ATUHOR'S NOSE: Been a minute, hasn't it! This is why we don't usually publish the first chapter til the second is already done. Ah well. We got here eventually.
This episode takes place some time between "Queen Banana" and "Crocoduel", but before "Gabriel Agreste" which in our headcanon timeline happens later than in canon, immediately before "Dearest Family". (Happening before "Gabriel Agreste" is not going to be important to this episode, but, well, just wait and see 😉)
Another thing in addition to pronouns that we put more thought than necessary into when writing this fic on account of our OC being plural: quotation marks. You may or may not see what we mean.
Special thanks to KiraHeartilly, for helping us come up with the name and concept of this chapter's villain when we realized we didn't actually like our original idea.
and also no, we do not know even one single solitary thing about how the French school system works, do not "at" us 😛 (wow FFN really allows the smile emoji but not the at symbol)
It had been about a month since the Legion incident. As Ladybug had suggested, Celine had reached out to Marinette and some other classmates that seemed friendly. It had worked out pretty well — she was definitely feeling less lonely, despite her parents' continued absence.
What had really kicked things off, though, had been the arrival of a new transfer student, one Céleste Vérany-Brunelle. The new girl had kept very much to herself for her first few days, until...
Say, Celine, is the new girl still sitting by herself? Lea thought.
Celine glanced over. So she is. ... I'm feeling some skepticism here and I don't know why, since you're clearly not doubting the mere fact that she's sitting alone.
You remember how you sat alone at lunch last Tuesday, even though you could've sat with Marinette and that group, right?
Huh? Yeah, obviously I remember that, it was last week. I needed a break from socialization that day. What, you think she just likes sitting alone?
Not exactly. Do me a favor, and remember... Jade sitting alone at the beginning of the year.
... Ah. I see the difference. Should we — but Celine cut her question short as she realized it had already been answered; while she had been distracted chatting with Lea, her headmate had walked them over to where Céleste was sitting.
"Do you want friends?" Lea bluntly asked the new girl.
"Er- what?" she stammered. "I don't understand..."
"It's very straightforward," Lea said. "Do you. Want friends?"
The girl stared. "... Is there a catch?"
"Oh, yeah, the biggest one," Lea said, rolling her eyes, "you have to expend the physical effort of standing up and walking over to our friends' table with us." Though she contradicted that immediately by grabbing Céleste by the arm and walking her over there without waiting for further input.
"Hey y'all," she said to everyone already sat at the table, "you think Céleste here should hang out with us today?"
"I think that's a great idea," Marinette said, stifling a giggle. They're press-ganging her into our friend group, huh? "I'm Marinette. Nice to meet you, Céleste."
"Jade Leclair," Lea said, sitting down next to an empty chair. "Everyone here is aggressively friendly, as I learned firsthand when I decided I didn't want to be a recluse anymore." That's an accurate description, right Celine?
... Close enough. Watch your pronouns, though — don't think Céleste noticed, but you slipped into plurals for a bit earlier.
"That's Mylene, that's Alya..." Marinette was already introducing Céleste to everyone.
Oops. Well, it passed, so let's focus on this, shall we?
Back in the present day, on her way to school for another week, Celine was just now getting a text from Céleste.
Morning Jade
study together after school again?
Meowning Céleste
She heard an aggrieved groan in the back of her mind. Celiiiiine, Achille thought, why the cat puns? We're not Cat Noir! We don't have a Cat Noir factive! Leo's name literally means "lion" sometimes but he is not kitty! In fact, not a one of us in this system is kitty!
Because, you see, Achille, the thing about cat puns is that they are... purrfect!
ARRRRGHGHG
Snickering, Celine turned her attention away from her headmate and back to her phone.
Um I might be busy today? I will have to check
Oh
Okay yeah that's fine
You okay?
Totally 100% okay! Don't worry about me at all!
Celine put her phone away with a frown. "... Any of that seem a tad sus to you, Le?
"A little bit," Leo said. "I'll talk to her next chance I get."
That next chance proved, perhaps predictably, to be at lunchtime. Celine spotted Leo's friend walking into the cafeteria and waved her down to sit with the group. "Heya, Céleste!"
"Jade! Hi!" She walked down and sat next to them. "Did you check your schedule yet?"
"I did," Celine said slowly, "and it turns out that there's an art project due tomorrow, so I was going to focus on finishing that up tonight."
"Oh. Yeah okay, that makes sense."
Celine frowned. Leo...?
"I mean, you can still text me," Leo reassured Céleste. "Not like we'll be working on it literally 100% of the time."
Pronouns, Le! Singular!
Shoot, that's harder than it should be.
"R- right, of course I can text you," Céleste said, with a hollow-sounding cheer. "I'll definitely do that."
