Warning: This chapter contains some violence in the form of an akuma battle. While I don't believe I wrote too graphically, I know that that's opinion based and subjective. If this is something that may trigger you, please feel free to stop reading at the first bold sentence. It will be safe to read again at the second bold sentence, and I will put a brief summary at the end of the battle.
The gala had been going on for only an hour and a half when the teens got the alert, phones vibrating simultaneously. Each made their excuses to whoever they with, slipping out of the party quickly and finding a lounge away from the ballroom to transform in.
"Ugh, and I still had potential clients to meet with, too." Marinette groaned.
"Don't worry, bug, I sent an email to all remaining clients to let them know MDC wasn't feeling too well and was taking off early. I told them we'd love to schedule video chats with anyone still wanting to talk to you, and that we could start on those as early as after the next couple days when we get settled back in in Paris." Michael told her, slipping his phone back into his pocket.
"You're a lifesaver." Marinette sighed. "Tikki, spots on." The other teens all called on their own transformations.
"Okay, then." A voice said, across the room. The miraculous wielders were immediately on the defensive, Chloe brandishing her top threateningly. Standing by the door to the lounge was Jason. "I was just looking for an escape from all the high society crap, but uh…" He ran a hand through his hair and laughed nervously. A tug at his suit jacket, and out floated a little fox.
"Red Hood." Ladybug said, relaxing slightly. "Good, I won't have to come find you for you to observe this fight for your team. Get transformed, I'm about to open the portal." They would go over the accidental identity reveal later.
HQ was eerily dark when they arrived back in Paris. Marinette flicked a switch, but no lights turned on. All at once, the Parisians realized what it meant.
Erebus was back.
The first to move was Chat Noir, procuring the night vision goggles they'd stored in the kitchen cabinets for purposes such as this.
"Alright." Ladybug's voice was quiet, but in the darkness, it seemed to echo. "Erebus is the most brutal and terrifying akuma we've faced yet, but we're not going into it blind, not this time. Even still, this will not be an easy fight. Bee, I want Miel de Souris on crowd control, use your stinger on as many of those bastards as you can, but save your strength for the main fight."
"Alright." Honeybee accepted the mouse miraculous from the Guardian.
"I also want Singe Rayé out there, Elektra. You're the best in close quarters and I need you to get close to Erebus and disrupt his powers." Ladybug said grimly. "Promise me that you will do whatever it takes to get to him. Keep going even if any of us fall, because disrupting his power will be our only shot at stopping him."
"I promise, Ladybug." Elektra said, determined. "We will stop him, just like last time."
"I really hope this doesn't go just like last time." Chat Noir said softly.
"I'm told you decided to go with the name Foxglove." Ladybug said at last, turning to where she imagined Jason to be.
"I kind of panicked." He said sheepishly.
"It's alright. Thank you for stepping in and helping that day." She told him. "I am giving you the miraculous of the turtle, so that you may become Renard Blindé. The turtle is the miraculous of protection, and you will use it to better protect yourself as an inexperienced wielder in the field. I don't want you to get involved unless you absolutely have to. Last time was terrible, but this akuma is a hundred times worse, so you will stay out of sight. Do you understand?"
"I do." Foxglove said, accepting the second miraculous.
"Good. I'll get the horse to Viperion so that Sleipnir can make an appearance, but I don't want any more miraculous out than that unless absolutely necessary." Ladybug told her team. "A quick rebrief - the akuma's object is a photo he keeps in his jacket, picturing two silhouettes embracing on a dock in the moonlight. The akuma is angry about a cheating lover, and claims that the truth is not the only thing lurking in the darkness. He can conjure nightmarish demons that prey on the citizens, toying with them, making them fear, and even killing them in gory messes. This is going to be a horrifying fight, but we will end it, and everything will return to normal like it never happened."
"Viperion and Vervada have already picked up their night vision goggles." Chat Noir told Foxglove. "You, Elektra and I don't need them because the animals our miraculous are connected to are better able to see in the dark. That means we'll be able to see in greater detail exactly what is happening out there. It will not be pretty, but don't tune out your surroundings or you may fall prey to one of Erebus' demons."
"Alright, we've talked long enough." Ladybug announced. "Erebus will no doubt be near the Eiffel tower, so let's get a move on."
As they ran along the rooftops of Paris, Miel de Souris did her best to stop some of the demons they came across, blood spattering storefronts and bodies in the streets, but there were too many of them, even with the power of the mouse miraculous, and Chloe needed to save her strength for the fight ahead.
When they reached the Eiffel tower, Vervada and Viperion were locked in combat with a swarm of demons, and Ladybug and Chat Noir immediately jump into the fray. Singe Rayé circles around the edge of the fight, moving towards Erebus slowly and quietly. The akuma himself watched over the fight in front of him, laughing maniacally, only a matter of time before the heroes were worn down and he could take their miraculous, reveal the truths of their identities.
