Chapter 4: Trying to atone
A few weeks had passed and the Guardian Philla had mentioned hadn't come for the Miraculous yet, making Chloe wonder if the Guardian didn't know what she did of if he was giving her a second chance despite what she did.
College was a nightmare for Chloe now, she didn't have her friends anymore so she was constantly on her own, and without Sabrina she was forced to do everything on her own that Sabrina had previously done such as her college work, carry her things, keep to her schedule, etc.
Ladybug and Chat Noir were the only ones who knew of Queen Bee's actions and hadn't told anyone about them, leaving Paris to wonder where their other hero had disappeared to. Whenever the press managed to catch the duo after a fight they refused to answer any questions about Queen Bee or even talk about her.
The problem with Queen Bee not being around anymore was the Akumas, Hawkmoth creating stronger Akumas had been the reason the Bee Miraculous had been activated in the first place, and without a third hero Ladybug and Chat Noir were struggling to win. It was taking longer to defeat Akumas, Ladybug or Chat Noir sometimes even having to retreat because they were running out of power, and if it wasn't for Ladybug's Miraculous Cure the property damage would have been catastrophic.
Chloe was currently sat in front of her TV, watching the live coverage of the latest Akuma attack. Ladybug and Chat Noir were up against a villain called Blackout, who had the ability to turn light into darkness with a wave of his cane and turn people blind if he managed to touch people with his cane, the villain was also blind himself but seemed to have no trouble 'seeing'. The villain saying 'soon everyone will know what it's like to live their lives in complete darkness' gave a good guess as to the cause of his Akumatisation.
Blackout proved to be a challenge for the heroes, wherever they were he would quickly turn everything dark, meaning only Chat with his night vision could fight properly while Ladybug was unable to see and had to guess her attacks and dodges.
Things only got worse when Blackout almost struck Ladybug with his blinding cane only for Chat to take the hit for her, like usual, and became blind himself instead, and rendering his night vision useless. Now both heroes were left fighting in the dark, leaving Blackout to attack them with ease and the heroes rarely managing to land a hit on him, often landing a hit on each other by accident.
It was only Chloe's years of self-control training that stopped her from biting her perfectly manicured nails in worry as the heroes were beaten up. The news was still able to broadcast the fight despite the darkness because of their night vision cameras.
Chloe looked over to her dresser where the box containing the Bee Miraculous still lay, the Guardian having not come to pick it up like she had been told.
"They're going to lose unless someone does something." Chloe said to herself. "But I can't do anything anymore, Philla and Ladybug and Chat Noir probably wouldn't allow me to help."
Chloe started pacing, looking helplessly at the screen as Ladybug and Chat Noir did their best to avoid Blackout's attacks, the villain looking like he was just toying with them at this point. Ladybug took a rather sharp kick to the back and landed on her side, when she got back up she was holding her arm in pain.
"Ladybug and Chat Noir are taking a beating, this could possibly be the end for them." Said the reporter. "Please, Queen Bee, if you're out there, we need your help."
It was this that spurred Chloe into action, she went over to the small box on her dresser and opened it, but the comb inside remained as it was and Philla didn't appear, like she knew Chloe had been the one to open it and refused to come out.
"I should have expected this." Chloe said. "I guess I really never can make up for what I did."
Chloe then began to break down, crying, kneeling down with the Miraculous in her hands. Without Chloe and Adrien there, she was forced to confront the reality that she was a bad person, and now she was paying for it.
"Why?" She questioned herself. "How could I have done something so stupid?"
She looked at the Miraculous and cried harder.
"I know I don't deserve to be forgiven. But does that mean I have to do nothing?"
One of her tears dripped directly onto the Miraculous, nothing happened for a few seconds, but then it lit up, the light enveloping Chloe's vision. When the light faded, Chloe found herself in a black void.
"It doesn't." A voice said.
Chloe turned around to see a woman smiling gently at her. The woman was dressed in a yellow and black striped suit, yellow and black headphones with a radio antenna coming out from each side that went above her head, yellow visor sunglasses covering her eyes, and the same hip purse Chloe had as Queen Bee. In the woman's hair was the Bee Miraculous.
"Who are you?" Chloe asked. "Where am I?"
"I am your past." The woman answered. "And you made a terrible mistake, didn't you?"
Despite her words, the woman never dropped her smile or gentle tone.
"I know." Chloe said. "And it cost me almost everything that matters."
"So, you regret your actions?" The woman asked.
"Of course I do!"
"That is good, it means you can acknowledge your mistakes, and then do something about them."
"But what can I do? I can't exactly go back in time and stop myself. Or apologise to that girl or my friends when I can't even go near them."