"Good!" Leo said. "In the meantime, did y—"
And the bell rang.
"Come on, she just got here!" Leo exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault for getting here late," Céleste mumbled.
"I'm sure you had a good reason," Leo said. "And anyway, I'd rather blame the bell." That got a laugh out of Céleste. "Text u- text me, all right?"
I swear, you don't get your pronoun usage under control and I'm gonna stop letting you front in school, Celine grumped, knowing full well she'd do no such thing.
On her way to their locker, Celine's phone buzzed with a text from Marinette.
Didn't you say you were gonna tell her?
We *were* gonna before we remembered the project!
Now we don't have time
Okay yeah that's fair
Tomorrow probably
For sure if we can finish this project tonight
Isn't it *due* tomorrow?
Well yes it is but oh hey wouldn't you know it that's the warning bell better get to class quick talk to you later
Eventually the last bell rang and the school day ended.
Just a few minutes won't hurt, right? Leo thought.
Yeah, I don't think we're cutting it that fine, Celine said.
Cool, I'm gonna go find Céleste real quick before we head home.
"Find" was overstating things a little bit — what Leo did was send Céleste a text asking where she was. He got her response immediately and headed off to meet her in the library.
Céleste had some books out to work on some homework assignment, but she looked distracted from it already, so Leo didn't feel bad about interrupting her when he sat down. "So. Did you play that video game yet?"
"I did," Céleste said with a smile. "The cats were very adorable."
"Yesss, the cute kitties!"
Leo please tell me you're not going to —
"They were pawsitively purrfect!" Leo said, grinning.
Why are you both doing this now?! Achille moaned.
"I found the first 73 of them on my own," Céleste said, "but after that I spent like an hour scouring every area with no idea where the next one could be — I had to look that one up online..."
"Oh, the 74th cat is absolutely infamous," Leo said. "Like three different guides we found literally have a section just for that cat. And it's not like the clues weren't there — they were so obvious in retrospect, but they just didn't stand out at the time..."
...
"... stopped before what I'm pretty sure is the last boss, to go look for any secrets I missed," Céleste said. "I heard it's kinda weird about how it handles postgame saves and I didn't want to mess with that stuff."
"Yeah, it's a mess. Most people trying to do a perfect run just — " A chime went off on Leo's phone. "... Heck. Gotta get back home to that project."
"... Right, right," Céleste said with an obviously fake smile. "School work is important and all..."
"Plus I think the librarian's glaring at us for talking about video games instead of doing actual work," Leo joked. "See you tomorrow?" he said, standing up.
"... yeah. Tomorrow."
"Trapped in what feels like a bottomless well of loneliness with no way out... perfect prey for my akuma. Fly away, and evilize her!"
Leo had just reached the library exit when he heard a terrifying fluttering noise and turned around to see the akuma headed right for Céleste. "Look out!"
Céleste looked up at Leo in shock — which unfortunately was directly away from the akuma, completely distracting her as it dove into her hair tie. A familiar neon purple butterfly mask appeared in front of her face.
"Domain, I am Shadow Moth. Your friends leave you every day, so I'll give you the power to not just keep them here, but design your own world for them so they won't even want to leave! All I ask in return is that you bring me Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous..."
"Shadow Moth's a dirty liar, don't listen to anything he says!" Leo cried, sprinting toward Céleste at full speed, knowing he had to get that hair tie —
— but it was too late, and a cloud of dark smoke emanated from the hair tie, covering first Céleste, then the school itself...
The first thing Marinette noticed when she came to was — well, the fact that she was regaining consciousness. "Wh... why did I pass out?"
She looked around and saw an unfamiliar sight — what looked like a massive hydroponic farm. "I don't... remember coming here..." Since there didn't seem to be any people around, she decided to risk a whisper to her kwami. "Tikki?"
"I'm here, Marinette," Tikki whispered from her usual place in Marinette's purse. "An akuma transformation took over the whole school — don't transform, you're tethered to it and I don't know how much it can get from that line."
Marinette looked down at herself and saw that there was indeed a thin thread of what looked like pale light coming out of her sternum. "What the heck is this...?" She grasped at it, but her fingers passed through it like it was nothing.
"I couldn't touch it either," Tikki said. "I was hoping maybe you'd be able to, since it's you it's attached to, but no such luck..."
"Tikki, am I going to have to fight this villain as Marinette?"
"You might have to... That doesn't mean you'll be completely without Miraculous, though. Ladybug has already recruited 'Marinette' once, after all."
"With all the other Miraculous still back at home, that'll take some doing..." But of course, she'd already solved a problem very similar to this one, back during the second Style Queen incident.
Quickly, she exited the hydroponic lab and looked for a safe place to hide while she placed the call.
Adrien was just leaving Nathalie's apartment after a slightly embarrassing fruit delivery when his phone buzzed with the akuma alert.
