Chapter Text
Everything felt rotten.
Her flesh prickled, her nose was stuffed with decay, and all she could hear was labored panting and gurgling water.
“Ladybug.” A smooth voice drove her to instinctively straighten her posture. “I am Mayura.”
Ladybug. Is that what she is?
“You are Chat Noir’s true teammate,” Mayura softly revealed, “and you’ve one goal: to get a hold of the Miraculous.”
Ladybug’s eyes peeled open. Dingy walls and dull, yellow lights encompassed a woman shrouded in indigo blue, with powder blue skin, and dark, calculating eyes.
“I’m ready, Mayura.”
⸙
Mayura’s fingers dug into her forearm. She pulled her close, and Ladybug barely had time to register the boy dressed in black apparel's declaration. “Pretend to be hurt,” Mayura hissed.
She blinked, eyes widening in faint recognition before Mayura’s fan pressed against her abdomen.
It did not hurt, but she told her it was so. So it shall be.
She cried out, hands shooting down to clutch her stomach. Her body dropped to the ground, and she writhed, just to make sure her deception would strike home for the boy in black.
Mayura’s dark eyes gleamed. She stepped away, quiet and unbothered.
Had she fulfilled the order properly?
“My Lady!” The boy scrambled for her. “No!”
He grabbed her shoulders, desperate.
His eyes were so very green. His face was contorted in deep anxiety as his eyes roved where she had been ‘stabbed’.
“Are you okay? Did she break through the suit–?”
“Don’t worry about me,” her breath shuddered. She began to push herself up to properly sit, but the boy held her in place. “Go after Mayura–”
She froze. A bolt of pain shot up against her lung, piercing her heart so overwhelmingly that she could only see white.
This was pretending, right?
“My Lady?” the boy’s voice reeled her attention back. Her brain fought through the haze. He held her close, as if she meant so much more to him. As if he were her teammate (and he was, that was what Mayura had said).
Her mouth opened without her consciously doing so: “Chat Noir, I don’t feel so good.”
Panic flashed in his eyes. She could feel his heart rate skyrocket. “There’s something wrong; we’re supposed to be nearly invulnerable!”
Mayura’s smooth voice brushed along her skull: “Grab his Miraculous: his ring, before the real Ladybug gets here!”
She jerked in Chat Noir’s arms. How was Mayura talking with her if she wasn’t right next to them?
Her hand involuntarily reached out and clung onto Chat Noir’s arm. “Please, don’t leave me,” she whimpered.
The real Ladybug? Who was she? What was she?
Is Chat Noir not her true teammate if she’s not Ladybug?
“What?” He stuttered. “What’s going on?”
Mayura’s voice grazed her skull again, only this time, her neck muscles seized and it felt like her brain was being squeezed. “I’ve always gone out of my way to hide my true feelings for you.” Her tongue moved of it’s own volition. “But I just can’t do it anymore.”
Chat Noir blinked, confusion contorting his features. “But, I thought you said you love somebody else?”
Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “It’s…” Her mouth was hers for just that moment. It was quickly stolen away: “It’s over.” She leaned against Chat Noir’s comfort. “After all this time, I’ve realized that you’re always here for me, even when I keep rejecting you.”
Her eyes burned into his. She willed her fingers down, grazing along his arm and for that ring that radiated a stark warmth against her body.
“Your feelings haven’t changed, and mine are growing stronger every day.” Her hands took his clawed ones, bringing it to rest over her chest.
His eyes flicked downwards, brows pinched ever so slightly in dismay.
“I can’t keep pretending anymore.” Her brain stuffed itself with cotton, Mayura’s voice demanded: “Now!”
The pressure dissipated, but Mayura’s graze still edged her skull. She pursed her lips, closing her eyes with the knowledge he’d follow suit out of pure trust.
He cared for the real Ladybug very much, she garnered.
Her fingers grazed the ring Mayura was so enamored with. She peered out of the corner of an eye, guiding it ever so slowly up his finger.
