Footage of the fight was sparse. Unsurprisingly, it was the Ladyblog that proved to be Adrien's best resource. Alya, in all her careless glory, had gotten closer than any of the other journalists who'd had the good sense to fear for their own safety and to protect their equipment from overheating.
Still, Adrien couldn't complain because her high definition close ups had allowed him to study the monster, pausing and rewinding whenever he spotted something interesting. For one, although at first glance it looked like a lizard, the creature hadn't been scaled – what had looked like scales had been dried magma plates, which, on zooming in and slowing down, he'd caught shifting and moving, revealing red-hot lava beneath.
Unfortunately, she had failed to capture the creature's defeat and demise, having been removed from the battlefield by 'Carapace'.
He stifled the rising hiss. Closing the video now focused entirely on the new hero, he instead searched for aerial footage timestamped around when the enemy went down. Trying to ignore the chatter of the helicopter pilot, he instead focused on the grainy picture. A small figure that had to be Ladybug was left standing alone as a green-clad figure hurried away. She turned toward the monster and–
Adrien yowled and yanked the earbuds out. An answering roar could be heard from the creature before he managed to hit the pause button on his laptop.
What kind of hellish noise was that?
Plagg seemed to concur because the kwami was startled out of his sleep, his fur standing on end. Adrien preemptively slid another slice of cheese toward him before he gained enough of his bearings to start retaliating for having his nap interrupted.
At the rate Adrien was bribing him, Plagg was going to become one chubby cat. But that was a price Adrien was willing to pay.
Plagg regarded his peace offering with suspicion.
"Trying to buy my affections, huh?"
"Yes. Is it working?"
"No."
But he ate the cheese anyway, and settled back down to resume his nap.
"Woah," Marinette murmured as she came across a page with a beautiful drawing of one of her predecessors. The woman in the picture wore an outfit that bore a strong resemblance to Ladybug's costume – those spots were hard to miss – but it was cut like a traditional Chinese garment. She was poised to strike, arm and leg extended, grace and danger all at once. "How many Ladybugs have there been?"
"Countless," Tikki said, hovering beside her ear and pointedly not looking at the pages. "Whenever a threat against humanity arises, a Ladybug is called to serve as the shield. So it has been since the days the first Miraculous was forged."
"Chat Noir, too?"
"Yes. We and the Black Cat are but halves of a whole. He is the sword." She gestured vaguely in the direction of the tome, still refusing to look. "Somewhere in those pages you should find old incarnations of him as well."
Marinette did just that, only half-listening to the conversation between Wayzz and Nino beside her as she quickly but carefully flipped the brittle pages. In the many years that had passed since she'd last seen her first partner, she had almost managed to put him out of her mind, he so rarely crossed her thoughts these days. Only when she made a particularly egregious pun, now, really. But having Nino here – having another Miraculous user by her side, facing a powerful threat… well, it was hard not to think about him.
"…a great responsibility," Wayzz said.
"But I can't read it!" Nino objected.
"And I don't expect you to. Deciphering and recovering what's been lost is the task of a lifetime."
Marinette could not help the small sound of delight when she spotted green cat eyes staring at her from the pages. This one was a drawing of a black-haired beauty, her smile wide and mischievous as she stalked toward the reader, twirling a spear. She was wearing a toga of sorts, accessorized with black feathers, and on her head sat an ancient Inca crown. With cat ears.
Stifling a giggle at the curious mix of ancient history and kitty costume, she flipped the page. Marinette's smile died.
This Black Cat did not look mischievous at all.
Lazily leaning back on a throne of skulls, his claws curled around a rotting head, his fine medieval coat stained with rusted red. She blinked rapidly, and for just a moment she saw the unreadable letters shift and rearrange themselves.
all hail Lord Plague, herald of Pestilence
Marinette slammed the book shut, and suddenly found herself scrutinized by three set of eyes.
"…cool book," she said.
"Please refrain from damaging the ancient, priceless tome," Wayzz said with a sigh.
Nino frowned at her, but said nothing, then launched into his next volley of questions to his kwami about his superhero alter ego.
"Marinette?" Tikki said, so softly only she could hear. "What is it?"
"There was a picture of a Black Cat, but he didn't… Tikki, he looked…" Her whisper trailed off into silence.
Tikki's expression filled with sorrow. "There have been instances of Black Cats abusing the power they were given."
"Why?"
"Because it's in Destruction's nature to be destructive. Not every Cat succeeds in balancing on the razor's edge."
"Why is this the first I'm hearing of this?" she half-whispered, half-hissed.
"It's not, Marinette."
Marinette fell silent and turned away, half-heartedly focusing back on the conversation beside her.