Not that he needed an app to tell him there was an akuma about, with the giant pillar of earth rising through the clouds where Françoise Dupont used to be.
Like, rising, present tense — actively moving upward at this very moment.
"Oh boy. At the rate that's going, they'll be outside the atmosphere before long... We have to get up there and find that akuma. Plagg, claws out!"
When Leo came to, the first thing he noticed was that he was no longer in the school library.
It was still a library, but from where he was lying on the floor, he could tell the shelves he was looking at didn't exist in Françoise Dupont. (Perks of Jade having been a lonely kid their first few weeks here; the system had spent a lot of time in that library.)
"What in the world...?" He got to his feet and looked around. The library he was in now was much larger and fancier than the school's... aside from the complete lack of computers, anyway. But it looked like an absolute paradise for anyone who preferred their reading in dead-tree format.
Belatedly, he noticed a strange grey tether coming out of his chest and trailing off toward the library exit. He made to pull it out, but his hand passed right through it. "... Right. Magic. Oh, Céleste, what did Shadow Moth do to you...?"
...
Following the tether towards its source, Leo passed by several rooms that he knew for a darn fact hadn't been part of Françoise Dupont a moment ago. Most blatantly, many of the classrooms seemed to have been converted into bedrooms — or more accurately, sets of bedrooms, since your average classroom is two or three times larger than a bedroom needs to be. But there were also the restrooms, which had been completely reshaped — one stall and one shower per room, now — and a room that looked like a living room, with a big TV, a couch, and plush carpeting, it definitely didn't look like anything you'd find in a school.
"What in the world is all this...?" Leo muttered, still following the tether down the hallway. He didn't have to follow it much longer to find the source:
A floating humanoid figure, all angular with some kind of grey metallic armor, waving their hand around to magically rearrange the building, and with what had to be a good dozen or so tethers emanating from the back of their head, in addition to the one leading back to Leo himself.
"... Céleste?"
The figure turned to Leo with... a startlingly normal smile on their face. Or her face, since it was indeed Céleste. "Jade! I'm Domain now, by the way — but isn't this awesome? We've got everything — or if we don't have something, I can make it — we never have to go home! You never have to go home!"
"Um. Hm." What on earth to say to that? "W- I'll admit that in a vacuum, it's not half-bad —"
"It's the greatest! Oh, your tether —" Domain rushed over to Leo and examined the grey line coming out of his body. "It's frayed, what's up with that? Nobody else's is like that..."
Leo looked closer and saw that, just at the end, the tether did in fact split into three. "... I've got some guesses," none of which are complete since I have no idea how she's seeing three of us "but I'll talk about that later. Céleste —"
"Domain, Jade."
"— Domain, whatever — as cool as this is, this is Shadow Moth we're talking about! You shouldn't be making deals with him, that's literally Faustian stuff!"
"Y- you don't like it?" Domain looked taken aback.
"I... I like the thing," Leo admitted, "but I don't like the strings that come attached."
"The tethers? Don't worry about those," Domain said, "I just need to make sure everyone's okay and happy and... that they still like me..."
"Metaphorical strings, Domain," Leo said. "... not gonna lie that's still low-key creepy, but I object way more to the metaphorical string of you being indebted to a supervillain. When Ladybug and Cat Noir show up — "
"I'll destroy them and take their Miraculous!" Domain shouted. "I won't let them take away my friends!"
"It won't stop with those two, you know!" Leo shouted back. "If you kill them Paris will send — I dunno, the cops, the friggin AAE? They're not going to just stand by and watch you do this! You should... just give up now, Céleste."
"Domain. It doesn't matter what they send. I can stop anything. We'll be together forever." She thrust her hand down and a wall slammed shut between them, sending Leo reeling. "Don't follow me, Jade. I'll talk to you again later."
Leo sat on the floor staring at the wall for several seconds. "Wh... what the heck was that?!"
After some communication troubles with the kwamis, Marinette had gotten herself one Dragon Miraculous — and, presumably, one extra portal tossing who-knows-what to who-knows-where as a side effect. Transformed into Dragonfly, she once again had access to the Miracle Box through the dragon sword, as well as the ability to contact Cat Noir —
"Cat Noir, this is Dragonfly, a new holder of the Dragon Miraculous. Ladybug can't be here, her identity is at risk. Can you make it?"
"I'm on my way up, but it's a long way up..."
"Understood. I'll see what I can do for now."
She didn't know whether the villain could tell through the grey tether that it was Marinette under the dragon costume, so she had to be very cautious... Step one was, of course, to find the villain, and following the tether seemed like a likely first try.
...
Several halls down, she spotted the Leclairs trying to bash down a wall with their shoulder.
"... Er, what are you doing there?"
