Chapter Text
When she gets the akuma alert, she’s elbow deep in hydrangea petals, rummaging through the flower containers at the flower market.
It was the first time that week that she had been available to go with her father to pick out a bouquet for her mother’s birthday, and it was a good thing she had found this small pocket of free time in her schedule, since the special day in question was tomorrow. Or rather, it was a good thing, prior to twenty seconds ago when her phone sent out an ever-familiar ping that caused her stomach to drop, and her plans to become, well, derailed.
But of course, she knew that disaster waited for no one, least of all a part-time superhero who just wanted to pick out a nice gift for her beloved mother, with her excited (and equally loved) father.
She had shouted out something barely more intelligible than, “Papa. Bathroom.” before she was sprinting off to the nearest available hidden alcove for her to transform in.
Surprisingly, marché aux fleurs reine elizabeth II, the flower market they had been shopping in, was full of bustling crowds and little in the way of crevices for her to run into.
After what felt like forever, Ladybug found a secluded alleyway to transform in and made her way across the city to where the Ladyblog had said the akumatized villain had appeared.
Unsurprisingly, with how long it took her to show up, Chat Noir was already there, engaged in combat with a very irate and very… colorful opponent.
Looking at her, Ladybug had realized that the girl couldn’t have been more than a few years older than her, twenty at most.
She had a rounded face which, had it not been currently marred with the bitterness of a furious scowl, would have probably made her look very friendly.
Her skin had been turned a bright color that sat somewhere between fuchsia and magenta, and clashed, to a blinding degree, with her hair that looked to be made of red yarn.
In fact, had it not been for the vibrant pink of her skin, her transformation would have looked oddly reminiscent of the dolls that Ladybug’s grandmother had in her childhood. The ones that had been left on display and always used to frighten her with their uncanny appearance.
Her dress was white and poofy, with capped sleeves and layers of tulle underneath the skirt. On one side of her dress a red heart was sewn in as a pocket. Her red-yarn hair was up in space buns and held in place by what looked to be knitting needles; although, Ladybug quickly realized that there must have been something else holding in her hair, as she grabbed the needles out of her yarn buns and held them to her sides, her hair never moving out of its place.
Her eyes were decorated with long, spindly lashes and her cheeks were painted on with a heart on each side, one side red, the other white.
In truth, the more she thought about it, the more Ladybug believed that she looked like a doll.
An overgrown, uncanny, horrifying, angry doll who was menacingly waving around and jabbing in the air her set of knitting needles at Ladybug’s partner.
Ladybug watched the scene for a bit longer, trying to take in as much information as she could before she entered into the fight.
It was when a needle very narrowly missed poking Chat Noir in the eye, that she decided to step in and assist her partner.
Ladybug stepped away from the wall she had been semi-leaning against, semi-watching behind, and used her yo-yo to swing herself into the fight, intent on using her unexpected entrance as a way to land a blow on the akuma.
Thankfully, the angle she had swung herself at was just what she needed to deliver a forceful kick to the side of the akuma, knocking her out of breath, and just flat out knocking her over.
Straightening herself out, Ladybug took the chance to look at her partner while she waited for the akuma to return. Chat Noir stood there staring at her, the look on his face was adorably just normally surprised.
“Hey Kitty-cat, need me to lend you a hand?” Ladybug teased.
“I could Paw-sibbly use your help M’lady, great timing.”
“So, what exactly are we facing here, Chaton?” Ladybug tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Positioning herself in a defensive stance, she surveyed the scene around her, keeping a lookout for the damage the akuma had caused.
“She calls herself String Theory. A bit on the nose with that one, but some people just cat-n’t make good puns.”
Ladybug smirked in amusement and took a moment to look away from the city, in order to flick his bell.
“No wonder I keep you around. You can’t find good entertainment anywhere else.” She joked.
“Maybe this time I’ll recite some love poetry for you. I have some verses in my head that I’d love for you to Purruse.”
“Maybe a different time kitty. What else do you know about String Theory.”
“As a theoretical framework or as a villain? Because I know my fair share of both.”
“Chat Noir.” She said, all amusement gone from her tone, she was sure (and hoped) her words rang out as a warning sign to him.
