This is the opening and start of episode 4 I'd like to see. When I started writing this, we had no idea on who is going to be the akumatized villain but now we do and I didn't want to change it. I did edit some of the dialog that took place in the end of Gang of Secrets just to make it more normal in conversational American English. It picks up after the girls leave Marinette's room, except for Alya.
The whole group broke their hug; Marinette had restored her friendship with Alya, Rose, Juleka, Mylene, and Alix. All the girls started heading for the trapdoor to leave but Marinette could see there was something still on Alya's mind.
"I'll catch up with you guys later. I've got something to tell Marinette," Alya said to Rose who nodded and continued down the stairs. Marinette was surprised when Alya shut the door behind the girls but then took Marinette by the shoulder and led her to her chaise. "But you didn't tell us everything," Alya said. "I know it not only as a reporter but your best friend."
Marinette dropped her head. How she wanted to tell Alya everything badly but she still felt trapped in needing to keep up her lies, then she sunk to the chaise.
Alya was feeling even lower. She didn't want to make Marinette feel even worse. "I'm not going to spy on you or twist your arm. You know that. I want you to tell me because you want to."
"We'll always be friends?" Marinette asked as she turned her sunken head towards Alya.
"Always. Marinette, I'll always be your best friend. I'm here for you girl. That's why you being so sad hurts me so much." As Marinette turned her head, Alya sighed. It was become apparent to her that Marinette wouldn't share why she was feeling so down so it seemed futile to press further.
Alya stood from the chaise but was stopped a second later by Marinette grabbing her hand. "Alya wait. Please stay." Marinette asked, the pain in her voice evident to Alya. "You're right. I'm all alone. More alone than ever before," the confessions and words coming all out at once. "You want to know why I broke up with Luka? It's not because I don't like him. He's amazing," the words coming faster and faster, almost running together as Marinette finally felt free to vent. "It's because there's something I can't tell him. I'm not crushing over Adrien any more. It's the same reason for him. You're right. I have to lie all the time," Marinette said as she grabbed her head in between her hands. No longer did she know what was right or wrong. But one thing was becoming clear to her, she didn't want to lie to everyone all the time. There had to be at least one person she could be honest with about her life. In the past that had been Master Fu. She started to wonder if just maybe… "I have to lie to my friends, my parents, everybody. And the worst thing about it is that I can't do anything about it!"
Alya rubbed Marinette's back as she sat back down. "There's always something you can do, Marinette," Alya answered Marinette's outburst.
Marinette shook her head, "No, I don't have a choice. I'm in so over my head right now Alya and it's just too heavy for me to carry any more."
"If it's too heavy, let me help you." Alya pleaded. "We'll do it together, girl."
"If I tell you my secret, things will never be the same!" Marinette was almost in tears. "It'll change everything; wreck everything!"
"Marinette, you can tell me anything, I'm your friend. I'm here for you."
"And me," Marinette looked right at Alya, resolve building in her. She had to tell someone. Then with a sigh as she looked up at her through her eyelashes, she said it. "I'm Ladybug." All Marinette could wonder is what Alya would think about the truth.
Alya's eyes went wide in surprise but it wasn't from the fact that Marinette was Ladybug, she had long suspected this was highly plausible, but from Marinette actually telling Alya that this was the truth. Alya knew how important keeping a secret identity was to a superhero and was stunned that Marinette told her. The two girls embraced, with Marinette instantly feeling the tremendous burden she had been carrying alone since Master Fu relinquished the miracle box to her be lifted. Alya was right; she would help Marinette carry it.
As the two separated, Alya looked up and was surprised to see the audience they had; the 14 kwamis. Alya should have known this. After all, Ladybug did say that she was The Guardian now, so she'd be watching all the kwamis. Alya instantly spotted Trixx and smiled to him and gave a small wave.
Trixx looked towards Marinette for some hint as to what he could do? Marinette just nodded and the little fox kwami sped to Alya, landing on her shoulder, as to which Tikki did the same to Marinette.
Alya looked at Trixx, wondering what she should say and the kwami just nodded at her. Apparently even though the two of them weren't as close as Marinette and Tikki, they did already have some link. "I kind of thought that you could have been Ladybug for a while," Alya admitted.
Now it was Marinette's turn to be surprised. She had done so much to hide her identity for the past two years but as she thought about it, Marinette wondered if it had been worth it. "How?"
