MP: Welcome back! Looks like we got a lot of positive feedback for that last chapter! I knew they'd love a more obscure story.
PA2: I think it had more to do with the big action sequence. Anyway, welcome to the halfway point of the story!
MP: Can you believe how much more there is? It's crazy, right? Crazy awesome!
PA2: Yep, and this is halfway in terms of chapters. In terms of the story document, we still have a ways to go.
MP: Yeah, this is more like three-fifths. And the best is yet to come.
PA2: In our opinion at least. And hopefully yours too!
MP: Yeah, you're allowed to have a different opinion than us, just like I'm free to have the opinion that you're stupid if you disagree with me.
PA2: Can we please go through the rest of this fic without you insulting our readers again?
MP: And just what am I supposed to say to entertain them?
PA2: ...Clone High quotes?
MP: Hilarious, but I want to be original. By writing a story about characters invented by someone else.
PA2: And now we've officially gone too meta to continue. Enjoy the chapter, everybody!
MP: Fave, follow, and review! If not for me, then do it for the adorable puppy I'm maybe holding! You can't prove I'm not!
Chapter 7: And Fought Her Way Through the Palace
Ladybug and Cat Noir collapsed through the next doorway, panting hard. As they stumbled back into the entrance chamber, they barely were able to keep themselves upright, bracing themselves against the hourglass, which was now three quarters of the way filled.
Since defeating the Peluda, the heroes had gone through quite the ordeal. That fishing rod had hoisted them onto a boat controlled by the Fisherman and his Wife, and the Wife kept transforming into bigger and scarier forms with the Fisherman's help. This lasted until Ladybug had the bright idea to trick her into turning into a giant fish, saying that it was the fish that was truly powerful, not her. Stranded on the boat, it was easy for the two heroes to finish her and her defenseless husband off.
The boat then moored on a dock, which led them to the entrance chamber, whereupon they opened a door leading to a demonic-looking island. There, they were accosted by a young man called Momotaro, who fought them with a sword and three energy animal companions, a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant, and protected himself from attacks by conjuring a giant peach around himself. Cat Noir finally speared the peach on his staff and impaled poor Momotaro. The boy's energy animals disappeared soon after, and another door led them to a tall tower covered by ropes of golden hair, which the heroes had to scale to reach the top. Once there, they had to contend against Rapunzel, who manipulated waves of tears that induced enough bliss to halt them in their tracks, leaving them open for her to strangle them to death with her hair. After frantically running around the enclosed space, Cat Noir managed to lead Rapunzel to the tower window and trip her, causing her to fall out and crash to the ground.
The tower's staircase led deep underground, to a cave of gold and silver where Aladdin and his Djinn awaited, one on offense and one defense, both of which were operating at once. Ultimately, thanks to Cat Noir's evasive maneuvers, the offensive Djinni of the Lamp ran headlong into the defensive Djinni of the Ring, stunning them both and giving Ladybug time to smash the lamp and ring, leaving Aladdin open for the finishing blow.
The next door took them back to the entrance chamber once more, and their next choice led them to an opulent palace filled with cats, presided over by the White Cat. As she commanded her cat army to strike, using surprisingly skilled military tactics and a powerful arsenal, Ladybug had to keep Cat Noir focused, as the White Cat had what she assumed was some sort of alluring aura that kept on distracting him. Fortunately, even with Cat Noir's distraction keeping him on the sidelines, Ladybug was able to find a vulnerability in the White Cat's formation, and dealt her a blow which finished her off.
As they walked through the palace, the air began to grow colder and colder, the walls transformed into ice, and they soon found themselves confronted by the Snow Queen. She pummeled them with waves of ice and snow, blinding them with stinging snow flurries and creating illusions to distract them and hide her presence. But with Cat Noir's enhanced senses, the heroes were soon able to beat her illusions and take the frozen monarch down.
The next door led them to a rocky coast where they were confronted by Princess Vasilisa and her archer husband, who fired volleys of arrows at them as his wife called an army of crabs from the sea, leaving the two heroes unable to attack from the land, air, or sea. Finally, Ladybug whipped her yo-yo just right and sent a crab flying directly into the face of the archer's horse, startling it and causing it to rear up, throwing the archer into the sea and giving Ladybug and Cat Noir the necessary opportunity to finish them both.