“Right, sorry,” He said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “From what she’s been yelling, it sounds like she’s just been through a brutal breakup and she’s been using her needles to, as she claims “set up real connections”. She’s been shooting out beams from her needles that seem to cause people to start strangely walking in random directions.”
Sure enough, she looked around to see people who had undoubtedly been hit, walking in all sorts of ways, often with no concern for their own safety as they passed through busy streets and construction zones, with little regard or register for what was happening around them.
The way they moved was almost reminiscent of vaudeville dances, or rather, more astutely, they reminded her of the marionette shows her parents used to take her to as a kid. Perhaps their limbs were not suspended in air by minuscule, imperceptible wires, but the people below moved their arms and legs as if they had no control over them, as if they were being led somewhere beyond their comprehension by a hidden puppeteer, lurking in the shadows, guiding them towards their certain disaster.
It was chilling for her to watch.
“But, it’s when she hits you directly with her needles, that you really have to watch out.” Chat Noir added.
If this was the power the beams let out from afar, Ladybug shuttered to think of what direct contact with them could do.
“Why? What happens when you’re touched by them?”
“Well, I haven’t actually seen it yet, but from what she claims, those who have been hit–”
“--YOU CANNOT STOP PEOPLE FROM MEETING THEIR FATE!”
Chat Noir was immediately cut off by the reentrance of the so-called String Theory, who seemed to have gathered her wits and reoriented herself after Ladybug’s surprise attack.
“Well well well, I guess Miss Yarn over here is trying to entice the kitty. Fear not M’lady, this cat won’t get caught up in her strings.” Chat Noir teased, leaning on his staff, his lips stretched lazily into a confident smirk.
The villain stomped her foot, stabbed the needles back into her hair, and let out a yell of frustration.
“It’s not Miss Yarn! It’s String Theory!”
“Well whatever your name is, don’t think you’ll succeed in your plan,” Ladybug piped in, swinging her yoyo in preparation. “You won’t get Chat Noir’s or my miraculous, and you won’t hurt anymore people.”
“That’s where you’re wrong Ladybug. Don’t you see? I’m not hurting anyone, I’m merely helping them, helping them to avoid– mistakes,” her expression darkened. “With my powers I am guiding everyone towards who they are meant to be with, so that they could avoid heartbreak, there’s nothing harmful about that. If anything you are hurting all these people by not letting them find their soulmate.”
“It’s not for them to know.” Ladybug asserted, not moving from her protected stance as she anticipated retaliation.
“Besides,” Chat Noir piped in. “M’lady and I don’t need your powers, we already know that we’re purrfect for each other.”
Ladybug heaved a great sigh and rolled her eyes to the point of nearly making herself feel dizzy at his poorly timed quip.
Ladybug noticed as a glowing mask of violet haze formed around the eyes of String Theory, distracting her from the goings on of the battle.
Realizing that this was an opportune time to try and gain the advantage, Ladybug examined, as carefully as she could, the villain. She looked for any trace or hint of what item might be holding the akuma in it.
It would seem as if luck was against her, for no sooner than when she began her search, did String Theory end her communication with Hawkmoth.
“You’re right Hawkmoth, they are the ones who are being cruel and they deserve to have their miraculouses taken from them.” She sneered as the purple glow dissipated from around her eyes.
Ladybug noticed out of the corner of her eye Chat Noir getting himself into the same protective stance that she was in, his mind undoubtedly thinking the same thing she was. Get ready .
String Theory narrowed her eyes at the two of them and flashed her teeth wickedly. Ladybug tightened her grip on her yo-yo.
Then, out of nowhere and to the shock of Ladybug, String Theory abruptly spun around to face the opposite direction. She whipped out a needle that she had previously stuck in her hair and began pointing the instrument in different directions at civilians on the ground below.
The needle shot out a gleaming pink beam, which managed to hit several people walking, and was evidently noticed by others as civilians began screaming and running.
What was more peculiar though, and what caught Ladybug’s attention now that she had noticed the affected, was how the people who had been hit reacted.
Immediately after getting struck by the beam, those hit stopped in their tracks and began walking in a random direction. and the ring finger of their left hand was held out and lifted before them, as if the said appendage was being tugged along by some force, guiding them in their seemingly arbitrary journey.