Just as Singe Rayé got behind him, Erebus tutted. "You didn't think you could hide a new hero from me, did you?" A blast of darkness went hurtling toward the rooftop where Renard Blindé hid, the illusion concealing him rippling away as he blocked with his flute. The demons took notice of this, and the boy holstered his flute in favor of his guns. B might have had a no killing rule, but these demons were magic and didn't count.
Singe Rayé launched himself at Erebus, tackling the akuma from where he hovered above the fight. The two got into a fist fight, going back and forth with every dirty trick each could think of. Erebus fought to create some space between them, but the hero did not let up, moving with the akuma.
Across the battlefield, Ladybug managed to link up with Viperion, and then Sleipnir was popping up here and there across the fight, picking off demons one by one. Vervada was living lightning in the center of the field, bolts cracking down around her as she battled a cruelly clawed demon with her sword. A gust of wind caught one of the Miel de Souris, setting the tiny hero on the shoulder of another demon that immediately froze and toppled over when stabbed with her stinger.
Chat Noir got backed into a corner against a building, but a quick Cataclysm swiped across the demons in front of him gave him a moment to get into a better position. Renard Blindé took down a demon with each shot from his gun, never seeming to run out of bullets. When the demons got too close, he took them head on, cracking one across the face with a gun and punching another hard enough to snap a fang.
A bloodcurdling scream sounded. A Miel de Souris had been caught by a demon that dropped her into its mouth, fangs crunching down against the tiny hero's bones. Her counterparts all screamed out in pain and fear, and a swirling of water whisked the remaining Souris to a nearby rooftop as they coalesced into one broken and bleeding heroine.
Wind howled and whipped around the battle, rain pelted down harshly. An explosion of light and electricity, and Vervada had burnt the demon that hurt her girlfriend to ashes. Her rage fueled her, and Vervada fought even harder.
Across the battlefield, Chat Noir and Ladybug linked up to cover each other's bucks, fighting with a renewed fervor. Erebus would pay for his mistakes.
Sleipnir was the next to go down. A demon caught him by the throat just as he stepped from a portal and ripped the glasses from his face. Viperion raised one hand as he choked, intending to call on second chance, and the demon made sure he lost that hand.
And then Vervada went down, a bladed appendage bursting through her abdomen as she blocked a strike from a different demon in front of her.
Ladybug and Chat Noir could do nothing but watch their friends fall and just barely protect themselves as they knocked away attacks from the demons surrounding them.
Singe Rayé and Erebus' fight had gone on this entire time, resulting in more than a few broken bones and bloody gashes. Calling on collision, the power of the tiger miraculous, the hero brought his fist back and threw a punch as hard as he possibly could at the akuma. Erebus was thrown back against the metal base of the Eiffel tower, denting the metal with the force of the hit. But he would not go down.
Erebus stalked darkly towards the exhausted hero, who was cradling his arm against his chest in the agony of the force of his collision. Just as Erebus reached him, there was an unexpected shout. "Shellter!"
The akuma pounded on the green dome, shouting angrily. Renard Blindé rushed to help the injured hero up, who just grimly nodded at him.
"You cannot hide in there forever." Erebus called darkly. "Already, much of your team has fallen to me."
As if on cue, Chat Noir went down in a heap of demons. Ladybug's resounding wail was heartbreaking, and Erebus smiled victoriously out at the battlefield.
Taking advantage of the akuma's moment of distraction, Michael charged easily through the domed forcefield and tackled Erebus to the ground. He was able to recover from the surprise enough to materialize long, wicked claws, shoving them through the boy hero's chest as the two hit the ground. Blood dripped from his mouth, and Singe Rayé used the last of his energy to let out a single whisper. "Uproar."
The pinwheel that fell from above him landed on the akuma, and several things happened all at once. The demons stopped in their tracks, becoming confused and attacking each other as well as the heroes, and the darkness blanketing Paris began to lift before slamming back down and beginning to lift again.
Ladybug took notice of her brother's success, and swung over to them as Renard Blindé carefully pulled the boy off of the akuma's claws, pulling him into his lap and trying to put pressure on his chest, which didn't do much when the claws had gone all the way through and come out his back. Erebus stood no chance of running or fighting back as Ladybug slammed her yoyo into his face, before ripping open his jacket and shredding the photo inside.
The akuma was captured, purified, and the miraculous cure was called. Sleipnir was quick to portal the gathered heroes back to HQ before any reporters could make it to the scene, leaving the akuma victim to the police with a suggestion of maybe he be given some paid time off outside of Paris.