His lips brushed hers.
A separate hand clawed her apart from Chat Noir. An external force shoved her back, jarring her newly regained clarity.
Her lungs squeezed again. Propping herself up on an arm, she glanced up to see a mirror-image of red, sporting black polkadots.
“Watch it, Chat Noir! You’re confusing fantasy with reality!” Ladybug, presumably, hissed, scowling down at the boy in black.
She had been shoved a few feet from her last position. Chat Noir had too.
That was interesting.
Chat Noir looked at her, shocked and confused and hurt. “You’re not Ladybug?”
Mayura said she is Ladybug. That is what she is. “No! She’s not me!”
That gripping, mindfuzz burrowed itself within her again.
She did not enjoy that.
“She’s manipulating you!” Ladybug sent her a dirty glare. “You know I’m already in love with someone else.”
Chat Noir’s ears had drooped. He glanced between the two of them cautiously.
“Listen to your heart!”
Ladybug’s head jerked back, revulsed. “No? Listen to your brain!”
Chat Noir stood, eyes narrowing. “You’re just an illusion!”
For a moment, she thought she hadn’t been Ladybug enough. Chat Noir’s eyes slid to Ladybug, hurling his staff at her.
Ladybug frowned, but caught it easily. “See, I’m real enough.” She lobbed his staff at him.
Chat Noir stumbled back, eyeing each Ladybug. “That- Impossible! There can’t be two Ladybugs!”
She grit her teeth. Stumbling up, with her hand clenching her abdomen, she didn’t have to feign nervously eyeing Ladybug. She opened her mouth to reply, but Mayura’s distinct pressure fogged her brain again. “She must be a fan of Ladybug who’s been akumatized by Hawk Moth!”
Hawk Moth. Now who was that?
Her hand, guided before she could properly perform the act herself, unlatched the bandalore from her hip. It easily formed a shield when it’s string became taut enough as she swung it around. “Don’t fall for her tricks!”
Chat Noir glanced at her in panic. “My Lady, no!”
“We’ve got a villain to fight.” Her eyes slid over to a taken aback Ladybug. “We’ll take care of me later.”
His hands flexed. Chat Noir got into an offensive position, extending his staff. “That’s the Lady I know.”
Ladybug scowled. She openly groaned: “I can’t believe you fell for that!” Pulling taut her own bandalore string into her own shield, she sent an annoyed look to Chat Noir. “Okay, good job. You win,” she seethed, “I am the fake Ladybug, but there’s no way I’m letting you Cataclysm my earrings!”
Mayura’s familiar buzz brushing her skull eased. She narrowed her eyes at Ladybug pointing frivolously at her own earrings.
“You wanna bet?” Chat Noir grinned, flexing his claws.
She lassoed her bandalore to restrain Ladybug. The smirk on the original’s face made her conscious of Chat Noir’s being, but he didn’t lunge towards her, like she was half expecting.
He lunged towards Ladybug instead.
“No!” Mayura’s voice gasped. “Not the earrings!”
At first, she thought her voice was in her head again. When Ladybug’s eyes slid away from her, and instead somewhere behind her, she realized Mayura hadn’t been in her head at all. Ladybug’s voice was smug: “Hello, Mayura.”
It sent all the wrong emotions throughout her. Her jaw clenched. Mayura wasn’t revealing any trump card that she considered vital by coming out of hiding, but irritation clutched at her shoulders all the same.
“Mayura,” Chat Noir breathed, as if just remembering how she had been found at the scene with her. “But… she looks so real…”
She frowned, spinning her bandalore into a shield again. Her eyes stayed locked on the two’s twitching muscles. Ladybug certainly was already forming a plan, with how shifty her own eyes were. She didn’t know how Chat Noir would react in this situation.
Mayura was hunched over, fan spread and covering most of her face.
It made her wonder if that was the position one held oneself in when they were in pain.