"Okay, so what's my ultimate power?"
"Ultimate power?" Wayzz repeated, appearing bewildered.
"Yeah, the one Marinette said I could use once per battle?"
"Ah. Yes, once per transformation, indeed." A short pause and a decisive nod. "The words are "Jade Sight". Use it only in your moment of greatest despair, when the battle seems all but lost. Use it too soon, when matters are not yet dire, and you will waste it. It cannot win the battle for you, it can only ever prevent you from losing."
Nino was nodding eagerly, but his eyebrows drew together the longer Wayzz's cryptic warning kept going. "Okay, but what does it do?"
"Well." The little kwami's antenna twitched. "I would have told you. But you interrupted my speech."
There was a long moment of silence, and then Nino barked out a laugh. "You do have sass hiding somewhere after all, Wayzz!"
The small creature merely shrugged. "It's not like it was a speech spanning untold generations of Guardians, each honoring the sacred moment they received it through festivals and prayers. It's not like I have recited it in a hundred different languages."
"Wayzz–"
"And it's certainly not like it far surpassed the cliff notes version."
"Wayzz, would you like to retroactively give the speech now?"
"…yes."
Nino grinned, torn between sheepish and amused, and held up a finger. "One moment, then." He scrambled to his feet and hurried out of the kitchen, returning moments later with his laptop. He opened it and scrolled through his – extensive – song collection. Wayzz gave him a baffled look.
Eventually, Nino looked up, and nodded gravely.
"As I said, it was an epic speech. Deserving of epic background music."
He hit play, and the haunting sound of drums echoed through the tinny speakers, seamlessly transitioning into a full-blown orchestra. Marinette laughed softly, and immediately stifled it, trying to look as solemn as the occasion demanded.
"Proceed."
Eyeing the laptop with suspicion, but not to be deterred from reestablishing tradition, Wayzz cleared his throat.
"Nino Lahiffe. You have been Chosen. From this day forward, the eternal battle against Evil…"
Paris had a new tourist attraction.
Alya made her way through the crowd, employing a multi-pronged strategy of sneaking, muttered pardons and, if nothing else worked, a firm elbow shove. Finally, she came as close to the Seine's shore as she was likely to get, gazing down at the great stone beast rising out of the water.
It looked almost peaceful. Now that it wasn't on fire.
A few tourists had snuck past the police tape to take selfies in front of it, only to run like hell when they were spotted and chased off, laughing all the way. Adjusting the lens of her camera, Alya took it all in, slowly making her way along the promenade to document it from every angle. She took pictures of the gathered crowd, too, to comb through later to see if anyone struck her as suspicious.
After all, it was not unusual for suspects to return to the scene of their crime. And somehow, with the way the creature had died, she did not think it had decided to appear in and rampage through Paris on its own.
As the sun set and the crowd started dispersing, Alya showed no sign of slowing down. Ideally, she'd have liked to start investigating where the creature had appeared, not where it had died, but she only had a limited window of time to preserve this evidence for eternity. Already a demolition crew had moved in to tear the statue down, trying to clear the Seine for boats and ships once more. The creature's long tail had been half-dismantled, but it was slow going and the full removal would likely take them weeks.
She would go stake out its place of origin later tonight.
Her phone vibrated, and she flinched guiltily.
She was busy with an important investigation that couldn't wait. And she definitely wasn't avoiding her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, who had begged her not to run into danger, and whom she had completely ignored.
The worst part of it was that he probably wouldn't even raise his voice at her. He'd just give her that look, the one of immeasurable disappointment and hurt. But damn it, she was a woman on a mission. This was her calling!
She snuck a peek at her phone.
Nino: babe what do u want for dinner
Nino: cuz i'm in the mood for gyros. u in?
Nino was a master in the art of the subtle guilt trip.
Nino: babe?
Alya: I'll bring some :)
She had to face him eventually, so might as well come bearing food to appease him.
"Pardon," she murmured as she pushed her way past a tall blond man who did not appear to be part of a group, as most people were. He was staring at the creature with pursed lips and a thoughtful expression on his handsome face.
"Alya?"
She froze, blinking at the man who was gazing at her with equal surprise. Then his lips curved into a smile, and that she recognized.
"Adrien!"
"I should have known you'd be here," he said, nodding to her camera. "Research for the Ladyblog?"
She nodded happily, returning his smile. "Let's just say the Ladyblog's traffic has exploded over the last two days, and my readers are hungry for more."
"How gracious of you to provide it," he said, amusement tinging his deep voice.
