Part 3 Chapter 3: I'll be the guard cat of all your favorite dreams

Adrien poured all his effort into controlling his arm. It seemed like a losing battle but he had to protect her. He loved her! He felt his hand stop and he tossed the blade aside. Touttais snarled as he wrenched control back and Adrien was then back in his mindscape. His white blade now a sword. He fought to get free and slashed it down at the root holding him, setting him free. There were a few large new roots, but with the sword, it was way less work to destroy the roots. He had done his part. It was his lady's turn.

— —

Fortuna was surprised whenever Touttais stopped his attack and threw his sword away before snarling and attacking her with his claws. It was like two different personalities—Adrien! He was fighting back. She owed it to him. She kicked Touttais back from her and began twirling her staff to start the process. He interrupted her forcing her to start over several times. She managed to complete it with a smirk,

"Fortuna Huiusce Diei." The light that poured forth was brighter than the other times and when it cleared, Touttais looked weaker, but she knew it hadn't purified him. She narrowed her eyes at his smug smirk before she ran forwards and decked him out. The barrier dropped.

"We need to get out of here, now," Hawkmoth said.

"Your house. We're also going to need a different way to contain him," Fortuna said before she let go of Plagg's half of the transformation.

"Lucky Charm!" a trophy dropped down. Everyone shrugged before she tossed it into the air.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" The magic did it's job. A lot of the damage was undone, but there were cracks and other bits of damage that reminded people something happened here. The rains ringing the city stopped. The hole in the tunnel where the demons had emerged was not fixed. Nor were any of the crushed cars and none of the dead were back to life. They used the Miraculous Cure as a cover to run back to the Agreste mansion.

"In my search for the Miraculous, I found other things," Gabriel said before he left and returned with a set of golden chains. He snapped these on the unconscious Touttais's wrists and led the others to a room in the attic of the mansion. It was filled with tons of fluttering butterflies.

"Your lair is a mess," Alya said.

"Fits the evil lair theme, then." Nino held out a hand and one of the butterflies landed on him before it flew back to it's brethren. Gabriel laid Touttais in the center of the room.

"Why bring him up here?" Marinette asked.

"It's a room few know about and Adrien has no memories of it. We'll need to recharge before we continue," Gabriel said. Marinette and the others exchanged looks before following him out of the room.

— —

Touttais came too in a dark room. It was an evil lair. Probably the Lord of Chaos's because he was the villain turned ally because of him. The room's scent was distorted and he couldn't tell anything about it, just like he couldn't smell anything about The Lord of Chaos. He was alone. He called upon his—ow! The cuffs had given him a jolt for trying to use his powers. Clever bastard. To think chains like this were still around. There was a window covered by a sort of iris shaped screen. the only light was purple and muted. He heard footsteps and turned to see it was the Lord of Chaos flanked by the Lady of Fortune, the Lady of Rebirth, and the Lord of Order.

"You really think you can treat me like some simple demon and think you'll win?" he said. He was met by silence.

"Silent treatment? Harsh. Really hurting me." More silence as the Lady of Fortune picked up a piece of chalk and drew a perfect circle before herself big enough for two people. She and the others drew more symbols. He knew what those were. Like hell we would—

"Bee Sting!" He was paralyzed. Damnit!

— —

Hawkmoth carried Touttais to the circle and set him in front of Fortuna on his knees. She place her hands on the sides of his face.

"Favente fortuna in unum oro puri coram restitutionem." There was a bright flash of light and Fortuna found herself in a strange place. It was a shattered room. In the center of the room there was a familiar form in black.

"Chat Noir!" Fortuna said running towards him. He turned and though he was Chat Noir, his mask was missing revealing Adrien's face, though he still had the cat eyes. He also had a large white sword.

"Am I dreaming?" he asked.

"No," Fortuna said, "I'm here." Before she could reach him the ground between them erupted in pulsing roots and a bunch of them slammed the blond into the wall.

"Fortune's favor!" The roots were vaporized and it was shown that Adrien was trapped in a column of crystal. He was also back to being his civilian self. He pounded on the crystal to no avail.

"Finally, that bitch's protection wore off!" Fortuna turned to see a humanoid cat walking towards her. Acid green eyes and black fur, "Care to try to tangle with me in an area where I rule?"

"This is not your body. It's Adrien's," Fortuna said.

"Is it? Because Your little pet has quite the potential for mayhem. He likes being his destruction self. After all, who'd want his real self? He's a doll for this father. A blank slate for people who don't even know him to project anything onto. An accessory to his oldest friend. Nothing more than your pet—."

"You're wrong! Adrien is not a doll! He's not my pet! He's my partner!" Fortuna said, "And I love him!"

"Do you love Adrien or do you love Adrien Agreste the supermodel?"

"I love the guy who is sweet and patient with everyone, even Chloe. I love the guy who makes terrible cat puns on patrol. I love the guy who while he is an incurable flirt, respects my boundaries. I love the guy who I've been rejecting because I have a huge crush on his civilian self all because of an act of kindness in the rain. Maybe I don't know him as well as I'd like, but I know that I can't do this without him."