From what Ladybug could see of their faces from her distance of several stories, those affected did not appear concerned about their sudden resolve for their journeys. Rather their faces appeared unbothered, blissful in their resoluteness, their eyes glazed.
String Theory let out a maniacal laugh, evidently amused by the pandemonium her actions had let out of the box.
“What did you do to them?” Ladybug let out in an angry huff, her fists balled against her sides and her stomach roiling with apprehension as she turned her attention back to the villian.
“I’m simply doing what needed to be done, what you don’t have the guts to do.” String Theory sneered.
“What? Turn all of Paris into some sort of puppet show?!” Chat Noir asked, his voice aghast.
“No. I am making them happy. Those hit with my beam will be directed towards their intended, their soulmate, and will be able to find their happily ever after. Of course, the beams don’t have the same power or provide the same benefit that my needles can give them, but maybe the two of you will have the pleasure of experiencing their– magic .”
Ladybug exchanged a look with Chat Noir that seemed to convey a plan, it was the same kind of look they had used countless times, had employed against myriads of akumatized individuals, and yet had never failed in its ability to communicate the message.
In one quirk of her lips, flick of her eyes, and scrunching of her nose, she was able to tell him, let’s attack from opposite directions, goad her, ambush her, and then try to find and take her akuma. With a squint, a nod of his head, and a raising of his eyebrows, he seemed to ask back, so the usual plan then? Ladybug nodded once and they were off.
As they pounced, Ladybug realized that she had underestimated the fighting skill and prowess of her opponent. Instead of being on the offensive, Ladybug found herself in a constant state of weaving and dodging while String Theory, perhaps paradoxically, stepped sure-footed while waving her arms wildly, her needles coming precariously close to Ladybug’s person.
Ladybug was becoming even more grateful than usual that her partner was there. If there was one thing she could count on, it was Chat Noir’s ability to mock and irritate their opponents.
“Hey Dark Matter, or whatever your name is!” Chat Noir jeered.
String Theory stomped her foot and huffed.
“It’s String Theory!”
“I bet you can’t catch this sly cat.”
String Theory aimed a beam at his idle figure, but he swiftly moved away and into a crouched position.
“How unfurr-tunate, you missed.”
String Theory growled and narrowed her eyes to better focus on her target.
With String Theory focused on Chat Noir and with her needles poised and ready to aim their fate-finding beams at him, Ladybug found it the perfect moment to strike. She wasted no time and jumped into position on the opposite side from Chat Noir on the left side of their opponent. She swung out with her yo-yo and from her side angle, she was able to go undetected by String Theory’s turned head, but was also in a perfect position to view her weapon-grasping hands, enabling Ladybug to tie together her wrists.
“Chat Noir, quick! Look for her akumatized object!”
“On it, M’lady.”
Ladybug tugged harder on the line as String Theory struggled against her bindings. As the seconds passed, she could feel her grip on her loosening. She watched while Chat Noir pulled a string of her yarn hair, a patch on her sleeve, and bracelet on her arm and destroyed each item, but no butterfly flew out.
“Kitty, could we maybe speed this up? I don’t think I can keep a hold on for much longer.”
“Sorry M’lady, I’m trying, I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”
Chat Noir yanked the needle out of String Theory’s hand and snapped it in half over his knee. Dread sat thick and heavy in her stomach as Ladybug watched little more than pink spark result from the break.
String Theory let out a scream of frustration, or perhaps indignation, at the break of one of her tools. With a furious yank, she pulled her arms free and leaped off across Parisian rooftops.
Chat Noir pulled out his baton and made a movement as if to extend it, heaving a heavy sigh as he did so. Ladybug put a hand on his shoulder to stop him before he leaped off, all the while keeping her eyes on the horizon and on the rapidly disappearing String Theory.
“Wait. I think we should trail her from afar, try to figure out more about her and where her akuma might be, and then we’ll attack again.”
“A purrfect plan as usual M’lady.”
Ladybug couldn’t help the soft, endeared grin that began to spread across her face at her partner's antics.
They waited a few more moments before she decided they were probably distant enough to escape String Theory’s notice.
“Come on Chaton, let’s go find out where she went.”
It didn’t take them long after they began their search to spot her. Of course, it helped that her costume had the subtlety of a peacock wearing a sequined vest.