They turned around and whoever was fronting raised their eyebrows at Dragonfly. "New hero? Haven't seen you before."
"Yeah, this is a one-time gig," Dragonfly said. "These tethers are making identity stuff... problematic."
"Makes sense..." they said. They glanced down at their own tether, for some reason. "If you're worried about whether Domain can tell who you are under the suit, she probably can't. She couldn't tell about — er, and the akuma's in her hair tie," they added hastily, gesturing at the back of their own head for emphasis. "She went this way, but... I guess this wall is too sturdy for us to break down like this, huh..."
"Might be able to get around if we back up a bit and check side paths?"
"That... might work better, yeah," they admitted, rubbing their sore shoulder. "I'll take left, you take right?"
"Sure."
The two split up and Thunderbolt searched a classroom for clues... meanwhile, Dragonfly ducked into a different classroom and consulted Tikki. "I can't use the real Lucky Charm while I'm still tethered to the villain like this, but..."
"I know just who you need," Tikki said. "He woke up from a nap a few weeks ago — taking a quick forty years, you know — and he'll be a perfect match for them." She quickly popped into the dragon sword's storage portal and returned in a few moments carrying a pale purple pin.
"Perfect. Now we just need to get it to them..."
"Nothing in here," Leo muttered. "Next room, I guess —"
His phone buzzed with a text notification.
Thunderbolt system. Please check room 231. There's something important I need to lend you&.
He blinked. "... who is this number? They know who we are... Whatever. What's the worst that can happen, we get abducted by a supervillain? Ha."
Room 231 was just across the hall, and it was very obvious to Leo what the message had been referring to given the little black hexagonal box displayed prominently on the room's only table.
He walked over curiously, and when he reached the table, his phone buzzed once again.
This is the Miraculous of the Octopus, which grants the power of Imitation. You& will use it for the greater good. Once the job is done, you& will return the Miraculous to Ladybug. Can we trust you&?
"... this is increasingly bizarre, but..." Leo shook his head and opened the box, and in a flash of light, out came a floating little black-and-white striped creature.
"Hey there! New holder, right? My name's Koppi, and I'll be your kwami!"
Leo grinned, affixing the pin to his shirt. "Okay, that's actually pretty cool. Right now you're talking to Leo Thunderbolt, Koppi. So how's all this work, anyway?"
"Surprisingly intuitively!" Koppi said. "To transform, you just have to say 'Koppi, arms up'!"
"All right, Koppi — oh, wait, shoot." Leo looked down at the tether still stretching out from his body. "This might be problematic. Hm..." If the tether is attached to Céleste's friends... me and Celine, but who's the third...? Either Achille, who she's never talked to — in which case why not all of us — or... Jade. The name we've been giving her. The singlet she thinks we are. If that's how it works, then maybe... Achille, can you step in?
Something shifted, and... the tether disconnected, looking somehow confused, and faded off into the distance.
"Holy crap that actually worked," Achille exclaimed. "Magic is so weird!"
"Ooh, I know what this is!" Koppi said with a smirk. "You're not Leo anymore, are ya?"
"Nope!" Achille said. "I'm Achille, and you don't have to worry about catching me up, I heard everything you said to Leo, so we can get right to it — Koppi, arms up!"
The octopus kwami was drawn into the pin, and a burst of magical energy flowed out, summoning a black-and-white striped jumpsuit over Achille's normal clothes. A domino mask materialized over his face, and tentacle-like straps sprouted from the suit's shoulders and waist. Finally, two chakrams appeared, one in each hand.
Achille looked himself over. "Oh, this is heckin rad! All right, first we're gonna meet up with other new hero, then... um... figure out what to do after that. Make our way to Céleste somehow, break her hair tie, and solve everything forever!"
An unfamiliar masked face popped into the classroom Dragonfly was searching. "New hero? New hero!" They grinned and waved as they spotted her.
She waved back with a smile. "Two new heroes, I see. I'm Dragonfly." No tether? That looks like Thunderbolt under there; how'd they do that?
"Oh, I'm, uh... Ikarus! Yeah, that's a cool name, let's go with that one!"
"All right, Ikarus. Cat Noir is on his way up here, but he says it's a long way up... It's probably safe to wait for him, though, since it doesn't seem like the villain is actively escalating the situation right now."
"Oh! Um, little update on that —" We probably shouldn't just casually tell Dragonfly who we are, right? "— one of the students found a weird trick to break their tether — probably wouldn't work for you, sorry — but anyway Domain is probably gonna notice that since apparently the tethers are to know where everyone is? She might think they died or something and be in a panic..."
The two stumbled as the entire school shook.
"Definitely having some reaction to it," Dragonfly quipped. "Guess we don't have time to wait. Let's move!"
