Miraculous:

Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

Chapter Four: The World of the Kwami

When Marinette awakened, she saw that her head was resting in Adrien's lap. He had kept her close and was now sleeping while leaning back against the wall. They were in another part of the school, but she couldn't tell where. She knew they were on a time crunch but, truth be told, she was too afraid to move for two reasons. Obviously, she didn't want to wake him and, secondly, she was afraid of the pain her arm would be in.

From this angle, Adrien looked so sweet sleeping. She hadn't had a chance to see him like this since the time they'd teamed up against Startrain. She knew in her heart that knowing Adrien was Cat Noir would have dire consequences, but she firmly believed they had to get out of their current mess together then figure out what to do now that their identities had been revealed.

Reluctantly, she sat up and sure enough her movement awakened Adrien. He rubbed his eyes and looked at her with concern. "Hey, should you be up yet? Are you okay?"

She tested her arm. "Yeah, it just feels like I got a tetanus shot." She gasped, "What time is it?"

Adrien looked at the clock on the wall. "Just about midnight." He knuckled his eye sleepily.

Marinette rubbed her chin. "Okay, I went over to your house after school so we can assume Hawk Moth cast the spell around 4pm."

"Actually, you were unconscious for two hours, so it probably happened closer to 6pm."

"Right, so if we have 24 hours to fix this, that means we have 18 hours go to," she calculated.

Adrien held up his corrupted ring. "So, we need to get to the miracle box and fast."

"Right, it's this way. Come on!" She took off out of the school and Adrien kept close pace with her. She headed towards downtown and the train station. "Once we get the box, we're going to need a quiet place where Hawk Moth can't find us."

Adrien thought about it. "I know a place."

Marinette knew it was risky if another person knew where the box was kept. I can always change the location later. We don't have time to be sneaky about it and it also means we'd have to split up. Can't risk that either. At the train station, Marinette used the key Master Fu had given her to open the locker and retrieve the box. "Okay, let's go."

Adrien led them to a building that Marinette remembered seeing prestigious fashion shows at. "This place it used for large scale events, but in between scheduled things it's mostly abandoned." He pointed up high. "Even though the roof is mostly glass, there should be an attic towards the back that can serve our purpose just fine."

"Got it." She ran to the outside of the building and started running up the fire escape. "It's times like this I really wish I could just leap onto the roof like we usually do."

"Heh, or break in the front door," Adrien added.

On the rooftop, they caught a break when the roof access door was unlocked. They climbed down and turned on the light. Marinette put the box down and prepared to sit.

"Hang on!" Adrien took off his jacket and put it down. "Sit down on this. It'll be cleaner that way." Marinette gave him a gentle smile and sat down. "So, what now?"

Marinette held onto her earrings and looked at them sadly. "Honestly, I'm not too sure. I just know I really wish Tikki were here right now. I could really use her advice."

Adrien looked at his ring. "Yeah, and Plagg always knew had to cheer me up."

Slowly, Marinette opened the box. As soon as the lid opened, the center area where normally Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous' would be, lit up and a swirl of energy—like a portal—opened up instead. "I think this is it," she hesitated. "But…if we fail, your mother said we'd be stuck in there forever."

Adrien put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, when have we ever failed? Together, we're an unstoppable team. Besides," he held up his ring. "After everything they've done for us, we owe it to our kwami to save them now."

Holding hands, Marinette and Adrien slowly put a hand into the light where they were sucked into the world of the kwami…

When they first looked around, it was as if they were floating in space. With their hands still interlocked, Marinette and Adrien felt as though they were inside a nebula with stars dancing all around them. "It…It's beautiful…" Marinette breathed.

"Yeah…" Adrien agreed.

"Marinette!" Wayzz floated up. The small turtle kwami was still adjusting after losing his master of almost two centuries. "What has happened!?"

"It's a long story, I'll have to explain later. We need to find Tikki and Plagg, they've been corrupted, and we need to purify them."

"If it is time you need, have no fear. Time does not travel the same in the miracle box as it does in the real world, though never before has a human ever entered out world." Marinette and Adrien exchanged looks and quickly brought Wayzz up to speed. "I see, the situation is dire indeed."

