Paranoia seemed to be becoming a common feeling within the group, so they decided to have a sleepover at the Dupain-Chengs' bakery in preparation for tomorrow. It had been quite the surprise - changed heart or not - that Tomoe had let Kagami stay the night, but they weren't about to challenge that.

Having set themselves up with pastries and popcorn, the group was currently watching the antics of Don and Cosmo as they danced and sang about Moses. Even the kwamis shared in the fun, munching on cookies and other snacks.

Xuppu, most likely because he was the kwami of Jubilation, seemed to be enjoying it most of all.

As he hung from Marinette's table lamp from his tail, nibbling a macaroon, the kwami suddenly noticed Kim staring at him. His face seemed to be one of… bittersweetness?

Eventually, Xuppu flipped up into the air and flew over to Kim's lap.

"'Sup, nitwit?" the Monkey kwami asked - quietly, as not to disturb the others. "What's with the sad look? Ya got through that Palace thingamabob, an' you're watching a talkie."

"A talkie?" Kim whispered back.

"Ain't you watching the movie?" Xuppu frowned, giving Kim an unimpressed look. "Not all movies used sound. When they started doing this, they were called talking pictures, or talkies for short!"

"Oh, cool," Kim shrugged, expression somewhat listless.

"What's going on, dude?" Nino whispered as he scooted back slightly to join in on their conversation, Kaalki following him.

"Well…" Kim said awkwardly, before lapsing into silence as he searched for the right words. Eventually, he sighed, before unceremoniously bowing his head and saying, "I miss working with you, Xuppu!"

There was silence between them, before Kim blushed. "N-not to say working with Stompp is boring or anything," the jock admitted, "I don't know… I just wish I wasn't such an idiot before."

"You say that like Miracle Queen was your fault," Nino pointed out, "I won't deny that I miss Wayzz. The feeling is natural."

"It's not just Miracle Queen…" Kim muttered.

"Oh… you mean Lila?" Nino guessed, a dark frown overtaking his face at the memory of the mendacious brat.

Kim nodded, "I guess… I'm just so ashamed of myself! You, Marinette, and I were childhood buds, so why? Why did I take Lila's side? I can't figure out how I was so stupid!"

"She just told you what you wanted to hear, Kim," Nino said, "She did that with everyone. Even me. It's hard to believe that something you want to hear is a lie."

"Yeah, but it doesn't change the fact I chose to believe Lila over Marinette."

"...have you talked to Marinette about this?" Nino whispered.

"No, but you should have," Marinette quietly said, having snuck over to join in as well, "If you just kept this to yourself, what would we have done if Yanbian got akumatized?"

"Shit…" Kim mumbled.

"One thing I've learned is that if you don't get to bend a little, you'll break," Marinette said. "It's okay, Kim. I've forgiven you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but… I still feel bad. I mean, it's no wonder you didn't trust most of the class anymore."

"She forgave you, dude," Nino quoted in a sagely tone, "now you gotta forgive yourself."

"With that said," he pointed out, "you're always gonna feel bad about getting duped by Lila. I know I will. Just use that feeling to keep yourself from letting it happen again."

"Miracle Queen was beyond everyone's control but Chloe, Hawkmoth and Mayura," Marinette pointed out. "That was anything but your fault."

"Even if it was your mistake, work towards doing better next time," Xuppu piped in. "Not to discount your feelings, but I've had more wielders than you've had kwamis to work with. How do you think I feel?"

Kim only looked down. Eventually, he nodded and said, "Thanks, guys… you were right, Marinette. It's a good idea not to bottle this stuff up."

"It's hard expressing feelings properly right now, especially negative ones," Marinette said in understanding, "but keeping everything in is just as damaging. Talking to people about things helps a lot. That's what I did when I first met the Tokies."

"...was that the day that Ryuji threw a napkin at Max?" Kim half-wondered and half-realized.

"Um, yeah," Marinette admitted, a small blush on her face. "Sorry about that, for what it's worth."

"Nah, I deserved it at the time," Kim shrugged. "Now let's get back to the movie, yeah?"

Marinette and Nino nodded, before going back to Singin' In The Rain. An hour or so after the movie finished, everyone was fast asleep.