"But he doesn't notice any other girls with crushes on him," Touttais sneered.

"That's because as my civilians self, I can barely say a coherent sentence around him most times," Fortuna said.

"That would make you—."

— — —

He needed to get out of this prison. This was his mind

"That's because as my civilians self, I can barely say a coherent sentence around him most times."

"Marinette?" Adrien said. Oh for the love of—It made perfect sense! they were strong, compassionate, and great leaders. The magic of their suits had prevented him from realizing how identical they looked, but that was probably a good thing. He'd promised to love the lady beneath the mask no matter what and Marinette was easy to love. He closed his eyes and focused before white light built up around him and destroyed his prison. He looked down and he was back to being mostly transformed into Chat Noir. The white sword was back. He leapt over and joined his Lady.

— — —

"—Marinette. The baker's girl who is really good at video games if I'm looking through these memories correctly," Touttais said, "A girl he sees as cute but a friend because he's completely in love with Ladybug. Would you ever know if he liked you and not just Ladybug, Lady of Fortune?" There was a crash and a figure in black landed next to Fortuna wielding and even larger white sword than before.

"Nice to see you, minou," Fortuna said, "Is that a buster-sword? I didn't want to believe it, but here it is in front of me; you really are a huge weeb."

"And purr-oud of it, My Lady," Adrien said with a grin.

"It matters not. I've merged with him too deeply to be simply removed!" Touttais said.

"Then we'll have to take you out piece by piece!" Adrien said.

"Touch your blade to my staff," Fortuna said. They aimed the weapons at Touttais who merely laughed.

"Fortuna Huiusce Diei!" she said the light that poured forth was blinding and when it cleared the monster was not trapped in a crystal and his roots were no more.

"I have to recharge or I could lose control of the power and really mess things up," Fortuna said, "I'll be back, I promise." Adrien nodded before everything around him seemed to shift and he fell like everything hurt before he briefly saw blue eyes and freckles and darkness.

— —

Marinette sat across from the mostly changed over form. He was back to being the right age and size, but the feline attributes were still present. Tikki and Plagg were exhausted. Luckily, Gabriel had been thoughtful enough to leave a wheel of camembert and some cookies in the room for them. The duo were currently stuffing their faces as quickly as possible.

"How is he?" Marinette looked up to see Madeleine was there.

"How was that fairy thing?" Marinette said.

"Dull, like always. Arawn sends his apologies for borrowing the young man's body for so long with a promise to help send the restless spirits caused by Touttais's actions to their rest," she said sitting next to Marinette.

"He knows who I am but I can't tell if he's happy about it or not because we still have to get Touttais banished completely," Marinette said hugging her knees.

"You'll both have time to figure this out later. Are Tikki and Plagg recharging?" Madeleine asked.

"Yeah," Marinette gesture to where the duo were eating, "I can't wait to give this back." She played with the silver inactive black cat miraculous, "I don't like having this much power. It feels like I could get lost in it."

"That's a very mature choice," Madeleine said.

"I also don't want to be a hero if he's not my partner," Marinette said. Madeleine patted her arm before she noticed the form on the floor was stirring. She pulled Marinette back.

"Should we transform?" Herra asked holding a small piece of cake.

"Not yet," Madeleine said reaching out and gently patting the blue kwami's head.

— —

It was a gloomy room, but he could see just fine. Wait, this was the real world. He sat up and looked down at his hand, they were restrained by a pair of manacles and there were claws coming from his finger tips.

"Adrien?" He looked up and saw Marinette and—

"Mother?" he said. Both ladies exchanged looks before he was all but tackled into a hug. He felt warm and safe and wet? Oh, they were crying. So was he.

"But we haven't purged Touttais out yet," Marinette said as she let go and wiped away some of her tears. Adrien shrugged.

"We did lock him away," Adrien said. He noticed Marinette was wearing his ring. Right, she was using both. Something tiny grabbed his neck and he heard loud purring.

"You're never playing hero again," Plagg complained through the purr. His mother let go and he noticed her blue kwami floating next to her.

"Hello, Adrien," she said in a high voice, "I'm Herra, nice to finally meet you."

"Where are we?" Adrien asked.

"We can't tell you until we get Touttais out," Marinette said, "Even though those cuffs will stop his powers, he has proven to be destructive and good at running."

"I'm ready," Tikki said.

"Me too," Plagg said.

"I've never seen you this eager to transform," Adrien said.

"Her whole house is PINK!" Plagg said in horror.

"I'll be going with you, this time," Madeleine said looking over at Herra who swallowed the cake whole.

"Spots On, Claws Out!"

"Fan Out!" Adrien winced at the sudden brightness but the different Ladybug he'd seen in the mindscape was back with a blue form he sort of remembered. Oh! That's right, the shadow world. They went back to the circle and sat in a triangle. Peacock placed her hand on one side of his face and his Lady placed hers on the other.