"Marinette!" Trixx and Kaalki approached, happy yet concerned to see their friends. The fox and horse kwami nuzzled her neck warmly.

"What are you doing here?" Kaalki asked.

"The guardian's here!" Soon the rest of the kwami came and all of them gathered around the two humans.

"Okay, everyone, we need to find Tikki and Plagg. It's very important!"
"No need to look for us!" Tikki announced loudly.

"We're already here!" Plagg's added with a voice much lower and darker than usual. Both kwami sneered at their owners. "Have you come back begging for help with your tail between your legs, Adrien? Can't handle facing daddy without your favorite slave?"

Adrien gasped. "Plagg, you were never my slave! You were my friend, my first best friend. Whatever's happened to you, I'm going to fix it so we can save my father, just like we've always saved others."

Tikki held the same disapproving glare as she stared down Marinette. "We kwami have always been used by humans. It's never been about us. Why should we work so hard when humans are so weak and easily manipulated? You would destroy yourself in a mere few years without us kwami."

Marinette looked up at her closest partner and friend. "Tikki, it's true humans are weak, but we can grow stronger when we go through trials. Kwami give us that opportunity so that we can eventually get stronger and pass on what we've learned."

Tikki shook her head and that's when Marinette saw it. With the darkness of space around them, Marinette hadn't seen that dark energy wafting off the little creature before. "It's like they've been akumatized," she whispered to Adrien.

"How are we supposed to purify them?"

"We're never going back with you!" Tikki stormed. "And neither is anyone else!"

"You don't get to desssssssssside that!" Sass hissed.

"We're all made a pact at the beginning of their existence to protect humans, to give them that second chance we kwami never did," Wayzz retorted.

"I think you all need an attitude adjustment!" Plagg curled within himself, Tikki doing the same, and the two's forms began to grow. Tikki's body grew six exoskeleton legs with sickle like forearms and a human shaped torso. Her body was black with red spots, reminding the teenagers of Antibug, while she had two tendrils flowing out from the top sides of her head. Plagg grew large and long, with heavy fur and took on the form more like that of a huge white tiger. He had two long tendrils sticking out from his cheek whiskers and one from the top of his head.

In fear, the remaining kwami tried to fly away and that is when the hunt began. Tikki attacked Kaalki and Fluff first, while Plagg took on Stomp and Longg. When the corrupted kwami landed a hit, their pray disappeared and their energy was sucked into black crystals placed on their foreheads.

"Plagg stop!" Adrien begged.

"It doesn't have to be like this!" Marinette shouted. One by one, before their eyes, each kwami fell. "This is horrible!"

Adrien pulled her close, ready to dodge if their former partners decided to turn on them. "We have to calm them down, somehow, or they'll never listen."

When they were finished with their friends, Tikki and Plagg turned on their last two remaining adversaries. "I want to draw out their suffering," Tikki said. "I want them to feel the pain they put us through!"

"Using us all the time while never once caring for who we were, what we wanted!" Plagg growled. Their jewels both glowed and all around them the illusion of space was replaced with a dense jungle. Immediately their forms were hidden in the dense foliage.

Marinette's hand tightened around Adrien's. "What are we going to do? We can't save them if we can't see them."

Adrien looked around with narrowed eyes. "But we can't go searching for them, either. If they want to destroy us so bad, they'll have to come to us. Come on!" He pulled Marinette and took off in the opposite direction of the last place they had seen their kwami.

"No matter where you run, we're going to find you!" Tikki's voice echoed through the trees.

"And when we do, we're going to tear you apart and fully free ourselves from your control!"

Adrien looked around desperately trying to find a place to hide. He didn't risk speaking his plan to Marinette because he knew Plagg would be able to hear them. Plagg is going to be the major problem. I know from being Cat Noir how his heightened senses can pick up any sound or smell. Tikki is going to be the heavy hitter but we have to avoid Plagg first. As manufactured as they knew their surroundings were, Adrien still felt the moist heat of the jungle and could smell the unique scent of mulch that hung so heavily in the air.

Looking back at Marinette, Adrien could tell she was scared but she moved forward with him, certain they would come up with a solution. Her faith in him warmed his heart. A sound reached his ears and he got an idea. He skidded to a halt.