After finding the doorway out, they exited into a barn where Henny Penny was cowering and eating gingerbread men as she awaited the fall of the sky. She then increased gravity in the room to a staggering level, causing the roof to start collapsing and sending Ladybug and Cat Noir to the ground with such force that their knees nearly exploded under them. Forced into a crouch, Cat Noir kept the roof from caving in over them by holding it up with his staff. Just before the staff could break, the ceiling broke instead, and Henny Penny was knocked out by a piece of scaffolding.
Finally, in a mission far more tedious and time-consuming than outright dangerous, a woman refused to open the next door until they got her pig to jump over a fence. Said pig wouldn't respond to bribery, and Cat Noir's claws got no reaction. Apparently, only a dog's bite would do the trick. And when they found the dog, they also found that it wouldn't do anything until a stick beat it, not even moving when Cat Noir whacked it with his staff. Naturally, the stick proved equally annoying, as it could talk, couldn't be picked up, and would only beat the dog if it was burnt by fire, and so on and so forth. Ultimately, after wasting a full hour on the task, they succeeded in getting the pig to jump, but not without trekking through what seemed to be a room the size of the city of Paris and talking to a cow, a butcher, a cat, a rat, and a rope, among many other animals and inanimate objects.
And now the two were back in the entrance hall, tired, frustrated, and more determined than ever to stop the wicked witch who had trapped them. Also, more than a little annoyed at the gingerbread man modeled after Nino urging them to catch him.
"Okay," Cat Noir sighed. "How many doors have we checked now?"
"Who can remember?" Ladybug answered. "Besides, we can't waste time counting the ones we've been through. We just have to keep moving and be thankful that they close themselves when we're done with them."
"Right," Cat Noir, said, pushing himself upright and stalking over to a door, smashing the Nino gingerbread man as he passed it. "Then let's get on with it."
The door swung open with a creak, leading down a long, narrow corridor. The two walked through, only for the door to slam shut behind them, plunging them into darkness. However, light quickly bounced off the walls in patterns that seemed strange until the room was fully illuminated, revealing to the duo that the walls were made up of funhouse mirrors. Ladybug took a moment to stare at one, watching her bug-eyed, big-headed, and tiny-legged reflection, even chuckling slightly, before Cat Noir seized her by the arm and marched her forward.
"What's wrong?" Ladybug asked, albeit with an annoyed tone at the rough treatment.
"We're running short on time after that last story," he said. "We can't be fooling around when there's work to be done."
Ladybug raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond. As she was walked through the corridor, a shadowy figure darted behind her reflection. She turned on the spot, but saw only more mirrors.
At the pace they were going, they reached the end of the corridor quickly, walking out into what looked like a strange combination between vanity, funhouse, and boudoir. There were mirrors of all shapes and sizes in the room, hanging from the walls, embedded into the floor, and even one which made up the entirety of the ceiling. Despite their odd shapes, they were all regular mirrors, showing a crystal clear and absolutely perfect reflection of their surroundings. Propped up against the wall were three queen-sized canopy beds, each one uniquely designed but oddly decorated. The first was bright green and floral themed, surrounded by an emerald thorn bush, with an insignia bearing the symbol of a red rose with its stem wrapped around a spindle. The second was aqua blue and animal themed, surrounded by glass and gold furniture and animal figurines, and with a seal of a glass slipper atop a pumpkin. The last was a rich red and decorated with images of mystical creatures, surrounded by statues made of gems, and with a coat of arms of an apple at the center of an ornate hand mirror.
All three beds were unoccupied.
"Okay…" Ladybug muttered. "I think I know who we're going to be fighting here...but where are they?"
"Knowing our luck, we're about to find out," Cat Noir replied, crouching into a ready stance with his claws out.
Ladybug made to follow suit, but had barely enough time to reach for her yo-yo before she caught a glimpse of something in one of the mirrors, one which was right at eye-level.
She gasped, and instinctively rolled out of the way as a dagger shot out of the mirror, flying forward and striking the wall, sending it clattering to the ground.
"Milady!" Cat Noir yelled, moving to go to her, only to have to jump out of the way of a hedge of thorns that burst out from under him. As he moved through the air, he quickly turned his body to avoid two other projectiles which flew at him. Just narrowly avoiding getting hit, his eyes widened when he saw what they were: glass sculptures which resembled sparrows.
He landed in a crouch next to Ladybug, quickly extending a hand to help her up. "Well, looks like you weren't wrong," she said, priming her yo-yo.