"Listen to me. I've made mistakes in the past, my old teammates have made mistakes in the past, everyone makes mistakes. What I've learned is that you can either spend your whole life trying to make up for what you did, or you can learn from what you did and continue forward, making sure to never repeat that mistake again."
"I don't think I can continue forward, Ladybug and Chat Noir probably won't let me join the fight, Philla won't even come out of the Miraculous."
"I never said the road ahead will be easy, the bigger the mistake you make the harder it will be to move past it, and you made quite a big mistake. But that only makes it more satisfying when you manage to continue on. As for Philla, don't worry, I'll get her out. But it will be up to you to convince her to transform."
"Thank you." Chloe said genuinely.
The woman only smiled again.
The world around them then began to fade away and the woman with it.
"Wait, don't go!" Chloe cried out, holding out a hand.
She didn't want this woman to leave, her presence was comforting, like Chloe's memories of her mother when she was younger.
"If you do this right, I'll still be with you, even though you won't see me." The woman said.
Chloe then found herself back in her room, still kneeling on the floor with a colourless Miraculous in her hands and Philla floating before her.
Philla obviously wasn't impressed about being out of the Miraculous and in front of Chloe, her small arms crossed and her face pulled into a frown.
"Look, I know you can never forgive me, and I don't deserve to be. But Ladybug and Chat Noir need help, otherwise Hawkmoth will win." Chloe begged the kwami.
Philla said nothing, just continuing to look at Chloe judgementally.
"Just for today."
Again, Philla remained silent.
"Please, they need help. This Guardian guy hasn't come to give you to someone else, so I'm the only one that can help."
"Are you sure about that." Philla finally said. "Because I recall being meant for someone else."
Oh, Sabrina, Chloe's former friend.
Chloe supposed it was fair, Sabrina was meant to have the Miraculous in the first place, and Ladybug and Chat Noir would be more likely to accept a new Bee hero than her, and Philla would be willing to transform with Sabrina. Sabrina wouldn't be willing to see her, but Chloe could probably get enough time to hand over the Miraculous to its proper owner.
"I guess, I can hand you over to Sabrina instead." Chloe said in defeat.
Philla was about to answer when she looked at the TV broadcasting the fight, showing her how bad Ladybug and Chat Noir were struggling.
"As much as I loath to say, right now that isn't a good idea." Philla said unhappily.
"What?" Chloe asked.
"By the time you find Sabrina it could already be too late. And she is not versed in fighting like you are, so she wouldn't be much use even if she did get there in time."
"You mean I get to be Queen Bee again?" Chloe asked, a little excited and happy.
Philla frowned at her. "Only this once because I have no choice, once you win you give me to Sabrina."
"Yeah, I understand."
"Let's just get this over with."
Chloe put the comb in her hair again.
"Philla, Sting Sharp!" She called out.
Queen Bee stood in Chloe's place, ready to fight. But first, she needed to stop off at police headquarters for something.
Ladybug was back to back with Chat Noir, both of them with their weapons swinging in front of them to ward off the enemy they couldn't see. They were attempting to move to an area of the city that still had light so Ladybug could see and attack Blackout, but that proved to be a challenge as everywhere they went was complete blackness with no light.
"I don't know how much more I can take." Ladybug said to Chat.
"Don't give up, we always find a way." Chat responded. "You still have your Lucky Charm."
"Which won't be much use if I can't tell what it is or what to use it on."
Ladybug and Chat then cried out as they were hit, sending them to the ground. Chat then felt someone pick him up by arm.
"I think it's time to take your Miraculouses now." Blackout said.
Blackout then reached to take the ring on Chat's finger, Chat clenched his fist to stop him but then Blackout began to bend his arm at an unnatural angle to get him to open his hand, causing Chat to cry out in pain.
"Hey! Batman!" A voice called out.
Blackout was knocked several feet away from Chat by a spinning object. Said spinning object then returned to its owner.
Queen Bee quickly raced over to Chat and helped him to his feet and then pulled him over to Ladybug, who was searching around blindly.
"Here." Queen Bee said, giving something to Ladybug. "Night vision goggles. I picked them up from the police station on the way here."
Ladybug slipped on the night vision goggles and blinked as she was able to see again, though everything was green. She looked at Queen Bee, who was also wearing a pair of Night vision goggles.
"Queen Bee." She greeted the other bug coldly.
Ladybug obviously hadn't forgiven Queen Bee for her actions, not that Queen Bee blamed her.
"Look, I know I don't even deserve this Miraculous, and after tomorrow I probably won't even have it, but right now you need my help to defeat Blackout." Queen Bee said.
"You've 'helped' by giving me the night vision goggles, I think you've done your good deed for the day." Ladybug said.
