A/N: I think we're nearing the end with this. I'm excited and a bit sad at the same time. Anyhow, enjoy!


Glistening oil.

Glowing rings.

A locket.

A clenched fist.

Screams into the dark.


Squeals, really. So many squeals. Marinette curled up into herself in happiness as Alya's shrieks transmitted through the laptop.

"Good for you, girl!" Alya's smiling face beamed from the screen. "I knew this would happen."

"Mmm, it's nice to know that my feelings were reciprocated, and that I'll finally have a successful match."

"You deserve it. Seriously," Alya added when Marinette opened her mouth in protest. "I just want you happy under the current system."

Marinette cast a smile back at her friend. "Thanks, Alya."

"So when are you two going to pick each other?"

"I don't know." Marinette shrugged. "It hasn't been that long, and we've still got about four months left."

Alya shook her head. "I'd recommend filing things a little earlier. The license has to come through before those six months are up, and the request can take a few weeks to be processed." Alya grimaced. "You'd think they'd do things faster, but it's almost as if the place employs ten sloths year round. Nothing gets done."

"Like the DMV? Got it," Marinette rocked back on her bed, tilting the computer so she could still see Alya. "So I should probably bring this up to Adrien a little earlier than I was planning?"

"Definitely. I'm pretty sure he'll take it well, and it's a lot easier than you think it is. Just bring it up during dinner or something."

"Like you did to Nino? He choked on his wine, from what I've heard."

"Then don't bring it up while he's drinking something. I had a bit of bad timing. I mean, when I checked before asking he wasn't drinking anything, but when the question actually came out, he was gulping down the wine."

Marinette snorted. "I know. And Nino maintains that he was about to drink and that a hand on the wine glass is enough of an indication."

"He puts his hand on glasses all the time without actually taking a sip," Alya huffed. "Anyways, if you do ask around the next two or three months, you guys'll fall just around the holiday season."

"Which means that everything's going to be even slower," Marinette groaned.

"Yeah, that's probably what you're going to find yourself in."

She sighed. "That's fine. Seriously, thanks for telling me. You know how I am with my deadlines."

"Still pushing them to the last minute?" Alya grinned. "I distinctly remember that English essay you turned in electronically a minute before the deadline."

"I've changed and grown, Alya. I actually turned in my entry for the design contest two weeks early."

"Congrats! I –" Alya was cut off by a loud a bang outside. A puff of dust trickled down in front of her window and Marinette caught a glimpse of a wizard – a wizard? – hopping on the window ledge outside.

"Come face me, Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"howled a bespectacled young man with a lightning scar on his forehead. Harry Potter? What the –

She dove under the bed as the window blasted inward, scattering glass and wood debris all over her room.

"Marinette!" Alya shrieked. "Run!"

"Call you later, Alya! Tikki!" She severed the connection and grabbed her emergency bag with its snacks, money and phone. Marinette dashed into the kitchen, hauling herself up and out through the window and onto the emergency exit of the balcony. A red blur and a flash later, Ladybug was swinging through the streets.

Why was there a Harry Potter, of all things, chasing her? She hadn't offended anyone in recent memory, unless if she had accounted for the pedestrian she'd cut off from crossing the road, and he definitely did not know her well enough to have her address. Had Hawkmoth somehow convinced an akuma that she was to blame for some unknown crime? And how did he even find out about her identity anyways?

Ladybug skidded to a stop on the roof of an office building and ducked behind a column to catch her breath. She took a peek, cautiously sticking her head out, only to discover that the akuma was nowhere to be seen. Odd. Perhaps he was hiding, so then her best set of plans would be to keep searching for safe ground and call Chat.

She dug out her phone and tapped out a quick text, praying that he'd get here quickly. Taking another look around, Ladybug leaped off the edge.

A red lob of light streaked past her. A pigeon fell from the sky. "Come back, you coward, and let's have a proper duel!"

Ladybug risked a backwards glance at her pursuant as she took a sharp right turn, swinging herself into the path of the Eiffel Tower. A furious Draco Malfoy rode a broomstick, brandishing a wand in his hand. If the spell was a stunner, then his priority was to incapacitate, not kill. She thanked an unknown entity for small mercies. Although, was there more than one assailant?

Never mind that. She'd continue with her priority of finding high ground where she could stay safe. She'd already contacted Chat, and she wished, not for the first time, that they had some sort of internal system that transmitted when there were akuma attacks so they could help each other out in time.

Thankfully, Chat didn't seem to be far this time. "Hey," he said, suddenly popping up beside her, "so what'd you do to make Yuri Plisetsky so mad?"

"Yuri?"

Sure enough, a small blond skater in leopard print streaked after them on skates; wherever the blades touched, the road turned to ice.

