MIRACULOUS
Chapter 35
Furious Angels
Location Unknown…
"HELP ME! HELP ME!" A young woman's voice screamed in Chinese. The voice echoed throughout the dark void. The unnatural echo indicated that the voice was no longer part of this world. Something unreachable by any person… something from the beyond. "PLEASE JUST LET ME DIE!"
"Oh but you're already dead, my dear," Emile replied in French. She walked through the dark passageway as she approached her destination. She raised her hand and stretched it to the source. Shiroi, are you sure the only one who knows how to disable this spell is the Cat Noir kwami, correct?"
"Yes," the white owl kwami confirmed with a confident grin. "Even if he tells his wielder, there is not a single possibility that they will meet the criteria."
"Then let's proceed. SHROI, LET'S SOAR!" she transformed to Lux.
"*choke*PLEASE STOP!" The ghostly voice bellowed. The tears and sadness were evident in her voice.
"You were always so docile, aren't you?" she asked condescendingly.
"*choke* STOP I BEG YOU!" The voice implored, her voice breaking as if crying. "WHY?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?"
"Hush, my dear," my miraculous does do me wonders. She grabbed a remote and pressed a few buttons. "You are no longer alone…"
"*choke* PLEASE STOP!"
"Love is Blue" by Paul Mauriat plays
A ghostly legion of horrified screaming and moaning voices joined the woman's voice as the music began.
"WHERE AM I?"
"LET ME OUT OF HERE!"
"IS THIS HELL?"
"WHY? WHAT DID I DO?"
"MOMMY! WHERE ARE YOU!"
"I CAN'T BREATHE!"
Lux began a solemn dance as the voices suffering intensified and she paid no heed to their pain. With a combination of Taichi and mirror therapy movements, the dancing, combined with the music, seems to have a painful effect on these trapped souls. A blue aura began to surround her as she danced with an expression of ecstasy.
"STOP!"
"NO!"
"PLEASE STOP! PLEASE STOP!"
London…
Marinette was looking through the archives on the Vanily de Graham manor. A week has passed since the dreadful day in Paris as so many families have lost people to the white plague. She had gone to London to the manor with Gabriel for two reasons, one; to postpone her return as Ladybug has publically returned to Paris, had she returned right away some people may catch on to who she is, two, Gabriel has his ways to take her in as a protégé and has to make the necessary arrangements with French social services so she could legally live under his wing. At first, she wanted to visit where it was once her parents' bakery but was too risky, and was bound to be spotted, and realized that it had to wait.
That would also mean she would not be able to attend the mass memorial to those who died by the white plague, much to Alya's dismay. Marinette would never have the courage to look them in the eye when they reassured what happened to the victims. There would be no doubt that there would be those who would live with the comfort that their lost ones are now in a better place… But if what Cartman told her was true then those poor souls are not in a better place… Anyone who would succumb to the white plague…
"A fate worse than death…" he said.
Marinette cringed at the thought, gritting her teeth. Everything she had found in the archives only proved his point.
Mister Bug offered her to switch their miraculous back but she declined because she wanted to have a talk with Plagg. Mister Bug was confused by the request when she told him to trust her and he'll know soon enough. With that said, he complied.
They should be making their way to Paris in a few days so she wanted to gather as much info as she could from the archives. Mister Bug and the other had filled her in with what had happened as well as the two Chloe's. Tomoe and appeared and wiped Kagami's memories once again, and older Chloe agreed, much to Mister Bug's chagrin.
She had also met Adrien's cousin, Felix. He was a rather interesting kid, definitively a far cry from Adrien. He seemed to kind of have a chip on his shoulder but he was never truly mean to her. More like simply common courtesy and did not speak too much. It really tore her apart from the resemblance he has with Adrien, making her really wish he was still around, but not for the reasons she thought she would have…
She and Mister Bug had interrogated Cartman the following day as well as what had happened on previous timelines on the theatre. What he had told her still shook her to the core. While it was the second time she heard what the white plague, as well as Lux's miraculous really, did and what Cartman was trying to prevent, hearing it the second time wasn't much easier, especially with Mister Bug hearing it. They went back to Master Fu when Sass was finally well enough to tell them what he sensed that night, further confirming what Cartman told them. What the white plague does and what Emilie really intended to do with it. At night, she snuck into the kitchen and took a few sips of Amelie's Mars Japanese whiskey. Not exactly how she would've imagined her first taste of alcohol.