The next day, Marinette and company - minus Luka, obviously - made their way to school. When they got there, they noticed a ton of students were gathered around the notice board the teachers left for the students.

"I'll go look," Kim volunteered. Squeezing his way through the crowd of teenagers, he got a good look at the newest note.

Students, there will be an assembly during the first part of lunch break. We will be announcing the results of the election. We hope you are all excited to find out who your new principal and vice-principal are!

"An assembly?" Kagami asked when Kim had returned and finished filling them in.

"Looks the part," Kim answered, "You don't think we were too late, were we?"

"Chat Noir mentioned that he'd overheard Bustier crying," Marinette reminded them, having informed them about her and the Black Cat wielder's conversation the day before. "We changed her heart, by the sounds of it."

"They might elect her regardless of any of that, though," Alix pointed out, "At least if she gets elected she'll be different from the rotten Bustier we know, right?"

"Good point," Nino nodded along, "but I think it'll happen differently."

"How so?" Nathaniel asked. "What do you have in mind?"

"It doesn't matter," Nino shrugged cryptically, "Let's just see what actually happens, yeah?"

Surprisingly, when they separated from Kagami and arrived at class, a sub was waiting for them in class.

"Where's Miss Bustier?" Marinette asked.

"Oh, she and the other teachers are going over the election results," the sub - a common one named Mme. Sauber - explained, "She'll be teaching you all in the afternoon, but I'm here for the morning."

"Oh, okay," Marinette nodded before they all headed to their seats to begin their lessons.

The unit they were studying was on the Epic of Gilgamesh. The class had done surprisingly well at answering questions for most of them being distracted by the election results.

What would have been lunchbreak came at last. Swallowing previously-unnoticed lumps in their throats, the Parisian Phantom Thieves joined their classmates on the way to the auditorium.

As everyone entered the auditorium, Marinette sensed someone looking at her. Whipping her head in that direction, she found herself unable to pick out anyone doing so in the sea of students and shrugged it off.

She then turned her attention to Mme. Bustier. The woman looked normal to the untrained eye, but Marinette could see the discomfort in her body language.

"Well, now or never, huh?" Alix whispered as they all waited for the School Board members to begin the assembly.

The Board went off through some grandiose speech that most students didn't pay all that much attention to before stating they would announce the results from lowest to highest. They did, however, preface by stating that M. Buonarroti was the one selected as vice principal, resulting in quite the cheer from the student body.

"That's good," Kagami mused, smiling at the news. "He's a good man…"

With that out of the way, they got straight to the principal. M. d'Argencourt had received the lowest amount of votes, unfortunately for the fencing coach.

"He's got a bad history with losing elections, huh?" Nathaniel whispered to Alix, causing her to snicker slightly.

M. Haprèle was the next one announced out of the running, having received a decent amount of votes.

"Shame for him," Nino murmured, "Well, at least there isn't a chance of Mylène getting special privileges or something."

"I doubt she would have wanted that; Mylene's not that kind of person," Marinette said, "Besides, M. Haprèle is busy enough with his side acting. Becoming principal would likely put too much on his plate."

Around the end, it surprised the Parisians to hear Mme. Mendeleiev had gotten the second-highest amount of votes.

"She may be a hardass," Kim noted, "but she would have been a good principal. Shame…"

"Wait… doesn't that mean…!" Nathaniel cringed, having a bad feeling he knew what would be said next.

"And your principal is…" the Board member declared, "Caline Bustier!"

Applause resounded throughout the auditorium, though most of it was from the adults and the rest of the woman in question's class.

As Caline walked up to the podium, murmurs began to echo through the room when everyone saw the pained look on her face.

"Anything you'd like to say… Principal Bustier?" the speaker asked, oblivious to the sorrowful look that had overtaken her.

"I…" the woman started, only to cringe and begin shrinking into herself.

The Board speaker finally read the room. "Madame…? Is everything o-"

"I can't accept this! "

A great gasp went out at these words.

"How could I, given all of the things I've done?" Bustier hunched herself over the podium, tears beginning to trickle down her face.

There was a confused murmur among the students, and the staff's faces paled.

"What do you mean, Mme. Bustier?" the School Board member asked.

Everyone seemed to hold their breath as Caline attempted to gather herself.