"Adrien, we can't stop. They're right behind us," she whispered.

"Marinette, do you trust me?" he asked. He knew the answer yet somehow felt the need to ask it anyway.

Her wide eyes looked at him for a moment before she hardened her resolve and nodded. "Yes, Adrien, I do."

"Okay, come on." He pulled her along again and this time took off towards the right. In a few minutes, they came upon a very real looking spring with a waterfall pouring water in from a higher cliff on the opposite bank. As soon as he hit the clearing he ran and pulled Marinette down into the water. She followed without a word and together they swam deeper into the pond.

With the water so clear, they could look around without hurting their eyes. They found an area of dense underwater plants and hid within them. They would not be able to hide for long, but it might buy them time to come up with a strategy. He saw Plagg sniff the water and, after a few moments, decided to move on, Tikki right behind him. He gave it another minute before he nodded to Marinette and resurfaced.

Looking around, he saw a cave partially hidden behind the waterfall, so he gestured with his head and together they swam to shore. The waterfall was not very big, but it skewed the entrance enough that it would make a good hiding place for now.

"The water should have washed away our scent. Plagg will be hard pressed to find us through smell." Adrien looked back at Marinette and saw she was shivering. "We're going to have to warm up before we catch cold." He crossed his arms and started lifting up his shirt.

Marinette started to squeal but didn't want to reveal their location, so she quickly clamped her hands over her mouth. "W-What do you th-think you're doing!? How do you even kn-know t-that we c-could c-catch c-c-cold?" Her teeth were chattering despite her argument.

Adrien turned his back to her, respecting her privacy and sat down to take off his pants. "I'd rather not risk you if we can help it." She didn't move at first and the cave was silent. He laid out his clothes as best as he could to dry them. In truth, he was shy to strip down to his boxers before her too, but if they kept on wet clothes, they'd be weaker when they went into battle. He eventually heard Marinette unclothe and his cheeks warmed. He shook his head to clear it and tensed when she went back-to-back with him. Her skin, despite the cold water, was warm against him.

"Do you remember when we were in that shipping container against Dark Owl?" Adrien brought up. "You said, 'Close your eyes and no peeking.' You trusted me so much back then and I didn't betray your trust."

"We had lots of opportunities where we could just have let the bad guys win and we would have known who the other was, but we never gave in," Marinette confirmed.

"Marinette? Close your eyes and no peeking," Adrien asked. He felt her back straighten but knowing he could believe in her he kept his own eyes closed and turned around. Slowly he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap. "We need to stay warm, but I would never do anything to betray you."

He could feel her eventually relax and she snuggled into his chest. "I know you wouldn't." They remained like that for a long while before he heard Marinette say, "I've never seen Tikki like that. She was so…dark. It's true we used them quickly and sometimes they weren't ready but the situations with Hawk Moth always came up without warning and lives were at stake. I never thought about how hard we pushed them."

"All Plagg talked about was cheese so I had no idea he felt that way either." Adrien rested his head on Marinette's. "Now that I think about it, why do you think Plagg became a white tiger? Wouldn't he grow to like a black panther or black tiger perhaps?"

"Oh that, well, I know the reason, but I'm not certain how much I should say," Marinette seemed to struggle with herself before she continued. "There was a time, in an alternate time I suppose you could say, where I had to fight an akumatized Cat Noir."

"What!?" Adrien almost opened his eyes in surprise but refrained and tightened his hold on her by instinct. "What happened?"

"Well, I don't know all the facts. Bunnyx sort of helped me but warned I shouldn't know more about the future than absolutely necessary. At that time, you weren't Cat Noir but Cat Blanche."

"Cat Blanche?"

"Yeah, everything was white, and you had blue eyes." She laughed softly to herself. "I definitely prefer the black and green look to that."

Adrien wanted to ask more but understood that knowing more about other timelines could be risky, so he stopped himself. Instead, he searched his memory for all the information they had thus far and tried to come up with a plan. "Hey, did you remember hearing them say they wanted to break our control over them once and for all?"