“Things aren’t always what they seem to be at first sight,” Ladybug replied, spinning her own bandalore. Chat Noir’s ears pressed flat against his head, but he was instantly backing her up with his own sharpened eyes flicking over the false Ladybug’s stance.
He was assessing her too, now. “This Ladybug isn’t an illusion or an akumatized person?”
Ladybug nodded. “She’s a sentimonster.”
Her eye twitched.
“But she's so much more elaborate than any of those we've faced before!” Chat Noir sent Ladybug a panicked look. “She's so perfect, there's nothing monstrous about her at all!”
She scowled. She wasn’t monstrous, she was made in another’s image and simply following what she was made to do.
“Sorry Minou, you should’ve known.” Ladybug gave an amused wink to Chat Noir. “I’m nowhere near as perfect as her.”
Are monsters perfect? Are they synonymous?
“I love you just the way you are, my Lady.” Chat Noir grinned toothily.
“Got a hint of where the amok is?” Ladybug’s voice got quiet. Her eyes roved over Mayura before pinpointing onto something. “Look at what Mayura’s holding.”
“Whatever it takes, steal their Miraculous, and don’t hold back!” Mayura hissed at her. She spared a quick glance and nod in affirmation.
“Senti Charm,” the words poured from her mouth before she could properly process them. Red blossoms shot up from her bandalore, converging above and diversing to reveal and red and polkadotted, modified shotgun with three barrels.
Her eyes widened slightly, but the light weight when it fell to her arms shocked her even more. Chat Noir cringed.
“I’ll show you a real Lucky Charm.” Ladybug grinned. Cherry blossoms shot from her bandalore, revealing a red and polkadotted fork.
“Okay,” Chat Noir nervously laughed. “You’re definitely the real one.”
Ladybug gave him a look.
Her fingers slid easily over her gun’s trigger, the buttend of the handle nestling into her shoulder. Ladybug and Chat Noir leapt out of the way of each bullet. Whirring trailed after each round, flying off below the Arc de Tromphe. She was slightly relieved the kickback wasn’t as bad as she thought it’d be.
Mayura slipped away again. She took note of the uneasy goosebumps; how far away that keychain was now.
Her eyes stayed locked on Ladybug and Chat Noir. Aiming: firing whenever one of their feet touched the ground, only to force them into the air to dodge again. Chat Noir threw himself into Ladybug before one of the rounds could hit her.
She clenched her jaw in irritation. She should be able to hit moving targets if she’s perfect, right?
Darting to the duo’s hiding place, bullets quickly found their way following their every movement. What pissed her off, however, was Chat Noir fluidly craning his body around each round. Ladybug had broken off from their quick meetup. She assumed that since Chat Noir’s eyes were locked onto a hunched over Mayura, Ladybug’s were too.
She was wrong: Ladybug had moved out of her sight, only for shrieking glass to bombard her ears. Instinctively dropping her shotgun to shield her ears, panic sparked and fuzzied her mind beyond comprehension.
“No!” Mayura’s voice gasped.
Her eyes were drawn to Ladybug immediately. She had that keychain Mayura had been clutching.
The keychain that made her feel uneasy.
Ladybug hesitated for a moment. Her hands were in the position to snap the miniature Eiffel Tower hanging on the keychain in half.
Chat Noir landed beside her instead of Ladybug. She blamed his roving eyes for the way her knees locked up. The boy looked over to his teammate. “What’s going on?”
“You’re right,” Ladybug breathed.
No, she could still move. Her lungs were expanding and crumbling just fine. Her eyes, despite the strain of staring at Ladybug’s red suit for too long without blinking, still moved.
“There’s nothing monstrous about her. Whoever possesses this,” she dangled the Eiffel Tower by it’s chain, “controls the sentimonster; she couldn’t help but follow orders.”
Ladybug approached her. Her skin buzzed and grew suffocatingly warm. Ladybug held up the keychain, cobalt eyes boring into her.