She had also spoken with Nathalie, something that she found odd at first. What threw her off was the bruise on her cheekbone, similar to the one Cat Noir gave Gabriel after he was ousted as Hawk Moth. She was initially wary of her as well as the idea of now sharing the same roof with who were once her enemies. However, once Nathalie revealed that she was a homunculus, created by arcane Chinese alchemy, just like her, the two opened up and Marinette is suddenly fascinated by how she turned against Emilie after growing attached to Adrien and Gabriel. Their conversation became lighter and more comforting as they went on and appeared to be blossoming into a legitimate friendship, though there is one past sin Nathalie had committed as Mayura that was still in her mind but couldn't bring herself to mention it just yet… The darkness of regret still plagued her when she didn't even think about picking up the…
"Marinette?" Plagg whispered. "Incoming," he urged quietly. Marinette shut the book and shoved it in its place and tiptoed her way out of there.
"Marinette!" Gabriel said. "I know you're here!" That caused her to freeze where she was. She twitched and turned her head towards him.
"Mr. Agreste…" Marinette greeted. She saw that he was still in his suit. Gabriel pushed his glasses and walked towards her.
"You know Amelie is not exactly fond of you snooping on her family records," he pointed out casually. "You're lucky I'm the one who caught you."
"Right," she said as she began to walk away to her guest room. She stopped after only a few steps but didn't turn around, nor did Gabriel. "That night… when you Akumatized me…"
"Yes?"
"You did tell me the truth, right?" she asked. "You didn't burn my family just to get to me?"
"No, I did not kill your parents," he said. "But I did take advantage of your sorrow to akumatize you. That was as far as I went…"
"Good," she said turning to him. He responded in kind, but what surprised him was her smile. "If it meant bringing my family back, I probably would've done that same thing."
She went her way back to her guest room and lay down in bed, with her arms behind her head, and stared up at the ceiling.
"Kid," Plagg said.
"What's on your mind, Plagg?"
"That's what I was gonna ask you."
"I know."
"So you beat me to the punch? Sneaky…"
"I just don't know what to make of this Plagg," Marinette said.
"Heard that before," Plagg muttered, rolling his eyes.
"What?"
"Nothing," he whisked away quickly. "So, you saw Pinyin there, didn't you? How is she doing?"
"She really looks up to you," Marinette said. "Though I gotta ask, were you really her mentor?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Please, don't take this the wrong way but you don't strike me as kwami who would surpass Tikki when it comes to knowledge."
"Yeah, well, let's just say I know some things that even Tikki doesn't know," Plagg said. "A safety measure, so to speak."
"The way Pinyin spoke about you, Tikki would've never believed it."
"And I want her to believe as such…"
"Are you going to tell her?" she asked. Plagg hesitated.
"It's complicated," he said.
Paris…
Adrien laid face down on his bed in his storage with a bottle of Monkey Shoulder scotch whiskey hanging from his hand sticking out of the edge. The bottle fell off his loose grip and broke on the floor, causing Adrien to wake up. He scratched his hair and made smacking noises with his mouth.
"Mmm," he moaned. "My mouth tastes like crap…*BURP*
"Adrien, you should know that I'm not your hangover cure," Tikki said in a somewhat annoyed tone while still curing him.
"Let's just say I'm not exactly in the best spirits," he said as he reached his computer.
"I'm so sorry Adrien," Tikki lamented. "This must be worse than when you found out your father was Hawk Moth. What did you find out?"
"If what Cartman and what Marinette found in those old files is true… I don't even want to think about how far this will go."
He looked at his laptop again and saw the headline of the article he was reading. He was going through the information he prompts on searching based on what Cartman told him. He says about articles about a missing superhero in Beijing as well as a full team in New York. Not to mention all those people who died of the white plague here in Paris.
He replayed the day of the interrogation in his head…
Lady Noir punched Cartman in the face, disregarding the cast on his nose.
"AAARGH!" Cartman bellowed. "Watch the nose!"
"Your nose will be the least of your worries," Mister Bug paced around with his arms crossed. He knew Marinette wouldn't previously go there when interrogating, but given the circumstances, he decided to give her a little leeway.
"*spit* Goody two shoes," Cartman sneered. "I actually give her credit for the punch."
"You may not have caused the white plague," Lady Noir admitted. "But why were you targeting those people on the bus? Why crushing them with that tower?"
"I'd be saving them."
"Saving them, from what?" Lady Noir already had a feeling where this was going but she hoped against all hope that it was not true, but alas…
"A fate worse than death." He confirmed.
Lady Noir's stomach quenched upon hearing that. Images of Adrien and his longing to see his mother again before his passing.
"What do you mean?" Mister Bug asked, approaching Cartman with a threatening stare.
"Mister Bug…"
"What did he tell you, My lady?" he turned to Lady Noir.
"I…"
"Why don't you tell him?" Cartman grinned. "I'm pretty sure it'll be a revelation for him."