"Yeah! That must mean we haven't fully lost them yet," Marinette replied. "I bet it's the jewels on their foreheads. Maybe if we can damage those, we can save them, kind of like an akumatized object!"

He nodded. "But we can't be chasing after them. We would lose. And we can't fight them one on one without our powers. We need to come up with a plan. Draw them to a location of our choosing, where we'd have the advantage."

"I think I have an idea."

Adrien grinned. That's my girl. "I'm all ears, Milady."

Marinette explained her idea and after the two got dressed and left the cave, they returned to the jungle to execute her plan.

Adrien finished their trap while Marinette went and hid behind a tree. "A well-placed cataclysm would have really made this much easier."

"Shh, hurry up and get over here. They're coming!" Marinette took a bracing breath and called out, "Adrien! I can't run anymore. I'm so tired!"

"Come on, we have to or they'll get us!" Adrien played along.

Plagg arrived first jumping onto the scene with a snarl while Tikki hissed behind him, her larger body harder to move around the dense trees.

"Now!" Marinette knew a traditional pit trap would be something both kwami could easily jump out of, so she made it strong enough to hold their weight…at first. Releasing their trap from above, rocks and debris came tumbling down on top of the creatures, tangling them up in vines and burying a majority of their bodies in rocks.

Before Tikki could cut her way out with her sickle arms, Marinette tossed vines and lassoed her arms down against her body. Adrien leapt onto Plagg's back and locked his snout down with his left arm while his right arm came around under his neck in a variation of a chokehold. "Plagg, please you have to remember who you really are! You're my friend!"

Marinette, too, leapt onto Tikki's back and wrapped her arms around her lasso, speaking into Tikki's ear. "You were always someone I could count on to give me advice when I needed it the most. I'm sorry I took you for granted but I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere until we straighten things out!"

Raising a rock in their right hands, Marinette and Adrien aimed for the jewels in their friends' heads. ""Come back to me!"" both exclaimed. The jewels cracked and dark energy blasted out in all directions, slamming both teens against the walls of their makeshift pit. Tikki and Plagg cried out, swaying in pain as the dark energy seeped out and along with it, their strength.

Marinette winced from a cut on the side of her head as she pushed herself up to her feet. "Tikki, I'm going to save you no matter what."

Adrien slowly got to his feet, one shoe having been lost in the blast. "Plagg, we're in this together. You were there for me and I'm gonna be there for you."

When they were close enough, Marinette and Adrien hugged their kwami's despite their altered forms and tried to project all of the love they had for their friends. Hidden light from within grew and grew and fought back the darkness. The jewels purified under the immense power emanating from them and when it died down, both Marinette and Adrien were tightly squeezing the diminutive forms of Tikki and Plagg.

Marinette openly wept as she snuggled her cheek against Tikki. "I'm so glad you're back!"

Tikki giggled, "I'm not sure where I went but I'm sure I have you to thank, Marinette!"

"Plagg!" Adrien, likewise, held his kwami in a tight hold.

The black cat struggled to pull away. "Yeah yeah, I get it. You can stop now! I'm fine!"

Their kwami breaking away, Marinette and Adrien looked around and realized their surroundings had returned to normal. The jungle faded away, replaced once again by beautiful galaxies and nebulas. Squealing happily, the other kwami joined them and eventually everyone was accounted for.

"I'm not complaining but I'm still not exactly sure what happened," Marinette admitted. "What was that light?"

Wayzz held up a hand. "That light was the power of your very souls. The magic of your kwami, in essence, is to unlock the power of a human's soul. The strength you wield as Ladybug and Cat Noir was always within you. They simply help you unlock and harness it. It is why Tikki and Plagg are considered the most powerful of all the kwami."

Marinette blinked, "So the power of my yoyo to purify akuma is really just the light of my soul?"

"Then what about Cat Noir's power of destruction?" Adrien asked.

"In Plagg's case, his power of destruction is controlled and directed with your soul's very will, Adrien. It takes a very strong person to be able to wield the power of the Cataclysm and not be corrupted themselves. Your light is made to balance Plagg's darkness."

"We need you just as much as you need us!" Tikki expressed.