“Sentimonster, you’re free now. I won’t give you orders, but I ask you: help us grab Mayura’s Miraculous.”
She eyed the keychain, fingers twitching to feel the warmth that radiated from it.
She had to get that keychain. It was important, somehow, and not just to her, it seemed. Mayura was straining her eyes just looking at it.
“Thank you.” She reached out. The keychain was simply magnetic, coaxing her hands to get ahold of it and keep it close to her sternum.
Electricity sparked between them. Ladybug gasped, scrambling back before she could even graze the Eiffel Tower with the pads of her fingers.
Her stomach fell. A cloak of loneliness suffocated her.
“Now, we wouldn’t want to confuse the girl, would we?” a tantalizing voice hummed. It was smooth and deep and set her on edge.
The electricity, she now saw, was a little black butterfly with swirls of violet within the wing membrane. It fluttered and landed on her outstretched fingers. It’s little feet brushed the straw for a nose, domestic and unbothered by all that surrounded it.
She couldn’t help but stare at it in awe. It felt warm too, just like that keychain had.
“Hawk Moth…” Ladybug’s voice sounded farther away than it should have been.
The little butterfly fluttered. It creeped up her arm, up her neck, before she couldn’t feel it’s little feet anymore.
It felt just like Mayura’s presence in her mind had, only this time, the pressure of her loneliness wailed. “It’s such a shame, that keychain seems so important to you, doesn’t it?”
“It is important to me,” she breathed. How had everything gone quiet so quickly?
“I can help you get that keychain from Ladybug; help you get those Miraculous Mayura wants you to get,” soothed the voice.
Her eyes widened. “You can?”
“I can,” it seemed to chuckle.
Unease bubbled throughout her being. It seemed too easy, this accepting warmth, just offering it’s services on a whim.
The voice went silent. She knew events were happening around her–flashes of an indigo robe and feathers overtaking blacks and reds and purples and silver taking up her vision. It finally spoke again: “I also want the Miraculous, like Mayura. We are on the same side.”
She recoiled. “She told me to deliver them to her, I only listen to she who shaped me.”
The voice was again silent, but not as long as it had been last time. “That is acceptable. You get your keychain, and may keep it, while Mayura obtains the Miraculous. Deal?”
She nodded. She had no use for the Miraculous Mayura wanted, and even if this voice tried to double-cross her, she would be the one fighting and getting ahold of the Miraculous before it. She could keep it away long enough until Mayura got them. “Deal.”
A wicked smile stretched on the man’s face.
The earrings in her ears grew warmer. It eased her, but soon grew too hot for her mind to properly compute.
Everything turned into various shades of grey, save for two tiny, bright red dots, and a lime green pawpad below her. She stumbled when she took a step. Everything was so much smaller. Instead of the red suit she had been wearing, or the hands she had been given, she had opaque paws that gleamed in the sunlight like gemstones.
“Pixiu,” the voice brushed against her mind with an urging pressure. “I am Hawk Moth. Your goal is to eat the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, and store them until Mayura is ready to retrieve them.”
Pixiu’s eyes instinctively landed on Chat Noir, Ladybug, and Mayura. The former two had backed off significantly. Chat Noir was gawking and visibly sweating.
She couldn’t understand the words that were coming out of his mouth, but they were quick to leave the Arc de Tromphe entirely.
“Consider it done,” she whispered back. Pixiu leapt off of the monument and the ground rumbled in turn. She lumbered after the heroes, the warm trail from her Eiffel Tower keychain guiding her along. The Miraculous themselves had their own scents–something akin to petrichor and pinesap for one, while the other was a sharp tang of metal and sodden earth.
She wanted that keychain. It needed to be stored inside her to be kept safe.
Pixiu did not know how long she had been following the warmth. For a time, the scents of the Miraculous dissipated. That didn’t concern her too much; she still had the warmth.