"He wasn't Yuri the last time I saw. It was Draco Malfoy chasing me!"

Chat managed to shrug in midair. "Let's go the Eiffel Tower, yeah? This akuma seems like a handful."

"Sure. We'll almost there."

What should've been a few leaps and bounds turned into a lengthy chase around the districts of Paris. Yuri, it seemed, could create ice anywhere , even in the middle of the air, where sheets of ice had no right to be. He delighted in striking out with a particularly sharp blade or managing impossible jumps – hello, quad axel – to horrify and injure pedestrians, forcing Chat and Ladybug to corral the young skater away from the scene. They wasted valuable time and energy luring him away fascinated viewers, but eventually managed to draw him to a wide open plaza of the Eiffel Tower where people had more space to get away.

"I think he's a shapeshifter," Ladybug confessed as they baited Yuri on a merry chase. "I've seen three different people, all at different times. Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, and now this character."

"It's probably just one akuma without any self-replicating abilities, then. We can probably tempt him into changing into something stupid. Offend anyone today?"

"Not that I know of."

They had reached the top of the metal structure. Ladybug peered down at Yuri, who had begun entertaining a crowd.

"Isn't interesting, though, the characters the akuma chooses to turn into? And I've never seen a purple mask pop up on him."

"None?" Ladybug turned towards Chat. "I'd assume there'd be at least one instance where Hawkmoth felt the need to control the akuma within this time."

Chat shook his head. "Not a single one. And the akuma's so powerful, too. We've seen some that can spawn pale imitations, but there's never been one that shape shifts into fictional characters and maintains their powers."

Ladybug's mental gears began to turn. "Master Fu never mentioned that Miraculous holders can't use their powers on themselves."

"But we know that we can; we've experimented with it." Right, when Marinette was a younger Ladybug, she'd rig the odds in her favor to help get closer to her crushes.

"So we're potentially dealing with Hawkmoth."

"Pretty much."

Ladybug shuddered. "We've never faced off against him before. What's made him so desperate?"

Suddenly, a pink projectile headed their way. "Give me your Miraculous!"

Ladybug toppled off the Tower in surprise. "I'm fine!" she yelled as she threw her yo-yo to snag one of the Tower's metal supports. Chat landed beside her.

"Who knew Hawkmoth was such a fan of Harry Potter?"

"Umbridge really does resemble a toad, doesn't she?"

"I heard that!" A woman waddled towards them. Her image rippled like a mirage in the desert heat before reforming into an old, wizened man with white hair and a staff.

"Gandalf the White? Seriously?" They watched the man warily as he attempted to block the exits (the air spaces in the metal structures) around them.

"You shall not pass!" He (she?) slammed the wooden staff down, sending reverberating vibrations through the metal. Chat and Ladybug leaped for safety, swinging from the Tower to perch on one of the buildings nearby.

The Tower trembled and held, but barely.

"We've got to lure her away from here," Ladybug muttered.

"I think the water'll do fine. There's plenty of bridges and they're close enough to lead her on a merry chase, but far enough to keep her away from harming others."

"Let's go for it."

"Let's." Chat leaped away first to scout out a plan while Ladybug lured the akuma – Hawkmoth? Thinking of that was too daunting – towards the water.

She'd have bet on the akuma being rather intelligent, considering who they thought was under the mask, but the akumas had all behaved rather dully while being controlled with strong, negative emotions. Their machinations had led to the creation of frustrating, if relatively simple barriers, though. She wondered what the akuma would come up with. Speaking of which, why hadn't the akuma announced its name yet?

This time, when she scanned the afternoon sky for a Gandalf, she saw a werewolf racing towards her instead. She squinted. It seemed to have murderous blue eyes and a badly burned face. "Peter Hale," she taunted (all those afternoons watching TV finally paid off), "you're still a psychopathic monster, aren't you?"

The werewolf didn't twitch. Knowing Peter, he'd accepted that fact long ago.

She sighed. Time to go for a classic. It probably wouldn't work. "Well, you're fat!"

It skidded to stop and perked its ears. Was it working?

"Didn't you hear me the first time? You're fat! Chubby! Round as a rolly polly!"

The werewolf shimmered and morphed into Jessica Rabbit. "These are curves, you idiot! Which you have none of!"

Ladybug blinked. She really didn't think that would've worked. Now, she just needed to get the name and the infected object.

"So, uh, why me?" Ladybug threw over her shoulder as she began to head towards the Seine. Jessica Rabbit began to run after her in an astonishingly fast pace for someone wearing heels.

"Why not, Marinette?" It was a shock to hear that sultry voice snarling her name. And her civilian name, no less. Ladybug hoped that once they got over the water, only Chat and she would be close enough to hear what the villain was saying.

