The Star of Bethlehem flower represents honesty, truth, and new beginnings.
Chapter One:
Ladybug swung through the city, her grip on her yo-yo tight as she searched desperately for any sign of the latest akuma.
She had to admit, Hawkmoth was getting more and more creative. Biting back a giggle, she imagined him in his secret hideout, pencil in one hand and polished glasses in the other, sketching out costume designs for future akumas.
He'd even gotten more clever with the names; she was pretty sure he'd tried to make a pun with his latest. Surprisingly, Chat Noir hadn't commented on that yet... not that Ladybug was about to bring it up.
After a bit, she managed to glimpse a cloud of pink flowers swirling throughout the air, and quickly adjusted her route to follow.
"Chat?" she asked, curious to see if he'd caught up to her.
Sure enough, her partner was soon within view, running right beside her.
"Right here, m'lady," he winked, blowing a kiss, "miss me?"
"In your dreams," she smirked, swinging away from him.
Chat was back beside her in no time, giving her a cheeky grin before commenting on something else. "Geez, that smell is absolutely pawful. I dare say it's worse then Princess Fragrance, and she made people sing."
"Yeah, the fragrance is a little strong." she replied.
"Let's follow the trail of breadcrumbs, then, shall we?" he said, gesturing to the swirling cloud.
"One step ahead of you," she called, running towards it and preparing to lasso it with her yo-yo.
Before she could, the cloud spiraled down to 'land' on the rooftop, and Stamena appeared. Ladybug studied her, hoping to find a possible akuma source.
Stamena's outfit was a collage of pastel colors, as per usual, with flowers of different varieties adorning her neat ponytail. Nothing akuma-worthy that she could see.
"Hand over your Miraculouses, and they'll be no need for any harm," Stamena called, starting off the typical rant they always had with the akumas. Ladybug couldn't help but wonder, did they really think that she and Chat would just give up right then and there?
"No thanks, Stamena. I'll be keeping my earrings today," she retorted, preparing to dodge any blows that might come her way. To her left, Chat did the same.
"What's got you uprooted ? Shouldn't you be hibernating for the winter or whatever?" Chat asked and Ladybug couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"I'll have you know there are plenty of plants that live through the winter," Stamena shot back. She thrust a hand towards Chat, and he had to dodge a burst of moonflowers. They started to grow at a incredibly fast past, causing Chat to yelp before running out of the way.
"I don't even have to move," Stamena smirked, "my lovely flowers will capture you soon enough." Her claim seemed to be correct, as the flowers were, in a matter of seconds, almost to Ladybug's feet, and she had to join Chat in running away.
"Chat, watch out!" Ladybug yelled, realizing how close the flowers were to him. "You've really got to start looking behind you, minou!"
Unfortunately, even with her warning, Chat had to yell Cataclysm a few minutes later after one of the moonflowers wrapped around his foot. He bent over to claw at it, and the flower shriveled away into nothing.
"Don't worry, there's more where that came from," Stamena said and, with a flick of her hand, caused a bouquet of tulips and roses to come after them.
Ladybug, as nimbly as she could, grabbed Chat and swung to the nearest roof.
"We only have a couple minutes," she started, "where do you think the akuma's hiding?"
"I'm not quite sure right meow, she's not really wearing any sort of jewelry."
"Maybe it's in a pocket or something?"
"Maybe, do you see any?"
"Nope," she sighed. On top of his newfound creativity, Hawkmoth had become partial to hiding the akumas in smaller places to make it more difficult for her and Chat.
"It could be her hairband? Seems to be the only item I can think of," Chat offered.
Ladybug looked over again. Sure enough, Stamena's hairband was a deep purple.
"Hawkmoth just loves messing with us, doesn't he?" she muttered, annoyed at how difficult it was going to be.
"I assume I'll be the distraction?"
She glanced over at him, about to nod her head when she realised a detail the two of them had forgotten about.
"Actually, you're going to detransform soon, chaton." On cue, Chat's miraculous gave a beep and another part of his cat paw disappeared.
"I can wait," he started to argue, but by then the flowers had caught up to them, and she had to pick him up and dash off again.
"Go!" she replied, pushing him away. "I'll be fine, just recharge and meet me back here."
