GOLDEN BALANCE


Chapter 8


The knowledge that kwami could create new and undocumented powers was not news to Fu, but she could read the worry in Chat's eyes.

"Do not be alarmed," Fu tried to console them. "New powers are typically a reaction, an attempt to restore balance. Nooroo has not needed to take such steps with Chat Noir and Ladybug keeping his holder in check. I do not mean to say this is not dangerous, but you are accustomed to facing unknown dangers. Keep your wits about you, remember what you have learned, and trust in each other."

After that, there was nothing to do but review the plan and practice different moves as they waited for evening to arrive.

They would go to the Agreste mansion and attempt to use Adrien's security codes to get through the system as far as it would let them. When they exhausted mundane tactics, they would rely on their enhanced strength and other abilities, saving their powers as a last resort.

They would really only have one shot at this; the element of surprise had an excruciatingly brief half-life. After Adrian's father knew who they were, there would be no safety from Hawk Moth's minions.

Regardless of the outcome, they were to regroup at Master Fu's by dawn. If they were able to hand over the moth miraculous, Fu would resume his role of Guardian, protecting it until a new holder was needed. If they returned empty-handed, Fu would help them flee Paris to avoid Hawk Moth's wrath. If they ran into the worst case scenario, there would be no returning.

There were so many weak spots in the plan, when they wouldn't know what to do next until they were in the middle of it. But they had entered into every fight against an evil champion with the same blindness. They were used to making it up as they went. The one part that Marinette worried about, assuming they were successful, was what to do with Gabriel Agreste when they had captured his miraculous. Once they had destroyed the akumatized object and purified the butterfly, the champions always reverted to their regular forms. These former champions were uniformly confused by what had happened and, when the situation was explained, their confusion was replaced by guilt and remorse. These people had been victims of Hawk Moth, as much as any of the other people caught in the attacks.

But Gabriel Agreste was not a victim; he was the villain. Villains should be punished or at least reformed, but how? Would they be able to hand him over to the police as Monsieur Agreste? If, upon the loss of his miraculous, he expressed immediate regret, could they believe him? At the foundation of all of this was the fact that this man was Adrien's father; anything they did to him would impact her partner. If Gabriel Agreste was publicly identified as Hawk Moth, arrested and charged with crimes, or if Gabriel Agreste was allowed to quietly disappear, what would that do to Adrien?

.o8o.

They made their way across town at dusk. Halfway to their destination, Ladybug stopped on a rooftop. Chat continued for half a city block before realizing his partner was no longer with him. He reversed course and dropped beside her.

"My Lady?" He could tell something was wrong.

She sighed a few times, trying to find the words. "I feel like I need to have a private word with you," she stumbled over the words. "But with Tikki, and Plagg, and Master Fu, that isn't possible."

He shifted his stance, getting a little closer, getting comfortable. If she needed to talk, they would talk.

"Tikki is worried about you," she said at last.

He flashed his teeth but not in a smile. "Yeah, so is Plagg, if you read between the lines."

"I think I'm worried about you too," she admitted in a small voice. At his look - hurt? betrayal? - she quickly amended, "Not for the same reasons. Tikki is worried you'll end up as a Cataclysm-inducing ladybug-killer. I'm worried you're going to lose your father and have to -"

He hugged the breath right out of her. She wasn't sure how she could have found the words she was looking for, but he heard them anyway.

"I'm sorry," she breathed at last. Black cats had no luck at all.

He gave her one more squeeze before relaxing his hold. "None of this is your fault, my Lady," he said. "Let's just agree that my father - my real father - isn't around anymore, and Hawk Moth has taken him just as surely as he's taken my mother."

She smiled sadly at the fiction, at the circumstances that had led Chat to fabricate it. "Like when the young hero believes his father was a doomed Jedi knight and then discovers his father was the evil emperor all along?"

He stiffened slightly then held her at arm's length, peering down at her. "Did you just try to talk Star Wars to me?"

"Yes." Wait. Did she try... "Did I not get it right?"

"It's the thought that counts," he equivocated. "I think I could kiss you, but I know I shouldn't." Still he stroked her cheek in a way that neither could misconstrue as a show of platonic goodwill.

Something reminded him of their mission. He removed his hand and stepped away. "We should get going and finish this, then we can relax. I'll be fine as long as I have you."

.o8o.

