Alright readers…here comes Chapter 8! Time to see what's coming next. *chuckle*

Chapter 8

The Star Darlings were in Lady Stella's office, sitting at their special table. Two of them were absent from the table. The first one was Vega, for an obvious reason. The second one was Libby. Despite the urgent holo-message the headmistress had sent them with instructions to come to her office, Libby was worried about Sabrina and had gone out to look for her.

"I'm so nervous," said Gemma, "What do you think Lady Stella's going to say to us? I hope she won't get too mad at us for lying to her and disobeying her all starweek. She'll probably ask where Vega really was all this time though. She might even take away the Power Crystal that Sabrina got! Or maybe not. She always asks us to guard them with our lives because we were the ones who earned them, but I don't know. Sabrina's the first Wishling who's ever done something like this, so she may get to keep her Power Crystal. Or not. But we're still all in hydrongs of trouble. I mean, why wouldn't we be? Wishlings aren't supposed to know about Starland! Plus we're not even allowed to break the rules. This is worse than all the other rule violations! The ones you'd expect, anyway. This rule violation is the last one anyone would have…"

Tessa was starprised that she hadn't told her sister to be quiet since they'd arrived in the office. Maybe it had something to do with the tense energy in the room—she knew for a fact that Gemma wasn't the only one nervous about what Lady Stella might do when she came in. Cassie had turned pale, Clover was anxiously drumming the table with her fingers, Sage and Leona were fidgeting with their hair, and Scarlet, Piper, Astra, and Adora kept glancing at each other awkwardly. The Star Darlings hadn't experienced such a moment since the mysterious power crisis incident starweeks ago. For once, Gemma's rambling was decreasing the tension around them.

Eventually Lady Stella walked in. The expression on her face was exactly the same as the one she'd worn upon learning Tessa had brought a Wishling to Starland. Except now, there was disappointment there as well. The ten present Star Darlings froze, and Lady Stella sighed. "Where's Libby?"

"She went to find Sabrina after she ran off," replied Gemma.

The headmistress understood. "But more importantly, where's Vega?"

Cassie swallowed hard. "On…on Wishworld. She was getting stressed out with her classes, and um…when we found out about Sabrina, we thought it would help if…if they switched places for a starweek."

Lady Stella nodded. "I thought something was awry lately."

"Really?" Sage asked.

"I noticed a strand of her hair was blue when the two of you went to Paris. It was the same strand Vega said remained her natural blue when she went on her Wish Mission."

"Yeah, that always happens when we disguise ourselves as Wishlings," said Leona, "Most of our hair turns blonde or brown, but one strand always stays the same."

The headmistress nodded. "I didn't think much of it when I noticed the hair difference, but when I began to notice mild differences in your friend's behaviour after the supposed departure of Sabrina, I had my suspicions. The last time any of you behaved differently, it was because you put on magical nail polish Lady Rancora snuck into Starling Academy."

The girls winced as they remembered the nail polish incident. It had made Libby very sleepy, made Cassie brag about herself nonstop, etc. Piper and Astra had eventually realized what was going on and put a stop to it, but everyone agreed that the incident would never be forgotten.

Adora was confused. "But if you knew something was off, why didn't you say something?"

"I thought you would. Times are becoming harder for us, Star Darlings. We're supposed to be honest with each other. I asked you to bring Sabrina back to Wishworld and you didn't."

"She needed a break just as much as Vega did," retorted Scarlet, "She was practically being enslaved down there, and she didn't think it was a big deal. She thought it was friendship!"

Lady Stella thought about the situation. She sighed. "I understand you meant well, girls. And I'm sure Sabrina learned an important lesson from you all. But remember that she mustn't remember Starland when her time here is up. One of you has to erase her memories once she's back on Wishworld."

"We will," promised Clover, "and you won't have to wait long. Tomorrow's the day she and Vega are switching back."

"Thank you," said the headmistress. She turned to the door to leave, when suddenly it opened. In came Professor Lucretia Delphinus, one of the teachers at Starling Academy. She looked unusually worried, and everyone snapped to attention once they noticed.