"But-" he tried to protest, but Ladybug just shook her head.
"You'll be of no help if you randomly detransform while we're in the middle of the battle," she retorted.
He opened his mouth before closing it again, and dashing off. "Be safe!" he called from the distance.
She sighed. Did he really think she wouldn't be able to handle this on her own?
She dove back towards the battle scene, careful to swing above the ever growing plants and using any backup routes she could find.
"Hey, Stamena. Nice to see you again." she called as she approached.
Stamena glared at her and sent a bushel of violets. Ladybug dashed to the right, swung for a couple blocks, and looped back around. It wasn't the best plan of attack, but it worked: even at the super speed the plants grew at, she was faster than them if she tried.
This time she tried to approach Stamena from behind. However, before she could call for her Lucky Charm, the roses from earlier caught up to her and forced her to swing away.
Reaching what she hoped was a good amount of distance from Stamena, she quickly caught her breath before taking off again. She reached Stamena without interruption this time, and made sure to make as little sound as possible while calling "Lucky Charm!"
A black and red polka dotted bag of seeds fell into her hands. She held it up in front of her and rotated it, but she saw no clue of what the seeds could possibly be. She quickly glanced around, scanning the horizon for Chat Noir, but found nothing. Sighing, she searched again, this time for anything that could help her grab the hairband with the seed packet.
Her eye caught on something, and she immediately knew what to do.
Meanwhile...
Adrien was thoroughly annoyed.
He'd been running to find a place to detransform when he ran out of time mid leap and ended up falling through the air.
Now he was on the ground, uncertain of the number of injuries he may or may not have obtained, and not wanting to find out.
He forced himself to get up, wincing with the pain.
"Finally!" his kwami hissed at him. "Took you long enough!"
"Ow," Adrien groaned.
"Yes, yes, you'll feel a heck of a lot better when you're Chat again. Now, I'm hungry, so let's find some food, okay?"
"Okay."
Adrien forced himself to walk towards the nearest building. In a rare turn of events, he'd managed to land right next to a bakery. Ladybug's luck must've rubbed off on him.
"Cheese danish sound good, Plagg?"
Plagg shrugged in response. "Now, hurry!"
Right! His lady was waiting for him! He hoped she wasn't in any trouble.
A little while later
Chat Noir rushed back to the scene, going faster then he ever thought was possible.
He was meet with groups of ladybugs swarming past, clearing the flowers away.
Even though he was disappointed he didn't need to help, he was glad Ladybug had been able to defeat the akuma.
That was, until he scanned the area and found Ladybug herself.
She was lying on the ground, clearly not moving. Lilacs and snapdragons hugged her body, and a single star of bethlehem was clasped in her hands.
He rushed over and felt desperately for a pulse. When he found one, he sighed in relief. At least he knew she was alive.
Chat looked up at her face, admiring her peaceful smile, and realized her normally bluebell eyes had turned a light shade of purple.
Confused and more than slightly worried, he dropped his transformation, not even bothering to check for people.
Plagg turned to face him.
"Sorry kid, but I've got nothing. This makes no sense." he shrugged.
"Can you try to communicate with her or something?" Adrien begged. He needed to know she'd be okay.
"I've still got most of my strength, so I can probably try to channel Tikki," Plagg murmured.
"Tikki?"
"Ladybug's kwami, duh." With that, Plagg closed his eyes. A black cloud slowly formed over Ladybug.
"Alrighty then, let's see if that worked." Plagg said, opening his eyes.
The cloud suddenly started turning a lighter, grey color before turning a rosy pink, and, finally, a deep red. The red spun around and a little figure appeared in front of him.
"Ah-buh, PLAGG?" the little creature, who Adrien assumed was Tikki, exclaimed.
"We're in a bit of a predicament here," Plagg responded, gesturing to Ladybug.
Tikki turned to look, and immediately flew down to Ladybug, a frown making its way onto her face.
"Oh no, please no! Not Ma-Ladybug," she cried, only just barely able to fix her slip up.
"So you know about this?" Adrien asked, hopeful.
"Only from what Trixx has told me. One of her cubs had a… similar scenario."
"What do we do?"