"What do you mean?" Mister Bug asked.
"I don't know," Lady Noir admitted. But then it clicked for Mister Bug.
"You know who I am," Mister Bug said calmly.
"WHAT!?" Lady Noir blurted out.
"The theater," Mister Bug said. "I knew it, more happened that night, didn't it?" he continued. Cartman shuddered
"More than even I wanted to."
"I'm holding my cards and I would only play them when it best suits me which is what I'm doing right now. Of course, I can tell your lady here who you are but I'm not gonna. I will say it to turn the tables in some way like the other time."
"You told everything to her and knew who you were so you can get the upper hand of the conversation… You knew how she would react… Pretty sneaky!"
"Uh-huh, also, at that timeline I told Mayura where your hideout is."
"What!"
"Oh yeah, she went there in the hopes to get dirt on you and she found an Eiffel Tower keychain. At first, I didn't know what was so important about a plain old keychain but boy oh boy…"
"SHE WHAT!"
"Oh don't worry. With the snake bracelet, I went back far enough before I told her and kept quiet. She doesn't know now. I didn't give her any plans, so there was no one on the theater on the timelines when we fought on the warehouse."
"So the whole thing was your idea?" Lady Noir asked.
"Pretty much."
"Sheesh, no wonder Sass was so banged up. I suppose that's also how you knew who Ryuko is didn't you?" Mister Bug confirmed. "I'm surprised you haven't spilled the beans about me."
"Mmm touché, I could just jingle the info like keys at you just for shits and giggles."
"You made your point," Lady Noir sneered.
Present Day…
"Cartman must be lying," Marinette insisted. "There's no way Adrien's mother would do something like that!"
"How would you figure?" Plagg asked.
"Because…!" she almost yelled as she shot up from her bed. "Adrien said she was so kind…and…" she laid face down in fetal position with the hands buying her head onto the pillow, desperate and melancholy.
"Kid…" Plagg approached her and began patting her head. "I've lived long enough to see so many people being betrayed in ways they never thought possible…"
"Oh…"
Unknown…
Lux resumed her dance as the voice had manifested into ghostly auras, stuck on a solemn twirl as they circled around her, paying no heed to their cries of suffering.
"Soon, Emma," she said to herself. "Soon."
The spirits began to spiral towards her as she consumed them.
Song ends
"Frozen" by Madonna plays
Plagg could tell that Marinette is hurting. Only then he finally saw that she was sobbing.
"Just when I thought thing couldn't have gotten any worse…"
"Kid…"
"How can we solve this?" Marinette said. "I'm the monster made by some crazy shaman! It's supposed to be my burden!"
"Marinette…"
"Why does it have to be Adrien who had to be in the middle of this?"
"Look I…"
"And you!" Marinette looked up at him with a defiant look.
"Huh?"
"Mister Bug said that Nathalie knows that you know more than you're letting on. I know you do! You know how to stop this."
"It's not that simple," he defended.
"But that's not all," Marinette continued. "Pinyin said she didn't even know Tikki so I'm guessing you're from a previous generation…" she hesitated. "Plagg, you're older than Tikki, aren't you?"
Plagg stayed silent. Marinette quickly wiped her tears and stared back at him again.
"Tikki once told me the kwami were around the same time humanity was around since the stone age but, what if the wasn't true…" she said. "Humanity was around way before that, weren't they? Master Fu believes Tikki is the oldest and wisest of all kwami but that's not true at all, is it?"
…
"Plagg, what are we up against?"
"It was a matter of time, I suppose…"
"Huh?"
"I assume you dug that up back at the temple while you were away, huh?"
"You can thank a certain Queen Bee too for that. We had quite a chat"
"Oh, so you know about Chloe. How is she?"
"I knew you knew!" Marinette began to raise her voice. "What else are you keeping Tikki and the others?"
"Don't even think about spilling the beans to Tikki!" Plagg threatened. "If Tikki will ever know my secrets, she has to hear it from me! As for you two, why don't you wait until you and Cat Noir can hear this together?"
"Fine," Marinette reluctantly conceded, almost a whisper, lying back down. "Not that there's anything we can do now, anyway…"
Paris…
"Is that what she told you?" Tikki asked.
"Yeah, but she didn't say anything else. She said that it would get into Plagg's bad side by only saying as much as she did."
Tikki was speechless. What she recently heard about Plagg was beyond anything she had experienced throughout the millennia.
"The master knows what I know so he doesn't have anything either… After all this time… I never would have imagined. I have heard of the white plague was created by the Graham de Vanily family but I never imagined what would happen to its victims. It's beyond anything I have ever experienced, and if Plagg knew and how to stop it? Why didn't he say anything?"