Alya smiled. "It wasn't anything super obvious at first; just a bunch of little things. But do you remember who I thought we should be looking for? Someone who was always late all the time and normally had really lame excuses. Not to mention that they seemed to never be around during an akuma attack?"
Marinette laughed, one of their first times she had been able to do that since assuming the role of Guardian. With her and Alya no longer having to keep any secrets any more, Marinette would be free to seek advice from her. Not to mention that absolutely no subjects would be off limits now.
"By the way," Alya said as Trixx still stood on her shoulder, "I owe you big time."
Marinette smiled appreciatively, "For what?" She asked even though she kind of knew.
Alya returned Marinette's smile, "For freeing me from the akumas… multiple times."
"That's ok," Marinette answered, "I owe you too."
Alya was shocked, even more than she was when Marinette admitted to her that she was Ladybug. Marinette had trusted her to become Rena Rouge and now with Marinette's secret. "What could you possibly owe me for?" Alya asked.
"You remember the first time that Ladybug showed up?" Marinette asked.
Alya nodded as she pulled out her phone to show the first story from the Ladyblog.
"Right," Marinette said. "Well after that first time with Stoneheart, I wanted to quit. When you weren't looking, I snuck my miraculous into your bag hoping you would find it."
"You… WHAT?!" Alya screamed out. She never knew how close she was to being her most favorite hero.
Marinette put her index finger over her mouth, indicating that Alya needed to lower her voice. After all, Tom and Sabine were in the bakery downstairs.
"Sorry," Alya apologized as her face blushed in embarrassment.
"Yeah," Marinette continued. "I didn't think I was up for it; being Ladybug. Then you were nearly crushed by the car and I knew I couldn't not help. That was really the only time I ever thought about not being Ladybug."
"Wow!" Alya gasped.
"See," Marinette said as she opened the digital copy of the Grimoire on her computer, "you've helped me more times that you can count and not always as Rena Rouge. Now our next project is gonna be this," she said pointing at the screen. "I need help figuring this thing out."
Alya's phone buzzed and she knew she was out of time to stay for today. She looked at Trixx, who looked sad. "I guess he has to stay here," Alya said.
"Yeah," Marinette looked at the ground as she answered. "But you can come visit any time."
"Darn right!" Trixx answered. "Especially since I had to fight for you."
"Trixx, not now," Marinette admonished the kwami.
"Huh?" Alya asked.
"Later," Marinette finished as she led Alya down the stairs. "I'll explain tomorrow." Marinette looked at her watch. "Aren't you supposed to be watching the twins tonight?"
"Crap!" My mom's gonna be ticked at me," Alya said as she started to the trapdoor. "See you tomorrow Marinette."
Even thought Alya was gone, she answered her. "See you tomorrow," as she mouthed the last word, "Rena."
Marinette slept soundly that night for the first time in several weeks. No longer did she feel all alone in her mission. And her dreams, finally they began being more positive. She didn't think that Cat Noir and her could possibly fail in fighting Shadow Moth, especially with Rena Rouge back on their side not mention all the other heroes they could call on if they needed.
Marinette's alarm went off too early for her. It had been the best night of sleep since she could remember when. But it was Tuesday, and that meant back to school.
Upon entering Madam Bustier's classroom, Alya had a conspiratorial, but fan-girlish look on her face. The two were in on a secret that no one else was… at least not yet.
"You look way better than yesterday," Alya whispered.
Marinette gave a smirk. "I've got you to thank for that."
The day went by surprisingly quick. At lunch, Alya told Nino she had some work on Marinette's website to help with and Nino didn't even think twice about it. Alya didn't like that she had to lie to him, but he wasn't privy to Marinette's secret and for her, Alya was willing to lie to him. But Nino was glad to see Marinette in a much better mood than she had been as recently as the last week. She even had more pep in her step.
As the four friends, and unknown to all of them, heroes left the school, they all said their "so longs" for the day. Nino and Adrien were going to go to the arcade to just chill for a while until Adrien had to be home, while the girls headed for the bakery.
Sabine smiled at seeing the much better attitude that Marinette had today. She still didn't really understand it. Just yesterday, the five girls had left dejected, only to return a couple hours later to reconcile. That seemed to better Marinette's mood, but now she was even better off.
As the two girls entered Marinette's bedroom, the kwamis instantly came out from the miracle box, with Trixx going right to his holder's shoulder again. Alya smiled as he landed on it.
The two girls looked at the open page of the Grimoire. There was a sketch of some sort of small charm on the open page that looked kind of similar to the ladybug-like dot on Alya's phone.