"Well now we need your help again. Hawk Moth used your power to grant his wish and we have to undo what he's done before our 24 hours are up!" Marinette explained.

The kwami exchanged looks. "Take Wayzz with you. He should be able to direct you to the page with the spell. Marinette, as the new guardian, you should be able to read the spell."

Marinette nodded. "Got it."

"But how do we get out of here?" Adrien asked.

The kwami surrounded them in a circle. "We sing you out, of course. It's how we kwami cast spells." The kwami, with big smiles on their faces, sang a song allowing Marinette, Adrien, along with Tikki and Plagg, passage out of the miracle box.

Once back in the real world, Marinette put on the bracelet of the turtle, allowing Wayzz to join them. Tikki and Plagg happily floated over their owner's shoulders. When Marinette began to put the box away, Adrien put a hand on her shoulder. "Shouldn't we keep the other miraculouses close in case we need to use them to defeat my father? You know, the whole unify thing?"

Marinette shook her head, forgetting her cut. "It's too risky. We can't allow Hawk Moth to get any more powerful than he already is. Come on." She started to leave when Adrien pulled to stop her. "What?"

"Let's get that cut looked at first." Adrien used a sink and found a first aid kit, tending to Marinette's wound with a butterfly band-aid. For her part, Marinette was bright red and couldn't say anything. "Okay, you're good until we can get a real doctor to look at you. I don't think you'll need stitches but it's probably best to double check."

Walking carefully out of the building, Marinette used Wayzz to scout ahead until she could find another, temporary place to hide the miraculous box. As they were going through the streets, they were disturbed when they didn't see people out and traffic had all stopped.

"What's going on?" she wondered.

Adrien walked up to one of the cars and gasped. "The people inside are all passed out!"

Marinette checked a nearby business window and saw all the customers and employees were similarly knocked out. "Are they unconscious?"

"No, they've been poisoned!" Wayzz took notice of their greenish hue with spots in various places.

"Someone's been akumatized!?" Adrien looked at a victim's watch. "It's only been three hours!" At least twice that had passed in the world of the kwami. "And with his wish granted, what purpose does creating another victim do for Hawk Moth?"

"Something isn't right." Marinette decided she'd waited long enough. With the coast clear, she said, "Tikki, spots on!"

"Plagg, claws out!" Their kwami were pulled into their miraculouses and each transformed into Ladybug and Cat Noir. They stood staring at each other for long moments. "I know Marinette and Ladybug are the same person now but the sight of you still takes my breath away."

Marinette walked up and caressed Cat Noir's cheek. "And even though I know you're my strong and vigilant protector kitty, it's still hard to imagine my Adrien is the one beneath that ball of sickening bravado."

"Heh, yeah, I may have laid it on a bit thick, but I'm a cat and we cats like to play." He leaned into Ladybug's face until their noses almost touched, "And you Milady, have a ball with string that's bound to keep my attention until the end of time."

Despite knowing it was Adrien and despite her cheeks turning pink, as Ladybug, Marinette had to play hard to get so she leaned back and twirled her weapon, getting Cat Noir to come out of her personal bubble. "It's called a yoyo, but if you're good I'll let you chase it around after we've defeated the supervillain."

Now Cat Noir sighed and looked towards his house in the unseen distance. "Even if that supervillain is my father?"

Ladybug put a hand on his shoulder. "Let's just head in that direction and gather information. We don't have all the facts yet but I'm sure everything will work itself out. Are you with me?"

He gave her a weak smile and leaned against her palm. "Always, Bugaboo."

They took the high road and went to the rooftops. Usually if anything were going down anywhere in the city, they'd be able to see them and arrive in seconds. Unfortunately, without the supervillain actively attacking Parisians, Ladybug and Cat Noir couldn't track them down. "We won't be able to cure everyone if we can't find the supervillain. They'll stay poisoned forever!"

"The situation is much more serious than that," Wayzz commented. "If we can't cure these people soon, I'm afraid the poison will kill them. Miraculous Ladybug's are amazing but I'm not certain they've ever brought anyone back to life."