"You've ruined all of my plans! Years of careful orchestration, messing with the government documents so you'd never find your match. Now I'll never get my heart's desire back! It's all your fault!"

She glanced over her shoulder. The cartoon character was catching up, but the bridge was just a hundred feet away. Ladybug made a running leap onto the nearest structure, perching on the stone skeleton, only to be slammed into the water by a large, scaly foot.

Ladybug gasped for air as she bobbed at the surface. Blinking the water from her eyes, she squinted at a blurry Chat battling a velociraptor. He seemed to be weaving around the dinosaur, distracting it with his claws and fangs, but when he nearly had the thing cornered, it rippled. A few seconds later, Chat was squashed under a bellowing cow, followed by a chirping songbird, and then great white shark. The fish seemed to asphyxiate before changing into Hagrid.

Well.

Clearly, something had to be done. Chat wasn't holding his own well, although he'd managed to get to a further distance, keeping the akuma's attention focused on him. She crawled out of the water and reached for her Lucky Charm, sighing when a ball of elastic string fell into her arms.

She didn't have any ideas about what to do with it right now, so she stowed it away and rejoined the fight.

The most frustrating thing about this akuma was that it kept changing shape. It changed into all sorts of characters of different shapes and sizes, making it hard to trap and difficult to evade. And it never stated its name.

"Hey, what's your name?" Chat shouted. Clearly, he'd picked up on the odd quirk as well.

"I've got no name!" The akuma suddenly rippled and transformed into a naked girl with a shell necklace. The girl's face grimaced with every step she took.

"No name?" Chat repeated. "You have to have one!"

The akuma rippled again, but remained in the girl's form. "I've got no name," she ground out.

The infected always had names and a focus object. Since the name was always a reflection of the power the object gave them, then if this akuma was nameless, then it should have no power. But it seemed to be the strongest of all they've faced.

"Everything's got a name," Chat insisted. The akuma rippled but stayed put as the girl. Interesting.

"Just give me your Miraculouses and I'll be off!" it snarled instead, easily transforming into a hawk.

Chat and Ladybug dodged the diving bird. She nudged Chat, nodding at him. He dove for the akuma, comprehending that she had a plan.

If the akuma suffered from problems when names were mentioned, what would happen if Ladybug ordered the akuma to do something name-related?

"Name that!" she yelled, waving a finger wildly in the air.

"The sky!" the girl squawked. She fell from midair, clutching her shell necklace. "It's the sky!"

"Name that!" Ladybug repeated, moving her hand around in a circle.

The akuma began to babble, reeling off everything Ladybug's finger could even possibly be pointing at. The lady's Gucci shoes, her illegal pet monkey, the dog in the corner, a cumulus cloud, the sediment in the Seine; the akuma's voice blended into the humming background.

Chat, bless him, activated Cataclysm and drew a circle of destruction around the girl. Ladybug quickly used the elastic string to tie her to the lampposts on the bridge. She was successfully suspended in the air as the bottom of the bridge crashed into the Seine.

"The necklace, Chat!" Ladybug called out. The girl had been furiously caressing the shell as she was being suspended over a mess of rock and water. Even if she'd only seen it appear on this form, Ladybug had a hunch that the shell was the focus object.

He danced forward, snagging the shell necklace off the girl's neck while she snarled at him in vain. He crushed it under his heel, and sure enough, a gleaming purple butterfly fluttered from the shards. One quick purification and a restoration later, a pointy, middle-aged man sat slumped in the middle of the street.

"Keep him there, would you?" Ladybug motioned at her earrings, which were blinking with one spot left. "I'll de-transform and come back." Her partner nodded, advancing towards the man.

Ladybug backed away slowly, carefully watching the man's hand in his pocket. He seemed to fumble with something inside before he triumphantly pinned a dull violet button on his collar.

"Nooroo, transform me!" A great flash of purple light, a theatrical arm gesture, and a loud thunk!

Chat stood over the unconscious man, his baton raised. He rushed forward and quickly unpinned the Miraculous from the Hawkmoth's shirt while shielding the object from a passerby's view.

"Got him," Chat said lightly. One clawed hand dropped the brooch into a leather pocket.

"Ooh, nice. I'll call the cops." Ladybug rushed underneath the bridge, hanging from a slight handhold. She knew Tikki hated transforming twice without break, but Tikki would do it in desperate cases, which this akuma definitely qualified as.

A split second later, a newly charged Ladybug was landing beside Chat, who'd also taken a breather. His ring was no longer blinking.


Marinette slumped over on her bed, snoring. It'd been a long week of running and revelations, and she needed sleep if she wanted to be functional the next day.