Following her tether back down the hall, Dragonfly kept talking. "Do your chakrams have a phone in them like my sword?" she asked, sliding the dragon sword's hilt open to demonstrate.
"A phone?" Ikarus said. He let the right chakram slide down his arm to hang on his elbow and swiped vaguely in the air around the center of the left one, somehow summoning a holographic display. "Apparently yes!"
"Good. Contact Cat Noir and give him a heads-up, and ask him how close he thinks he is while you're at it."
"Right, Cat Noir..." Swiping at the holographic interface, he quickly worked out how to call Cat Noir. The real actual Cat Noir! And we might be on a hero mission with him depending on if he can get here in time! This might be the most exciting day of my life!?
Focus, dear.
Right right, sorry Le! Thankfully, Cat Noir picked up right when Achille turned his focus back to being Ikarus. "Cat Noir! New hero number two here — or I assume number two anyway, maybe there's more we haven't met up with yet...?"
"If there are, they haven't called me to check in."
"So probably not, huh. Though I didn't know about my octophone until Dragonfly pointed it out to me, so maybe they just don't know they can? I guess there's no way to be sure about that — anyway do you know how close you are to here?"
"The school's in sight, I think I should be there in only a few minutes."
"Good. Oh, and if you suddenly get a weird magic tether on you, you should run away immediately to protect your identity. But I don't think that'll happen since you're already transformed. Probably."
"Got it. See you two when I get there."
Click.
Ikarus looked up from the phone to see that Dragonfly's tether had led them back to the wall.
"Of course we're back here," she grumbled.
"You think we can just break through it with superhero strength?" Ikarus mused. "It looks like a regular wall, but it is all supervillain magicy."
"Let's find out," Dragonfly said, and swung her sword at it full-strength —
— whereupon it bounced off with a clang!, dealing no apparent damage.
"Nope. Also, ow." She frowned loudly. "This is the kind of situation where Ladybug would use a Lucky Charm, but I don't have that power..."
Ikarus looked at his hand curiously. "I... might kinda -"
But before he could finish that thought, the wall fell away on its own, revealing an incensed-looking Domain.
"Heroes. In my domain." Domain waved her hands and turrets emerged from the corridor walls.
"It's more likely than you think!" Ikarus quipped, tossing his chakram at a turret and slicing it off its perch.
The remaining turrets were undeterred, of course, and shot at the heroes, just missing them as they weaved their way forward.
"Stop this madness, Céleste!" Dragonfly said, slicing a missile in half just before it hit her. "Before someone gets hurt!"
"I'm Domain now —" her eyes narrowed as she spotted the tether leading to Dragonfly "— and you're a traitor! Where's Jade?!" she cried, summoning more turrets that immediately opened fire.
"Jade's safe," Ikarus said, destroying a missile that had been headed for Dragonfly. "Which is more than can be said for everyone else in here."
"There was no danger until you two showed up!"
"Your friends' parents might disagree with you on that count!" Dragonfly retorted, slicing another turret off the wall.
"Ha! Parents!" Domain waved her hand and a wall shot up behind the two heroes. "What a joke. Ask Jade's parents the last time they saw their kid's face. Ask Adrien's dad the last time he talked to his son without an appointment. Ask my parents what I'm doing right this second!"
"Ask Alya's parents about her blogs!" Ikarus shot back, advancing on Domain as he tossed his chakram at her. "Ask Marinette's parents about her designs! Ask Juleka's parents about Kitty Section!"
"Arrrghgghg, what am I even doing, fighting with you two directly?" Domain shrieked. And with another wave of her hand, a pit opened beneath the heroes, and the ceiling came down, cutting off the opening as they fell deep beneath the school...
Back in his lair, Shadow Moth was seething with fury. "Where are Ladybug and Cat Noir?"
"Don't know, don't care," Domain said. "Frankly, I hope they never show. I don't need more distractions."
"Might I remind you that you still owe me two Miraculous?"
"I'll give you these meddlers' jewels, then," Domain said dismissively. "If Ladybug and Cat Noir aren't going to face me, that's on them."
Shadow Moth frowned. The Dragon Miraculous, plus this new one — the Octopus, I think — they won't be able to grant my wish, but with four Miraculous in my grasp, I'll be able to execute even better schemes... "I want the Ladybug earrings and the Black Cat ring. Altering that part of the deal is out of the question. But if you can get me those other two, I'm sure I'll be able to have some patience... Ladybug and Cat Noir will show up to face you. They've never passed up an opportunity to meddle."
"Hmph. Guess I'd better take this time to prepare, then. The stripey one gets on my nerves, I'll take her down first..."
Ikarus and Dragonfly looked around where they had landed.
"It's... a nondescript pit," Dragonfly said. "I don't see anything we can use to get out..."