"Aw," came a familiar sweet and simpering voice. "We didn't manage to hit either of them!"
"Don't worry," came another voice, this one low, but with an enticing huskiness. "That just means that we have plenty of time to show them what we can do."
"Exactly!" came a third voice, this one almost unrecognizable thanks to the confidence and sadism it exhibited, nothing like its timorous former self. "The longer this goes, the more we get to demonstrate just why Frau Märchen kept us in reserve."
Suddenly, a mirror embedded in the floor in front of the beds began to glow, and three shadowy figures rose out of it. When they had completely emerged, the light faded, revealing Ladybug and Cat Noir's next opponents in their entirety.
Rose was standing at the far left, clad in a flowing green dress not unlike that of Beauty's. However, this one was much more ornate and old fashioned, with an incredibly high collar, and was decorated with shimmering emerald and ebony thorns rather than flowers. For once, Frau Märchen had left her victim's hair as it was, and a golden crown with a ruby rose was perched daintily atop her pixie-cut blonde hair. The beautiful image was offset, however, by the dangerously spiked black thorns coiling around the base of her dress and emerging from the sleeves.
On the far right was Sabrina, wearing an ornate gold evening gown covered with gems in every color, forming abstract shimmering patterns along the fabric. Her auburn hair was topped with a crown made out of rainbow-tinted glass, casting bright lights all around the room. The same glass made up her slippers, low-heeled and perfect for dancing, tastefully exposed by her dress. Atop each shoulder was perched a glass bird, both of which made up for their use of normal glass with their incredible detail, each individual feather clearly visible.
Finally, Juleka stood in the center, resting a hand on each of the others. Her dress was a rich velvety black, inscribed with mystical sigils in gold thread. The starkness of the color served to offset her pale skin, white as snow, with a rosy tint that made it beautiful instead of unsettling. Her long black hair was enhanced by purple highlights and decorated with a golden gem-studded comb perched just to the side of her iron crown, which featured a teardrop-shaped emerald which resembled nothing so much as a drop of poison. Her blood-red lips were set in a menacing smile as she stared at the heroes, who could not help but notice both the ribbon-esque belt around her waist filled with glass shard-styled daggers and how her feet were still hidden within the depths of the mirror.
"Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow White," Cat Noir said. "Three deadly ladies all at once? We have to be getting close to Frau Märchen."
"Maybe you are, and maybe you're not," Snow White said, her face not showing any signs one way or the other. "But it doesn't matter either way, seeing as we don't plan on letting you leave here alive."
"But if you surrender, you get to pick which one of us gets to kill you!" Sleeping Beauty said chirpily. "Otherwise, well, I don't think you'll like how we go about it."
"So, what'll it be?" Cinderella asked. "Are you going to give up, or are you going to make us take our frustration out on you?"
"How about option three; we take you down and then take down Frau Märchen!" Ladybug snapped, gripping her yo-yo tightly.
"What Milady said," Cat Noir responded, flashing the princesses a lazy smirk. "After everything your master's put us through, we don't plan on giving up or losing. But if you give up," he continued, looking mockingly at Sleeping Beauty, "we'll make your defeat quick and painless."
"Ugh, so rude!" Sleeping Beauty pouted, stomping her foot childishly. "Fine, we'll play it your way. Snow White, be a dear and get ready, would you?"
"I still think that we should all get in here, but you two are too stubborn to listen to me," Snow White said, rolling her eyes.
"We have our standards, Snow. We deigned to hide with you for an ambush, but any more is simply unbecoming our royal dignity," Cinderella scoffed, turning up her nose.
"You weren't even born royal," Snow White replied, sighing and letting go of her fellow princesses' arms. "But if you insist," she continued, before quickly sinking back into the mirror, vanishing from view.
Ladybug and Cat Noir's eyes widened, and the duo quickly moved back to back, trying to keep an eye on every mirror in the room as realization of Snow White's powers sunk in. "Oh boy," Ladybug muttered. "If she can attack from any of these, we're in trouble."
"You know, you truly missed out when you denied our offer just now," Cinderella said, her voice dripping with snideness. "Snow White may like to stay out of sight, but her poisons are truly magnificent. A single scratch from her daggers, and you would have drifted off to sleep in an instant, nevermore to awaken. Now, I'm afraid you're going to have to contend with us...and we aren't nearly as nice."