When the scents reappeared, they were closer to her than she realized. Pixiu paused next to a grey car that was half her size. She scanned the street, eyeing the windows of each building and the rooftops.
There was nothing. Pixiu’s stony eyes creaked when she moved them.
They had to be here. She was certain there was a trap of some kind, but she didn’t know how Chat Noir nor Ladybug worked for that matter. Mayura hadn’t given her much information.
She’d have to disarm Chat Noir again somehow, to protect him from the fight. She was his true teammate, and teammates kept each other from getting hurt. Mayura said nothing regarding the real Ladybug.
“Have you found them?” Hawk Moth’s presence made her flick an ear to her right side.
She replied: “They are here. Somewhere.”
A vague pressure fuzzied her mind. Pixiu grunted, shaking her head. “Find them,” Hawk Moth hissed. “Can you not sniff them out?”
Pixiu turned her head to glare at his impatience.
It was a mistake: one she would never make again. Ladybug’s bandalore zipped out and snaked itself around Pixiu’s neck. Pixiu could not roar, for her throat was mineral, so she stomped back and bit at the bandalore’s string.
It did not break. Chat Noir’s staff extended and halted her retreat.
Pressure encased her mind again, sending a pinprick of disappointment through her senses. It made her falter.
Hawk Moth landed behind Ladybug silently.
Pixiu’s eyes darted to the head of Ladybug’s bandalore, radiating with warmth.
Her keychain was in there.
Teeth snapped for the bandalore. The instinct of devouring it seemed to ease the pressure within her mind. It didn’t faze her when Ladybug and Hawk Moth had engaged in a chase, or when Chat Noir had taken Hawk Moth’s attention off of her by forcefully challenging him to a duel.
Pixiu spent her time focusing on unravelling the rest of the string from her neck. It irked her greatly. Her mind fog was slowly lifting with each passing minute, and warmth began to spread throughout her body.
A shout gave her pause. Pixiu lazily looked around for the heroes. She would uphold her end of the deal by getting their Miraculous for her progenitor–
Sharp cold, stabbing through her body like millions of little needles overwhelmed her. All at once, color flashed between the greyscale that had been her vision.
Hawk Moth’s voice stuttered against her mind, broken and incomprehensible. He couldn’t even hold that irritating pressure against her.
It was freeing and wonderful, but the rippling cold–the cold that was too cold and turned to heat–ruined every blissful second of that. Pixiu’s jaw snapped at the retreating black hand that had touched her. She wacked away the hands that reached for her. Anytime her paw stepped on that string from the bandalore still tied to her neck, she stumbled and fought with gravity to stay upright.
A spotted hand reached out, not for her body, but for that string. It was too far and too fast for Pixiu to bite. The hand had already begun pulling that string, and subsequently Pixiu, into some form of submission.
Dots of red gleamed from whoever was wrangling her. Pixiu leapt hungrily for them, snapping teeth and smashing her paws in attempts of hitting the person down.
Extra weight toppled onto Pixiu. She reared, raising onto her hind legs so that she’d crush whatever was on the ground between her and the pavement–
Zipping. The string was unfurling itself from her neck, too fast for her to hone her attention. The warmth inside her stomach tugged, and was ripped from her. The force made her lurch forward. Pixiu caught herself with her front legs.
Desperation. Her heart did not beat, but it felt like it was being torn in two. The warmth radiated from the spotted person’s hand, taunting.
Something was plucked from her ear. Pixiu recalled the extra weight: successfully rearing up, and smashing whoever it was against the ground.
They wheezed, muttered something, and Pixiu’s vision bubbled with greys and blacks and purples. Fluttering warmth danced above her eyes, before a white light snatched it up with a faint thwip.
Everything hurt and was too warm, yet too cold all at once. She couldn’t feel her legs one moment, and the next her arms lost mobility. Her control snapped back in place and she managed to scramble off of whoever she had just smushed into the ground–
Her control was fleeting. Colors and greyscale still flashed, and her eyes couldn’t keep up.