"Hey Trixx?" Alya asked to her kwami, who looked up at her. "What'd you mean when you said you had to fight for me."
Trixx looked right at Marinette, who nodded back. "Just when the rest of the kwamis saw you and your friends, one of the others wanted to claim you as their holder."
Alya smiled. "Nope," she answered to her kwami, "I'm not interested in anyone other you, Trixx." Alya gave Tikki a mischievous smile, "Not even you Tikki," who laughed in response.
The fox kwami looked right toward the pig one with a knowing look on his face as he said, "I told you she was taken."
A sigh came from the pig kwami.
"Hmm," Alya looked right at the pig kwami and then Marinette before going back to the pig kwami, "I think we can find someone for you, little piggy, but they probably won't be as cool as I am."
"Really?" The pig kwami asked excitedly.
"Definitely," Alya answered and then hummed in thought.
Alya stared at the open page of the Grimoire for about five minutes, and then had an idea. "Hey M?" She asked to Marinette, who looked right at her BFF, knowing that she had probably thought of something.
"Do you know what this is for?" Alya asked again to Marinette.
"Not a clue," Marinette answered. "I just was given the box with almost zero training in anything that I'm supposed to do, other than protect the miraculous."
"Yeah, I guess that would be like 90% of the job," Alya answered as she gave a slight laugh. She swiped the screen a few times until she got to a page that showed a small charm about the size of a penny. "Huh," she muttered as she tried to decipher the ancient script. She had learned a lot, based on the fact that about half of the text had been already translated, but even still it was in a code. "If I'm right," she started but then stopped just as suddenly.
"What is it?" Marinette asked, wondering what it could possibly be.
"Someone translated about half of this thing," Alya said as she scrolled through a few pages. "Like this here," Alya pointed at a line of script, "says a 'tear of joy'. And this one seems to be a chant of some kind, kind of like magic, but I've got no clue on how to say this. It looks like Chinese or Japanese, but if I'm right about what this page is about," again she shifted back to the page with the small piece of jewelry on it, "it prevents whoever is holding it from being affected by many of the miraculous's powers. I doubt it would stop Cat Noir's cataclysm, but it probably would protect from Mirage-"
Marinette interrupted Alya, "Or akumas!" Marinette all but shouted.
"Yeah," Alya answered. "I'll need some time to go through how to make it and everything but yeah, I think so."
Alya was enveloped in her work that she didn't notice her phone going off multiple times, nor the fact that it had long since turned dark outside. Neither of them did, even though Marinette wasn't much help.
Marinette's phone then started giving alerts, and they weren't calls or texts. She knew what it was. "Stupid akuma," Marinette groaned realizing that Ladybug was needed. But then she thought that more help could be a good thing. "Does Rena Rouge want to help?"
"What?" Alya asked not realizing anything that had been going on the last four hours she had been staring at the screen and trying different concoctions to create the charms.
"Akuma alert," Marinette said as she held out the fox miraculous. "Does Rena Rouge want to help?"
Alya pulled out a piece of paper out of her notebook. "I think this is it," she said as she handed the note to Marinette in exchange for her miraculous. "Say this after you transform. After we purify it, you should give it to whoever was akumatized."
Marinette set the paper on her desk as she transformed, "Tikki, spots on!"
"Trixx, let's pounce!"
Marinette began the incantation the was written on the paper, but badly mispronounced many of the words in the spell. Neither of them were surprised when nothing happened after she finished. "Oh well," Marinette sighed a little dejected that it hadn't worked.
Rena stifled a laugh. "You're Chinese is pretty bad," she joked even though Alya knew that Marinette didn't speak but a few words in Mandarin and even fewer in Cantonese. "I guess you need a tutor," Rena added as she looked up towards the exit to Marinette's balcony. "Hmm, if we only knew someone who spoke Chinese. Like someone you have a monster crush on."
"Not a word," Ladybug snapped back, a little too forcefully, knowing of whom her bestie was referring to. "He can't know anything about any of this!"
The two heroes left via Marinette's balcony and found Cat Noir already fighting the villain, who was sporting a red and yellow jumpsuit and around his neck was a chain that carried a large boom box. He looked familiar to both Ladybug and Rena Rouge.
A pink ring surrounded the villains face as he heard Shadow Moth's voice instructing him. "Careful, Mix Master," Shadow Moth said in the villain's head, "Ladybug has called on her friends for help. But you're powerful enough to stop them. Now make them feel the beat!"