"When did you get back to Paris? Nino didn't tell me you were coming!" And Nino always announced Adrien's upcoming visits. First with giddy happiness, and eventually with a muted sort of excitement, his enthusiasm having dimmed in recent years when Adrien had flaked one too many times. But he always got his hopes up all over again.
"Ah, yeah." Adrien awkwardly shifted his weight. "I let him know. It was kind of a spontaneous decision, I just arrived yesterday."
Alya's analytical brain seized that information and fed it through her existing knowledge base, as it so routinely did.
It generated a highly unwelcome conclusion she immediately shook off.
"That's great," she chirped, and stuffed her camera into her backpack. "We should definitely catch up soon. For now, speaking of Nino, I've kept him waiting long enough and really should be headed home."
As she hurried away from Adrien, he bemusedly raised his open palm in a small wave.
Alya tried very hard to convince herself that it was sheer coincidence that a monster had attacked Paris on the very same day Hawkmoth's son had come back to town.
"She's headed over." Nino beamed at Marinette. "Are you going to stay for dinner with us?"
"Nah," Marinette said, stretching her arms and yawning. "I'd rather not suspiciously not-explain what we've been up to all day." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Alright, let's get our stories straight. I came over with breakfast looking for Alya, but she wasn't there, so I hung out with you for a while."
Nino blinked at the ease with which the lie came to her lips.
"You have a lot of practice with this, huh?"
Her expression became somber. "I do. It's amazing how good of a liar this job makes of you. It's why…" She looked down at her hands. "When Luka and I broke up… he caught me in a lie, and then he really started looking for them. We didn't last long after that."
"Damn."
"Yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say is…"
"I'm fucked?" There was no way he could keep this from Alya for any length of time.
She smiled sympathetically. "Well, I've managed to keep it up for years. What works for me is this – Alya is clever, and she wants to feel clever. Never try to straight-up deny something she knows. Misdirect her toward another conclusion so she can feel like she solved the mystery, and she'll move on to the next one."
"I can't believe you're giving me tips on how to lie to my girlfriend."
She shrugged and stood up. "Welcome to the superhero lifestyle, Nino."
With the preliminary research concluded, for just a moment, Adrien was tempted to wait for a Grand Entrance.
He'd wait for the next monster to appear, until Ladybug was cornered and in danger. He'd jump in and save her in the most badass of ways, preferably while upstaging Carapace somehow. Then he'd strike a dramatic pose and say something suave and cool. She'd fall in love with him, finally, and they'd live happily ever after.
He laughed softly at his own immaturity. Childish daydreams he'd left behind. How pathetic that some part of him still wanted her.
This was duty, nothing more. He would be professional. Which meant consulting and exchanging intel with her now, not waiting until the heat of battle.
"Plagg."
He gently scratched his kwami behind his ear and he stirred from his nap.
"What." The kwami's voice was flat as he watched him through narrow eyes.
"With our connection being… stronger now, what can I expect when I transform?"
The kwami didn't answer for a long moment. "More," he said eventually.
"More what?"
"More everything. Faster, stronger, everything you were before but more."
Adrien pursed his lips. That… seemed kind of underwhelming. The way Plagg had hyped it up, he'd have thought – he wasn't sure what he'd thought. That he'd unlocked some grand ultimate power now, he supposed.
Seeming to pick up on his disappointment, Plagg snorted derisively. "Actual new skills require skill, Adrien. And skill is acquired by learning and practice, not by sitting on your ass for six years."
"I didn't–" He shook his head and stood up. "Alright, thank you. Ready?"
"As if you ever cared if I was ready to transform," Plagg muttered under his breath. "All those camemberts you made me leave behind…"
"True." Adrien grinned at the grumpy kwami. "So let's make this just like old times. Plagg, claws out!"
When Adrien had put the ring back on, it had felt like his senses had come alive. He'd heard every soft whisper, had started reacting to the slightest movement in his field of vision, drowning in stimulus he didn't know how to process.
That was only a pale shadow of the symphony of noise and scent that hit him as familiar magic washed over him. But instead of being overwhelmed by it, he welcomed the sensation, accepted it as part of his nature as he bounded toward the hotel room's balcony. It felt only natural to jump on the railing and crouch down to all fours, his claws easily finding purchase. He stretched his back, loosening limbs that had been inflexible and boring for far too long.
Damn. He'd almost forgotten how good this felt.
His ears twitched, and his tail swished. They were a costume, made of leather, and yet responded to his will like extensions of himself.
The city of Paris lay sprawled at his feet, glittering like a jewel in the night.
Chat Noir grinned at his domain.
Author's Note:
And finally, Chat Noir enters the scene! And it only took me 10 chapters.
lol what is pacing