"Hm..." Ikarus hm'd. "... I can think of one thing, actually," he said, and pulled out his octophone from his chakrams. "Cat Noir? Can you get a read on our current location?"
"Yeah, sure... What the — I think there might be interference — it's showing you as inside the pillar?"
"That probably isn't interference. She made a big hole in the floor and tossed us down into it. How precisely can you dial in our location?"
"Er... this precisely?" He sent a screenshot from his catphone to Ikarus, which showed two green blips overlaid on a wireframe of the pillar.
"... Man, that's huge," Ikarus muttered. "Um, based on our positions, do you think you can Cataclysm an exit for us?"
"That won't be necessary," Domain's voice echoed through the pit, as the villain dropped in.
"Hell — make that an entrance for you, she's here!" Ikarus hung up his octophone and immediately tossed the chakram at Domain. "Dragonfly, hold her off me for a second!"
"Water Dragon!" Dragonfly's body liquefied, and she rushed at Domain, pushing her away from Ikarus.
Domain waved her hands and turrets emerged from the stone of the pit. "You don't think some water's gonna stop — ackpthb?!" Her taunt was interrupted as a wave of water flew directly into her face —
— Ikarus spotted his chance —
— brought his hands together in front of himself — "Mimic!" — and a blob of ink squirted out, forming a floating orb —
The creation of the one thing that will most perfectly solve the problem at hand, as long as we have the insight to figure out how to use it —
— tossed the orb high into the air, and shouted "Lucky Charm!"
The orb coalesced into the object which would save the day, and dropped into Ikarus's arms heavily.
"A bazooka?!"
"How blunt," Domain taunted. "But of course it would be a pale imitation of the real thing. Will you blast me to smithereens, then?"
"No, I don't think I will," Ikarus muttered, looking around.
Blasting Domain might kill her, and we don't want that —
Dragonfly's still tethered, but we're not —
and the stone in this pit is awfully crumbly —
He smirked. "I don't need to blast you." He hoisted the missile launcher and fired it into the opposite wall.
The explosion rang deafeningly through the pit, but more importantly, it kicked up a veritable maelstrom of dust and debris, completely obscuring everything.
"Okay, now we can't see. What was the purpose of this exercise again?" Domain asked.
"This!" Ikarus exclaimed right in Domain's ear.
"Whatthe—" And suddenly she was being firmly grasped, arms held to her sides.
"Dragonfly! Cat Noir! I've got her — get the akuma in her hair tie!"
"No!" A wall sprung up, separating Dragonfly from Domain just as the water dragon returned to a human form —
— and Cat Noir's staff popped in through the dust, smacking right into Domain's helmet like a pool cue, shattering it and releasing the evil butterfly.
Cat Noir stared at the akuma warily. "Uh... so how does the akuma get purified with Ladybug absent?"
Ikarus tossed his chakram at the akuma, and it boomeranged back to him with the butterfly trapped in a little inky bubble. He tapped it and the bubble popped, releasing a pure white butterfly, free of magic. "Bye bye little butterfly."
"... Since when can you purify akumas?!" Cat Noir exclaimed.
"You can't?" Ikarus responded, nonplussed. "Huh. I always figured it was just easier to catch 'em with a yoyo than a stick." He shrugged. "Maybe you should try it out next time?"
"Ikarus is the hero of Imitation," Dragonfly said. "It'd make sense that they can stand in for Ladybug when she's absent."
"Sure, that'd do it too, I suppose," Ikarus muttered. "Still, Cat Noir should try purifying the next akuma — just to make sure whether it's possible, y'know? ... Speaking of standing in for Ladybug, though — " he picked up the discarded bazooka and tossed it into the air "— Miraculous Ikarus!"
And the Lucky Charm dispersed into a swarm of flying octopi (or octopodes, or whatever plural you prefer) that wiped the pillar out of existence and gently teleported the school and all its residents back to ground level. Except for one little swarm of them that went flying out into space for some reason Ikarus couldn't fathom.
"Pound it!"
Ikarus's pin chirped warningly. Shortly thereafter, so did Dragonfly's choker and Cat Noir's ring.
"Oops, we all gotta go, don't we?" Ikarus said. He helped Céleste to her feet. "Céleste, do you know where you're going to go after this?"
"Um... Not really," she muttered.
"Hm. Jade was worried about you — text them, maybe they can help." His pin chirped again, more urgently this time. "Dang magic — I gotta go right now. Bug out! Or rather octopus out? I'm just gonna say bye." And he absconded.
Dragonfly frowned as her choker did the same. Does something here not add up...? "Stay safe, Céleste." And she, too, absconded.
"I just got here and it's already over, huh," Cat Noir mused. And his ring beeped again. "... Yeah, this transformation magic stuff is kinda inconvenient. But don't worry, good lady, the heroes of Paris are always watching over you."