"That's what I was planning Shadow Moth," Mix Master added. He reached into the cassette deck on the boom box and flipped it then pressed a large button on the left side of a group of buttons. A loud pulsating beat came from the speakers that had a huge thrumming bass beat. "Give yourself over to the music! It's conga time!"
The waves coming from the speakers missed Ladybug and Rena Rouge, but Cat Noir was not so lucky. They crashed into him and he started dancing. "Cat Noir," Mix Master's voice boomed out, sounding like it was amplified from the boom box, "take their miraculous!"
"Come and get it," Rena Rouge countered as Ladybug's yo-yo was being twirled just behind Rena Rouge.
Cat Noir charged at the two heroines but fortunately had not called upon his cataclysm as he began grappling with Ladybug. He slowly overpowered her, but Rena Rouge jumped onto Mix Master.
"Nino," she called to him, recognizing the headphones around his neck. "Come back to me!"
The faintest chink in his façade was seen to Rena Rouge, as for a moment, Mix Master's glasses slipped revealing Nino's face.
"You can't trust them, Mix Master!" Shadow Moth said through the pink butterfly outline on Mix Master's face.
"You can fight it, Nino Lahiffe," Rena Rouge said to her akumatized boyfriend, but she didn't want to out her true identity to Shadow Moth in the event that he didn't remember her true identity. She couldn't risk using names she normally called Nino. "You can reject his power."
Mix Master dropped to his knees in a struggle that Rena Rouge knew only too well. It hadn't been easy for her to reject Shadow Moth's power, but she had been able to do so, thanks to Ladybug. Now here she was trying to help her own boyfriend do the same.
"Ahhh!" Mix Master shouted in agony from the immense addition of power Shadow Moth added to Nino's akumatized form. "I… can't!" He protested; the struggle evident in his voice.
Thinking quickly, Rena Rouge thought of two possible places the akuma could be. She reached for Mix Master's headphones and snapped them in two, which instantly released the black butterfly and reverted Nino back to his regular self. Ladybug was still struggling with Cat Noir though, so she wouldn't be able to purify the akuma right away.
"Come back to me, kitty," Ladybug pled, realizing that Mix Master had returned to being Nino and she would be needed to purify the akuma. "I need you mon chaton."
Cat Noir blinked twice and then, "Wha-? What happened?"
"Oh, not much," Ladybug answered. "Nino just hypnotized you."
Cat Noir looked at Nino who was still kneeling on the grass from the struggle he had been fighting internally, but now with Rena Rouge helping him back to his feet. This was his best friend after all, even if Nino didn't know who was behind the mask.
"Sir are you alright?" Cat Noir said as he helped Nino steady himself.
"Whoa," Nino groaned as the vertigo hit him again, "those akumas pack quite a punch, huh." He looked around seeing his girlfriend and his heart sank, wondering just what had Hawk Moth had made him do to his girlfriend. "What happened?" Nino didn't address Rena Rouge specifically, since Cat Noir, at least Nino didn't think, knew their true identities.
"You were akumatized sir," Rena Rouge answered, hiding just enough of her identity from Cat Noir so hopefully he wouldn't know that it was her behind her mask.
"Yeah, that part I know but what did he make me do to you guys?"
"Nothing happened," Ladybug answered.
"What did he try to make me do?" Nino asked.
"The usual," Ladybug said, "take Cat Noir's and my miraculous."
"Oh man, I'm so sorry," Nino blushed.
Rena Rouge laughed at her boyfriend. It was safer to do so now that Shadow Moth could no longer telepathically communicate with Nino. She looked right at Nino as she said again, "If we only knew someone who spoke Chinese," knowing who Nino would mention.
"Well, my best bud is," Nino said, not noticing that Cat Noir was looking all over the place not trying to make eye contact with him. "I could text him if you'd like."
Cat Noir thought about it for a second. It would be an opportunity to do a favor for Ladybug, in either of his personas and who knew where that could lead. He decided that it would be better to just admit it as Cat Noir. "Wo shuo zhongwen," he said.
"What?" Ladybug asked.
"I speak Chinese," Cat Noir repeated himself, this time in English.
"You do?" Ladybug all but screamed.
"Sure do," Cat Noir answered.
"Great," Rena Rouge said. "Why don't you two figure out this thing and I'll take him home," she added pointing to Nino.