"Favente fortuna in unum oro puri coram restitutionem"

— —

Fortuna and Peacock were standing on either side of Adrien who still had the white buster-sword. Peacock laughed.

"I knew getting you those games would be a bad idea," she said. Adrien smiled before they went back to facing the now darkened pillar of crystal. Fortuna followed her instincts and began to twirl her staff as Peacock pulled off her fan and it began to glow. Adrien was left holding his sword over his shoulder watching the magic build and the pair's finishing move.

"Sword!" Fortuna said before he held it against her staff head. Peacock placed her fan against the other side.

"Fortuna Huiusce Diei!"

"Evil Spirit begone!"

"Get out!" They swung their weapons as one just as Touttais broke free to get hit by the white light. Adrien felt it tearing at him too. They really were connected but he focused through the pain and imagined the threads being cut between them.

You're being foolish. Cutting those can cost you your chance at ever being fully human again. Adrien ignored the voice and the light from Fortuna and Peacock soon washed everything away and the cracks in the room began to mend themselves. It was still obvious there had been cracks, but soon everything began to fill with white light.

— —

Fortuna and Peacock opened their eyes to see Adrien slump off to the side. The cat traits were still there, only now the fur on them was the same golden color as his hair, and they were fluffy.

"Touttais is gone," Madeleine said after she'd released her transformation.

"Claws in," Ladybug slipped the ring off her finger and placed it back onto Adrien's right hand.

"Spots Off." Marinette slumped forwards exhausted. Days of this and it was all now over.

— —

Adrien rolled over and burrowed further into his blankets. Blankets? He sat up and everything came back in a jumbled rush making him clutch his head in pain only to have pain on his scalp. He removed his hands from his head and saw he still had claws.

"You're being foolish. Cutting those can cost you your chance at ever being fully human again." This was what Touttais meant.

"Adrien!" He looked up to see his parents were in his doorway. They rushed over to him and hugged him. He heard a purring and he flushed whenever his parents went stiff and he realized that was him purring.

"You always behaved like a giant kitten," his mother said before she placed a kiss on his head.

"I guess I'm not modeling anything anymore," Adrien said.

"Modeling? Gabriel! You promised me he wouldn't have anything to do with the brand until he was eighteen!"

— —

Marinette stood in front of her mirror with a frown. She hadn't realized it, at first, but the ladybug wings were permanently part of her. Easily hidden because they folded up, but it was just a reminder of the worst days of her life. Paris's citizens were back after she'd given the all clear and attempted to further fix the damage but the hole in the tunnel down into the lair of the cult who started this wouldn't take to any sort of fixing magic.

"I think they suit you," Tikki said.

"Do you think Adrien's having trouble with his side-effects?" Marinette said.. There was a tapping at her window. Chat Noir smiled at her through the glass. She motioned to the trap door and let him in.

"Good afternoon, Purrincess," he said. Not much had changed about his transformation except the fake cat eats were now sort of armor over his real cat ears and the belt tail was wrapped around his real tail leaving a fluffy tip exposed like a lion. When transformed the fur on said appendages was black.

"Silly kitty, it's still—oh. It is afternoon," Marinette said before she looked at her phone. Chat Noir leapt off her bed platform with feline grace before releasing his transformation. Adrien smiled up at her with a still pointy smile. Marinette shrugged before she took off her sweater and spread her wings fluttering down.

"Father's pulling me out of school, but I've heard that the others like me aren't coming back for a while either," Adrien said.

"It is kind of hard to miss these," Marinette said before she fluttered up and scratched his cat ears making him purr a little.

"The purring's new but adorable," she said. Adrien blushed and stopped.

"Team Miraculous has a joint interview in about four hours," Marinette said.

"Team Miraculous?" Adrien said.

"Touttais caused the other Miraculous stones to be given to chosen wielders and forced all of us to become one team. All of us," Marinette said.

"Hawkmoth was working with you?" Adrien said.

"He should have revealed himself to you, oh well I'll leave it for him to actually do another time. The others in the team aren't exactly happy he's still a Miraculous Holder, but after making a promise to Master Fu to never misuse the Butterfly Miraculous again, he was allowed to keep it and Nooroo," Marinette said, "Well, enough about that. How are your parents doing?"

"They were ok, until Mother found out Father had me modeling way before she had originally told him he could. I think Father will be sleeping in a guest room for a few weeks," Adrien said rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm so glad you're back," Marinette said blinking back tears. Adrien smiled and hugged her, minding the wings. He let her go.

"What was it like?" Adrien said.

"Exhausting. It was too much power. I could have destroyed everything if I hadn't held back," Marinette said, "And then remade it the way I wanted it, but that would have been wrong because what I want isn't what everyone wants. I also really wanted my partner back."

"So, we had crushes on each other and never knew it," Adrien said awkwardly, "Let's start over. Hello, I'm Adrien Agreste, former model but I'm also secretly a superhero."

"Hi. I'm Marinette, just an ordinary girl with an ordinary life. But I have a secret that no one knows yet…."

Fin