"Let's head to Agreste mansion and see how the situation fares over there." Ladybug twirled her yoyo and sped off into the air. When they arrived, Agreste mansion was still and quiet, like the rest of the city. "We can't use the front entrance, it's too risky."

"But anywhere inside and my father's security will spot us immediately," Adrien added. In one of the windows, Adrien saw the silhouette of his mother. "There! She'll let us in!" He leapt up and landed on the windowsill. Tapping on the window, his mother saw him and unlocked it. "Mom, what's going on!? Did father use another akuma to make a supervillain?" he asked as he leapt into the room.

She shook her head and stepped back to allow Ladybug room to land as well. "No, I'm afraid it's worse than that." She moved and returned to attend to Nathalie who laid in the bed nearby. "Your father is as stubborn as usual, and he won't listen to reason. His own akuma corrupted his miraculous! He's not Hawk Moth anymore, he's Death Moth, and he won't stop until he's defeated Ladybug and Cat Noir once and for all."

Ladybug gasped. "The citizens! The sickness, that's all him?"

Emily sighed and nodded sadly. "If he can't get his way, he could care less what happens to the world. He refuses to be stopped and undo the damage he's done." She walked up to Cat Noir and looked him in the eye. "You must defeat your father and take his miraculous." She lifted a hand and opened her palm, revealing the peacock miraculous. "Take this, as a symbol of goodwill." She looked back at Nathalie. "She won't be needing it anymore anyway."

Natalie muttered in her sleep and shivered from unseen chills. "Gabriel…I'm sorry. So sorry…"

Ladybug's eyes went wide. "Nathalie was Mayura!?"

"I don't understand," Cat Noir said with worry in his voice. "Why would she be sorry?"

"She used the Peacock miraculous when it was still damaged, threatening her own life in the process."

"Why would she do that?" Ladybug asked.

Emily moved a stray hair away from the woman's face. "Because she…loves Gabriel."

Cat Noir staggered, unable to form any words.

"Where is Death Moth, Mrs. Agreste?" Ladybug asked after a while.

"He's going to be where we first met: Notre Dame."

Ladybug and Cat Noir didn't have far to travel to get to Notre Dame so Marinette stopped on one of the rooftops. "Cat Noir, we have to be careful. Paris is depending on us."

"Not to mention Nathalie," he agreed.

She turned to him. "We don't know what his powers are, but we know he probably uses moths to make people sick. We have to be ready to defend against them. If one of us were to fall…if you were to…" she stopped and looked away.

"Hey," he came up and cupped her cheek, looking down at her with his feline green eyes. "Would you be worried like this if you didn't know Adrien was Cat Noir?"

"No, I guess not," she admitted. "That's why it was so imperative that we didn't find out who we were. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to know you'll be fighting by my side, and I know how capable you are as Cat Noir, it's just…"

"You care for me and we always worry about the people that we love," he finished for her, smiling fondly. "See, the thing is, I may have fallen in love with Ladybug because of how amazing she is but what I said that time was 'Whoever it is that's behind that mask, I love that girl.' I trust Marinette because she's the one who makes Ladybug so miraculous." He gave Ladybug's cheek a peck. "So, what's the plan, Milady?"

Her stunned expression at his gesture remained a couple extra seconds before she shook her head and touched her chin thoughtfully. "If it's like it was with the scarlet moths, when they were everywhere, some people were safe if they stayed indoors so the moths can't go through walls or anything."

"And when we fought Queen Wasp's…erm wasps, we went underwater."

Ladybug snapped her fingers. "That's it! I know what we need to do!" She whispered her plan to Cat Noir and when she was done, he nodded. With their faces inches apart, Ladybug suddenly looked unsure and her breath froze. Closing her eyes, she leaned forward and gave Cat Noir a quick peck on the lips. "In case we don't make it out of this…"

She turned and made ready to jump when Cat Noir caught hold of her wrist, making her turn back. "That's not good enough." He pulled her in and kissed her full and long on the lips, holding the small of her back so that she was pressed up against him. When they finally parted, he rested his forehead against hers. "When we get through this, and I know we will, we're going to go on a real first date and I'm pulling out all the stops."

