Lycaenidae, the supervillain terrorizing Paris with her monstrous creations, only Chat Noir begins to wonder after every battle. An exploration of shattered realities.
He found her.
Adrien didn't know when he began to pinpoint the location of Paris' resident supervillain, Lycaenidae, but the pieces began to fall together somehow. And now here he was, walking in a coat in the frost of winter, head down to keep anyone from noticing him, in the most dangerous place in Paris: the 21st arrondissement.
Those whom Paris forgot called this place "home".
Sheltered as he was, Adrien never knew just how bad it was out in Paris. He only ever got to experience the high life his father scheduled, always in fancy places, socializing with the richest of society. He never even got to go to school, and his only "friend", if she could even be called that, was the Mayor's daughter.
That all changed when he became Chat Noir to fight Akumas. His "partner", Ladybug, reminded him of aforementioned "friend", only fighting for the praise and to protect her own riches. Most of the time, he did the actual fighting while she screamed and ordered him around, only to soak up the praise later and treat him like a sidekick. Plagg didn't like her either, and believed she stole her Miraculous.
"Tikki would never willingly work with such a brat unless she didn't have a choice."
And there was no choice. Akumas were a bad thing, they caused a lot of damage. Ladybug and Chat Noir were damage control, freeing the poor, unfortunate souls who were victimized.
But were they even victimized at all? He still remembered the haunting warning of Lycaenidae, that first day.
"Ladybug, Chat Noir, my quarrel is not with you. What I do, I do for the good of Paris; for those who have been denied their right to have a voice. I care not if history considers me a villain. I will not stand by while this city suffers in silence. Rescue the citizens as you must, but stay out of my way, or you will give me no choice but to take your Miraculous from you."
Ladybug had loudly declared that the reverse would happen, starting their superhero partnership, but Adrien had grown to doubt it more and more. Leaving the shelter of his home had opened up his eyes to many things. Paris was no City of Light and Love. It was a rotted apple with paint covering the sores. The rich grew richer under the Mayor while the poor were squeezed of their life. The very arrondissement he now walked through was evidence of the corruption in the city, as it no longer even existed on the map; completely forgotten and erased.
These, and those who fought for them, were the ones who most often became Lycaenidae's servants. It didn't occur to him until after Rogercop to look into the backgrounds of Akuma victims, but when he did he began to notice a pattern: they were all enemies of the rich and powerful in Paris.
Opponents of the corruption.
"Your choice, kid. Ladybug's a poser, but Chat Noir is supposed to be her partner. Whatever you choose, I'm with you all the way. You care about these people, no matter who's side you're on."
Those were Plagg's last words of advice before becoming silent on the matter. Now Adrien stood at the boarded up entrance of a run down bakery that he looked up after digging into the past of the Mayor and his daughter.
An entire family. A loving father and mother and their daughter. Gone. Disappeared. All because of another family that bullied the rest of Paris.
The back door wasn't boarded up or locked. He was in.
He made his way up the stairs to what was once a home. Now covered in dust and decay, only a single set of footprints that roamed the floor showed that anyone lived there. He followed the footprints farther up another set of stairs.
A trapdoor.
A dark room.
A flutter of wings.
The blinds opened, and there she stood, framed by her white, fluttering butterflies. Dressed in a 3-piece blue and indigo suit, she looked like she belonged at one of the socialite parties he loathed, except for the mask on her face, shrunken cheeks, and the way the suit hung on her skeletal frame. Even untransformed, he could smell the sorrow that filled every corner of the room.
Sorrow, with just a hint of hope.
"Who are you?"
Her voice was as firm as ever, making his own mouth go dry. He opened his jacket and let Plagg fly free, unable to answer her with his own voice, as it no longer wanted to work.
Eyes and mouth narrowing crossly, she glared at him with a will that made her even more frightening.
"Why are you here, Chat Noir?"
He fell to his knees before her, tears streaming down his face as Plagg cuddled up to him, yowling in despair, both barely acknowledging the butterflies that landed on them in a desperate attempt to give comfort to a suffering soul.
"Forgive me, My Lady."