A knock sounded at the door.

Or not.

Adrien and his ridiculous blond hair stood in the doorway. A black blur sped off to meet Tikki, and the two of them disappeared through an open window.

"Hey," she waved at him half-heartedly. "What's up?"

"A lot of things," he said.

"Wrong question," she said. "I meant, how are you?"

"Alright." He did look a little worse for wear, but then so would she if she discovered that Hawkmoth was actually a long lost uncle.

"Come on in." She ushered him inside and made him a cup of coffee. She made herself one too, hoping the caffeine and the heat would keep her awake.

"What's the verdict with Master Fu? Discovered anything new?"

He shook his head. "Not much. Nooroo's still in an unresponsive state. Master Fu thinks that's for his own protection, but he doesn't know why Nooroo still hasn't come out of it yet." Adrien curled his hands around the mug. "It's probably up to the kwami to awaken, since everything Master Fu's tried has been ."

In other words, the butterfly Miraculous was no better than a bauble found on the street. "I wonder if that'll change when Felix gets out of police custody."

"Apparently, after a long stint of evil like that, the Miraculous needs to rest. The book doesn't say how long, though."

"Ah, I see." Marinette paused, wondering how she could carefully broach the next topic. "So, um, how's work?"

"Good." He ducked his head down, clearly not in the mood to talk about Felix or any other serious matter. He did, however, look in need of a nap.

"You look tired. I've got some space for a nap if you'd like," she offered. "Seriously, it's no trouble. The couch is pretty comfortable."

He lifted his head, then shook it slowly. "No, I couldn't intrude."

"It's not intruding if I'm offering it to you," she pointed out. "Besides, you look dead on your feet. Think of the poor photographer and the makeup artist."

"Ha ha," Adrien said. "They've dealt with worse before."

"Right." She walked around to her closet and dug out a spare pillow and a blanket. "Here," she heaped them into his arms, "these'll do the trick. I've got more pillows and blankets from where those came from." Marinette pushed him towards the couch.

"I can wake you up if you've got anymore appointments today, but I think you're guaranteed at least an hour because it's our match meeting time."

"Thanks. Could you wake me up at 4?"

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll keep watch. Call if you need anything."

She retired to her bedroom as Adrien settled on the couch. He'd be useless unless he got some rest, and so would she, but she had to go sort through some things first.

Flicking open the browser tab that she'd closed before her nap, Marinette settled in front of her laptop. Her official Ladybug email account was flooded with notifications and emails, especially with ones from law enforcement. She sighed, and then read over the three starred ones again.

Dear Ms. Dupain-Cheng,

We regret to inform you that we have made an inexcusable error within our matching system. Please call this number to discuss this issue with us further.

Sincerely,

The Match France

What was that supposed to even mean? She already knew that the system made mistakes, since she'd wasted a match on it, but this was the first time she'd gotten an email about an "issue." Just what did they want to discuss? Sometimes, she wondered what would've happened if she didn't mention Felix's suspicious comments about tampering to the police, but she didn't know it would've led to a match system notification. Usually, nothing good came out of those.

Marinette exhaled heavily, and then resolved to shove the issue to the side for now. She'd call within the next week or so; finals were looming but she was sure she'd find the time to deal with this email.

Which brought her to the next bomb sitting in her inbox.

Chat and Ladybug had asked the cops to forward a file on all they had of the man who'd been arrested. Reluctant at first, the law enforcement eventually caved when the superheroes pointed out that the man had been causing problems for everyone. If the cops refused to help, then the two would withdraw cooperation with the government – no more press conferences, speeches, or public reassurances that built up the government's image. The threat would take; after all these years, the French officials still haven't identified what exactly Ladybug's and Chat's powers were, and the government wouldn't take the risk of losing public approval.

Apparently, the man who was Hawkmoth also went by the name Felix Agreste. He'd dropped off the map after his last failed match, and disappeared into the bowels of society, only to reappear again. Adrien, apparently, had never heard of him, although the man's age and last name indicated some relation. She'd wondered if he'd take it well at the time, but it was clear from his eye bags and ruffled hair that he didn't.

Of course, being ambushed by the press didn't help. Gabriel dealt with it by shutting himself into his mansion, but Adrien couldn't escape it so easily. Models had photo shoots, after all, and those had a tendency to take place outside in public view.

Marinette put her head down, resting it on her arms, and set the alarm to four. She'll deal with it then.


A/N: So, I know that the identity of Hawkmoth veers from canon, but I didn't want Gabriel Agreste to be a psychopathic murderer because there is no way that Adrien turned out as well as he did otherwise.

Like the akuma? Hate the akuma? Tell me about in the comments, please. They really do make my day.

Happy new year!