" Not to mention what he said about Kagami, we should head for Ms. Tsurugi for that…"
"Let's not forget, Master Fu wants to see you too. Though I wonder for what."
" Guess we'll find out soon enough…" Adrien said as he continued to surf through the article of the missing superhero in Shanghai, Lady Dragon.
He opened his drawer and saw the Eiffel Tower keychain. He felt it on his fingers as best he could. He tightened it to his fist and held it close to his chest. He put it back on the drawer and shifted his focus back on the screen.
He read the webpage with the best of his Chinese.
The missing superhero's identity was revealed to be Wei Fu. Apparently, she was the adopted daughter of the headmaster of Prodigious martial arts academy Wu Shifu. Despite his initial optimism to find his daughter, his attitude, as well as his health, deteriorated considerably soon after. As his health declined he revealed that he felt her adopted daughter's death and lost all will to live. Despite his statements of her apparent death, his final words were that her soul was not at peace and begged for her to be saved. The words were dismissed as delirium as he passed.
"Of course they were," Adrien muttered rolling his eyes. "Damn it, I didn't want to believe it till I see it. But it all lines up with what Cartman said."
He lowered his head and lowered his eyes from the screen and shut them with a sigh. That night when they fought the Coon in the warehouse, they were other timelines that whatever happened took place on the historical theater. But because of the snake miraculous, Cartman is the only one who remembers.
"Adrien," Tikki said. "This may sound hypocritical but, we have to take this all in quickly. We will have to face these things soon, too."
"I know Tikki you're right," Adrien agreed. "It's just…" he could bring himself to get the words out.
"It's your mother…" Tikki finished for him. His cell phone vibrated and saw that Nino left a voice mail. He pushed play. He had given them his new cell phone number in case they were in civilian form. Thanks to some sources from Mordecai and Rigby, he was able to encrypt them so they would only be accessible to those he trusts.
"Yo, Cat Noir, You think that whole story about this Lady Dragon was something to behold? Check this out, I just found that the entire team in New York flew the coop after some mystery light kinda like the white plague popped up at the roof of the Empire State building. Then some shadows looking like the heroes starting some random attacks around town. Fits with what Cartman had been saying of these disappearances. Something ain't cooling the aid, Bro."
Then there was the tone, concluding his message. He looked up about the New York Team, as Nino said, it was not pretty. The superhero team based in New York known as United Heroez was last seen looking at a situation in the Empire State building when a mysterious white light had wiped out everyone on the building. The people were in a panic and a newfound paranoia as they demanded answers as fear crept up the streets yet again.
Adrien had enough that night, even though it was four in the morning, and just recovered from a hangover. He closed his laptop and climbed back into bed.
"You're not thinking of falling asleep again, are you?" Tikki asked, trying to take point. "You need to keep an eye on the other miraculous and you still need to report back to the master."
"Do you think he may have found something?"
"It may lead us to a clue! And besides, we have to go back anyway. He said it was urgent."
Adrien buried his head on the bed in desperation and melancholy. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. Tikki's expression softened and realized how much she was pushing him. As urgent as the situation was, she couldn't bring herself to keep pushing the issue any further.
Tikki having to comfort her owner was nothing new. Every Ladybug has taken an emotional turmoil at one point or another during their time at the mantle. Marinette was no exception. Despite what she has been through recently, there's no telling what Adrien is going through right now. All she could do now is wait a while…
Over and over again he played in his head of those hidden timelines that Sass felt, something very wrong...
Based on what Sass said he felt, Cartman's story, and everything he and Marinette have found, he replayed on his head what he found. Cartman did an actually good job in hiding his identity from Marinette, but he still knew what he meant when he got to those parts of the story. All he could do was to go over what really happened that night, which he completely forgot thanks to the snake bracelet… Once again, gathering as many details in his head as possible and played the events that night from the beginning of Cartman's story yet again…
Song ends
The night of the fight against the Coon at the Palais Garnier.
Cat Noir, Ryuko, Pegasus Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee arrived at the old theatre. All landing one at a time and they started to approach the monumental place. All of them had their sights on the snake bracelet hanging from one of the angel statues.
"Keep your eyes peeled," Cat Noir said. "As Ryuko said, this may be a trap."
"'Spose we head inside," Carapace suggested.
"We may be heading into the trap if we try to get that bracelet directly. We might have a better opportunity to approach from the inside."
"Or they may be anticipating that as well," Ryuko suggested, stroking her chin.
"In any case, keep your eyes peeled," Cat Noir soothed. The six heroes quietly leaped in through the historical building. Despite the lighting outside, it was unusually dark in here. "Whew, talk about a sneak, kitty style…" he whispered.