"I…" she stuttered again, "I am not fit for this position I've been offered. I fear I'll only hurt the students of this school more than help them."

"What?" Mylene gasped, turning to Ivan.

"Hurt us? How?" Rose asked, though her comment was lost in the whispers of the students, "Mme. Bustier is the best teacher in the world… right…?"

She turned to Juleka, hoping that she could reassure her, but all she received was an uneasy glance her way.

"I'm a rotten excuse for a teacher," Bustier hiccuped, "I focused on what I wanted from my students, not what they wanted or needed. I molded and manipulated them into certain interests, all for the sake of having some sort of 'diverse class'…"

There were gasps from around the hall as the teacher began to spill everything.

"And… and I'm especially guilty for letting the troubled students in my class go on without punishment. I just didn't want to deal with it myself, so I made the excuse of being an example so that I'd have an excuse not to."

The gasps this time were followed by several angry and horrified shouts. Mme. Mendeleiev was especially beet red with fury, but there was a shine of regret in her eyes, too. She could have and should have done more to help the students herself, but she'd honestly had no idea her coworker - someone so young - was so irrevocably villainous.

Because really, who could have expected Caline Bustier - the woman with a kind word for just about everyone - to be so cruel?

"And it was all for the hope of getting back together with a man I abandoned out of irrational shame…"

Nathaniel stiffened. "Don't… you… dare!" he hissed, not wanting Mme. Bustier to reveal herself as his biological mother. That was a can of worms and stress he did not want to deal with!

Oh, great! I'm sounding like her now! he thought furiously.

Sadly for him, he was too far away for the redheaded woman to hear him.

On a brighter note, it didn't seem to matter all that much.

"I don't deserve him, nor do I deserve my son… not after what I've done. I'm sorry…"

A shrill whistling sound caught the whole gym room's attention. Everyone turned to Nino, who was pointing in the direction of an akumatized moth making a beeline for Bustier's pencil. Fortunately for Marinette and company, it was not a scarlet akuma.

"EVERYBODY, BOOK IT!" he shouted. The sight of the moth descending towards the sobbing teacher had everyone on their feet and running for the nearest exit.

Well, almost everyone.

Finding an empty classroom right next to the auditorium, Ladybug and her team leaped off the roof and landed deftly in the center of the auditorium.

Before Ladybug could attempt to stop the akumatization, a familiar dark feather also joined the moth in the teacher's corruption.

"Crap! That's not good!" Shadow Barb gulped.

Madame Opprobrium, a voice spoke in Caline's mind, we have met before. I am offering you the chance to fix your mistakes-

"I'm no Madame," the woman spoke, "I do not deserve such a title…"

Miss Opprobrium, then, Hawkmoth spoke silkily, you have done wrong to many innocent youths. Regardless, you can fix your mistakes with the power I am offering you, as well as to expose the dirty secrets of others. All I ask for in return are the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Miss Opprobrium - I am Mayura. To accomplish this mission, you'll be assisted by this sentimonster.

Together, the two supervillains asked, Are you up for the task?

Moaning in despair, Bustier accepted their conditions. "I will make things right!" she declared as she was enveloped in dark purple energy, a blue energy spreading from it to create the sentimonster - a giant, elaborately designed sentient tome.

Unlike her more stitched up akumatization that was Zombizou, Miss Opprobrium looked much more elegant with a long, smokey grey dress and a scarf-like shawl covered in words that seemed to shift with every step she took. On her back were a pair of black, silvery wings, but upon closer look, it became she wouldn't be using them. There was only one wing - the left one - and many feathers were missing. The heroes also saw that the dress was ripped further down by her feet, stitches only halfway done. There were also several dark splotches on the sleeves and midriff like she'd spilled something there. Most astonishing of all was her face. There was a jagged scar on the right side of her cheek, looking like nail marks - almost as if someone had clawed her hard enough to draw blood. Finally, she held in one of her hands an elegant, jeweled scepter.

"Yikes…" Bunnix couldn't help but comment when she saw the scar.

Flapping its covers like wings, the book sentimonster swept up a great gale, forcing the heroes to push against the wind to stay up right.

"We should get to a wider area!" Dragonica exclaimed, shielding her face.

