MIRACLE QUEEN'S AFTERMATH
Chapter 1: Uncharted Territory
by Bill K.
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and all related characters is © 2020 by Zagtoons and is used without permission, but with respect.
"Nathalie?" Gabriel Agreste said softly as he stood at the door.
Nathalie was laying on a bed in the room she lived in at the Agreste Mansion. The lights were dim. The room was cool. And Nathalie lay on the bed as still as death. Her glasses sat on the night stand next to the bed. Gabriel felt a tremor in the pit of his stomach. Nathalie's position and demeanor were eerily like those of his wife, who resided comatose and still in the deep recesses of the mansion.
"I'm still here," she whispered.
"I don't mean to hover," Gabriel continued. "How are you doing?"
"I apologize for being weak," she said. Nathalie moved to get up, but the effort proved to be too much for her. Gabriel raced inside and gently pushed her back down.
"Don't get up!" Gabriel said. "You're still far too weak. I don't want you to compromise your health any more than you already have."
Nathalie turned and looked at him, and the gratitude on her face was clear and unabashed. Seeing that gratitude made Gabriel feel good.
"You do have a habit of putting my interests before your own," Gabriel gently chided her. "What you don't seem to realize is that your health is one of my chief interests. I still say I should summon a doctor."
"And tell him what? That I used a damaged miraculous once too often?" Nathalie replied, trying to hide the quaver of affection in her tone. "I'm sorry my weakness is delaying things. Ladybug is still out there, as is Cat Noir, and the longer it takes me to recover, the more chance they have to reclaim the tablet and destroy our plans." She tensed slightly. "Your plans."
"Then perhaps I should give Ladybug and Cat Noir something to occupy themselves," Gabriel replied. The glint in his eye as he said that made Nathalie shiver. He was so powerful when he had that look, so masterful. Nathalie could never help feeling more attracted to him when he was like this. "Now continue to rest. I want you at your peak."
Gabriel closed the door and headed thoughtfully down the hall. With his power as Hawkmoth, he could create just about any menace. But this called for something different. It was time to give the annoying Ladybug and Cat Noir a foe interested in something besides overpowering them and taking their miraculous. This foe had to lead them on a merry chase, to keep them busy and give Nathalie the time she needed to recover.
But what? Being the artist he was, Gabriel knew that inspiration didn't just occur on demand. He'd have to search for inspiration. But he couldn't take too long. Nathalie was right. Ladybug and Cat Noir were legitimate concerns. She had proven too resourceful, too determined and, face it, too lucky. That luck, which her miraculous affected, could once again prove to be his undoing.
"Father?" Gabriel heard Adrien venture. He stopped in the hall. Adrien was standing in the doorway to his room. "Is Nathalie going to miss dinner again?"
"Yes," Gabriel replied in even tones. "She's working on a very important project for me and her dedication to it is overriding other concerns. Why?"
"Well," Adrien began hesitantly. The handsome young blond boy still felt intimidated in the presence of his father. "It gets kind of lonely eating by myself. And if Nathalie wasn't going to be there tonight, I thought maybe I'd just . . .eat . . .out?"
"With your wastrel friends?" Gabriel asked, eyebrow arched.
"They're not wastrels!" Adrien argued. It seemed to Gabriel that the only time Adrien ever demonstrated any fight was when his friends were questioned.
"Very well. A poor choice of words, I suppose," Gabriel replied. "But I pay a lot of money for cook and I don't do it so you can eat fast food. You'll dine here tonight."
Adrien sighed with resignation.
"But if you'd like some company," Gabriel softened. "I can find the time to join you."
His son's elation actually made Gabriel feel good.
Tikki hovered above the bed in Marinette's room. She looked down on her charge, sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed staring glumly at the storage box which housed her fellow kwami's miraculous talismans. The mood of the room bordered on despair. Four times Tikki had started to say something that might encourage Marinette and all four times the words died in her throat. Finally she had enough and glided down to her.
"Marinette," Tikki began softly. "You did all you could."
"To sabotage everything? Yes, I did," Marinette sighed.
"Marinette, Master Fu wouldn't have appointed you Guardian if he didn't think you could do it," Tikki persisted. "He was very meticulous that way. You are up to the task."
"Am I?" Marinette asked. "Tikki, I exposed Master Fu's identity to Hawkmoth. I got all of the other miraculous holders exposed. I almost lost the kwamis to him. And Chloe is mad at Ladybug. All because I'm a clumsy little girl who doesn't think."
"You only think you are," Tikki offered.
"I think I am because I am," Marinette argued. "I have to do better. I have to make this the center of my world. No more distractions, because now it's just me and Cat Noir against Hawkmoth. I can't involve anyone else and I can't let my mind wander to other things. It's too important."
"Is that why you took down all of the pictures of Adrien?" Tikki asked.
Marinette bowed her head. "Yes," she said. "Besides, Adrien made his choice. I can't waste time on something that's no longer possible."
Tikki stared at her charge and felt tears welling.