The professor gulped. "Um, Lady Stella, one starmin please?"

"Excuse me for a moment," Lady Stella told the Star Darlings. She went into the hallway with Professor Lucretia Delphinus, leaving the girls wondering what could have made the normally positive woman so worried. Having exceptionally good hearing, Leona got up and put her head to the door, trying to hear what the women were saying.

"What are they saying?" Tessa asked.

"Professor Lucretia Delphinus is saying Starland is being invaded," said Leona, "Hold on…Lady Stella just asked who's invading Starland. And she's saying…" Leona paused, and then suddenly she gasped in horror. Gemma asked her what was wrong, but she was speechless.

After a starmin, the door opened. Leona quickly got back in her seat as Lady Stella and Professor Lucretia Delphinus returned. Everyone simultaneously asked what was going on, and Lady Stella clasped her hands together. "I'm afraid I have some bad news," she said, "Three supervillains have arrived in Starland from Wishworld. One of them is Hawk-Moth, and another one can only be considered a willing accomplice."

"Who is the third one?" worried Piper.

Lady Stella paused, and then she said, "Star Darlings…it seems as though Hawk-Moth has managed to place Vega under his control. She is the third supervillain who is invading Starland."

Everyone froze. The villains must have found out about Starland through their friend! Now they were in danger for sure. Adora, Astra, and Cassie all asked what they were going to do at the same time, but before either of the adults could answer, Gemma leapt out of her seat and charged out the door.

"Where are you going?" Professor Lucretia Delphinus called. "If we're going to stop these supervillains, it's going to take all of us!"

"I know," said Gemma, "and that's why I'm going to find Libby! She and Sabrina might be in trouble!"

"Then I'm going with you," said Sage, following Gemma out of the room. Once they were gone, Lady Stella instructed the remaining Star Darlings to follow her outside.

"Why? Where are we going?" Cassie asked.

"We need to hold off the villains," said Lady Stella, "And we must find a way to free Vega from their control."

Libby dashed through the glorange tree forest. "Sabrina?" she called. "Sabrina, are you here?"

There was no answer. Libby searched as hard as she could, desperately hoping Sabrina was nearby. Thankfully, she eventually found her, sitting under a tree with her head in her knees. Libby rushed toward her and hugged her. "I was so worried! Why did you run off like that?"

Sabrina lifted her head so she could look at her. "I was afraid they'd capture me or something. Like you said, people like me knowing about Starland is a risk no one wants to take…"

"They weren't going to do that," Libby reassured her, "And even they were, you know I wouldn't let that happen to you."

Sabrina smiled, and then glanced around her. "So…now what?"

Libby thought for a moment. "I'm actually not sure yet. But we need to go someplace where they won't think to look for us. Piper sometimes comes here to meditate, so I don't think this is the best place to hide." They both thought hard, and then Libby had an idea. "I know! We'll hide in the hedge maze!"

"Really?" Sabrina asked. "I thought you didn't like the hedge maze."

"I don't," admitted Libby, "Vega's the only one who does. But that's exactly why it's the perfect hiding place. The way it moves around so much drives everyone except her crazy! No one's ever going to think we're in there."

"It is the only Starland place I haven't seen yet," said Sabrina. She got up and held Libby's hand. "Okay. Let's check out the hedge maze."

The two girls left the glorange tree forest and then went to the hedge maze, using the shape-changing fountain and various benches on campus to hide whenever other students happened to walk by. Eventually they arrived at the right place, where Libby explained a little about the maze. "It's not an ordinary maze at all. Its patterns keep changing all by themselves, so it's really easy to get lost. It annoys everyone except Vega so much! Someone actually did get lost in it once, so in every hedge wall there's a red blossom that opens a door when you pick it."

Sabrina chuckled. "Now I understand why it doesn't get many visitors."

"Try not to let the patterns get to you too much."