“Miraculous Ladybug!” a feminine voice cried.
“Wait!” a masculine one shrieked.
She was already bolting between two buildings–the shade muting the brick was easier on her eyes. She didn’t falter, even when cherry blossoms blinded her for a few seconds and seemed to relieve her of the constant poking of tiny needles. Her vision was returned to normal, but the warmth was not replaced.
Where was she? The streets had become too loud. The sun shined too bright for the situation she was in. Where was Mayura? Where was Hawk Moth?
She stumbled. Pressing herself behind a large bin, she nervously eyed curious passersby that had spared a glance into the alley she was hiding in.
She hadn’t fulfilled any of her orders. She hadn’t procured the Miraculous, or that keychain.
Was Mayura upset with her?
⸙
Nathalie frantically scrolled through multiple news sites.
Nothing. There was absolutely nothing post Ladybug’s Miraculous Cure. No sign of her sentimonster.
Perhaps Ladybug has broken the keychain and purified the amok?
Dusuu hummed a cheerful tune, floating around Nathalie’s head. “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”
“Silence,” Gabriel’s voice cut in. “It is no one’s birthday.”
The peafowl grumbled. Nathalie recognized the hum as a birthday tune. It seemed Gabriel did not, since Dusuu continued to hum well after the following ten minutes of otherwise complete quiet.
“Nothing,” Gabriel heaved a sigh. “Do you think she has released the sentimonster?”
Nathalie pursed her lips. “I’m not sure, it’s possible, but it’s not something I’m willing to believe unless I inspect the keychain myself.”
Gabriel gruffed.
“Happy birthday to you…”
“Dusuu!” he snapped.
The peafowl giggled, darting behind Nathalie’s shoulder. “I don’t listen to you!” he chirped. “You have no power! No power!”
“Dusuu,” Nathalie warned. Her eyes did not leave her tablet screen.
Dusuu grumbled again, but quieted down. Nooru glanced between Gabriel and Nathlie, lavender eyes sparkling with worry.
“Will her original purpose be upheld?” Gabriel questioned.
Nathalie looked up. She shifted against the armchair, pondering. “She… should… Adrien has abided to his original purpose…”
“Yes, but I have not given him any commands against that purpose,” Gabriel stated. “Dusuu!”
Dusuu giggled obnoxiously loud. “No power!”
Gabriel scowled. Nathalie’s eyebags seemed to weigh heavier. “Dusuu, can orders allow a sentimonster to go against it’s original… programming?”
The peafowl blew a raspberry. “If choice was not in her conception, then no!”
Gabriel released a sigh of relief. “We should be fine; Ladybug cannot send it against us as long as you ordered it to get her and Chat Noir’s Miraculous, yes?”
Nathalie stared quietly, a few moments too long.
Gabriel cleared his throat.
“Ah–” she startled. Dusuu giggled. “Y-Yes, uh. Yes, I was specific for her to obtain the Miraculous.”
“Good.” Gabriel turned his attention back to his screens. “Very good.”
Nathalie swallowed the lump in her throat. She remembers being specific with Chat Noir’s Miraculous… Right?
“I must… Go lie down,” Nathalie piped up. “in my room, I’m feeling quite faint.”
Gabriel glanced at her. “Do you need help?”
“No!” Her head snapped up. “No, I will be fine.”
He stared at her for a moment longer before giving a stiff nod. “Have the rest of the day off, I will continue monitoring for the sentimonster.”
Nathalie was out of his office faster than she had even been before. Dusuu was back to singing ‘happy birthday’.
Her heart raced. She had been specific. She had. Even if the sentimonster only gets Chat Noir’s Miraculous, they can work with that. It’ll weaken Ladybug. Dusuu even confirmed the sentimonster can’t take conflicting orders with it’s created purpose.
Why did her heart continue to race?