"Yeah!" continued Sleeping Beauty. "And you know, your attitude is really bothering me. You two aren't even looking at us! If you don't turn around right now, you're not going to like what happens next!"
"On the count of three, we move," Cat Noir whispered to Ladybug, before raising his voice and yelling, "Oh yeah? I'd like to see that!"
"Ooh! You asked for it!" Sleeping Beauty snapped, before the sounds of rushing plantlife filled the room.
"THREE!" Cat Noir shouted, and he and Ladybug dove out of the way as a massive briar of thorns erupted from between them, sending out spikes in all directions. As the two rolled out of the way, they heard a piercing whistle from Cinderella and looked up to see a flock of glass birds diving down at them. Cat Noir grabbed Ladybug and pole-vaulted them into the air, but Ladybug was forced to spin her yo-yo to shield them from a barrage of poison daggers coming from several adjacent mirrors. As the onslaught continued, the two curled up and rolled through the air, landing on the other side of the room between Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella's beds. The two came back fighting, each leaping at one of the princesses with their weapons primed, but both were knocked out of the air by more glass birds and narrowly avoided more knives.
"Give it up," Cinderella jeered. "You know you can't win!"
"Our combo is unstoppable!" Sleeping Beauty squeaked. She raised her arms and more thorny vines erupted from the floorboards, wrapping around the heroes' ankles and winding up their legs.
"Any ideas?" Ladybug asked as she batted away more birds.
"Just one," Cat Noir answered, hefting his staff. "Cover me for a sec?"
Ladybug nodded and continued her shield tactic as Cat Noir extended his staff and swung it at the nearest mirror, shattering it. Sweeping a few particularly large shards closer, he bent down and picked up the biggest one he could find, then hacked at the base of the thorns to free himself, all the while ducking more of Cinderella's birds.
"Nice one!" Ladybug said, shielding Cat Noir as he cut her loose. "But now what?"
"Hey, I got us this far. It's your turn!"
"Right," Ladybug growled, before swatting away another dagger. As she turned to glare at the mirror it came from, she noticed a flash of black before the mirror cleared. Eyes widening, she turned to Cat Noir and pulled him close. "I think I saw Snow White just now," she whispered. "If I'm right, that means she has to actually move between the mirrors to use them!"
"But what about the times she's launched daggers from more than one at once?" Cat Noir asked, all the while swatting birds with his staff.
"They all came from adjacent mirrors, right? Maybe certain mirrors act as 'hubs' that she can use to access a couple at once or something. If I'm wrong, then we're not any worse off, but if I'm right, then I might have a way to deal with her."
"Which is?" Cat Noir replied. Ladybug then looked down meaningfully at the shards from the broken mirror, and Cat Noir grinned.
"Lock her down or force her out," he murmured, before turning to face the nearest mirror. "Works for me!" he continued, before bringing his staff down on it, shattering it into miniscule shards.
"Oh no you don't!" came Sleeping Beauty's voice as another briar erupted in front of the heroes, striking at them with vicious thorns.
Cat Noir ducked and dodged out of the way, bounding over to and smashing another mirror as he did so. "Nice try, but no dice!" he laughed. "Keep us away from one mirror and we'll just break another!"
"That's the problem with you ladies!" Ladybug continued, smashing mirrors with her yo-yo. "You don't have any way of fighting us up close! Once we stop Snow White from taking potshots, you'll be sitting ducks!"
Much to the heroes' surprise, rather than get furious, the two princesses actually started to laugh.
"Really? That's what you think?" Cinderella asked, chuckling. "True, we may prefer a 'hands-off' approach, but if you're stumbling onto our dear Snow White's weakness, then it appears we have no choice," she continued, before reaching up and grabbing the two birds off of her shoulders. In a flash of light, the birds transformed into glass short-swords, exquisitely decorated with avian imagery on the hilts.
"Yeah! We're not letting you stop Snow White, no way no how!" yelled Sleeping Beauty, making a sharp movement with her arms. Suddenly, two metal spindles emerged from her sleeves, mounted on thin whips which she proceeded to spin at intense speeds, actually generating a slight breeze in the process. And of course, the briars and birds were still active even as the princesses advanced on the heroes.
Ladybug and Cat Noir gulped and looked at each other. "So, should we take the one who matches our style, or…?" Cat Noir asked.