Hawk Moth could not control a champion while he himself was fighting. That was a point in their favor. And they had been too quick, too successful in making their way through his defenses - defenses designed to protect a rich man like Gabriel Agreste rather than a magical terrorist like Hawk Moth - for him to enlist any of the household staff to protect him. In fact, Ladybug could have sworn that he had barely enough time to transform before they burst in on him

He could, however, blend. With a cry of "Camouflage!" he disappeared before their eyes.

Ladybug lashed out with her yo-yo at the spot where she had last seen him, but the air was empty.

"Chat?" she called nervously to her partner. With his enhanced vision, if either of them could spot Hawk Moth, it would be Chat.

"No such luck, my Lady," he answered, equally on edge. He waved his staff into a defensive stance.

She tried to use her other senses to detect their enemy, tried to hear sounds of him moving, tried to feel vibrations as he no doubt attempted to escape.

She wasn't lucky this time.

She felt the air move to her right. Before she could react, something firm crashed painfully into her skull and she was down, momentarily unconscious.

Chat was immediately over her in a protective crouch, his staff lashing out at where Hawk Moth simply had to be. Slowly her mind reentered her body, taking desultory notes of what was happening in the room. She was too dazed to follow the fight, her vision too clouded with stars, her ears too muffled by the pain in her head. Part of her was screaming to get up and help her partner, but it took a while to convince the rest of her.

By the time she staggered to her feet, the two men were in the other side of the room. Hawk Moth had Chat pinned, pressing a cane against his throat. She charged at the older man, knocking him over and freeing her partner. She stumbled, still not recovered from the earlier attack, and fell to the floor with Hawk Moth.

As Ladybug clambered to her feet, Hawk Moth was beside her. Before she could catch her breath, he grabbed her from behind, wrapping an arm around her neck. Her hands tugged on his forearm, trying to pry loose from his grasp. She tried to get her feet under her so that she could throw him off, but he kept dragging her back. Before she could free herself, she felt him grab her ear and begin to pull.

Tikki's magic fought the attempt to steal her earring. Marinette's ear felt like it was being ripped off, but the skin around her miraculous refused to tear.

Finally, Hawk Moth had dragged her to a table. He reached down to the work surface and grabbed a knife. It he couldn't remove the earrings with his hands, he'd resort to tools.

The sight of the blade as it flashed before her brought a scream to her throat. Before Tikki's magic could be further tested, Chat was up and fast approaching.

"Let her go," he commanded. "Now!"

Hawk Moth paused but Ladybug felt no relief from his stranglehold.

Chat held out his hand. The gesture was banal and threatening at the same time. "Let her go or I will end you." The air around Chat's palm wavered and blistered: Cataclysm.

"No," she whispered. Chat killing his father was wrong, the sort of thing that Tikki had warned her might happen, the first step down a path that ended in so much violence and death. What would people call him, how would he be remembered if he did this?

The knife slipped from her ear to her throat. "Keep your distance or I will end her," warned Hawk Moth.

At those words, Ladybug could see how this entire tragedy would unfurl. Hawk Moth would act and Chat would react, or vice versa with no real difference in outcome. The knife would slice through her skin, nicking the artery, before Chat could grab his father's hand. Hawk Moth would disintegrate in a column of ash and she would bleed out in her partner's arms. After that, Chat would…

What would Chat do? On the one hand, she'd be dead, so the thought exercise was academic and pointless. On the other hand, she'd be leaving behind too many people she cared about, including Chat. She couldn't let him usher in another dark age. If there was a time for Tikki to grant her the ability to see her way out of this mess, the time was now.

She looked at Chat, trying to communicate with her eyes, but his attention was fixed on his father. She needed to tell her partner to stand down, she needed the villain to ease the knife from her throat. She needed to buy everyone a little more time, but neither man seemed to notice her anymore.

Ladybug could read the subtle set in Chat's shoulders: he was going to attack with a Cataclysm resting in his hand. Hawk Moth seemed to sense it too, because he adjusted his grip, ready to do whatever to her so long as he protected himself.

Again that grim future flitted briefly before her vision and something clicked.

In the blink of an eye, as Gabriel Agreste repositioned his hold, the better to slit her throat, she pushed away from him. The tip of the blade cut into her skin but not fatally. There was enough space for her to breath more fully; she had room to escape. She called upon Tikki for help, praying to the little god for luck.

There was a blinding flash as if one of them had transformed but Ladybug still had her spots on and Chat still had his claws out. The look on his face, however, was something else.