"Yeah, well, where are we gonna go without the sentimonster making a hole in the wall?" Kobra called, having made his way to the school. The Snake wielder got his answer when the book slammed up into the ceiling, tearing through the roof and raining concrete and debris everywhere.

"Take cover!" Ladybug shouted as they covered their heads.

"Cataclysm!" Chat Noir shouted. He pounced on and destroyed a large part of the roof that nearly crushed the team leader.

"Chat!" she exclaimed in relief. "You sure got here fast!"

"I could say the same of you!" he smirked back. "Everyone okay?" he asked, urgently looking around.

"Yeah!"

"Uh huh!"

"Yep!"

Once the dust had settled, Miss Opprobrium was nowhere in sight. She likely escaped with that book sentimonster.

"As much as I just got here, I gotta go recharge," Chat noted, "I'll be back soon!"

"We'll see you soon!" Dragonica called as she and the others began giving chase.

Chat nodded, before going off to find a hiding place himself. He and the audience of students and faculty didn't notice Nathaniel sneaking off to follow the rest of the heroes.


As Ladybug and the others caught sight of Miss Opprobrium and the flying tome, she turned to Shadow Barb and said, "Shadow Barb, come with me. Everyone else, confront her and figure out what her powers are!"

"Can do, Bug!" Shadow Barb gave a quick, casual salute, following her as they separated from the rest of the heroes.

As they leaped across the roofs, they soon arrived at Marinette's room. Sneaking in and grabbing the Miraculouses she had planned to help them, Ladybug shot off a text to the Tokies.

Chance: You ready? Panther: Miss Bustier got akumatized, didn't she? Joker: Dumb question, Ann. Chance: Akumatized and amokized! Skull: Yikes! That ain't good! Queen: We're hanging out at Leblanc. We'll be ready! Joker: Morgana wishes us luck. Chance: Got it. See you soon!

"Shadow Barb, Voyage to Leblanc's attic," Ladybug ordered, handing him the Tiger, Monkey, Turtle, Fox, Bee and Rooster. "Give them these Miraculouses and get to the battle!"

"Got it!" he said, before extending his fist out and saying, "Voyage!"

As Ladybug left with one last Miraculous in her hands, she barely caught Akira and the others stepping through and talking with Shadow Barb.

"Well, Nathaniel, you asked when I'd be giving you a Miraculous…" she said to herself as she raced across the rooftops, spotting the destruction Miss Opprobrium was leaving in her wake.

"...and the answer is today!"


Nathaniel flinched as he crouched inside an alleyway and watched the carnage. It seemed that the blasts fired from the scepter Miss Opprobrium held could destroy if they hit non-sentient things. As for when they hit people…

"Before I asked you out, I was originally going for your sister!" someone shouted after a scepter blast, followed by a slapping sound. Miss Opprobrium's power basically made people confess dirty secrets.

It only seemed to be dirty secrets, however; Nathaniel had seen Miss Opprobrium blast M. Lavillant and he hadn't said anything.

"Ooh…" Nathaniel murmured as he watched the forced confessor recoil from the slap of his wife.

He then heard another scepter blast, followed by someone else shouting, "My husband hits my kids, but I don't do anything about it because I'm scared of what he'll do to me!"

"It looks like a lot of people are going to face justice, huh?" Ladybug smirked, having dropped down behind him. He jumped, before clutching his chest as he turned to Ladybug.

"Please don't scare me like that again!" he wheezed.

"Sorry!" Ladybug couldn't help but giggle, "Anyway, Shadow Bard just grabbed the Tokies, but we still need more help. You up to fully become one of us?"

"When you say it like that, you make it sound like a cult," Nathaniel teased back, causing Ladybug to mock-pout before shrugging it off.

"Nathaniel Kurtzberg, this is the Miraculous of the Goat, which grants the power of Imagination," Ladybug declared as she held the box out to the artist, "You'll use it for the greater good, if you're willing, and once you are done, you will return it to me. Do you understand and accept these terms?"

"I'll do my damnedest, Ladybug," Nathaniel promised as he opened the box to see a pair of hair clips. In a flash of light, Ziggy appeared looking around before spotting Nathaniel and grinned.

"Oh my gosh, you look just like Marc!" he blurted out.

