Tikki quickly follows Dragon Fyre, hoping to hell and back that she isn't going far - going to find Ladybug means, in this specific case, going to find a spot for them to meet up so Tikki can purify the Akuma and use the Cure to put everything right again. Perks of knowing Marinette is Ladybug, and Tikki knowing she knows.
When she gets to the rooftop, though, Dragon Fyre is absolutely freaking out - not without a reason, given the detail that she just transformed in a way that's not the Miraculous' doing. "Dragon Fyre! You need to calm down, panicking is just going to make your magic react more!" Because it's currently feeling like there's a heatwave going through this specific area, thanks to the magic that Dragon Fyre can now access even more of.
As soon as Dragon Fyre hears her voice, she whirls on the Kwami of Creation desperately and says "Tikki, please tell me the Cure will fix this! Please tell me this'll go away after we purify the Akuma!" They said 'Earth Fairy' - they wanted an Earth Fairy, I'm not a Fairy, they have wings- I've got wings now, what if I AM this Earth Fairy they wanted or just became it, Kwamis how do I-
HATCHLING! You NEED to calm down! Take a deep breath and CALM DOWN. Working yourself into a panic attack is only going to level the city.
Dragon Fyre forces her lungs to expand, making herself take in oxygen before she actually passes out like Marinette's gotten close to doing at times when she's spiraling.
Tikki winces, and says "It's not…Dragon Fyre, this was always going to happen to you. Befana's power to turn people into Fairies just…forced it."
Dragon Fyre's silent for a solid minute processing that, then bursts into a series of denials that sound remarkably like Marinette's spiraling. "No, nononono, you've gotta be joking, Tikki! There's no way I'm a fairy, fairies are only in fantasy books, bedtime stories, and Hawk Moth's twisted imagination! I can't be a fairy, I can't be what they were looking for!"
Tikki blinks, having heard about 'them' - the four men that attacked her and killed her parents, awakened her magic earlier than it was supposed to be awakened, and then left her for dead after their wormhole spit her out into the La Seine.
Right, this WOULD trigger a freakout… "You think they'll come back for you."
Dragon Fyre nods, the flames around her slowly dying down as the worst of her panic passes.
"They won't. You weren't what they were looking for, they have no reason to come back here now."
"They…they called me a Fairy, Tikki. I thought they were crazy, at first, but then they started doing magic and the giant wolf turned back into the guy with the mohawk…" And they ripped her life apart in the space of less than an hour. Ten minutes tops, if she had to take a guess. And she has wings, isn't that the benchmark for Fairies or something? Wings and magic?
Tikki purifies the Akuma and releases the Miraculous Cure, leaving Dragon Fyre…still in the different outfit that's her Fairy form. "Shitshitshitshit, how do I make it go away? How do I shut my magic down? It took me four years to learn to control the magic I could use, and I'm currently using a lot more than usual, I can feel it! It's like I've just been supercharged, somebody just dumped gasoline onto the little campfire in my chest!" She doesn't have the time to relearn her control, not with Hawk Moth Akumatizing people at least once a day! She can already tell she's going to be spending a lot of time in the quarry…
Marinette finds Bloom hanging out at the edge of her birthday party after everything is set back up - luckily, the Cure fixed everything that got blown up or destroyed in Dragon Fyre's freak out.
Unluckily, Bloom's in a completely different outfit, oversized sweatpants and a hoodie that hide her figure all the way down to the ground. In neon-orange, no less. Even her ponytail looks messed-up, for some reason. The biggest clue that something's up, though, is that she's wearing an old pair of reflective sunglasses - Bloom never wears sunglasses.
Marinette jogs over at once, asking "Bloom? What happened?"
Bloom freezes for an instant, then says "It's fine, Mari. I've, uh, gotta split for tonight after the party though."
Marinette gets a concerned look on her face, asking "Is something wrong?" The cup of punch in Bloom's hand suddenly explodes, spraying the both of them with punch - translation: yes.
"Bloom, Marinette, you two alright?" Luka, Juleka, and Adrien all come over, making both Marinette and Bloom freeze in place.
Adrien feels ice form in his veins at his sister's outfit - something colored exactly like her magic that just so happens to hide her body from the chin down, something to hide her eyes that are almost certainly blazing a bright orange…it doesn't tell him anything good, it tells him a few catastrophic things actually. No pun intended.
It tells him her magic's still really active, it tells him whatever happened before didn't get reversed with the Miraculous Cure...and it tells him his sister is freaking out completely.
Luka, though, gets a concerned look on his face and asks "Did something happen, Bloom? You weren't wearing those earlier."
Marinette quickly says "The punch drenched her when Dragon Fyre had her freak-out. I offered her something I was going to upcycle to wear for the night."