The others followed suit and quickly gathered in the eerily dark Grand Escalier. Everyone was wary of the display.
"This is a historical achievement," Pegasus muttered. "I expect security to be tight here!"
"It is suspiciously empty," Ryuko agreed.
"And weirdly quiet," Carapace added. Rena then quickly looked around in a frantic.
"Wait a minute," she said. "Where's Queen Bee?"
As if on cue, they heard a window crash and few banging sounds from the distance.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Cat Noir yelled and made a break for it at the Mayerling.
"Typical," Rena rolled her eyes and followed.
"Damn it, Chloe!" Cat sneered.
"You know, Chloe?" Carapace asked as he followed.
"Let's just say we have a history!"
"Wait a sec," Rena said, raising an eyebrow at him. "I doubt you two are just mere acquaintances."
"I'll tell you later, let's get going!" Cat Noir jumped and kicked the door into the Mayerling and what he saw next would've been etched into his mind for the rest of his life, if he remembered it.
Mayura and the Coon with green reptile-like scales around him, were on the stage, no doubt ready for them, and saw Queen Bee tangled up on stage with… A white glowing yoyo string.
"Wha…"
"So you didn't fall into our trap…"
"Or did you?"
"Furious Angels (Instrumental)" by Rob Dougan plays
Glowing white yoyo strings began surrounding the team tying them all up with only Cat noir and Ryuko being fast enough to dodge them. Only for a glowing white dragon to appear from the seats, and attack Ryuko from behind.
"Ryuko!" Cat Noir was about to help her but the same white string grabbed him by the neck.
"I can handle this!" Ryuko shouted as she stuck her sword into the tiger's mouth to prevent her from biting it, only for it to transform into a monkey jumping onto her sword and walloped her. She gave a roundhouse kick only to be greeted by the fur of a bear.
"EARTH DRAGON!" she turned to stone to defend herself from the pending attack. She is knocked back by the bear's attack and landed on her butt. The bear then transformed into an eagle and grabbed her arm with its claws and flew her away behind the stage.
"Sweet…" Coon simply said as he observed the chaos.
"Ryuko! AARGH," Cat Noir felt the pull from behind his neck.
"Not so fast, Kitty!" a familiar voice taunted from behind.
"Ladybug?"
"Not quite," she said.
Cat noir quickly turned and was about to kick her, but she deflected his attack and kicked him to the ground.
"Bad, bad, kitty!"
"Who are you?" Cat Noir growled. Then a glowing peacock mask glowed on her face.
"Oh kitty," she the glowing Ladybug said in a mock lament. "Don't tell me you forgot your own Lady didn't you?"
"Sentibug?" Cat Noir gasped. The glowing Ladybug gave a light gasp and let go of him and grabbed her head painfully as she began to twitch and twirl.
"Aaaahhhh," she moaned loudly. "AAAAAAhhhh, uuuuhhhhh, uuuuuuhhhh…"
"Bugette," Cat called.
"Help me…"
"QUIET!" Mayura yelled, extending her hand. The neon peacock mask once again popped on her face. She gave a frightened face before turning her attention back at Cat Noir. Cat punched her in the face in an attempt to knock her out before dashing his way towards Mayura.
"Release her, you DaaBaa Dee DaaBaa Cock!" he yelled as he was about to drop kick her. But a glowing white snake suddenly appeared and jumped on his neck and tried to choke him.
"Ladybug! Come!" Mayura motioned towards her. The Ladybug sentimonster wordlessly obeyed and landed on top of the struggling Cat Noir.
"Bugette," Cat wheezed. "Please, don't…"
She was about to step on him but then a portal appeared right above her, catching her attention. A still tied-up Pegasus falling in.
"Belly flop!" he yelled and landed right on top of her. Both fell off the stage and Pegasus kicked out the unconscious sentimonster and teleported away.
"Coon, after him," Mayura yelled.
"Hey little horsey, how about some hay?" Coon set off. Mayura went walking towards the still struggling Cat Noir until Ryuko ambushed her from behind. She had used her wind dragon to sneak behind her. She swinger her sword and Mayura narrowly dodged it. Wasting no time, she kicked the snake off of Cat's neck. Cat let out a gasp and began catching his breath. She ran towards Carapace and Rena and cut them loose. The snake then turns into a mantis and was about to fly back towards them but a Pegasus portal got in the way and ended up in the Coon's face.
"AAARGH!"
He landed near Ryuko and she cut off his bounds as well.
"Ingenious!" she said.
"Much obliged."
"Ryuko! Cut Queen Bee off too!" he ordered.
"What?" She merely looked up at the unconscious and tangled Queen Bee, she greeted her teeth.