The little Goat giggled before introducing herself. "Hi, I'm Ziggy! I was hoping I'd get to work with you!"

"Thanks," Nathaniel nodded as he slipped the hair clips into his bangs. "How do we get going?"

"All you must say is 'Ziggy, Climb Up!' to begin," Ziggy explained dutifully, "'Ziggy, Scale Down!' will be how you drop your transformation! Oh, and your power is Caper - it gives you the ability to float for a limited time!"

"Got it!" he nodded, "Ziggy, Climb Up!"

Becoming a ball of grey light, Ziggy vanished into the hair clips, transforming Nathaniel. Similar to Carapace, Nathaniel received a hood that hung behind his head. Connected to his mask were medium-sized horns that arced over his hair clips. Over the white bodysuit with black spots, black shoulder pads formed and a silver armored belt formed around his waist. Long black gloves formed on his hands up to nearly his elbows, along with sturdy black boots on his feet. Finally, a long shepherd's staff with a jewel in the curved end fell into his hands, which he instantly tested out by twirling it around like a flag in marching band.

"Whoa!" Nathaniel gasped as he looked down at his suit.

"You can admire yourself later! We gotta go!" Ladybug insisted.

"Uh-right!" Nathaniel jumped slightly before nodding.

"Let's take this villainess down!" she exclaimed before leaping off, her newest team member close behind.


One thing Nathaniel learned right away about the Goat Miraculous was that he could jump way higher compared to the other holders. This caught him a bit off guard, but he forced himself to stay focused. Absentmindedly, he wondered if Marinette felt something similar when she first got the Ladybug Miraculous.

The shocked cry of Saruchame drew his attention as the Monkey hero was hit by Miss Opprobrium's lasers. "I think Kijutsu-shi's ass is cute!" he blurted out, before flushing as red as a tomato and covering his mouth.

Kijutsu-shi stumbled to a stop at Saruchame's words, a shocked blush overtaking his own features. Henhouse's ensuing guffaw didn't help.

"Is my butt really that cute?" he said almost obtusely. "I never thought of that…"

"Examination later, Kijutsu-shi!" Mitsubachi called out, enabling him to notice and dodge a giant laser beam shot from the sentimonster's pages. "Fighting now!"

Shaking it off, Kijutsu-shi took on his usual look of resolution. "Correct you are!"

"So the akuma's in the scepter, but where's the amok at?" Bombshell asked.

"It's on her person somewhere," Amur called back. "I don't think an akuma and amok can inhabit the same item… can they?"

"It's possible," Kobra shrugged, "but I don't think Hawkmoth and Mayura would make it that easy for us."

"There's only one way to find out!" Bombshell cried out, blocking another scepter blast from hitting Kobra.

"Maybe we should restrain the sentimonster first?" Henhouse suggested. "It'd be really nice to have less lasers flying everywhere!"

"Then that's your cue… um…" Ladybug glanced at Nathaniel, realizing that he didn't have an alias yet.

"...Ibex," Ibex smirked at the rampaging sentimonster and the woman riding it. "Call me Ibex."

"Is that so?" Miss Opprobrium sneered. "Then let's see you try surviving this!"

The tome suddenly picked up the pace on its flapping. She and Miss Opprobrium shot into the sky, higher and higher until she was a silhouette in the sky. Once she'd stopped ascending, she started charging a mighty laser and began dropping towards the ground.

"She's gonna blow the whole of Paris to smithereens!" Shadow Barb gulped. "Oh, that's really not good!"

"It's just like the cognition of my mom…" Henhouse whispered.

"Shame you can't hack a ballista in, though," Amur sighed. "At least, not here, anyways…"

"No worries," Ibex grinned, an idea forming in his mind. "Kijutsu-shi, can you create an illusion to make her see us somewhere else and redirect her fire?"

"What are you planning?" Kijutsu-shi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Kobra, don't take this the wrong way," Ibex scratched the back of his head awkwardly before picking up Ladybug bridal style and shouting, "Caper!"

The rest of the team's jaws dropped when - in a stunning display reminiscent of Superman - he shot up into the air with Ladybug in tow.

"Ah, I see!" Kijutsu-shi smirked slightly, before playing a few notes on his flute and using Mirage. Illusions of the heroes appeared in a now-abandoned park, causing the sentimonster to visibly redirect its aim.