"Tikki," Marinette began, "I was able to combine two different miraculous in my last battle. What if I used them all?"
"I wouldn't advise that," Tikki said gravely. "The disparity of powers granted by each miraculous might cause them to conflict. And there is a very real danger that using that many miraculous would injure you. Possibly even kill you."
"Immediately," Marinette asked, "or slowly?"
"Does it matter?" Tikki asked, aghast. "You'd still be dead!"
"But if I could defeat Hawkmoth first . . ."
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" Tikki exclaimed, flying right into the teen's face, "You stop that this instant! There is nothing to be gained by you dying!"
Marinette bowed her head again.
"Marinette, you are not the first person in history to suffer a setback," Tikki continued. "Not even the first Ladybug. But you would be the first one to give up."
"Ouch," Marinette whispered. She looked up at Tikki. "You may look cute and cuddly, but you've got a mean streak."
"It only comes out when people give up," Tikki responded. "You're not beaten, Marinette. Hawkmoth can't beat you. Only you can beat you. That's what you're doing now."
"Marinette!" her mother called from the bottom of the stairs. "Dinner!"
"Coming, Mom!" Marinette called. She put the miraculous case in a dresser drawer. "OK, Tikki. Kick in the pants acknowledged." She headed for the stairs. "I think I'll call Alya after dinner. She's always good for picking me up."
In an attic in the Agreste mansion, a room sealed off from the rest of the home, a man in a violet suit with wide black lapels and a metallic blue cowl leaned on a walking stick. His eyes were closed. His mouth was drawn thin. He was deep in concentration, so much so that he didn't notice or acknowledge the hundreds of white butterflies swirling around him. He was searching, searching Paris for someone to become his distraction. But he wasn't finding anyone.
And that didn't please him.
"I don't understand!" Hawkmoth thought as his mind searched the city through the power of Nooroo. "There has to be someone out there experiencing anger, hatred, bitterness - - some negative emotion that I can exploit! But all I sense is fear! Have I gone too far? Have I cowed all of the sheep milling about Paris into a herd mentality of fear? All I can sense is anxiety over falling victim to my akumas!"
He searched farther.
"Children - - that's all I can sense having normal emotions," Hawkmoth continued. "The children too young to conceive of a threat unless it's right before them. The rest are tarnished with that undercurrent of anxiety. And I've learned not to use children. They're too unreliable." He paused. "A teen. He's not afraid. And he is feeling resentment right now. Resentment over desires sublimated because . . ."
Hawkmoth stopped and swallowed.
"It's Adrien," he shuddered. "I must keep searching. Yes, I'm getting something." Hawkmoth suddenly smiled. "Of course. I should have thought of her to begin with." He reached up and cupped a butterfly in his hand, then infused it with dark violet energy. "Fly, little akuma. I'm sure you know the way by now."
By the pool in the penthouse suite of Mayor Bourgeois and family, Chloe reclined in a deck chair and watched the night sky. Stars were overhead, the sun was setting in the west and making the few clouds in the distance red. It was a picture worthy of an artist or a photographer of note. But Chloe didn't see it. She was too busy nursing her wounded feelings.
But she wasn't too preoccupied to notice a black and violet butterfly approach. It landed on the arm rest of her deck chair and moved its wings up and down once. Chloe glared at it and Hawkmoth could feel the naked hatred emanating from her.
"Get lost, Hawkmoth," Chloe snarled.
"Things didn't work out the last time," Hawkmoth said in syrupy seductive tones. "But I believe in you. You are Miracle Queen. You are the greatest wielder of miraculous this city has ever known. And I am willing to give you power once again so you can show all of Paris . . ."
"Forget it," Chloe sneered. "You must think I'm the stupidest person who ever lived! Well let me tell you something, Hawkmoth! I am not going to be your puppet anymore, just like I'm not going to be Ladybug's puppet! I am Chloe Bourgeois! And I am better than you and her combined! And I am going to show both of you that!" She turned her nose up at the butterfly. "You're dismissed."
"I always considered you an ally, not a puppet, Chloe," Hawkmoth thought-cast through the butterfly. "I'm offering to help . . ."
"I said you're dismissed!" Chloe growled.
She produced an aerosol can of insecticide from behind the deck chair and sprayed the butterfly. The insect crumpled and fell to the floor, lifeless.
"The nerve of some peasants," Chloe muttered.
"Hmm," Marinette muttered to herself, staring at her phone. "Voice mail again. I wonder where Alya could be. I've already left two messages."
The teen put the phone back down on her bureau. She leaned back against the head of her bed.
"There has to be some way of knowing Hawkmoth's plans, Tikki," Marinette mused. "So I can act for once instead of react. Do any of the miraculous let you read minds?"
"You'd have to know where Hawkmoth was, first," Tikki suggested.
Marinette scowled. "There's always a catch." Tikki grinned. "What if I used Fluff? And peeked into the . . ."
Just like that, a note appeared in Marinette's hand. Curious and a bit startled, Marinette opened it up.