Dropping down to the ground, the same level that String Theory now resided, and ducking into a concealed alleyway that fortuitously offered just enough visibility for them to view the actions of String Theory without getting spotted, Ladybug and Chat Noir peered around the corner and watched as String Theory pulled the other needle out of her hair with a grandiose flourish.
With the distance between herself and the civilians on the street no longer existing and her targets now being within arms-length, String Theory wasted no time in tapping people directly with her sole functioning weapon.
Ladybug watched in simultaneous amazement and horror, as the needle point landed on shoulders, heads, and backs of innocent civilians, of anyone String Theory could come into contact with. Though she knew it to be a cruel power, she couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the needle, of how it glimmered an incandescent pink each time it hit someone, how it landed with an almost soothing plink of a harp string, how each victim looked instilled with a feeling of clarity, their eyes unglazed-over, of how amongst all the chaos and wrongness occuring there was a certain justness hanging in the air, clutching on to breaths of wind hitting the faces of victims.
“Wow,” Chat Noir let out breathlessly, evidently seeing whatever emotions and feelings that painted the scene before them that she was. “It looks–”
“I know Chaton,” Ladybug sighed, turning around to face him and glimpse his awestruck face. “But whatever she’s doing to them, it isn’t right, and we have to fix this.”
Chat Noir heaved a heavy sigh, the kind that moved his whole body upward, the kind that often came when the right thing to do felt opposite to what felt right, the same kind of sigh that Ladybug was holding in at the moment.
“Alright, so what should we do?”
“Hmm,” Ladybug bit her lip and tapped a finger to her chin. “I don’t think we should call for our powers until we know more about what’s going on. Let’s just watch her, see if we can figure out what it is she’s exactly doing to them, and maybe see where her akuma might be. We’ll figure it out from there.”
Chat Noir nodded once, and motioned for her to step in front of him in their position of peaking around the wall. Ladybug turned around and stepped into place and noted somewhere in the back of her mind the sound of Chat Noir’s footsteps as he moved closer to her to get a better view.
They sat in silence for a few moments, during which Ladybug noticed a breeze hitting her neck, which she quickly attributed to Chat Noir’s breathing. He was standing closer than she’d previously realized, probably closer than he had even realized. Ladybug tried to store that information away, but was doing as good a job as ignoring it as she was at ignoring the goosebumps that had popped up on the back of her neck.
Ladybug shook her head to get back into focus and squinted her eyes to get better visuals on String Theory.
The said villain was tapping on yet another civilian and Ladybug decided, in an effort to figure out what string theory was doing, to focus her attention on her latest victim.
From what she could see, he was a man in his mid-to-late 30s and nothing particularly different seemed to exist about the way he looked or in his actions after he had been hit. However, upon further inspection, Ladybug noticed the man staring curiously at his left ring finger, the same finger that had affected String Theory’s other victims. He looked up towards the horizon ahead of him and then looked back down to his finger. After looking back and forth several times, he took a tentative step forward, and then another, and another, each step gaining in surety and confidence. He, unlike the victims from earlier, noticed whatever force was tugging him along, he didn’t follow it blindly, but with open eyes.
“Chat Noir, do you see that?” Ladybug whispered.
“Do I see what?”
“That man over there in the blue cap. He keeps looking at his finger and at something in front of him. Whatever it is, it looks like he’s walking closer to it.”
“Ah, I see what you’re saying. Great cat-ch M’lady.”
Before Ladybug could try to find any more clues as to what was going on, String Theory spoke up again in her hysteric, manic yell of a voice.
“Yes my darlings, be free! Now that your string of fate has been revealed to you, you’ll all be able to find your intended and live your fairytale ending!”
Ladybug let out an abrupt gasp that fell in tune with the catch of air she heard from behind her left ear.
“So that’s what she’s up to. The needles, they must be showing people a string that’s tied to their soulmate. She had mentioned earlier something about guiding people to their soulmates, this must have been what she meant!” Ladybug said, her mind running a hundred miles a minute.
“But then why did the beam cause people to react differently?”
“If I had to guess based on what String Theory said, the string only seemed to be revealed to those who were tapped by the needle. The beam from a distance probably doesn’t hold as much power as a direct hit, so instead of revealing the string, I guess maybe they only get some sort of feeling? Or some kind of guidance, that led them to their soulmate.”