"The Goat can fly?!" Yanbian cried, mouth agape.

"Well, in some depictions of the Chinese Zodiac, the goat is replaced with a sheep," Chat Noir held his chin in thought, "And what is the common phrase we use to try and fall asleep?"

"What does 'counting sheep' have to do with anything?" Saruchame asked.

"I don't think he's flying…" Mitsubachi realized, "He's just jumping really high! It just looks like he's flying because of how high he went!"

"Man, that would be of use in basketball, wouldn't it?" Yanbian chuckled.

As Dragonica lightly thwacked him on the head, Ibex and Ladybug finally landed on top of the sentimonster tome.

"Whoa!" Ibex gasped as the tome immediately tried to buck the two heroes off; regardless, they held onto the sturdy cover for dear life.

"Impressive, getting this high up," Miss Opprobrium admitted as she charged the two heroes, "but you won't stop me from fixing my mistakes!"

"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug called out, swinging her yo-yo, and nearly getting hit in the head by the item that appeared.

"A paper cutter?" she gasped. And it wasn't one of those cheap, plastic ones either. It was a heavy swingline cutter.

"Does your Miraculous like to mock us a little?" Ibex deadpanned. "I mean… we are flying on a book and all."

Scanning the area, the tome sentimonster flashed in her vision, before Mitsubachi's spinning top lit up, along with Amur's trench knife, then finally Miss Opprobrium's scepter. A plan of her own forming, she pulled out her communicator and directed Ibex to keep the akuma busy.

"Mitsubachi, I need you to set up a net with your spinning top, over by the lamp posts by the park!" she exclaimed.

"Got it!"

"Amur, wait from above for my signal!"

"Can do!"

Despite the heroes in the park being illusions, Kijutsu-shi made sure it looked like the illusionary heroes were dodging the laser attacks so they didn't see that the 'heroes' were in fact illusions.

Still divebombing towards the park, Miss Opprobrium didn't see the net Mitsubachi wove until it was too late.

At the last second, Ibex and Ladybug leaped off the tome. Mitsubachi grunted, digging her heels into the ground to keep it to keep it together.

"Amur, split it down the middle, now!" Ladybug shouted.

Leaping down from a window and reverting back from his invisible state, Amur drew back his trench knife and plunged it right into the tome's spine.

"No!" Miss Opprobrium gasped, abruptly halting in shock.

As gravity took control, Amur dragged the knife down the spine of the tome, splitting it cleanly in half.

"Why-" Miss Opprobrium gasped again as she was suddenly yanked downward. The trajectory of Ladybug's jump put her in the direct line of her scepter, that Ladybug caught between the cutting edge of the paper cutter. The abruptness, plus the weight of the tool provided enough force to snap the scepter in two.

Then, just barely grazing her cheek, Kobra's lyre smacked across Miss Opprobrium's right earring, shattering it.

The akuma and amok didn't last ten seconds each before Ladybug snatched them up. With a cry of Miraculous Ladybug, she purified the school and city of all the damages, causing practically the whole city to cheer as things were set to rights.

Practically all of them anyways, anyways. Lt. Roger and his cohorts were smiling slightly, but they were mostly stone-faced as they helped up and handcuffed Caline, taking her to a police car and driving off to wherever she needed to go to face justice.

"We did it…" Ladybug sighed in relief as she watched the wretched woman become a silhouette in the distance.

"Sure did, M'Lady!" Chat Noir called, waiting by the other heroes, fists extended. Smiling, she jogged over.

"Pound it!"


AN: So there you have it! Bustier has officially confessed her crimes and Team Miraculous welcome a new member to the team in the form of Ibex. This was probably one of my favorite fights to write. It was super fun!

Also, someone pointed this out in a review, and I just want to apologize about the cringy shipping. Writing romance is not my strong suit. It's actually something I'm trying to improve through this fic, so please bear with me. And as for most of the ships seeming forced (especially on the Phantom Thief side) my co-writer was actually the one to choose the couplings there. The only couples I insisted be canon in this story were Lukanette and Adrigami. But again, I apologize for the cringy romance, I'll work harder to try and improve that.

R&R, update TVTropes, and we'll see you next time!