"Focus on smashing the mirrors," Ladybug replied. "We fight them off if we have to, but our priority should be dealing with the one who we can't actually hit."
Cat Noir sighed. "I had a feeling that you'd say that," he muttered before straightening into a fighting stance. "You want to stop us from taking out your friend? Well then, go ahead and try!" he yelled as he and Ladybug took off in separate directions, smashing every mirror they passed.
Suddenly, Snow White's image appeared clearly within a mirror. She laughed, the first time she'd spoken all battle, darting around the room as she continued to throw her daggers. "Well said, heroes!" she said. "But now that you're on the right track, I can stop holding back!" With that, dagger after dagger came from mirror after mirror, several of which were not adjacent to one another. Snow White was practically dancing between them as Cat Noir and Ladybug kept up their demolition.
Cinderella, meanwhile, took off at high speeds, unhindered by her glass footwear as she darted around the edges of the room, slashing at the heroes anytime she came near them. Her birds, meanwhile, picked up any sizeable shards of glass and carried them into the air, whereupon they became new places for daggers to come, albeit much smaller ones. The rest of the birds absorbed the useless shards into themselves, growing larger and more dangerous-looking as they charged the heroes.
As for Sleeping Beauty, she circled the center of the room, protecting the largest of the floor mirrors. With her extending whips, the speed at which she spun them, their sharpness and heaviness, and of course the ever-increasing array of thorn briars, it was effectively an impenetrable defense.
"This is ridiculous!" Cat Noir yelled, dodging a dagger. He and Ladybug had smashed every mirror outside of the thorn defense, but Snow White didn't look like she was slowing down at all. "All we're doing is making more work for us! What's even the point of all this?!"
"I don't know!" Ladybug replied. "She said that we figured her out, so we're obviously doing something, but I don't know what! There has to be something we're-" she continued, only to stop short.
"Milady?!" Cat Noir asked frantically, turning to make sure she was alright. She was still standing and hadn't been hit by anything, as far as he could tell, but her eyes were wide and she was muttering to herself. "Milady?" he asked again.
"That's it…" she mumbled. "That's it!" she repeated, this time much louder. "It's not that she uses the mirrors; she is the mirrors!"
"What?!" Cat Noir and Snow White both shouted, Cat Noir shocked and Snow White sounding frantic.
"It's the only thing that fits! We never saw her leave the mirrors completely, and that's because she can't! She was holding back earlier, but now she's showing off because she needs to keep us from breaking every last one! After all, she might be able to use the shards to attack, but she can't inhabit them, and that's the important thing! All we have to do is smash every last mirror, and…" Ladybug trailed off, letting Cat Noir come to the conclusion on his own.
"And we'll take her down, permanently!" he exclaimed, grinning. "Alright then, let's take care of her once and for all!"
"Did you forget about us, you brats?!" came Cinderella's voice, prompting Cat Noir to quickly turn and parry her blades with his staff as she tried to slash at him. "You may have figured everything out, but neither Sleeping Beauty nor I have such weaknesses, and we'll take you down long before you can get to the rest of the mirrors!"
"Please," Cat Noir scoffed. "Neither of you are as invincible as you think. With all the emphasis on keeping people away, I'm sure Sleeping Beauty'll go down in one hit if we can get around her defenses, and I know that we can. As for you," he said, staring right at Cinderella "you're pretty well-rounded, I'll admit, but given how little you've had your minions do since pulling out the swords, I really doubt you're good enough at multitasking to actually beat us. Maybe if you'd switched to one? Of course, you'd have to test your luck against mine. So, what's it going to be? Face me blade to staff like an honorable noble? Or peck me to pieces like a peasant brat?" he asked, his grin downright sadistic.
Cinderella's face turned as red as her hair, her rage so great that she struggled to form words. Eventually, though, she let out a piercing "FINE!" as she struck her swords against one another. Immediately, every bird not holding a mirror shard shattered into glass dust, which flew towards Cinderella's weapons and was absorbed into them. When the process was finished, the swords were now larger, more ornately decorated, and sporting viciously jagged edges. She brandished them at Cat noir, screaming, "Let's see how you handle me now!" as she lunged forward to try chopping him into pieces.
Smirking, Cat Noir broke his staff into twin batons and leapt at her, blocking her slices and delivering a solid kick to her throat. As she stumbled away, Cinderella held her blades forward and jumped back up, unimpeded by her gown, slashing one blade low and one high. Cat Noir somersaulted sideways between them and slammed the batons on either side of her head. As Cinderella stumbled back, dazed, Cat Noir swung a baton at her legs, tripping her up and sending her crashing into another mirror.