"Okay…"

Libby took a deep breath and led Sabrina into the maze. The patterns did indeed change constantly; sometimes old paths would close up and make way for new ones, and sometimes new hedges would suddenly grow when the girls least expected it. While Libby was definitely annoyed by the maze's changes, Sabrina found herself finding joy in it. She felt like the maze was trying to entertain them with its powers and thought it was working on both of its visitors. It was hilarious, but she didn't laugh in case it would make Libby even more annoyed.

They had been in the hedge maze for ten minutes when suddenly the red blossoms sank back into the hedges, which were slowly turning ocean blue. A sapphire aura appeared on the other side of the left hedge, and Sabrina moved a little closer to Libby as she heard three pairs of footsteps coming from where the aura was.

"Who do you think that is?" Sabrina whispered.

"I don't know," said Libby, "Without Vega here, the hedge maze should be deserted."

"Is it supposed to turn blue and hide the red blossoms?"

"Vega would have said something if it was, so probably not. Maybe it's just members of the faculty making sure everything's okay."

Suddenly one of the hedges moved to the side, and three people stepped onto the path Sabrina and Libby were on. Sabrina screamed and stood in front of Libby, trying to shield her. "What's wrong?" Libby asked.

"That's Hawk-Moth," Sabrina whispered, "And that's his new assistant, the Peacock Miraculous holder!"

"I am Mayura," said the woman, obviously not pleased that Sabrina didn't know her name.

Sabrina winced. "I'm sorry, but this is the first time we've met. The only reason I know about you is because you sent a sentimonster to save Hawk-Moth from Ladybug and her team back on Heroes' Day."

"Wait," said Libby, "if that's Hawk-Moth, and that's his partner whom we're both seeing for the first time, then who's that villain?"

The younger villain clenched her fists in rage. "Don't you recognize me, Libby? Or did she really take over my life so much that you've forgotten all about me?"

"V…Vega?"

"It's Star Perfectionist now."

Sabrina and Libby nervously began stepping backwards. The villains stepped forward, with the adults smiling sinisterly. "Your former friend told us that everyone here has the power to grant wishes," said Hawk-Moth.

"Well yes," Libby replied, "but there's a lot more to it than that. First of all, we only grant positive wishes. Negative wishes like yours are the kind that get locked up in the containment unit!"

"His wish deserves to come true more than anyone else's," declared Mayura, "He's worked very hard to make it come true himself, but nothing's ever worked."

"That's because he doesn't do any work," said Sabrina, "Maybe that sounds mean, but it's true. Chloe tried forcing me to do bad things all the time, but at least she had it in her to make fun of others herself. But you two can't even do that!"

Hawk-Moth stopped in his tracks. There was a moment of silence, and he glared a much scarier glare than he ever glared before. "You know…even Ladybug and Cat Noir haven't tormented me to this extent."

"Really?" Libby asked in surprise. She turned to Sabrina and whispered, "It never crossed anyone's minds that his terrifying motives are also kind of…lazy?"

Sabrina shrugged. "I was just trying to stand up to him. Honestly, I think his type are the kind of villains that only show up in person for final showdowns or lucky opportunities you don't see every day."

Libby nodded. "Lady Rancora was a little discreet with her tricks at first…"

Star Perfectionist loudly cleared her throat. "Ahem…when are you going to grant his wish?!"

"We're never going to grant his wish," said Libby, "And neither would you, Vega! Please, you have to resist these villains' control! They're just using your negativity as an opportunity to cause trouble!"

Hawk-Moth stepped in front of the other two villains. "How about we do this the easy way then? If you grant my wish, I won't take the Miraculous."

"Why would we trust you?" exclaimed Sabrina. "After all you did to Paris! The innocent people you turned into supervillains, the lives you made them endanger, the trauma Chloe had to endure from being the damsel in distress most of the time, the daily pressure you placed on Ladybug, Cat Noir, and now Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee too! After all that we've been through, why would we help you do something even worse than what you already did?"

