bit her lip to keep herself from asking.
Fortunately for her, she didn’t have to.
“What happened to him?” Chat asked, softly.
“Hawkmoth,” Ladybug answered, voice flat.
Chat startled. “Hawk—how old is he?”
“Not ancient, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Ladybug took a few steps, following along the roof and turned slightly, bracing herself against the brick structure hiding the roof-access stairs. She slid down and settled on the ground. Chat followed a moment later, sitting beside her while Alya took her other side. Ladybug leaned her head back and spread her legs out in front of her, knees bent. She closed her eyes and sighed.
“Hawkmoth came to our attention some time later; by that time, he had mastered corrupting people with his akuma, and eventually it got to the point that we were struggling to purify them. Something had to change, or Hawkmoth would overwhelm us and take all the power of the Miraculous for himself.”
Ladybug took a breath. “So, Chat used his Miraculous to tie his own life, hid fate, with Hawkmoth’s,” she ignored the look he gave to his ring, “to try to curb how out of control he was getting. But…” Ladybug forced herself to continue. No matter how many times she told it, it always squeezed her heart when she talked about it. “The corruption that Hawkmoth wielded was a part of him. Once bound together, it was impossible for Chat to keep that same corruption from getting to him.”
“Oh, no…” Chat breathed.
Ladybug clasped her hands on her knees and leaned forward, her voice lowering so much the other two had to strain to catch it. “He struggled with it, but Hawkmoth didn’t give him the chance to adjust… It overwhelmed him, and turned him into an akuma.”
Ladybug shot up onto her feet, scowling, and paced, rushing from one end of the roof to the other, the other two watching silently as the old anger rose to the surface. “I told him it was a long shot; far too long to risk all that he is. But, of course, the dumb cat didn’t listen—”
She stopped short and sighed. “Just like all the Chats when things come down to the wire, regardless if they learn the whole story or not.”
The look in her eyes as she turned to the still-living Chat would never leave him. “None of them listen when I yell at them to not to be so self-sacrificing. I can act like the strictest, cold-hearted harpy that ever lived, and still they don’t hesitate to—” Her voice broke.
The storm poured down in buckets, but she couldn’t feel the cold winds blowing against her when her heart was so numb. Her vision was blurred by the rain, heedless of the fact that her head was bent forwards over— She could only focus on streaming red and a voice, nearly gone, but still teasing to his last breath.
“I knew you had a heart in there…”
She took a ragged breath.
Chat couldn’t say anything. He would never be anything less than her stalwart defender. To not do so would ruin him in ways he’s never let himself think too much about.
“You… But you…” Alya stopped, unsure how to word it. “You can purify…”
Ladybug sniffled and dabbed her eyes with the back of her fingers, facing resolutely away from them.
“I couldn’t bring myself to fight him; I was still mostly in shock. But, I didn’t have to.” She kept her voice low. “You see, that mangy cat had planned for that possibility. With the last shred of his will, carefully preserved by his kwami, he used cataclysm on himself.”
(Alya held back a shudder at the power that rusts metal being used on a human. Chat’s hand twitched.)
“Of course, tied together as they were, Hawkmoth didn’t survive the experience, either.”
Alya murmured, “…Leaving you as the last defender.” Then she frowned. “Then, how is he back? And what’s up with him?” She pointed a thumb in Chat’s direction, who raised an eyebrow. “And all the Chat Noirs since?”
Subdued, Ladybug said, “His last words were a promise; that no matter what, he’d always come back to me.” She shook her head, a small smile slipping onto her face. “The silly cat manages to figure out reincarnation, and he uses it to make sure I’d always be looked after. Go figure.”
She nodded to Chat. “Plagg—his kwami—” she said aside to Ayla, “uses the bond between the ring and the first Chat Noir to find his soul—his soul—” she nodded at the present Chat, “again, and so the cycle continues.”
Ladybug walked closer to where the two still sat, and reached down a hand to him. “So it has been for thousands of years, and… so it will probably be for thousands of more years.”
Dazed by it all, he took the hand and she pulled him up, then did the same for Alya.
Once they were both standing, Ladybug backed up to the edge.
“I’ve dropped a lot tonight; take some time to think it through. I’ll see you at our next patrol.” She sent a short salute to Chat Noir, and then turned to Alya.
“I would appreciate it if you didn’t put all of this on your blog.” Ladybug twirled a pig-tail around a finger. “I don’t think the world’s authorities would be very happy if they knew the full extent of the power the Miraculous has.” She grew somber. “The time of magic’s peak has long since passed, with good reason. It would cause… mass amounts of chaos if it were to be re-introduced. Well…” Ladybug idly rubbed a cheek with a finger. “More then what the city has seen from the two of us, at least. But that was carefully considered.”
Reluctantly, Alya nodded while Chat Noir blinked. “You mean we could do more then what we can now?”
With a smile, Ladybug nodded. She conferred silently with Tikki for a few moments, and then her amused smile grew devious.
“I’ll see you again soon.” She sent a much more cheerful salute to the two, and then back flipped off the roof.
As the two rushed to the edge, a flash of light illuminated the alley below, and when they looked down, Ladybug was nowhere to be seen.