Her face about the color of her suit, Ladybug giggled quietly. "I'm looking forward to it." She twirled her yoyo and together the two leapt onto the Notre Dame church. It was the middle of the night., and all was still. "It's so quiet. Do you think she was right?"

"He's gotta be inside." They landed by the side entrance beneath the north rose window and quietly entered the church. They could hear a man's voice echoing through the building.

"Emily, when I first met you, you were but a beautiful singer in the choir. One of many, but to me you were the only one who stood out. I fell in love with your beauty, you had to be the model, the inspiration for my designs! We fell for each other and you would do anything for me and I for you!" Death Moth stood in front of the alter, as though in confession, speaking of days long gone. "Now you have turned away from me just when we were finally reunited! This world can crumble, I will destroy it all because I can no longer bear to be in a world without you! Emily why!?"

Ladybug's yoyo string came in and wrapped around his arms and wings, pinning them to his sides. "Emily still loves you!" she exclaimed. "She doesn't want to see you like this! This isn't the man she fell in love with!"

Death Moth spun around and Cat Noir and Ladybug were both taken back by his new appearance. Though a human voice had sounded, his head was all but unrecognizable behind the huge bug eyes. "You know not of what you speak!" He flexed his wings and pulled Ladybug in, flinging her around until she went flying into the wall. Cat Noir reacted quickly and leapt up, catching her before she could hit.

Cat Noir landed and glared at his father. "Mom asked us to save you because she loves you so that's what we're going to do!" He stood and slammed his pole against the ground. "And I promise I won't stop until Gabriel Agreste is returned to the man he was! I won't abandon you, Father!"

"You are not my son! You stand in the way of your mother's reincarnation! If I lose, she dies!" Death Moth came in fast, attacking with the martial arts known as second nature to Gabriel. Ladybug tried to help but only Cat Noir could hold him at bay move for move.

"She's already dead, Father! We have to let her go! She wants us to move on! Nathalie, she—"

Death Moth did a reverse roundhouse kick and knocked Cat Noir back into some of the church pews. He painfully slumped to the floor.

"Cat Noir!" Ladybug rushed to his side.

Death Moth snorted. "She claims Nathalie loves me. Claims I don't need her anymore because I have Nathalie. Nathalie cannot hold a candle to the perfection of my Emily!"

Ladybug looked back at the front entrance far down the row of pews. "When we love someone, we would do anything for them. Nathalie knew you loved Emily, but she still risked her life to try and make you happy, even if it wasn't with her!" Ladybug pulled Cat Noir to his feet and held onto his hand. "I tried to step aside so that your son could find happiness with another, even when doing so hurt my heart worse than anything before. I wanted your son happy because I love him. I understand Nathalie and it's why you have to see your time with Emily is gone. She needs to be allowed to pass on. Nathalie doesn't deserve to pay for your sins!"

Death Moth shook with uncontrolled anger. His eyes, normally an even grey, flashed red. "My sins! You dare judge me! I will destroy you before you can corrupt my son and undo my wish. Emily is the only one for me and the only mother my son will ever have!"

"Time to go." Ladybug pulled Cat Noir along, effectively provoking the raging supervillain.

They ran out of the church and leapt up to the rooftops, taking a quick glance behind them to see if Death Moth was following.

"Did you mean what you said when you said you stepped aside to let me and Kagami play it out?" Cat Noir asked.

Ladybug winced. "I knew I had to provoke him and matters of love seemed his weak spot…but yeah. I cared for Luka but he wasn't you, even he knew that. In the end, the heart wants what the heart wants."

"Heh, well if it makes you feel better, it was the same for me. I cared for Kagami, she was a good friend, but some part of me was being drawn to Marinette, even if I didn't know why at the time."

Ladybug looked over and smiled. "You ready, partner?"

"Always, Milady." They touched knuckles and went their separate ways.

The final battle was about to begin.

Author's Note: I wanted to share something fun that I discovered while writing for Miraculous. For anyone looking to better themselves as a writer, when plotting out Ladybug's Lucky Charm schemes, I found using a random item generator from the internet, and there are many, was a great way to force you to think like Ladybug and try to make unlikely items save the day. I also looked up cliches and cat puns for more appropriate Cat Noir dialogue. Just food for thought!