"It's not as bad as you think it is," said Mayura, "If you and Ladybug's team would just stand down, all of Paris would realize that."

Sabrina put her hands on her hips. "That would have meant something to us if you'd said that before you akumatized my classmate Ivan and made him scare Kim, kidnap Mylène, and throw Chloe off the Eiffel Tower."

Star Perfectionist held up her hand—the one with the wrist brace on it. "I guess you'd rather be turned into stardust then." Her wrist brace began to glow, emphasizing her point.

"No!" Libby yelled, stepping back and colliding with a hedge.

"Then you'd better listen to them. If we help grant his wish, they won't cause any trouble for Starland or Wishworld."

Libby sighed. "I guess you leave me no choice." She stepped in front of Sabrina and then shot a huge amount of pink energy out of her hands. Star Perfectionist fired a blast of blue energy back, and the beams remained there, fighting each other to no avail like a heat ray and freeze ray. Sabrina began shouting like a cheerleader for Libby to win, which seemed to get on Star Perfectionist's nerves. Mayura didn't look too happy either, but she did a much better job at hiding it. This went on nonstop for over a minute, and then Mayura held up a blue fan made of feathers. One of the feathers fluttered down and absorbed itself into Hawk-Moth's cane, and after Mayura whispered something, a big cloud of black and blue smoke appeared behind the villains. When the smoke cleared away, a giant version of an akuma was fluttering there.

Libby's eyes widened. "What's that?"

"It's an akuma sentimonster," exclaimed Sabrina, "The same one from Heroes' Day! We should get out of here!"

Libby mustered all her strength and increased her amount of pink energy, creating a force so great that it overpowered Star Perfectionist's. She was sent flying backwards, and Sabrina grabbed Libby's hand. They ran through the maze together, followed closely by the giant sentimonster, which the adult villains were now riding on. Unfortunately, it was at that moment that Star Perfectionist landed in a hedge, let out a furious yell, and levitated into the air, waving her arms around each other. Instantly the entire maze began to shift faster and more so than it ever had before—or was even supposed to. Now, instead of randomly shifting to make it harder for Starlings to find their way out, the hedges were deliberately going after Sabrina and Libby to make sure they didn't get out at all.

"I guess that's why everything turned blue," huffed Libby as they ran.

"Yeah," Sabrina agreed.

"Sabrina?" called Sage.

"Libby?" Gemma hollered.

They had been searching through campus for a few starmins now, and they hadn't found either of them yet. Where could those two be?

"Sabrina? Libby?"

Still no answer. Sage sighed. "Think we should check the Lightning Lounge again?"

"No, I think they're in the gl—" Suddenly Gemma gasped. "Sage! Sage, look over there! A boy at Starling Academy!"

"But this is an all-girl school."

"I'm not kidding, Sage! There's a boy lying on the ground near the Wishworld Observation Deck! There's a garland of blue wish energy around him!"

Sage looked at the Wishworld Observation Deck. Gemma was right. There was a boy down there. He had messy blonde hair, entirely green eyes, a pair of pointy black ears on top of his head, and a black suit with a golden bell on it. He wasn't all sparkly though, so he had to be a Wishling.

The boy noticed the two Star Darlings and started calling out to them. "Hey ladies, could you help us out here?" A muffled female voice underneath him added, "Mm-hmm!"

Sage and Gemma rushed over and combined their levitation powers to remove the garland of wish energy from around him and the girl he was tied to. They were starprised when they noticed both of the duo were frozen in place; they couldn't move a single muscle.

"Thanks," said the boy, "A girl on this planet got akumatized and now we're kind of limited on what we can do." The girl under him groaned, and he added, "Uh, could you move me to the side a little so m'lady can have some space?"

Sage bent down and gently moved the boy a few inches to the left while Gemma rolled the girl (who was lying on her stomach) over onto her back. The girl, who had navy hair in pigtails and a red and black-spotted mask and suit, spit some grass out of her mouth and thanked them. "Do you two know Vega?"

