Blood and Water.
"Well, I guess thats how the Mercedes bends!" Chat bellowed, flinging himself to the ground as a car ripped through the air above his head. "My fiat was almost sealed!"
Ladybug's eye roll was involuntary. "Minou, we can't a ford to waste time!" Every few seconds she heard a crash as vehicles and garbage cans of all shapes and sizes were dropped and flung through the air. Uprooting trees and destroying the facades of the old buildings that lined the roads.
Anything that wasn't nailed down was ammo for this Akuma, and unfortunately for Ladybug and Chat noir, she had twelve convening roads of abandoned vehicles and one of the most congested traffic circles in Paris to pull from.
Chat scrambled over to her side, ducking behind one of the many aforementioned vehicles vacated near the Arc De Triomphe, and the widely chaotic cackling akuma.
"My Lady was that a . . . " His ears twitched. "Get down!"
He tackled her to the ground as the store front beside them exploded, showering them both in broken glass.
"This is getting purr-ilous." Chat murmur as he pushed himself up, allowing Ladybug the room to untangle herself.
She couldn't agree more.
"You're right. We've got to find a way to destroy her watch before she destroys all of Paris." She said pulling herself up into a crouch. Off to the right another car spiraled through the air and struck an old stone building hard enough to bring the corner crumbling down into the street. She peeled her bluebell eyes from the wreckage and through the car windows, pinpointed the Akuma.
"Everything is rush rush rush! No one is thankful these days. No one takes their time!" The Akuma shrieked. "But I, Terrorporter, I can do this all day!"
She flung a red tab at a bus parked to her left.
"You're not going the best way." She mocked. Pressing something on her wrist. The bus vanished. "Well now there is only my way."
The two heroes only had a moment of warning as the bus materialized above them.
"Run!" They screamed, with no time to think. The bus crushed the small sedan they had been using as a shield only moments before, and came to a loud crunching, cracking, and groaning halt on its side. Ladybug coughed, and waved away the dust to find that there was no sight of Chat Noir.
"Chat?" A feeling of dread filled her stomach with lead, and her heart began to race. "Chat?"
Fortunately she didn't have to look far as from some tree branches, said black clad cat boy leapt.
"Miss me?" He asked cheekily. His lady huffed, and punched him in the arm. Heart rate slowly returning to normal, she ignored his whimper of pain and planned.
"Since we know she can only teleport one object at a time, I think we should plan an ambush." Carefully she surveyed the damaged roadways, taking in the totaled cars and collapsing buildings. "I'll go to the right - you take the left, but make sure you stay down and hidden - throw as much trash and rubble as you can. If we can get her to focus on that maybe she won't be able to keep track of us . . . "
"Litter-ally the best plan I've heard all day, My Lady." That knee-jerk eye roll was getting serious.
"Just be careful, Chat." She muttered, refusing to meet his green eyes as they widened.
"You too, Buginette." The wide crooked smile that unfurled on his face was blinding, and disgustingly contagious. "Cat-ch you on the other side!"
Then he shot her a wink and a two finger salute and took off.
Her smile fell as his form retreated and she found herself unable to quell a growing sense of unease.
Something didn't feel right. She shook her head and slapped her cheeks and reminded herself that she was Ladybug. She was Ladybug and she could do this. They could do this. They could do anything.
She took off to the right. The Akuma was standing between the legs of the Arc De Triomphe, clad in a suit of armor made of bright yellow plexiglass with thin steel piping. The word taxi was embossed across her chest, and her shoulder's were glowing red brake lights. She had been a taxi driver, but a few bad customer experiences and now she was 'Terrorporter', gifted with the power of short range teleportation by means of an akumatized GPS strapped to her wrist like a watch.
Each finger stroke across its tiny screen corporealized a sharp little point engraved with the letter 'A' that she could tag on anything she wished.
Ladybug picked up a large chunk of plaster off the street and with a small leap threw it in the direction of the Terrorporter.
The fight had begun with flying trashcans as the Akuma tested out her powers. Throw a tag, press a button on the screen, and whatever she had picked would vanish. Some things came back, others didn't.
She had thrown a pin at Chat Noir as he pushed a civilian aside. Desperately he had tried to claw the device off of his chest in a graceless flailing of limbs, but before he could succeed he was being thrown through the air at his partner like a weapon.
She was closing in on the mark now. Throwing a few more bits of heavy trash Ladybug began to cut across through the cars toward the right leg of the arch.
Here she was out in the open, instantly spotted. The Akuma shrieked and Ladybug felt the familiar kick of adrenaline burning its way through her limbs.
"You young kids and your uber - uber this!"
"I hope this works" Ladybug unhooked her yoyo and began spinning it wildly in front of her as a shield. Terrorporter's point bounced off and went wild. "Yes!"
The Akuma seeing this sprang back (for this, Ladybug smirked) and returned to flinging cars (her smirk fell, and so did a blue sedan).
She sprung out of the way as quickly as she could, cutting through what she needed to with her yoyo.