"Right..." Céleste walked over to a park bench and pulled out her phone. "Gods, I'm so exhausted..."
"The Miraculous of the Octopus... surprising me with a tool that versatile, I suppose it was inevitable that you'd defeat me this time, and without Ladybug at that. But you're already flying too close to the sun, Ikarus. It's only a matter of time before your wings melt, and I'll be ready for it."
"Arms down." Ikarus's transformation reverted and Koppi popped out of the pin, reverting it to disguise mode.
"Whew. That was tiring. You got any cookies? Mimicking Tikki's power gives me Tikki's cravings..."
"As a matter of fact, we do," Achille said, rummaging through his backpack and retrieving a small packet of mini chocolate chip cookies. He tore open the package and handed it to Koppi. "There you go, dig in. And I am going back inside, fronting for so long is also so exhausting. Lea, it's your turn."
Lea stumbled slightly as Achille pushed her back in front. "Meep? Coulda swapped a little smoother, but all right. Tired boy is tired, I guess..."
"Lea?" Koppi asked around a mouthful of cookie. "I thought your name was Leo?"
"Well, it is when I'm a guy," Lea said with a shrug.
"Ah, gender shenanigans. Got it."
Lea tilted her head. "But you could tell I was the same person, and not a different one with a very similar name?"
"Well, yeah, why wouldn't I notice that?"
She shrugged. "Not sure, honestly, we've never interacted with any other systems in person, so we don't really know what it looks like. But we usually do have to explicitly tell Marinette and Ladybug who's fronting at any given moment, if we want them to know."
Koppi shrugged as he polished off the last cookie. "Maybe it's a human thing. Humans can be remarkably imperceptive."
"Definitely possible." Lea's phone vibrated with a text from Céleste. "But I don't think Céleste is gonna be so imperceptive as not to notice a flying little octopus. We're gonna take off the Miraculous now so we're ready to hand it back to Ladybug... whenever she shows up..."
"Oh, yeah, that's fair," Koppi said with a yawn. "I need another nap after that anyway... a short one. Days this time, not years. With this Shadow Moth guy around, y'all are probably gonna need my help again soon."
"Céleste!" Lea called to her friend.
"Jade!" Céleste waved weakly. "I thought you were doing homework."
"After an akuma attack, I think I can get an extension for a day or two."
"R- right..." Céleste looked away awkwardly as Lea sat on the bench next to her.
"Hey, I was akumatized once too, remember?" Lea said reassuringly. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. Just an inevitable hazard of living in a city constantly under siege by a magical emotional terrorist."
Céleste snrk'd. "Interesting way to put it..."
"Am I wrong, though?" Lea said with a smirk.
"Ha! I guess not..." Céleste sighed and glanced at her phone. "Man. I do not want to go back there today..."
"Parents same as ever...?"
"Yeah. Not so much as a text about it all... I'd get them not knowing that I was the one akumatized, but the friggin... sky pillar replacing our school had to have made the news, and they knew I was there..."
"Mm. Think they'll even notice whether you show up at all tonight?"
"I don't think they've ever noticed," Céleste grumbled.
"Hmm... did Ladybug show up to talk to you yet?"
Céleste tilted her head in confusion. "Why would she? She wasn't even here today."
"Oh yeah, she did send in Dragonfly and, uh, what's-their-name, the octopus one... I'd been thinking that because she showed up to talk to C— ah, to me. Still, she did, uh..." Lea paused and looked around. "Okay, she wanted me to keep this under wraps but if I'm right you're gonna find out real soon anyway — " she reached into her pocket and retrieved a small round charm. "She gave me this magical charm to protect me from being akumatized by Shadow Moth again. And I figured she'd want to give you one as well."
"I'd love to," Ladybug said, definitely not startling Lea even a little bit, "but to make them, I use residual energy from the purified akuma, and since I couldn't be there today..."
"Oh," Céleste said. "That's... well, Ikarus purified the akuma, so maybe — uh, what are Ikarus's pronouns?"
"Er —" Ladybug faltered. "I don't know. But Ikarus mentioned talking to you, Jade, did you happen to ask?"
Heard that from Cat and Dragonfly, then? "Ikarus is genderfluid and uses any pronouns," Lea said. Technically correct — the best kind of correct!
"Gotcha," Céleste said, nodding. "But, uh, I was thinking that since she purified the akuma, maybe she has the... residual energy? And can... give it to you?"
"Maybe," Ladybug said. "Hopefully. I'll ask next time I see them." She glanced briefly at Céleste, then looked at Lea. "I'll probably be patrolling late tonight, so they'll have plenty of time to contact me," she said, aggressively looking in no particular direction.
Message received, Lea thought. "Well, I'm sure he'll contact you the first chance he gets, even if that's not until normal people his age have all gone to sleep." ...responded...