"Yeah," said Gemma, "she goes to our school with us. She's also in the Star Darlings band with her." She pointed at Sage. "I'm Gemma, and this is my friend Sage. Are you Ladybug and Cat Noir, the superheroes Sabrina told us about?" Before the girl could even finish saying yes, Gemma continued, "We really need your help! Vega's been akumatized and we still don't know what extra powers she has, and Sabrina and my roommate Libby ran away and we don't know where they are! And the rest of my friends and our headmistress left too, and we don't know where they are either!"

"We're happy to help," said Ladybug, "but Star Perfectionist—"

"Who's that?" asked Gemma.

"Star Perfectionist is the name Hawk-Moth gave Vega when he turned her into a supervillain," Ladybug explained, "She used her powers to paralyze us."

"And thanks to her we can't use our powers," added Cat Noir. He looked up at the Starlings awkwardly. "Uh, you two wouldn't happen to have the power to undo what she did to us, would you?"

"Well, I can rewind time," said Gemma, "but I'm not really sure that's the best option."

"Sorry," said Sage, "I can read people's minds and I'm good with wish energy manipulation, but I can't break the spell you're under."

Ladybug thought for a moment. "Hey, what's wish energy manipulation?"

Sage smiled. "I'll show you. Gemma, stand back."

Gemma backed up, and Sage stood, concentrating on Ladybug and Cat Noir. Each of the heroes were surrounded by a lavender aura, and shakily and very very slowly, they began to sit up. While Sage worked hard to help the Wishling superheroes move, Gemma passed the time by chatting with them. "What's your life like in Paris? Sabrina told us a lot about you of course, but your life has to be a lot more starmendous than she let on! I mean, you guys fight crime and defeat supervillains all the time!" She jumped up and down in excitement. "What kind of other things do you do? Do you have to keep the fact that you save your town a secret from your families and friends even though it's a really hard thing to do because you love them and you just wouldn't keep not tell them stuff? Were you born with your powers like we were, or do you need Power Crystals? Or wish energy? Or a spell?"

"We get our powers through our Miraculous, our magic jewels," said Cat Noir, "My Miraculous is my ring, and hers is her pair of earrings. I can destroy anything I touch, but I can only use my power once before I need to transform back."

"I can create random objects," continued Ladybug, "and once the akuma is—"

"That's the thing Hawk-Moth is using to control Vega, right?" Gemma interrupted.

"Yeah. Once it's released, it's my job to capture it with my yoyo and then revert all the harm it caused."

Sage gulped, and Gemma gasped. Both of them were now realizing they had a huge problem here. "This is bad," exclaimed Gemma, "If you guys can't use your powers, how are we supposed to save Vega and anyone she might hurt?"

"Don't worry," Sage told her and the Wishlings, "we can get the akuma out of her instead. And then maybe Adora's healing powers can free you two from her spell."

"Or we can have Adora use her powers first and then release the akuma," said Gemma. Then she thought about it. "But then I guess she'll just paralyze you again if we do it in that order…yeah, you're right. Sage said it better."

"I'll holo-text the other Star Darlings," said Gemma. Then she did a face palm. "Holo-texting! How come we didn't think of searching for Libby and Sabrina that way?"

Sage sighed. "Sorry, it slipped my mind." She stopped using her powers, and she and Gemma each pulled their Star Zaps. They both started typing, when suddenly Gemma received a message from Libby.

"Oh no, Libby's in trouble! So is Sabrina! All three of the supervillains found them!"

Sage rushed toward Gemma so she could read the message. "Where are they?"

"They're in the hedge maze." Once she said that, Gemma groaned. "Staaaarrrrfff…why did they have to go there?"

"I'll warn Lady Stella, Cassie, and the others," said Sage, "Once we're all together, we're going to the hedge maze." She held up her own Star Zap and resumed typing.

To be continued in the upcoming following chapter. Will Sage and Gemma's plan work? Can Sabrina and Libby's friends rescue them in time? Let's hope so…:)