Ladybug thought about protesting but in the end, didn't. She simply nodded at the two of them and Rena Rouge grabbed Nino who put his arms around her shoulders and she then leapt to the rooftops.
"Wait, mi lady," Cat Noir said grabbing his baton, ready to pounce after them, "don't you need to get her miraculous back?"
Ladybug thought for just a second and then answered, "I can get it later."
"You trust her?" Cat asked as his head tilted to the left at a 30-degree angle from vertical.
Ladybug thought again. She did trust Alya with her own secret. Surely, she could be entrusted to hold a miraculous as well, even if only on a temporary basis. But giving Alya the miraculous on a longer-term basis also had a lot of merits. No longer would she have to track down her best friend when Ladybug and Cat Noir needed extra help and it would become less likely that Shadow Moth would be able to track Alya down either. After all, Ladybug failing to change back before seeing Master Fu is what led to his identity being discovered and Marinette being all alone in her duties.
"With my life," Ladybug answered, meaning it completely.
Cat Noir read the tablet containing the translated Grimoire a couple times before it sounded like he was pronouncing the text correctly, even though many of the words he had never seen before.
As Ladybug repeated Cat Noir's pronunciation, install her suit changed. No longer was it solid red with black spots, but her hands were now covered by black gloves and the color scheme in the middle of her suit inverted. She reached for her yo-yo and produced the small charm, knowing that the first one who should be issued it would definitely be Nino. She could see him later, knowing that they would either be at Alya's house or Nino's.
Nino and Alya had been sitting on the couch and Nino's house for about fifteen minutes in absolute silence. Nino was deep in thought, almost mourning what he had been forced to do by Shadow Moth. How close he had come to betraying his girlfriend's idol.
"What's on your mind, Neens?" Alya finally asked, unable to handle the awkward silence any longer.
"What happened?" Nino asked. "I don't really remember anything from it."
"The Moth is getting way smarter. He's giving his victims powers to hypnotize and enslave others."
"Yeah, I remember that," Nino said with a scowl. "Just tell me."
"From what I saw," Alya said as she grabbed both his hands to comfort Nino, "When you played music, you could hypnotize people."
Nino dropped his head again. He could remember snippets from when he was akumatized but didn't remember everything, and had no clue as to why things happened.
"But it wasn't you," Alya said, lifting his head between her hands. "It wasn't your fault, Neens. And besides, nothing happened."
"This time," Nino muttered under his breath.
"Nothing will ever happen," Alya answered which surprised Nino. He didn't want her to know how badly affected by his akumatization that he really was. "Neens, Ladybug and Cat Noir will be here for you to bring you back. But I am curious, though; how'd he get you?"
Nino sighed. This is what he had been dreading since the two of them got to his house and she dropped her transformation. "I don't know if we're gonna work," Nino said, his head sunk as low as possible.
Alya was absolutely stunned. She had been ready for anything but this. "What? Why?" She asked, still not know what had bright this along. The two of them had been the best of friends until the last couple of weeks… then Alya figured it out. "Ohhh," she groaned in understanding. "Neens, there's nobody else. I promise you."
"Then why have you been so distant the last couple weeks?"
Alya couldn't reveal that she was helping Ladybug but she could reveal some of the why that she was helping her. "I've been helping Marinette after her breakup. She's still new to all of this and it absolutely crushed her."
"Ohhh," Nino said matching tone from a few second ago. "Wow was I way off."
Alya smiled, "Why? What'd ya think was going on?"
"That you were seeing someone else," Nino just blurted out what he was thinking.
Alya laughed. "Neens, I can promise that is definitely NOT happening. You're the only one who I have eyes for. Promise."
Alya's phone chimed and she checked it really quick and shot a quick reply back. Less than a minute later, Nino was surprised to hear a knock on the window and see in the darkness outside, a different costumed Ladybug than he was used to seeing. Alya wasn't really that surprised however.
The two headed out of the living room and up onto Nino's building's roof where Ladybug joined them.
"Here ya go, Ladybug," Alya said as she handed the fox miraculous back to her.
"Thanks for your help," Ladybug answered as she swiped up on the center of her yo-yo, putting the miraculous back into it and producing the small charm that Alya had read about before handing it to Nino. "Nino Lahiffe, this jewel will protect you from the power of the miraculous," she said as he took the jewel from her, then turned looking at Alya. Ladybug was surprised that Alya didn't look nervous at all about using her boyfriend as their guinea pig to test out the charm. They hoped it would work but Nino wouldn't be an easy person to be akumatized again.