"I guess I'll just have to keep my eyes open for them, then." (... and acknowledged? Is that an acknowledgement? I think that's an acknowledgement, Lea thought.) "Céleste, will you be okay?" Ladybug continued, unaware of Lea's thoughts.
"I, uh... probably," she muttered.
"Don't worry, Ladybug, I'll keep her safe," Lea said with a grin. "Er— if you want me to, of course, Céleste," she hastily added.
"I mean, well, uh... I would appreciate that, actually," Céleste mumbled.
"Ah, good, then we're on the same page," Lea said with a grin.
"Well then, if you two have things handled, I can get to my patrol. Bug out!" And Ladybug zipped off into the distance.
"... Wait, what did you mean, keep me safe?" Céleste suddenly exclaimed.
"Er — safe from having another emotional bad time and getting akumatized again?" Lea said. "Since Ladybug couldn't do the magical thing this time because reasons..." A light bulb did not suddenly appear over Lea's head, but you'd be hard-pressed to prove that. "Ooh, how about you borrow mine in the meantime?" she said, handing the charm over to Céleste.
"Wh — are you sure, Jade?"
"I'm a lot more stable now than I was that day, so Shadow Moth probably won't get a chance to akumatize me anyway." Lea nodded. "So you need it more than I do, anyway."
Céleste took the charm and carefully stowed it away in her pocket. "Thank you, Jade..."
"It's no problem," Lea said with a smile. "Say, do you want to go grab coffee or something? My treat. You look kinda..." exhausted, shivery, fully prepared to sit on this bench all night instead of going back home to your parents "... like you need coffee."
"... Y'know what, I could use some coffee," Céleste said, standing up. Definitely still a bit shaky.
"All right! And then afterward we can... hang out and play video games, maybe." Lea paused for thought. "Oh! How many cats are you on, anyway? After number 74 the curve goes back to normal..."
"Ladybug."
"Ikarus."
"We'd say we're sorry this took so long, but we're not, really, considering why. Well, maybe a little sorry, for inconveniencing you."
"Well, you did warn me that you'd be late. So I wasn't actually waiting out too long."
"Oh, good, you did catch that. We were worried we were being too oblique."
"Nah, I do that kind of thing all the time with the other temp heroes."
Ikarus held up her chakrams. "... Gonna level with ya, we have no idea how we'd go about handing over that magical energy."
Ladybug thought about it for a moment. "... If it's stored in your weapon, then..." She held out her yoyo and tapped it to Ikarus's chakrams. The instant flow of magic confirmed her guess. "There it is." She opened up the yoyo and retrieved a grey spotted magical charm.
"Well, that's a relief. We were half worried we'd ruined the whole thing."
Ladybug pocketed the charm. "I'll deliver this to Céleste tomorrow. I know you can't just tell her that..."
"We can point out that it's the obvious first guess, though," Ikarus said. "With that handled, though — arms down." And the transformation fell. "See you later, Koppi," Celine said, giving the kwami a fistbump. (Tentacle bump?)
"See you soon, kids," Koppi said.
Celine removed the pin from her shirt and handed it over. "We're gonna head back home now. Lea's griping about not going to bed on time.
"Why can't this junk happen on Fridays, so we could at least sleep in afterward?" Lea grumbled.
"Knowing Shadow Moth, he's deliberately attacking our sleep schedule," Ladybug said with a yawn. "See y'all when I see y'all. Bug out." And she once more zipped away.
Celine stretchyawned. "Well. Now what?
"Sleep, Celine!" Lea exclaimed. "I'm voting sleep. Unless you think Ladybug is gonna give you a signed excuse note tomorrow.
"Pff. There's an image for ya."
Special thanks to our friend KungFuCutbug for that lovely drawing of Koppi that adorns the [cover/random paragraph in the middle of the fic].
Fun fact, we just plain forgot that there was a pattern to the canon Miraculous in the main box. So uhhhh imagine that there's a fourth less-prominent group for miscellaneous animals, or something. It's Not Strictly Ruled Out By Canon!™
The four chapters of this fic are intended to be equivalent to the key plot-driving episodes of a season, but we're also going to write some number of so-called "filler" episodes that take place between chapters 2 and 3 and just show some character interactions, and post them as a side fic. This'll be easy enough to follow on AO3, just follow the series that this is now a part of.
Handling it on FFN seems less obvious, though. Guess you could follow us as an author and subject yourself to our Kingdom Hearts self-insert-ish brain vomit? ... then again, given that you're reading this, you might be into that.
Oh, and that "slightly-embarrassing fruit delivery" Adrien did is fully detailed in "Nathalie's Secret" by KiraHeartilly on AO3, if you wanted to know more about that :D
