Marinette's mind was overflowing with feelings of anxiety and hesitation, but she didn't dare succumb to them. Today was Wednesday, which meant she was due for a battle with Hawk Moth. Luckily the villain she faced during Alya's party wasn't the same battle she expected today.
She'd planned to spend the day near the Eiffel Tower so she would be ready when Hawk Moth and Mayura showed up. This meant that she had to skip classes, again. It wasn't the first time she'd missed class for her Ladybug duties of course. She'd just have to make up another excuse to her parents, it would all work out. If anyone knew what she was doing they wouldn't even second guess her missing class.
"Are you ready Marinette?" Tikki asked, hovering over the other two miraculous boxes in front of Marinette.
Marinette took a deep breath and nodded. She put on the necklace of the mouse miraculous and the bracelet of the snake. She checked her purse to make sure she had enough cookies for Tikki and grabbed the lunch she made for herself.
Marinette left as usual, but headed for the Eiffel Tower instead of school once she was out of the view of her parents in the bakery.
Before she arrived, Marinette transformed, then stationed herself on a nearby rooftop. She went over her plan in her head and promised herself it would work for the millionth time.
Hours went by. It was already 5:30PM and there was no sign of Hawk Moth Her anxiety was at an all-time high. Did future Marinette lie to her? She tried to ignore her apprehensions. Maybe Hawk Moth simply had a day job and was late to his own plans she jokingly thought to herself.
Not an hour later she noticed something odd half way up the tower. A figure was standing alone on a platform that wasn't open to the public. Ladybug squinted to try to see clearer against the setting sun. Suddenly another figure appeared and stood beside the other. Her heart started to race, this was it. She started a mental checklist; Forbidden area, two mysterious figures, they were wearing dark colours, this was it. She'd been waiting for this moment all week.
"Tikki spots off." She whispered, trying not to gain any attention. She opened her purse for Tikki to take a cookie and recharge.
"Mullo get squeaky." She whispered to the mouse who'd been silent until now.
"Tikki are you ready?" She paused to see the kwami nod. "Multitude!" She exclaimed in a hushed voice. She divided into three versions of herself, all slightly shorter than the original, but Hawk Moth wouldn't even have the chance to notice the difference.
"Tikki, Mullo, unify." The second Multimouse merged with Tikki, gaining both the powers of the Ladybug and Mouse miraculous.
"Sass, Mullo, unify." The third Multimouse merged with Sass, gaining that power as well.
These two new versions of herself left just one as regular Multimouse. Alright. Now to get over there without causing panic. Multimouse tried to remember what she'd learned from the minimal training she'd done already.
"Multitude!" She cried out again, and split herself until each version of herself was the size of a mouse. They all held onto each other as Multibug swung her yo-yo to bring them over the the Eiffel Tower. This wouldn't look much different than a bird flying by, if anyone noticed anyway.
Once on the same level of the tower as Hawk Moth, all the multimice combined, leaving just the trio again.
"Alright," Multimouse started, "We all know the plan; Multisass, you stay back in case something goes wrong. Multibug, you do your thing and I'll be the distraction however I can.
The three nodded in agreement. Multisass turned back the bracelet starting their five minutes. Multimouse called for multiply again and ran out to distract Hawk Moth. At the same time, Multibug snuck above them, lining herself up to be able to swipe the miraculous off Hawk Moth before he could react.
Lucky for them, she'd seen a picture of the butterfly miraculous before in the miraculous book she'd "borrow" for Adrien that time. The only wild card in this plan was Mayura. Initially she wasn't sure if she should capture Mayura's miraculous, or Hawk Moth's first. Hawk Moth's ability to create akumas at will however might squander her progress if she captured Mayura's miraculous first, which made for an easy decision in the end.
Hawk Moth was focused on Multimouse running around between his feet. Multibug swooped in and snatched the miraculous from his shirt. Multibug looked back to see who her enemy had been for so long.
"Gabriel Agreste?!" She called out in surprise.
In the trio's collective confusion all three failed to notice Mayura rapidly approaching Multibug until it was too late. Mayura sent Multibug flying off the Eiffel Tower. Multisass turned back the bracelet for second chance and they were all sent back to their meeting pre-attack.
"Wait!" Multisass stopped them. "Hawk moth is Gabriel Agreste."
Multimouse and Multibug both gasped in unison.
"But why?" Multibug asked.
"It doesn't matter, we have to stop him!" Multimouse chimed in.
The three nodded in agreement and executed their plan. This time, Multibug was prepared for Mayura's attack and blocked it successfully. Multimouse called for multiply again and clung to Mayura, searching for her miraculous.
Multibug continued to battle with Mayura, making sure Multimouse didn't fall off. Lucky for them, Mayura hadn't noticed Multisass watching over them in case something were to go wrong again.
Multisass pointed to a service latter until she saw that Multibug had noticed.
What? Multibug looked around and noticed Gabriel was missing.
"You've been abandoned by Hawk- Gabriel, Mayura. Give up."
"Never." Mayura hissed.
Multimouse used the distraction to pluck Mayura's miraculous from her dress. Mayura fell back in shock as her transformation broke.
Multimouse clicked her tongue. "Should have know that you would be Mayura if Hawk Moth was Gabriel Agreste."
Multibug reformed into one larger Multimouse and put the two miraculous in her pocket. "I should turn you both over to the authorities, but I already let Gabriel leave and I have no proof other than my word. If I let you go you better not cause any more trouble for this city, it's citizens, or me." She spoke with a stern voice, and a piercing glare. This girl was done withe super villains
Nathalie kept her head down Multimouse's entire lecture and nodded when she was done. She stood up and silently left down the ladder where Gabriel had left earlier.
The trio waited as long as they could before transforming back to ensure no one had stuck around or would be able to see her transform back.
"Mullo, divide." Multisass changed, becoming another Multimouse, combining with the original.
"Mullo, divide." Multibug followed suite in combining with the original Multimouse.
Multimouse sighed. The butterfly and peacock miraculous were finally safe. "I should return these to Master Fu before I go home."
Tikki eagerly floated in front of Multimouse, "I'm so glad Noroo and Duusu will finally be reunited with everyone in the miracle box!"
Sass nodded in agreement, "Yesss," he hissed. "I'm excited to sssee them again."
Multimouse walked into a dark corner of the tower and to detransform.
"Mullo, divide."
With that, she broke her transformation and made sure all the kwami's appetites were satiated.
"Tikki, spots on!"
Ladybug swung her yoyo, descending from the Eiffel Tower and onto the rooftops. Normally she would travel to Master Fu's in civilian form, but she had to get down from the tower somehow and this would be much faster than public transportation.
Ladybug thought she would feel and immense amount of relief after this. Rather than relief, she still felt anxiety as if it wasn't actually over yet. It was very anti-climatic and she was left a little disappointed.
All she had left was to return the butterfly and peacock miraculouses to Master Fu, then her job as Ladybug would be over. Suddenly she was about to be irrelevant. Just a regular teen again, no longer needed as a super hero. She was about to have a lot of spare time on her hands.
Ladybug released her transformation nearby and knocked on Master Fu's door.
"Marinette." He answered the door in surprise. "You're coming by a lot lately."
Marinette stepped through and sat down beside him in the living room. "I have something for you." SHe said with a slight smile. Marinette took the two miraculouses from her purse and passed them to him in closed hands.
"Oh, what's this?" He looked at the two miraculous that were finally in his possession at long last. "Marinette! How did you get these?!" He exclaimed, astonished she so suddenly appeared with them.
"It's over." She replied with a somber expression.