“I guess she really knit that plan together.”
“That pun doesn’t even make sense Kitty.”
“You’re just jealous of my humor, everyone knows it’s the Cat’s Meow.”
Ladybug let out a noise of disgust and rolled her eyes to the point in which they started to hurt her. She took a step back, and graciously did not bump into Chat Noir, who must have noticed her movement and moved backwards himself.
She turned around to face him, her mind whirling at a speed that would perhaps be dizzying for others, but for herself, kept her focused and allowed her to pick up and assess the fragments of information before her, willing themselves to form together into a larger, grander picture.
“You had said before that she had gone through a breakup?”
“Ooh yeah, she sounded pretty hurt when she was monologging when I first got there.” Chat Noir said, his nose crinkling and his lips pursing sympathetically.
“And did she mention any mementos or keepsakes from the relationship that she might have been holding on to?”
“Hmm,” Chat Noir mused, a finger stroked his lip in contemplation and Ladybug averted her eyes from the movement. “Not that I can think of or remember her mentioning, but maybe there was something on her costume that I didn’t notice.”
Ladybug turned around again, for what felt like the millionth time, to stare at String Theory. This time however, String Theory was at a much more beneficial angle for viewing, as she was practically facing them.
Ladybug ducked deeper into the shadows of their hideaway, and did her best to take in every detail of the costume before her. She was on her third look-through of String Theory’s outfit, when her attention snagged on a detail that she had previously paid little attention to. The red heart pocket on String Theory’s dress looked to be a different material than the rest of the dress, and its knit pattern looked lopsided and like the homemade craft of a beginner.
What sealed Ladybug’s feeling of its significance was how String Theory protected the article. How she laid her free hand on it and kept her side on which it was located, angled away from any passerbyers. Ladybug even watched while she spared the pocket a surreptitious glance as a throng of people, eager to find their love, passed her.
“Chat Noir look, her pocket.”
The natural and vibrant buoyancy of her partner, which was usually tangible in its expression, after a moment quieted behind her, and the stillness indicated to her that he had seen it too.
Satisfied with the information she had gotten, Ladybug moved away from her spot near the entrance of the alleyway and began pacing its length, thinking of a plan and of her next move.
Finally, after thinking through the scenarios galavanting through her head, she stopped her pacing and stood directly in front of Chat Noir, who was now leaning, arms crossed and face expectant and eager, against the opposite wall from the one they had been spying around.
“Okay, we’re going to need to go in and corner her again. But this time she will be expecting an attack and I think we should just go on the offensive and try to overpower her together. And if that fails, I will try to use my power. Once we have her cornered, I’m going to need you to cataclysm the heart-pocket.”
She waited for him to nod before continuing.
“When we get in there, we’re going to need to be really close like last time, but she’s probably going to be a lot more aggressive now that she’s down to only one needle. So I need you to be really careful and make sure you don’t get hit. Especially by her needles, but as you know, even her beams can inflict plenty of damage.”
Chat Noir looked at her hesitantly, then averted his eyes and made a face that looked like he wanted to say more. Ladybug waited patiently for him to let out whatever it was that was troubling him. He eventually muttered something under his breath that she could hardly decipher.
“I’m sorry, what was that Chaton?”
“I said—” he paused and took a deep breath, “would it really be so bad if we were hit?”
Ladybug was taken aback at his questioning, didn’t he realize how much was at stake here? how much this could complicate their lives, if they were connected; if they weren’t connected?
“I-um, well-” She racked her brain for words that explained what she meant and felt without cutting him deeply with their sharpness, but also, that would act as a balm to the strange place in her mind that was having trouble disagreeing with him.
“Well for one, it would make fighting String Theory impossible,” She decided upon. “If we were connected to strings we could get distracted, or even possibly get tangled or caught on them depending on how they work.”
Chat Noir waved a hand nonchalantly between them, as if brushing off her words.
“We’ve fought before when tied together and won, we would figure it out.”
The given assumption behind his words that their string would be connected, was not lost on her, and somewhat irked Ladybug. It took everything in her, to not remind him that there was no guarantee that they would be tied together.