"I know what you're thinking. Don't. Hugs, future Alix," read the note.
"You're not helping, Alix!" Marinette yelled into the air.
"Perhaps something will come to you if you don't spend so much time thinking about it and do something else," Tikki suggested. "Your homework, perhaps?"
"That won't help me!" Marinette protested. "I've got to concentrate on Hawkmoth and his plans, remember?"
"Obsessing to compensate for perceived failures won't help either," Tikki cautioned. "You can't let this problem take over your life. Otherwise, you'll get frustrated and angry - - and then be vulnerable to being akumatized."
"Wow," Marinette whispered. "Never thought of that. Thanks, Tikki." Reluctantly she pulled herself off of the bed and trudged over to her computer. "But won't doing my homework make me just as frustrated and angry?"
"Do your homework," Tikki replied, giving the girl a wry smile.
Marinette smothered hers and sat down at the desk.
The basketball hit the floor with a moderate slap and bounced to Adrien's hands. He sighed again, then aimed for the hoop installed against one wall of his expansive bedroom and shot. The ball brushed the rim and dropped through the net. Bouncing back to Adrien, the teen grasped the ball and brought it up to shoot again.
"You're giving me a headache," Plagg said sourly.
"Turn on the TV," Adrien answered. "Maybe there's a war movie on with lots of explosions."
"Excuse me for liking explosions," Plagg replied. "You know, if you're really that bored . . ."
"I'm not getting you any more cheese," Adrien stated flatly. He shot the basketball at the hoop and it dropped through the net again, bouncing back to him.
"Have you missed yet?" Plagg asked.
"Haven't been keeping track," Adrien sighed.
"Yeah? Bet you miss the next one," Plagg smiled. "If you do, you have to get me some cheese."
"No thanks," Adrien said and put the basketball on a shelf. "Nice try, though."
"It got you to stop, didn't it," Plagg murmured to himself with a devilish smile. "If you're bored, why not call one of your friends?"
"Nino is with Alya," Adrien sighed. "And I don't have too many other friends."
"Well, what about that Japanese girl," Plagg suggested, "Kagami?"
"I," Adrien began, flopping onto his bed, "Kagami wants more than I can give her. I like her and I want to be friends with her, but she wants more and I don't want to encourage that." He exhaled. "I wish Hawkmoth would start something."
"So you can be with 'her'?" Plagg asked.
"Yeah," Adrien grinned. "But also to have something to do. Father cut out again right after dinner and Nathalie is tied up with her 'project'. That just leaves The Gorilla, and he's not exactly a brilliant conversationalist. Homework is done. I've played every video game on my shelf." He frowned. "It's like being in solitary! If it wasn't for you, Plagg, I'd go nuts!"
"Happy to help," Plagg smiled. "Since everyone in the mansion is otherwise occupied, maybe it couldn't hurt for Cat Noir to take a turn around the area - - just to make sure everything is peaceful."
"Really?" Adrien asked, sitting up suddenly. "We can do that?"
"We could," Plagg shrugged. "But it'll tire me out. You're going to have to get me something to refuel with after."
"Plagg, I'll get you a whole tin!" Adrien exclaimed. He jumped off the bed and stuck his ring out. "Plagg, claws out!"
Moments later, Cat Noir opened the window and climbed out onto the mansion ledge with uncanny cat-like grace. He inhaled the fresh air of freedom, then extended his baton and vaulted off into the Paris night.
In his roost, Hawkmoth continued to scour the city for a likely candidate to turn into his distraction. It was not going well. Then inspiration struck, as it often did out of the blue. He smiled and sent one of his butterflies off.
The butterfly passed through the bedroom window as if it were made of air. Attracted to a single lamp illuminating a desk, the butterfly landed on the page of a text book and moved its wings up and down once, then waited for a reply.
"Is that you, Hawkmoth?" Lila asked, smiling.
"It is," Hawkmoth thought-cast through the butterfly. "I have a task for you, if you're up to it?"
"Does it involve humiliating Ladybug?" Lila asked maliciously.
"Destroying them would be preferable," Hawkmoth replied. "But at minimum, I only need you to keep Ladybug and Cat Noir occupied for a time. How you do it and how far you go are your concerns. Do you accept?"
"Gladly," Lila smirked and held out her index finger.
The butterfly became airborne and flew up to the finger, then disappeared into the press-on nail on her finger. A bubbling ooze of black and violet grew from the spot and enveloped Lila's body. When it faded from view, Lila wore a snow white body suit and domino mask and carried a snow white baton.
"Evanesce," Hawkmoth thought-cast, "I require one other thing from you: Render the young people who she previously recruited to aid her - - unable to aid her now. You know how, don't you?"
"I do, Hawkmoth," Evanesce smiled. "You can depend upon me. In fact, I'll be delighted to do it."
"One more thing," Hawkmoth cautioned. "If you should happen to capture Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous, I get them. Understand?"
"Yes, Hawkmoth," Lila replied, trying to hide her disappointment. She had hoped he would forget about that little fact.
Continued in Chapter 2