"Chat now!"
"Cataclysm!" His slammed his palm down on the mighty arch, and instantly streaks and cracks of black plasma knit their way across the surface and imploded. Still behind her shield, Ladybug surged forward as Chat Noir plummeted from above with the ruin, his staff poised and ready to attack.
Between them the Terrorporter shrieked, and threw a red dart at herself - and vanished.
"NO!" Ladybug wasn't sure if the sound came from her or her partner, but it was swallowed up in the rumbling of the rubble around her.
When the dust cleared Ladybug found herself alone. The unease returned tenfold "Chat?"
"He had a ride to catch." Oh, merde.
"Lucky Charm!" In her hands appeared a black and red box of aluminum foil. Double merde.
"What am I supposed to do with this?!"
"Miraculous Ladybug!" A swarm of ladybugs was called a loveliness she found, and at the moment there was truly nothing more lovely than the fluttering red bugs that spiraled in a healing spell across the city. "And good riddance."
She was exhausted, and honestly not even a hundred percent sure how she had won - but one loooooooong and convoluted plan later, and she was swinging victoriously up the heights of the newly restored Arc De Triomphe.
The cars restored themselves to the congested round about, buildings rebuilt, and garbage re-collected. Everything was brought back to normal which meant . . .
Right on cue, she caught the dark suit of her partner pole vaulting to her side, and did not bother to conceal the relieved smile that tugged at her lips. "You've got purr-fect timing, minou!"
She raised a red gloved fist for their post-battle bump.
"My Lady . . . " Her eyes snapped towards her partner at almost a breakneck speed.
"Chat?" The hollow way he said her name brought back the unnerving sense of disquiet, of wrongness. And she found the jovial Chat from before, with his blinding and contagious smile, was nowhere to be seen in the deep twisted creases of this new young corners of his lips turning sharply downward, his brows knitted, worried tightly together over eyes that appeared to be piecing together something he couldn't quite grasp.
"Do you believe the ends justify the means?" It came out as little more than a whisper.
"What?" His eyes flickered up and locked on to her form, taking her in as though just truly noticing her presence for the first time.
"What would you do to bring back someone you love?" Somehow he managed to smile, but it was fake, and almost bitter. His eyes did not glow, they were dark and beseeching. She almost answered 'anything'. She would do anything for those she loved, but would she do anything to bring them back? Her lips did not move and her voice was nowhere to be found. Her miraculous responded for her.
"What would you do?" He repeated. His miraculous echoed, but he showed no signs of moving.
"Chat you can't bring back the dead." She said softly stepping towards him. His pupils narrowed and the bitter smile ripped into an animalistic snarl as he pulled away.
"But what if you could?!" He growled. Two more beeps, and she stepped back. "What if you could? Would you?! What would you do!?"
"But you can't, Chat!" She snapped, her hands balled at her side. "There are some things you can't undo!"
He was scaring her, this angry desperate stranger wearing her partners face. Yet, her palms itched to strike the madness that perverted his image right off of said face.
Another beep.
"I'm sorry, Kitty." His expression rippled, the feral rage warping, brows shooting upwards, mouth gaping wordlessly. Anger to fear, to horror, to panic, he was struggling, grasping for something like a drowning man. "Chat! It's okay!"
Once more she took a step towards him, ignoring the warning beep from her miraculous as another minute passed between them.
But the sound did not go unheard, and Chat's eyes grew wide as they flickered toward her earrings his hand twitching towards them before he could stop himself.
"No!" Terror once more overtook his expression and before Ladybug could try, he turned tail and ran.
Chat Noir did not stop running. Not when car horns blared at him and tires screeched to stop. Not when voices shouted out, or his transformation dropped. Adrien continued to run, and run, until his lungs burned and his legs ached and his heart beat like a jackhammer against his ribs.
Still he ran, until an ill placed step wretched his ankle into a roll and brought the young man crashing to the ground.
"What the heck, kid?" Plagg demanded, his tail twitching with irritation. He didn't even know where to start. "What the heck is wrong with you?"
What was wrong with him? For the first time in a long time, Adrien wasn't sure. He was struggling to catch his breath, but he wasn't completely convinced it was because of the run. He felt numb. Numb and cold and all at once like he was drowning in a slew of feelings too quick for him to put names to. He felt manic. Crazed. Out. Of. His. Mind.
He felt he could laugh, but he wanted to cry as the exhausting and crippling weight of the day finally seemed to find him. He rolled himself over onto his back, and raked his hands down over his face.
'Did you know?" God it hurt to speak, and the voice that came out was ugly and choked. He took a breath and tried again. "Did you know about my dad . . . "
"Did I know that he was a megalomaniacal super villain? Yes." Quipped the Kwami dryly. "Did I know he was Papillon? I may have had a hunch."
Adrien thought for a second about what was supposed to be a joke. One he would typically respond to with an eye roll and a list of justifications for his father's actions. He was never around because he was busy running a fashion empire. He was distant and cold because he was still mourning the loss of his wife. He was overprotective and controlling because he couldn't bear the thought of losing his only son too. He loved his son. He wanted the best for him.