"You really should have known better, princesses," Cat Noir taunted as he stalked over to Cinderella, who was sitting dazed amid shards of glass. "After all, cats are notoriously crafty." With that, he formed his batons back into a staff and, grinning, brought it down on Cinderella's head. The princesses collapsed onto the ground, dissolving into a cloud of mist which quickly vanished. As it did, all of the birds still floating around the room shattered into glass dust, as did the mirror shards they were holding. Now, the only mirrors left were the ones inside the briar, which was now beginning to extend out to cover the entire room.
"We need to get over that briar!" Ladybug yelled, rushing over to Cat Noir. "Let's vault over and take care of Sleeping Beauty first!"
"Right!" Cat Noir replied, running to the edge of the room with Ladybug at his side. Extending his staff with one hand and wrapping his other around Ladybug's waist, he rushed forward, slamming the end into an empty mirror frame on the floor and using the momentum to launch the heroes upward, flying over the briar. As they began to fall, Cat Noir retracted the staff to its compact form and held it tightly, prepared to extend it at a moment's notice, while Ladybug prepared her yo-yo.
"Stop them!" came Snow White's voice as a barrage of daggers launched themselves from the briar-protected mirrors, all aimed perfectly at the falling heroes. However, Cat Noir and Ladybug gracefully curled their limbs and twisted just enough to pass between them. The move seemed impossible, like dodging raindrops, but they emerged without a scratch and landed perfectly on the ground.
"Start smashing mirrors! I'll take down Sleeping Beauty!" Ladybug ordered. Cat Noir nodded and proceeded to dart to the other end of the enclosure while Ladybug turned to the villainous princess. "We're inside your wall now!" she said, priming her yo-yo. "Give up, and I'll make this quick!"
"You think I'll be easy pickings now that you've gotten past my barrier?" Sleeping Beauty laughed, twirling her spindle-tipped whips and wrapping the cords in thorns. "Dream on!" she cried, launching the whips straight at the heroine, bolstering them with an added snap of the wrists.
Ladybug smiled and twisted to the side, then shot out her yo-yo and spun it at top speed. She inched forward, and the whips were sucked inside the yo-yo's cycle. The more it spun, the closer that Sleeping Beauty was pulled in, until she was forced to save her wrists and drop the whips altogether. Unfortunately, by the time she did so, she was already right in Ladybug's melee range.
"Sometimes, dreams come true!" Ladybug laughed. Then, with one punch to her chin, Sleeping Beauty was sent flying into her own briars, where she screamed and dissolved into mist. Ladybug smirked as the briar followed suit, then turned and began to join Cat Noir in destroying the mirrors.
Meanwhile, Cat Noir was rushing around the room, smashing apart every mirror he saw. Poison daggers flew from every direction, but he leapt and dived, twisted and tumbled to avoid every one as the shards accumulated. As Ladybug joined in, the attacks grew more and more frenzied, but neither of the heroes were deterred in the slightest. In a matter of minutes, the room was filled with glass dust and shards, every mirror but the one in the ceiling completely destroyed.
"Last one on three?" Ladybug asked, smirking.
"Sure thing," Cat Noir replied. Raising his staff, he shouted, "Three!" as he extended it to strike at the ceiling, Ladybug following suit with her yo-yo. With a tremendous crash, the ceiling mirror shattered into glass dust, collapsing to the ground and leaving the room empty of mirrors.
"Well, that takes care of that," Cat Noir said, retracting his staff and returning it to his back. "Funny, I was expecting Snow White to do a little more before we took her out. I mean, she didn't even use that ceiling mirror for anything!"
"Maybe it was just for show. I mean, we still don't know how her mirror powers really worked. But you're right about her not doing anything. It's almost like she wasn't...in...danger…" Ladybug drifted off, before her eyes widened.
"What is it?" Cat Noir asked.
"The mirrors in the hallway!" Ladybug shouted. "They're all still intact! Snow White must've retreated there once she knew that there was no stopping us here!"
"Then let's get over there and finish the job!" Cat Noir replied, turning and rushing towards the entrance leading back to the hallway, Ladybug following close behind. However, when he looked through it, he stopped short. "Um, we might have a bit of a problem here…" he said.