"Ryuko, what wrong?"
"I…"
Cat then suddenly felt someone grabbing him by the ankles.
"What the…" he looked down and saw that the white Ladybug pull him under. "AAAH!"
"Cat Noir!"
"Hold on!" Rena played her flute and summoned her bright ball and threw it at the sentimonster, who bounced it off with her fan. Mayura quickly flash stepped off and ambushed Ryuko from behind.
"SHELL-TER!" Carapace bounced Mayura off the range. The ball exploded, causing a sandy cloudy mist.
"Carapace, now!"
"Right!" he jumped into the smoke.
"BARRAGE!" a slew of Coon clones jumped into the mist. A series of bodies being hit by fists could be heard from the outside.
A white glowing horse entered the scene via the main entrance and galloped its way to the commotion and tackled its way to the other side, carrying Cat Noir at its mercy.
"Down, down, down!" Cat poked the horse in the eye and rode on its back. The horse rodeoed its way around in an attempt to knock him off. "Oh, now you want me off. Not you want me off! No standing still!"
He grabbed its neck, remembering his education on how to tame a horse this one is not one to be tamed. But Cat noir proved himself to be a shrewd leader. He summoned his staff and prompted the horse to gallop back into the mist. Upon emerging from the other side, his end of the staff was the Coon's stomach, who hanged helplessly at the tip. Cat then slams Coon on the horse's back and jumped off, crashing into the still-recovering Mayura.
"Ha, rolling missile baby!" Cat punched his fist in the air.
"Smokin'" Rena boasted.
"Hell, yeah," Carapace said.
"Fascinating…"
"Cat Noir," Ryuko called and they all turned to her. But before she could say a word, they saw that her expression changed from joy, to shock to pain and she looked down as a silver rapier emerged from her abdomen, finally realizing she's been stabbed from behind.
"KAGAMI!" Cat screamed.
"A-A… *GASP*" she gasped as her killed pulled out their blade and jumped back.
"No, no, no, no, no," Cat lamented as she reached her. Cat cradled her. Ryuko saw that this was it for her and tears fell from her cheek and caressed Cat's cheek.
"Adrien…" she sobbed, quietly.
"How did you…?" he asked but Ryuko just sobbed and detransformed. Into Kagami and a weakened Longg fell off. Rena covered her mouth, Carapace and Pegasus were too shocked to move. Kagami smile and closed her eyes one last time.
"KAGAMI!" Cat pressed his face on her chest. Coon saw the scene and he was not too pleased. He actually looked…angry.
"No… NOOOOOOO!"
"This little girl died faster than the collapse of the Tsurugi family business," the killer chuckled, clearly female.
"What?" Cat gasped. He never knew that.
"Looks like we have finally met these so-called heroes," A woman in an all-white dress. "Yet you are missing your leader. Though you performed quite well I must say."
"That voice…" Cat noir was paralyzed.
"Who the…" Pegasus began.
"That witch," Rena sneered.
"Dude…" Carapace muttered.
"Hmmmmm…" Queen Bee sneered as she struggled amongst her bounds.
Meanwhile, the Coon seemed to anxiously feel his hands and face.
"Eeeeh, eeeh, eeeh…"
"Lady Agreste!" Mayura jumped at her side and kneeled. "I apologize, without Ladybug, I have underestimated Cat Noir's leadership." Lux kneeled beside her and gently lifted her head up.
"Lady Agreste?" Queen Bee muffled.
"No need for despair Mayura," As the glowing white eagle appeared that was about to land only to take a humanoid form. She appeared to be a miraculous user, her face appeared to be human. The glowing Ladybug sentimonster joined in as well. "The white plague was a success, I have taken their souls and they are mine and became mine to control and revive them as much as I desired."
"Say what?" the Coon sneered.
Lux then caressed the mysterious superheroine in the cheek of the expressionless face while Lux had a proud expression on her face.
"Look at this beauty," she said. "From a petty thief to becoming my beautiful first doll of my legion. Now I will unleash it upon Paris and gather the necessary souls to open the passportal of the beyond!" Lux spread her arms and twirled around as if singing in an opera.
"Souls?"
"…From the beyond?" Pegasus concluded.
"What are you talking even about?" Carapace asked.
"Like you, young dullards will ever understand," Lux mocked. "Your leader seemed paralyzed."
That was true, Cat Noir hasn't moved and said anything and just stood there with a very shocked and broken look on his face. Then Rena and Carapace alarms went off.
"Cat Noir, What should we do?"
"Pegasus, I say we bail!" Carapace suggested. But Sentibug threw her yoyo around Pegasus' neck before he could create a portal and was quickly pulled towards her.
"You're not going anywhere!"