Now he knew the 'him' was truly himself, Gabriel Agrests. His father was never around because he was too busy trying to steal magical stones off of superpower teenagers. He was cold and distant because thats how sociopathic super villains dealt with the destruction and devastation they wreaked on innocent civilians. He was overprotective and controlling because thats just how he was.
"And you didn't tell me?" His father had (paw-sibly) figured out he was Chat Noir.
"I told you, it was just a hunch." And he still wanted the miraculous. "We can sense each other but theres also some magic and yada yada . . . so when can we get some cheese? I'm starving here!"
He didn't care that he would have to take it from his own son. He felt Plagg land on his shoulder, and nudge the arm he had dropped over his face.
"Kid, I didn't want to tell you before I knew for sure. I knew you'd get all . . . "He gagged, pinching his face up in disgust. "Emotional."
A hollow chuckle escaped the young man despite himself.
"Well, I guess you're right . . . " How was he laughing right now? "Was what he said true though? About the miraculous?"
"Maybe. Why do you want to know?" The boy shifted, the cold of the ground finally leeching through his shirts.
"I don't know . . . maybe I don't." But maybe he did. "Could they be used to bring someone back though?"
"Who knows, probably?" The black cat shrugged. "It's like that saying though - with god like powers . . . something about responsibilities? Yeah . . . its probably a bad idea."
"But if we could bring her back maybe Papillon would stop."
"Yeah and I'll give up camembert." He grumbled, rolling his massive green eyes. "Are you actually thinking about giving him what he wants?"
Adrien studied the cracks in the sidewalk and the lines in his palm, anything that wasn't the little black cat hovering beside him. Because maybe he was, because maybe he wanted it too. When she disappeared, she had at least left him with a father. Not exactly the most nurturing and caring father, but a father nonetheless. One who used to play games with him, who used to smile and read and pun with him before she left. Maybe that was it, maybe she was the answer. Maybe she would bring them back together. Maybe, the quiet voice of hope in that back of his mind whispered, maybe she would be the summer to his fathers self inflicted winter.
And maybe he was crazy, too.
"Plagg, my dad is Papillon. I don't have anyone else."
"And you think bringing her back will make you all a nice happy family?" He deadpanned, his charge fought the urge to scratch the back of his neck. "Did you hear the one about the road to hell?"
"Being paved with good intentions?" The kwami's whiskers twitched.
"Sure?"
Adrien started to laugh, softly at first and then subtly louder until his world began to spin and his heart began to race and the heat began to well up behind his eyes. Finally, the weight of the day, of his feeling and of his realizations came crashing down on his narrow frame, and he blinked away the watery stars in his eyes.
"Crap." The tears came before he could stop them, but viciously he wiped at them with the back of his hand. "Crap, crap, crap! Plagg what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do?!"
"Kid I don't know" He pulled at his own whiskers. "I'm not good at this emotional stuff - I cause chaos remember? God of destruction and all! This is more Tikki's thing."
"Tikki is ladybug's kwami . . . " A wave of nauseating guilt settled down in the pit of his stomach like a stone. "I tried to steal her miraculous."
"Maybe she didn't notice?" Adrien was too busy mumbling anxious swears into the palms of his hands to hear. "Yeah, you guys are kind of known for being oblivious and you know what? Maybe Papillon doesn't really know who you are.
"He really didn't tell you anything except his 'evil motives'." A snicker. "Like those weird cartoons you watch - this was his villain monologue."
"Plagg! This is serious!" Adrien snapped, but the ever present voice of hope had heard the little god.
"Yeah and so am I!" He was right. Papillon had never said his name.
"But he made sure the Akuma brought Chat Noir to his lair." The odd dark room filled with beautiful white butterflies.
"He could just be suspicious, he's seen Adrien wear the ring but for all he knows you could just be a Chat Noir fan." Summersaulting in the air, the Kwami struck a laid back pose. "After all I do make a mean looking hero."
He chuckled despite himself because honestly, what was his life? Not that it had ever been normal but now the last shred of 'normality' was a man prancing around in a dark doorless room with a large aperture window he used to unleash butterflies, butterflies!, on an unsuspecting Paris so he could bring his dead wife back with two magical stones.
Years of anime and superhero comics had not prepared him for this.
Disclaimer: I do not own 'Miraculous : Tales of Ladybug & Chat Noir'.
I am fan trash, just trying my hand at writing something I wanted to read. A slow-burn, angsty, manic Sunshine child comes to terms with his life being an absolute mess story. Inspired by conspiracy theories on tumblr as to why Chat Noir has not been mentioned with the newly leaked heroes and an excuse to hopefully in future chapters involve said future heroines.
Comment. Tell me you love it, tell me you hate it. Tell me how you'd fix it, where sunshine child came from, what your head cannon is . . . anything. Tell me what you think the other miraculous should be able to do!