Adrien's calling total bull on that, but he won't say as much where anyone can hear him. He doesn't know why Marinette's covering for his sister when she's acting so cagey, but he could kiss her for it right then and there.
Luka then suggests they go get ice cream from Andre, which Juleka grins and practically drags Adrien and Marinette to. Marinette gets 'peach-pink for his lips, and mint for his eyes,' while Adrien gets 'strawberry with chocolate chips, blackberry for her hair, and blueberry for her sky-blue stare' - Bloom practically chokes on the mouthful of punch she inhaled , even as Juleka facepalms when Adrien just asks if Andre's ice cream can really lock true love. How he doesn't notice that the cone of ice cream he has perfectly describes Marinette's face right then - red as the ice cream scoop on bottom, her freckles highlighted just like the chocolate chips in the ice cream, and the blueberry was already explained - is beyond them. How Marinette doesn't notice that his ice cream combo perfectly describes Ladybug is beyond Bloom.
Bloom says "Yeah, I've gotta get going, guys. See you in school." She's so glad today is a Saturday, she can spend tomorrow trying to wrestle her magic under some semblance of control in the quarry.
Luka stares after Bloom's fleeing back, then Adrien asks "You want to get some ice cream, Luka?"
Andre delightedly says "It's on the house for tonight! A birthday party is the perfect time to have ice cream!"
Luka shrugs, trying not to think about Bloom and why she'd be running away so suddenly - or why her song was so off, so frantic - and decides a cone of Andre's magical ice cream is a wonderful way to take his mind off an erratic melody and panic-filled gaze.
Dragon Fyre's melody changed to, actually…no, Luka, don't think about either of them… "Sure, that sounds wonderful."
Luka, much to everyone else's jaw-dropping surprise, gets 'Vanilla for her skin, Orange for her flaming hair, and Blueberry for her gem-like stare.' Rose squeaks and stares at Juleka in shock from her seat a few feet away - they know two people that fit that description, and one of them is most definitely not a 'her.'
And then the blonde girl gets a delighted look on her face while Juleka stares at Luka in shock, even as Marinette is quietly stepping between Luka and Adrien as the blonde boy seems about to go off on a tirade for some reason.
Adrien, meanwhile, is biting back every protective instinct he has at the revelation - via ice cream, of all things - that Luka has a thing for Bloom. It'd probably be getting to him less if Luka's face weren't bright as his Lady's suit…or if Andre weren't famous for getting couples right with his ice cream. Because the last guy that had a thing for her backed away slowly before he could even get his nerve up to do anything - and, despite how cool she played the whole thing, he knows it hurt her. Call him overprotective, but he'd rather she didn't get her hopes up again only for them to come crashing down once more.
Adrien's worry doesn't get any better, though, when his sister doesn't show up for the Akuma attack the next day - the Object explodes, violently, but his sister is nowhere in sight. Master Fu doesn't know where she is - or what happened to her, for that matter - and she's not responding to any of the messages he or Ladybug have left her.
Ok, kid, we gotta talk. And you need to avoid the quarry.
Cat Noir stops in his tracks on the rooftop he was about to leap from, having been searching the city for his sister - the quarry, why didn't he think of the quarry?!
No, Adrien, listen to me! You CANNOT go find her right now! Tikki told me what was going on when she found Dragon Fyre, and it's only because of Longg that the city hasn't been leveled yet!
That keeps Cat Noir in place, and the blonde boy swallows before saying "Tell me everything, Plagg." If he's going to help his sister, he needs to know what's going on.
Alright so…Bloom's as powerful as Tikki and I combined, but couldn't access most of that strength because her human form couldn't handle it without burning out. Now…she can access more. Like that, with the wings, she can put a lot more power into her magic without so much as breaking a sweat. Or even really trying. But…she's freaking out about it. You've heard how her parents died, right?
Cat Noir nods, and says "Yeah, why?"
Well…the four weirdos were looking for an Earth Fairy, and thought she was who they wanted.
"An…Earth Fairy?" He's never heard of anyone like that before.
Um, yeah…that'd be the group of ladies that helped us. One of them made the Miraculous' all that time ago.
Cat Noir promptly finds himself flat on his behind, the revelation having taken away his ability to be on his feet for the moment. "So…wait. Your saying Bloom's…"
A Fairy? Uh…yeah. And now, she thinks they'll come back for her if she can't get her wings to go away. According to Longg, she's currently trying to drain herself dry in hopes that a lack of magic will make her revert back to normal.
"And…will that work?"
Eh…maybe. Depends on if she can successfully push herself to her limits. She's figured out by now that, like that, her limits are a lot harder to reach. It's like the difference between a bath tub and the pool outside Chloe's room at that hotel of hers, Adrien. And, if we're right…she's got a lot more potential than Chloe's swimming pool that she can't access yet.