"Cat Noir, we gotta get Pegasus and split!" Rena yelled. Cat, however, slowly approached Lux. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
"DUDE!" Carapace yelled. He and Rena tried to grab him by the shoulders but Cat pushed them off rather easily.
He and Rena were grabbed by the Ladybug sentimonster as well and they both lost their hero personas. In their civilian forms, they are now helplessly struggling from their bounds.
Cat's look of sadness and disbelief never left his face. He collapsed on his knees and bowed.
"EMILIE AGRESTE!" he shouted. "Stop this! Please, I beg you!"
Lux raised an eyebrow at him.
"I see," she said. "Gabriel must've spilled the beans. Stupid fool, but I guess I should have expected from someone who was born in the lower class, untrustworthy."
Mayura looked back at her and flinched her fist tightened her chest.
"DON'T SAY THAT!" Cat screamed. "You're a good person, you don't have to do this! I know Emma wouldn't… UGH!"
Lux flash stepped right in front of him and bitchslapped him across the room.
"You have no right to say that name…" she said in an eerily calm manner. Cat tried to get up but fell back on his knees.
"Please…" he begged. "Adrien wouldn't…AAAAARGH!" Lux stepped on his head.
"I am bringing my children back to their rightful place in my arms!" she sneered. "What gives you the right to deny them from the life that they were denied so unfairly!" She crushed his head down the ground. "ANSWER ME!" she screamed and she stomped on his head.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHH!" Cat screamed painfully. After a moment when she removed her foot…he was crying.
"WHY ARE YOU NOT FIGHTING BACK!" Lux screamed as she stomped him yet again.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH! *sob* Mommy… *sob*" he muttered. But it was so quiet that Lux didn't hear him.
"Pathetic, just when I considered you an actual threat…Ladydragon!" Lux called, turning her back to walk away. "Finish him!"
The glowing white Ladydragon jumped towards him and grabbed him by the hair to lift him up. He painfully struggled to break free.
"Mommy…*sniff* "It's me…" he was about to remove his ring but heard a timid whimper… Cat saw right away that it came from Ladydragon. Tears were running down her cheeks as she readied her hand for a deadly unarmed attack.
"Help me…" she whimpered in Chinese. His understanding of Chinese helped his instincts kick back in and recognized her movement, it was a heart-stopping punch. One hit in the chest and he was done for, as she struck but Cat grabbed her arm in the nick of time.
"CATACLYSM!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Ladydragon gave an ear-piercing scream and began to roll around on the ground in pain, incapacitating her.
"MOTHER!" he screamed in English as he ran to attack her. The Ladybug sentimonster was about to intervene.
"VENOM!" Queen Bee shouted as she came down and paralyzed the sent monster. Ignoring the scene he ran right by them and jumped in, staff ready, only to be bitten from behind and lifted up.
"What the…"
"Nice try," Lux grinned.
Cat struggled as he looked back only to be shocked that it was a glowing white dragon that's grabbing him.
"AAAAAAAAAAGH!" Queen Bee yelled. Cat saw that she was being crushed by the dragon.
"Your attempt to make me believe you're my son insults me," Lux sneered. She slapped him with her fingernails, scratching him. "I know my son well and he would never make a fool of himself out on the rooftops or even less to associate himself with a being that never had the right to exist! We will eradicate her in due time. Ladydragon, decimate him with a bolt."
She began to walk away as the Ladydragon in her dragon form lifted up and summoned a storm as if it was a sacrifice ritual.
"Mari…nette…" he whimpered as he prepared for the end.
Then a very violent vibration, accompanied by what sounded like the loudest thunderclap in history, interrupted the whole thing. The bolt accidentally hit the dragon, destroying her instead, dropping Cat in the process.
"What is this?" Lux asked as everyone was looking around and saw that the old theater is turning to dust. Once the theater was gone, they all saw that all of Paris was disappearing as well. Mayura also seemed to disappear, Pegasus, Alya, and Nino also faded into dust. A weakened Queen Bee tried to extend her hand at Cat with tears in her eyes as well.
"Adrien…" she said as she too became dust.
"Son of a bitch, I knew it!" The Coon shouted as he began pacing around like a madman.
"Cartman, what is the meaning of this?" Lux asked angrily.
"You killed the girl who would be the bridge from the Altean era and modern world!" the Coon said, pointing at Kagami's corpse, which also became dust.
"I don't follow!" Lux said.
"Kagami Tsurugi was the one destined to gather all the lost knowledge of the ancient Altean civilization. It would be her legacy! Living out her life millennia into the past to decipher and leave all the blueprints that would be the foundations of every civilization of history, you stupid bitch!"