There was a different pair of green eyes and blonde hair that she wished would be at the end of her line, but it wouldn’t do either of them well to refresh his memory of that.
A part of her brain, that had introduced itself as logical, but now she was wondering if it was in kahoots with that other little corner, wondered if he was right, if it would really be so bad for the two of them to get hit; after all, they had fought when tied before, and it would take away most of the leverage String Theory had on them.
She thought for a moment longer before deciding that the best course of action would obviously be to avoid getting hit. She felt silly for even considering it.
“I think it would be best for us to stay out of the way of String Theory’s power. Even if we’ve done it before, it would still make fighting a lot harder and put us at risk. Besides,” She paused, first making sure he was paying attention to this last bit. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to know who we’re meant to be with, or to learn that from an akuma. That is something I want to figure out for myself and I would rather not have it told to me, and I really don’t want Hawkmoth possibly getting a hold of that information. Now come on Chat Noir, we have a villain to defeat.”
They walked together in tandem out of the alleyway and into the street where they stood, in broad daylight, a short distance from String Theory’s turned back.
“Hey String Theory, need a Cat’s help to paw at your yarn?” Chat Noir bellowed, successfully capturing String Theory’s attention and causing her to turn around.
The look on String Theory’s face as her eyes sped back and forth was nothing short of mutinous. Chat Noir, perhaps trying to ease the tension, or perhaps trying to goad her piped in again:
“Oh relax, I was just kitten.”
Rather than yell or strike, String Theory shot them a cold, calculated smile that sent a chill down Ladybug’s back.
“You know, my power has helped so many lovers find their way to one another, maybe it would be helpful to the two of you. Everyone knows how well Ladybug and Chat Noir work together, everyone sees how they’re meant to be. Wouldn’t it be great to know if they’re right? If you’re truly soulmates?”
Ladybug’s stomach dipped at her words, she feared to look at her partner, to know how he reacted to her, she feared how easily swayed he may be from String Theory’s words. Most of all, she feared that curious feeling lurking in her mind, that wanted to be hit and know once and for all the truth.
“You know,” Chat Noir said with a light nudge at Ladybug’s arm, the pit in her stomach deepened at the motion. “We could finally know if we’re meow-nt to be.”
The empty hole that was growing at a steady pace in her stomach, now became a sanctuary for warring butterflies, or perhaps angry squirrels. Though he had used a pun to defuse the meaning behind his words, the softness with which he spoke denoted the sincerity behind his comment. She needed to nip his hope in the bud.
“Not now Chat Noir.” Ladybug responded in a tone that sounded agitated even to her own ears.
Done with chitchat, Ladybug ran forward to her opponent, bringing up her leg to try and kick the needle out of String Theory’s hand. String Theory briskly dodged her attack and swept out her arm in a motion that nearly got both her and Chat Noir hit by her needle. A few more attacks, a few more dodges, and a few more near misses with the needle and Ladybug finally grasped on to and incapacitated String Theory’s offending hand.
Chat Noir came in to retrieve and destroy the heart, when String Theory piped in.
“Are you really sure you want to do that?”
Chat Noir leveled String Theory a glare, but paused all the same.
“Kitty, come on, quickly.”
“You’re just going to take away my power without ever knowing? What if you’re soulmates? What if Ladybug will never be with you because she doesn’t know,” String Theory narrowed her eyes. “You know what? You probably aren’t soulmates if you don’t even want to know. Maybe you guys aren’t meant to be. Maybe you guys aren’t the team I thought you were.”
Ladybug was frozen in silent shock at String Theory’s words. How did she know exactly what to say to get to him?
Where Ladybug became frozen, these words came to reanimate Chat Noir.
“We are a great team, and of course we’ll end up together, that’s how soulmates work. And besides, we don’t need your needles to prove that we are soulmates, we already know.”
What? Ladybug thought, alarmed and confused, where did he get that from?
She was so taken aback from his words, she didn’t notice the slight movement of the hand in her grasp.
It wasn’t until she felt the light tap of something on the back of her hand, that she looked up to see the awkward angle that String Theory had put her arms in, in order to hit her.
Ladybug jolted away and jumped back as if zapped by lighting, but the damage was done.
It was the barest of touches, but it was enough.