"We can't do anything, Adrien. Ladybug has to get through this one on her own."
"What? But what if Hawkmoth sends another akuma? What if she can't? What- what if-"
"Alright, buddy. Relax. Ladybug's a perfectly capable girl," Plagg said, cutting him off.
"There's gotta be something we can do!" Adrien begged. He couldn't take the chance that Ladybug wouldn't make it.
Tikki seemed to ponder something before responding, "We could probably ask Trixx if we go to Master Fu… she only ever told me part of the story."
"Alright, let's do that," Adrien decided. "Plagg, claws-"
"Hold up kid, you'll look too suspicious as Chat Noir. For all we know, Hawkmoth already knows about Ladybug's state. You'll have to go as Adrien." Plagg interrupted.
"Plagg, you're forgetting about Ma-Ladybug," Tikki exclaimed, frowning at him.
Plagg sighed. "Can't we just leave the girl here? She'll be fine."
Tikki glared at him. "Since you seem to care so much about her safety, you can watch over her while Adrien and I go to Master Fu's."
"That's no fair!" Plagg complained. "You've already been to Fu's, let me have a chance. It's been decades since I saw him last."
"You should know by now to call him by the proper title, Plagg!" Tikki yelled at him, frustrated. "And, considering you've waited soooo long, you can wait a little more."
"But-"
"Nope! I'm going to go see him, and that's the end of it,"
Tikki fluttered to Adrien.
"So, Tikki's gonna take me?" Adrien asked, a bit confused.
"Mhm, and Plagg here is going to watch over Ladybug," she said, glaring at him until Plagg raised his paws in surrender.
"Alright, fine. I'll watch over Sleeping Beauty."
"We'll be right back, Plagg," Adrien assured him.
"Whatever."
Meanwhile...
It was dark, Marinette thought, Very dark.
And then, there was light. Very bright light.
Marinette blinked as she slowly opened her eyes.
Where was she?
A voice called out to her.
"Ladybug? Are you okay?"
Wait. She recognized that voice.
"Chat Noir?"
"Mhm."
Ladybug pulled herself up and glanced up at him. He stared back.
It was definitely Chat; black leather and all, but she couldn't help but feel like something was off.
"I guess your bad luck acted out again," Chat said, still staring at her.
"Huh?" Ladybug replied. Surely she must've mistaken his words.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Chat asked again, concerned. "Usually you've made at least a dozen puns by now…"
"Puns!?" Ladybug exclaimed. She never did that, albeit the occasional slip up after hanging out with Chat for too long.
Chat stepped towards her and she felt his gaze on her, probably checking her for injuries. It was something Ladybug herself usually did after Chat took a blow for her.
"No flirting either?" Chat said, clearly puzzled. "I might need to get you to a hospital."
Ladybug couldn't do anything but stand there, mouth wide open. She was met with awkward silence.
"Don't worry about me, I'm fine!" she finally yelled, reaching for her yo-yo, and dashing off.
She landed on her balcony and detransformed, sighing in relief when Tikki flew out of her earrings, at least until Tikki started speaking.
"You okay kid?" Tikki asked.
"Uh-huh?" Marinette managed to say. Did Tikki just call her kid?
Tikki sighed. "Honestly, kid, you'd think that you'd be used to the whole bad luck thing by now. You're a ladybug, for god's sake, and yet you still get confused when you manage to fall down the stairs everyday."
"You're Tikki!?" Marinette exclaimed.
"Last time I checked, that was my name."
"You're Tikki," Marinette whimpered.
"Alright, that fall most certainly was not far enough for you to have brain damage. I am Tikki," Tikki said, pointing to herself, "you are Marinette, your alter-ego is Laaadybug, and we're in your roooooom." Tikki explained, carefully pronouncing some of the words in her sarcasm.
"I know that!" Marinette protested. "It's just-"
"Well then, considering you've got the basics down, fetch me a pastry, will you?"
"I-I-" Marinette took deep breaths, trying to understand this. It was just too weird. Tikki wasn't like this, and Chat wasn't like that, and she didn't flirt or make puns and this...
This was all just too much.
Yep, it's definitely too much, Marinette decided, and promptly fainted.