"You will not talk to me at that…"
"SCREW YOU LADY!" Coon screamed. "And I never agreed to gather people's souls to make your fricking undead army! You dirty, cheap-ass, psychotic piece of crap!" he screamed, feeling himself fading from existence.
"COON!" Cat shouted.
"What!"
"The Snake bracelet!" Cat pointed at him, weakly. The Coon stared at it then back at Cat, who nodded. Lux realized what they were thinking.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
She flashed stepped towards the Coon, but before she could even get close to get the bracelet for herself…
"SECOND CHANCE!"
Song Ends
Present-day…
"That was what Cartman told you?" Tikki asked.
Adrien gazed at the Eiffel tower keychain in his hand, emotionlessly.
"That also would explain how he knew about my mother and me," he said.
"But why would he go through so much trouble?"
"Probably because after what had happened, he no longer trusted Nathalie or my mother with the info so he must have decided to ambush us on his own and grabbed the miraculous for himself," Adrien said.
"Hence why you fought in the warehouse afterward…" Tikki concluded. Adrien lowered his head once again with a sigh.
"Grrr… I just don't know what to make of this! I mean, Bugette was back, Ladydragon, Kagami? Just… GRRRRRRRR!"
"Adrien, please you have to keep a clear head," Tikki begged.
"I know, it's just…" Adrien conceded. "My mother… All the people we lost…I…I can only imagine what everyone would say if they knew…"
"Adrien, we have to focus on what's going on, right now," Tikki said. "For now we have to head with Master Fu."
"All right," Adrien got up from his chair. He was about to walk out when a light bulb lit.
"Adrien?"
"Wait a minute…" he took out his cell phone and dialed Mordecai.
"EEEyello!"
"Hey Mordecai, do you think you could do me a favor?"
Author's Note
I'm gonna leave it here and I hope you enjoyed what turned out to be my darkest chapter yet, as well as my second longest after the very first chapter. The biggest reason for the length was because I didn't want to end the chapter in the middle of a flashback.
For the sake of clarity, the flashback took place between Chapter 18 (Go!) and Chapter 19 (Red Tape Part 1).
This chapter was tricky to write as now I have all the information at the character's disposal I needed to balance the information and story out without making the chapter an exposition dump. There was Plagg, Future Chloe, The Graham de Vanily archives, as well as what happened at the theater. I realized that it may be overwhelming and I needed to pace the whole thing out accordingly.
The next few chapters will be slower and more character-driven but I think we need a quiet break from what had happened these past few chapters and just spend time with these characters and have a little fun with them and see them grow because it seems to me like we won't get that in the show.
Needless to say, I don't have much hope for the show anymore as for me they're two separate but damning episodes in season 3 that have done irreparable damage to the show's credibility; "Kwamibuster" and "Feast." Funny enough, the former would've made sense in this fanfic's canon, but in the show? Hell no! Needless to say, neither of these two are canon in this fanfic.
"Kwamibuster" establishes that using too many miraculous at once may drive a person to insanity, yet Marinette does it anyway with little effect and the show expects me to believe that she's the first in history to completely withstand the negative effects of using several miraculous just because. Rather than to actually affect her in some negative way, making the character and the show a lot more interesting, instead, the show goes above and beyond to nullify any potential consequences of Marinette's actions just to make her look good. A real insult to my intelligence on my book. As stated earlier, making Marinette a creation of a forbidden combination of magic and chemistry (i.e. alchemy) is my attempt of making sense of this crap.
Then there's "Feast," the show stated that Master Fu had made some "terrible mistake" that lead the temple to be destroyed. It turns out that he created a sentimonster because he was hungry…WHAT! Do I need to explain how insulting that is? Fine, I'll elaborate; the show made it seem that the destruction of the temple would lead to a story arc that would be explored down the line after Hawk Moth's been dealt with but instead, it was wasted on a petty ass BS explanation and it was completely resolved in that very episode. Later on, when Marinette was given the miracle box, she was challenged by the temple monks but once again, all accountability and repercussions were thrown out the window, by being given their blessing in that very episode. The show expects me to believe that Marinette is "clumsy" yet it doesn't seem to hold her back in any significant way and is inexplicably good at everything, leaving her little to no room for adversity or growth. Once again, proving my point of the origin that I gave her.
Maybe I should've clarified this earlier but as stated only the first two seasons happened in this fanfic as well as a handful of season 3 episodes also happened in this fic's canon, which they are, "Chameleon," "Reflekdoll," "Ladybug," "Startrain," "Christmaster," and "Party Crasher."
It goes without saying that none of the "Miraculous World" specials occurred in this canon either.
That's all for now. Please, look forward to the next chapter.
Constructive criticism is appreciated.