Queen Bee looked down.
"As much as I don't want to say it, Ladybug, we were struggling to fight Blackout from the start, we're going to need Queen Bee to fight as well." Chat said.
Ladybug sighed in resignation.
"Fine." She said.
Ladybug then ran into fight Blackout, not acknowledging Queen Bee any further when she also entered the fight.
With Queen Bee there and the night vision goggles, the fight against Blackout was no longer a losing one. Now that she could see, Ladybug was able to land hits on Blackout, and Queen Bee got her own hits in as well, the only one not doing well was Chat because he was still blind and couldn't tell where he was hitting. But even though Blackout's powers were creating darkness and making people blind, like all of Hawkmoth's Akumas he proved to be good in combat, able to use his cane to block Ladybug and Queen Bee's weapons and wield it like a sword.
The fight seemed to be at a stalemate until Ladybug tripped over a rock she hadn't seen due to the limited vision of the night vision goggles. Blackout saw this and aimed to hit Ladybug with his staff.
"Let's see how useful those goggles are after I take away your sight for good." Blackout said.
"Ladybug!" Queen Bee yelled.
Taking a leaf straight out of Chat's book, Queen Bee leapt in front of Ladybug to protect her, regardless of her own safety.
Queen Bee shouted in pain as the end of the cane hit her side, she then cried out as her vision went completely black, leaving her in total darkness.
Blackout tried to attack Ladybug a second time but the heroine had already recovered from her trip and kicked him away.
Ladybug looked at Queen Bee in shock, she hadn't expected such a selfless act from her, it made her question what Queen Bee was really like. Don't get her wrong, she was still angry about Queen Bee causing an Akuma, but she was beginning to believe that Queen Bee had changed.
Ladybug grabbed Queen Bee, who was walking very slowly with her arms in front of her to stop herself from bumping into something, and dragged her over to Chat.
"Queen Bee's been blinded too, be careful." Ladybug said.
Ladybug then went to engage Blackout.
Chat Noir and Queen Bee were left on the side-lines while Ladybug fought Blackout, feeling very useless.
"Being blind sucks." Queen Bee complained.
"I know." Chat said. "Even with my animal-like senses it's hard for me to judge where things are."
"Wait, animal. That just might be it." Queen Bee said, coming up with an idea. "Do you know if bees can see in the dark?"
"Considering you couldn't without the goggles, I'm going to answer, no." Chat said.
"Oh." Queen Bee said, slightly crestfallen. "Well, it's worth a shot anyway."
Spinning her trompo blind wasn't as difficult as Queen Bee had predicted, probably due to magic, but it was still tricky. But she eventually managed to spin her trompo and hold it in her hand above her.
"Queen's Call!" She called.
The swarm of bees emerged from her weapon and she felt the instant connection. Like Chat had predicted, Queen Bee couldn't see anything through them, but she could feel. Her swarm of bees spread out around the area and each of them picked up the feeling of movement through the air that Ladybug and Blackout were making, transmitting it back to Queen Bee. Through the feeling of movement, Queen Bee was given a rough idea of where Ladybug and Blackout were, she couldn't see in detail but the humming of something cutting through the air told her which of the movements she was feeling was Ladybug.
Queen Bee removed her goggles and threw her trompo, managing to hit Blackout as she leapt back into battle. The sudden shift in movement caused her confusion as she tried to work where everything was and sort through the information her bees were sending her, but she eventually managed to focus again.
"Queen Bee?" Ladybug questioned. "Aren't you blind?"
"My bees are helping me to see, but it's hard to focus on the movement." Queen Bee answered.
"Okay." Ladybug said.
Ladybug decided it was time to end the fight and use her Lucky Charm.
"Lucky Charm!" She called
The object materialised above her and she caught it. It was a bottle, the lid telling what sort of contents was inside.
"Washing-up liquid?" Ladybug questioned.
It was hard for her to use her vision with the night vision goggles, put she eventually picked up the ground, Blackout's feet, Queen Bee's trompo, her yoyo and the bottle of washing-up liquid flashing. She then worked out how to use the objects.
Ladybug squirted the washing-up liquid on the ground in front of Blackout.
"Queen Bee, hit him from behind!" She the shouted.
Queen Bee was still in front of Blackout but threw her trompo anyway, it went passed the villain but by some luck it bounced off a wall and knocked into Blackout. Blackout stumbled forward to regain his footing but slipped on the washing-up liquid and fell over, he used both hands to break his fall but let go of his cane in the process. Ladybug used her yoyo to lasso the cane and pull it over to her, she caught it and broke it over her knee.
The Akuma fluttered out and Ladybug caught it, purifying and then releasing it.