Cat Noir swallows, nervously asking "How…how big a body of water are we talking, Plagg? An ocean? All the oceans combined?"
Think…space, Adrien. She can't get that deep safely, yet at least, but it's there in her. If she had to dig that deep now, though…she'd probably level Paris, if not the entire continent.
Adrien gulps, then asks "That's what would happen if she lost control?"
Maybe, yeah. A Kwami…kid, we're GODS. Concepts given life. Tikki and I are opposites, I came to be shortly after her. Creation and Destruction literally can't exist without one another. And Bloom? She's as strong as any of us with ease. As strong as Tikki and I together, I'd say.
That…if this were a cartoon, Adrien figures he'd be in a dead faint right now. His sister, who sits diagonal from him in class and gets frustrated with Chloe and her crap, who races around the city with him and made sure he knew for a fact that there are people in the city who actually care about him…she's as powerful as a God. He's not sure whether to laugh or cry - his sister is basically a mortal goddess…who can sprout wings from her back.
His sister is a Fairy.
Maybe screaming would be a viable option?
Or hysterical laughter?
Gabriel Agreste is just thankful, right then, that he's sitting down…and that Adrien is up in his room.
Because it wouldn't do whatsoever for his son to hear him swearing up a blue streak to thin air. No, forget blue - he's swearing up a rainbow.
Nathalie comes in at once, asking "Is something the matter?" Gabriel Agreste doesn't swear. He just doesn't. In all the time she's worked for him, the only time she's ever heard him swear is when Emilie collapsed that final time and he had to put her on life support to keep her alive.
Gabriel runs a shaking hand through his hair, messing it up from the usually-immaculate style he worked years on, and says "We may…just be completely fucked, Nathalie. Dragon Fyre is a Fairy." If he hadn't seen it through Befana's eyes, he'd think it was some kind of mistake. As it is...he's thinking he might be going insane. That, or he's just a goner.
Nathalie raises an eyebrow, wondering whether it'd be a good time to get some alcohol or check if what she saw on the Ladyblog affected him through some magic she can't possibly explain, and asks "A…Fairy? Like the ones you thought up for yesterday's Akuma?"
Gabriel shakes his head, saying "No…like the one that, according to Nooroo, created the Miraculous' over five thousand years prior before they were entrusted to her Chinese apprentice."
Nathalie blinks, then pulls up the image she paused the video on - Dragon Fyre in her new outfit, perfectly captured down to the last detail. Right before her freak-out over that particular change, which destroyed all the party decorations and food.
If the Miraculous' were hard to believe, the idea that Gabriel can gain superpowers from a tiny god smaller than the palm of her hand by wearing a piece of jewelry and saying a phrase…this is unbelievable.
Dragon Fyre, someone the two of them are relatively sure is a teenager…is something straight out of myths and legends, a fairytale come to life, no pun intended.
Like Gabriel said...they may just be screwed.
It's Monday night when Dragon Fyre finally breaks her self-imposed exile, having practically sprinted out the door of the classroom earlier in the day and vanished before either Marinette or Adrien could stop her - honestly, both are amazed she even came to school in the first place, less so that she got into classes at literally the last minute and left and just up and disappeared as soon as the bell started ringing.
Ladybug and Cat Noir practically race to the quarry, and Cat Noir gets there first and looks around worriedly. "Sis! Where are you?"
The place looks worse than ever, blast-holes and scorch marks everywhere, so she had to have been here recently. And yet...she's nowhere to be lands next to him, and looks around…only for her to turn visible sitting on a rock.
She looks awful, every bit as bad as she did earlier in the day - like she could sleep for a solid week and still wake up exhausted.
About half a second after he sees her, Cat Noir's sweeping his sister up in a hug while near-hysterically letting her know in no uncertain terms just how worried he's been about her. As soon as Cat Noir stops attempting to crush his sister - rather, hug her to death - Ladybug promptly tackles Dragon Fyre and socks her in the shoulder as well before demanding she never ever worry them like that again.
They then spend the next four hours helping Dragon Fyre learn to take off and land - because her wings are there to stay, even if she can hide them, so she'd better figure out how to use them before they become a problem in a battle.
Four hours spent with Cat Noir going up and down his baton, either getting his sister to a height she'll jump from or pulling her back down to the ground when her wings decide they want to work and suspend her midair.
AN: Can anyone else see Dragon Fyre getting stuck in front of the Eiffel Tower trying to learn to fly? And Cat Noir has to go out on his baton and pull her back? I can, and it's honestly hilarious.
Also, Bloom having a Marinette moment where she completely freaks out. Oh, how the tables have turned. At least Bloom's spiraling over a very real concern, not Adrien tripping and landing himself a black eye and never wanting to speak to her again.
Anyway, enjoy! More updates coming soon!