Ladybug slipped out of Hawk Moth's hold and the villain fell back, landing with a crashing thud. Even before she heard the sound, she knew something was wrong. The sleeve that clad Hawk Moth's arm had changed from a silvery gray into gold.

"Chat?" she whispered weakly, afraid of the sight behind her.

He gripped a chair to discharge his Cataclysm. The furniture rusted and rotted under his touch until it fell apart and collapsed in a junky heap. His mouth opened and shut but no words came out.

Ladybug turned around and saw what she had been afraid of: a gold statue of her archenemy lying on the ground. This was the magic power that Tikki had told her about in the shower, the power to turn anything into gold, the power to destroy.

"No!" she shrieked in denial. "Tikki, spots off! Spots off!" In a flash of pink, she was standing there as just Marinette and the little red god was floating toward the statue.

"We did it!" Tikki announced as she pulled the moth miraculous from the golden form of Hawk Moth. "Thank you, Marinette."

"Thank - Tikki, don't thank me," she spat out in horror.

Chat approached her from behind, arm outstretched to offer her some much-needed comfort. "Bug, it's -"

"No!" she panicked. "Don't touch me! It isn't safe." How had her partner lived this long with the power of Cataclysm? How did he bear going into the world where a thousand things could jostle against him and be destroyed?

"Marinette, you are perfectly safe right now," her kwami assured her.

Chat pulled her into a fierce hug which she was still too rattled to return.

"We have to change him back," Marinette said into Chat's chest. "Tikki, how do we undo this?"

"Marinette, I can't undo my powers," said Tikki a little too clinically. "That would imply that they've been misused."

Marinette marveled in shock. How could Tikki not see this as a mistake? How could Chat ever forgive her?

"It's okay," he whispered, rubbing her back. He knew her too well not to recognize the agony she was in.

"It's not okay!" she snapped back. Why was everyone else so calm and accepting about this? "It is very much not okay! I killed your father -"

"That man was not my father," Chat cut her off. "He's been some imposter, posing as my dad for years. He killed my mother and he was going to kill you, and I can't think of him as being in any way related to me after that."

She dared to look up at him, and saw concern for her sake shining out of his eyes as well as forgiveness and whatever else he thought she needed.

Before she could fully soak it in he stiffened and angled his cat ears toward the door. "Company's coming," he said quietly. "Get your spots on."

She nodded mutely and bit her lip before transforming. Tikki hadn't fully recharged so Marinette wouldn't be able to remain as Ladybug for long, but this would get them through the next few minutes. Chat flinched at the blaze of light but didn't release her. She was still in his arms when the first police officers entered the room.

The team of officers recognized the heroic duo and immediate lowered their guard. If Chat Noir and Ladybug were here, the situation was in good hands. Still, when the two separated and the men got a clear look at them, they were on edge again. Ladybug was bleeding from her neck and forehead, Chat was sporting a collection of nasty cuts and bruises across his face.

At the first enquiry into what had happened, Chat's ring beeped in warning. He was running out of time and would soon need to abandon the scene.

"This man," Chat gestured to the fallen statue behind them, "was Hawk Moth. We've finally put a stop to him. I know we need to discuss it further with you, but we can't right now. Can we meet you at the station in an hour or two?"

"What was Hawk Moth doing in a private residence?" blurted out one of the less experienced officers.

"It's a long story," Chat confided, "but we need to rest and recover before we can tell it. You need to let us go, and I promise you that we'll explain it later." The important thing was to get out of there quickly, before he was forced to transform into Adrien Agreste. The second most important thing was to get their stories straight before someone asked too many questions and any half-truths started to unravel.

A uniformed man approached the golden form. "What happened to him?" he asked, not understanding what he was looking at.

Ladybug opened her mouth to respond but her earrings beeped their own warning. The room seemed to sway for a moment and her knees felt suddenly weak. Chat didn't let her fall but he did announce at the others that they were leaving now. And the reputations of Ladybug and Chat Noir were strong enough that the others let them go.


So that's where I came up with the story title, and this is the chapter with the character death that earns the "T" rating. How was it?

Thanks for all the comments. And yes, Tikki was a little creepy at the end of the last chapter (and in this one IMO). For all their work in supporting their wielders, I wanted to treat them as seriously powerful, non-human beings who were not aiming to measure up to our human standards.