"Miraculous Ladybug!" She called out as she threw her Lucky Charm into the air.
The darkness over Paris was lifted and those who had been made blind had their sights returned, everyone who had previously been in darkness also had to shield their eyes from the sudden onslaught of light. Queen Bee and Chat Noir sighting relief but then winced at the sudden light as their vision returned.
Once the heroes had managed to get used to the light, Ladybug went over to Queen Bee.
"Meeting on the roofs, now!" Ladybug said to Queen Bee.
Both Ladybug and Queen Bee were on four minutes left, but that didn't concern them at the moment.
The three heroes climbed onto the rooftops until they found a flat roof to talk on.
"I am still angry about you causing Babydoll." Ladybug said to Queen Bee. "And I don't think I can trust you anytime soon. That being said, I'm glad you came to help out, we wouldn't have won without you."
"It was brave of you to come despite what you did." Chat agreed.
"Thanks." Queen Bee said. "But don't worry, you're not going to see me again after today."
"What do you mean?" Ladybug asked.
"My Miraculous was meant for someone else but I ended up with it instead, after what I've done my Kwami told me to give my Miraculous to its intended owner." Queen Bee answered.
"I see. And you're fine with that?"
"Well, like you said, you're not likely to trust me soon, so you'll probably work better with the person the Miraculous was intended for." Queen Bee said, heaviness in her voice.
Truthfully, she didn't want to give up Queen Bee, but she had to accept that things would be better if Sabrina became the new Bee holder.
Queen Bee's Miraculous beeped, reminding her of the time she had left.
"I better go before I turn back." She said. "For what it's worth, I'm glad I got to fight alongside both of you."
Queen Bee then ran off.
Ladybug and Chat Noir stared after her.
"Think this really is the last we've seen of her?" Chat asked his partner.
"I don't know." Ladybug answered truthfully.
Ladybug and Chat Noir then went their separate ways, Ladybug going home while Chat went back to comfort the previously Akumatised victim since his timer wasn't running out.
When Queen Bee reached her room she de-transformed back into Chloe, who was looking better than she had in a while. Chloe then pulled out some honey fudge and gave it to Philla who quickly ate it.
"I suppose you're ready to go to Sabrina now?" Chloe asked once Philla had finished eating.
"Yes." Philla answered.
Chloe went to remove the comb in her hair and put it back in the box but was stopped by Philla.
"You can keep it in for now." The Kwami said. "I prefer to stay out of it. Besides, you'll probably have a better time talking to Sabrina if I'm there to speak to her as well."
"Okay." Chloe said with a shrug.
Chloe grabbed her bag and Philla flew into it, she then left to find her former friend.
It took a bit of tracking down, but Chloe eventually found Sabrina walking around some shops.
"Sabrina." She said. "I need to talk to you."
"That's funny." Sabrina said. "Because I don't want to talk to you."
"Please, it's important."
"You're just saying that because you've realised how much you depended on me being your lackey."
"No, it's fine if you don't want to be my friend again. But I need to talk to you about a rather big bee." Chloe tried to drop the hint as subtly as possible.
Sabrina frowned but followed Chloe to an empty alleyway.
"What do you want?" Sabrina asked. "And I thought you had your Miraculous taken away from you."
"She was meant to, but the Guardian never showed up." Philla said, flying out of Chloe's bag.
"But now, I'm giving the Miraculous back to the person this Guardian guy intended it for." Chloe said.
"What?" Sabrina questioned, not believing what she was hearing.
Chloe took the comb out of her hair and handed it to Sabrina.
"You deserve it more than I do." Chloe said.
"I don't understand." Sabrina said. "You're giving up being Queen Bee?"
Chloe nodded.
"But what about today?" Sabrina asked, having heard about Queen Bee's 'return'.
"That's because she was the best option at the time." Philla answered. "She might not have gotten the Miraculous to you in time or you might not have been able to do something because of your inexperience. By the way, can you put the comb in?"
Sabrina tried to put the comb in but her hair was too short for any style that required a comb.
"Here, let me." Chloe said.
Chloe took the comb from Sabrina's hand and managed to fit it into Sabrina's hair.
"There." Chloe said, stepping back.
"Uh, thanks." Sabrina said unsurely.
"Good luck with being the new hero." Chloe said awkwardly, walking away.
"I can't believe she would just give up the comb." Sabrina said to Philla.
"I know, she's actually being responsible for once." Philla agreed. "Do you want to test out the Miraculous?"
"When I'm at home." Sabrina answered.
Phila flew into Sabrina's bag, who then walked out of the alleyway and went home, her thoughts in turmoil. From a short distance Chloe watched Sabrina walking off and gave a heavy sigh before heading home herself.