"What?" Ladybug asked, before she got a look at the hallway and gasped. An uncountable number of daggers were flying through the mirrors, creating an impenetrable blockade of poisoned glass. In addition, several mirrors had seemed to "flow" out of their frames, coating the floors and ceilings and shaping themselves into further hazards, including monstrous snapping heads, sharp spikes, and spiralling corridors of blades. Lastly, the hallway had extended a frankly ridiculous amount, now going for what seemed like a mile.
"Well, she's certainly pulling out all the stops," Cat Noir mused. "The hallway must've been the real seat of her power the whole time, otherwise she would have done this stuff back in the other room."
"Whatever," Ladybug sighed. "Let's just make this quick. Hopefully we can get through this without her taunting us. On three again?"
"It's worked before. Three!" Cat Noir shouted again. The two jumped forward and began to shatter everything in their path. Spikes and blades launched at them, only to be met with blunt force from staff and yo-yo. Daggers were blocked and their source mirrors smashed apart with careful precision. Glass shards fell like a summer downpour, and heads roared in frustration, then shrieked as they broke apart as Ladybug and Cat Noir flew to the back of the hall, their focus making quick work of every hazard in their way.
"You'll never leave here alive!" Snow White snarled as her mirrors fell. "Don't kid yourselves!"
"Yeah, yeah," Cat Noir said, rolling his eyes as more and more mirrors were destroyed. "Easy to talk, but can you back it up?"
"Kind of hard to sound intimidating when we're already mostly done," Ladybug continued, absently smashing a corridor with a swing of her yo-yo. "Face it, all your little hallway of death did was buy yourself a few more minutes."
Snow White growled, and continued to launch threat after threat, but to no avail. Within a few short minutes, Ladybug and Cat Noir were standing before the final mirror, which had Snow White clearly visible inside of it.
"You can't do this to me!" Snow White pleaded, all her anger replaced by misery and fear. "Not now! Please, spare me!"
"Believe me, I would if I could," Ladybug said with a touch of melancholy in her voice. "But your 'Mistress' made it very clear how we have to get through this. Sorry, Juleka."
With a flick of Ladybug's wrist, the last mirror fell to pieces, emanating both a shriek and a wisp of white vapor.
Ladybug sighed. "Frau Märchen's going to pay for this," she said quietly. "There's no way I'm letting her get away with what she did to these people, and what she made me do to them."
"Don't worry, Ladybug," Cat Noir said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's not your fault. Frau Märchen's the one who set up these sick rules and made us play the game. But we'll win. And when we do, those kids won't care a whit what happened, nor will they remember."
"Yeah, thank goodness for that," Ladybug muttered. "I swear, that's the one good thing about being made an akuma's minion. Anyway, shall we head back? Now that we've taken care of the villains, we should go look for the doorway out."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"I am not a patient man, Frau Märchen," Hawk Moth seethed. "You are running out of assassins, and Ladybug and Cat Noir still hold their Miraculouses!"
"I am well aware of the situation, Hawk Moth!" Frau Märchen snapped as she observed Ladybug's progress in her mirror. "But have faith. My strongest servants have not yet been encountered. I assure you, you shall have the Miraculouses before the end of the day."
"Yes, as you have said many times today," Hawk Moth snarled.
"Because you constantly gripe!" Frau Märchen shot back. "At sunset, my control over the kingdom of Paris will be absolute, and the Miraculouses will be yours, as per the terms of my contract with Ladybug. Even if my servants do not succeed in defeating her, they are slowing her down, ensuring that the clock will run out!"
"And what if they fail to do even that? What if Ladybug beats them all and is still able to find you before the clock runs out? What happens then?"
"Then I will use the powers you afforded me, the powers that make me queen...and crush her underfoot like the insect she emulates," Frau Märchen uttered, her voice filled with quiet conviction. "But keep in mind, among my remaining servants are my very best, and she is about to run into two of the strongest even without my intervention. Furthermore, I'm quite well hidden. It's doubtful she'll even make it to me."
"For your sake, I hope so. If Ladybug not only finds you, but gets through the rest of your minions without using her Lucky Charm even once, then there will be punishment for completely wasting my time."
"Rest assured, Ladybug's next opponents will all but necessitate the use of the Lucky Charm. And when she does, she'll be ripe for the taking," said Frau Märchen, leaning back in her throne with a slight but satisfied smirk.