Summary: Some of the heroes went down during the fight. First Chloe, then Luka, then Kagami, and even Adrien. Michael almost went down, but Jason was able to protect him with Shellter. When the akuma was distracted, Michael attacked Erebus, but was injured gravely in the process. He still managed to use uproar on the akuma, and Marinette noticed the malfunctioning powers and was able to get the akumatized object.
Safely back in their home base, most of the heroes' wounds are healed, though not everything is. Chloe had several broken ribs, Luka was stuck nursing a sprained wrist, and Kagami had some new scars on her back and abdomen. Adrien looked like he'd been in a fist fight and lost, and Marinette and Jason made it through with just some bad bruising here and there. Michael was by far the worst, with three deep, bloody gashes on his chest, luckily not all the way through like before.
Adrien treated Chloe and Luka, Kagami refusing to leave her girlfriend's side, while Marinette treated her brother, stitching his skin back together after Jason helped her clean the wounds. She wrapped his chest, before leaving him and Jason on one of the couches, going to the kitchen and pulling out a tea kettle to begin work on a healing potion for her team.
Everyone was silent as Marinette worked, and they accepted the mugs she handed out when she was done. No one knew what to say, until Marinette spoke. "Congratulations on another akuma defeated." She tried for a light tone, but her voice broke in the middle of the sentence and she buried her head in Adrien's shoulder as she sobbed. Like a floodgate released, everyone else began sobbing, knowing this would be the only time they would be able to let their emotions out while Hawkmoth regained his strength after losing Erebus.
An hour later, eyes red and tea finished, none left to go cold because they know they need the healing potion Marinette learned to brew as Guardian, they finally talked.
"So, you're Red Hood." All eyes were on a weary Jason.
"I promise not to tell the others your identities-" Jason began, but Marinette held a hand up.
"It was probably going to come out eventually if we were to work closely with you and the rest of the family." She said softly. Jason raised an eyebrow, but she's smart, so of course she made the connection between Red Hood and the other vigilantes being family.
"Bruce is looking for me and for you guys after we all disappeared from the gala." Jason said, having finally checked his phone. "He's also asking about the akuma since he set up for alerts but there was no coverage for this one."
They debate over what to respond with, then settle on a simple text with a promise to explain further later.
The fight was brutal, but we're okay. I'll bring the Parisian heroes by in the morning. Tell the teachers at the hotel that Marinette, Michael, Adrien and Chloe will be staying the night at the manor.
The gala had ended by this point, but the teachers weren't expecting the four students back until late anyways. Jason's phone vibrated with a response. Okay. The boy nodded and turned off his phone.
"Get some sleep, everyone. We all need it, and god knows we deserve it." Marinette sighed.
Kagami helped Chloe up and toward a bedroom. Adrien made his way toward another, but stopped at the door when Marinette didn't follow. She was looking at Jason. "We have an extra room with a mattress and blankets, but I don't think anyone wants to be alone tonight. Would you mind staying with Michael?" She asked softly. The boy in question had been asleep since he'd finished his tea, falling on Jason's shoulder on the couch. "I'm worried about him. He's pulled his stitches in his sleep before, and I don't want him to do it again, tonight, not when it's this bad." Marinette admitted.
"That's no problem." Jason said, lifting the sleeping boy into his arms as he stood.
"Thank you so much." Marinette whispered in relief. She led Jason to her brother's bedroom, pointing out where he kept some spare clothes and giving him permission to snag some pajamas before she joined Adrien in her own room.
Everyone slept in the next day, before they portaled to Wayne Manor for a late breakfast, courtesy of Alfred. Kagami and Luka joined them there, keeping their phones handy for any possible akuma alert, but it would be extremely unlikely so soon after Erebus.
Once they'd gotten nourishment, Jason led the teens down to the batcave. Bruce and the rest of the family were down there, all unmasked and not in uniform, and all very surprised to see them. "Mari-" Bruce started, but the girl in question cut him off, dropping the files she'd brought with her onto the table in front of him.
"This is everything we have on Hawkmoth and Mayura. We unfortunately don't have much, but we documented everything we could from all the previous akumas too, in case that might help you guys. Chloe will send you the digital version." She explained.
That's when the Waynes really took in the exhausted teens. Chloe was being supported by Kagami, Luka's wrist was in a brace, and Michael was swaying on his feet, Jason ready to hold him up, if need be. Knowing there was nothing he do but help, Bruce spoke. "If we could continue to meet up once you guys return to Paris tonight, that would be helpful. We can get started on the case while you guys return to school."
"About Paris." Jason interjected. "I'm going back with them."
"You are?" Tim asked, brow furrowed. "What about Red Hood?"
"Red Hood can disappear for awhile, it's not like he hasn't done it before." Jason responded. "But the things I saw in Paris… I want to continue to help them. I don't want to sit by here in Gotham while they fight that bastard terrorist."
"And we welcome you to Paris, fox." Marinette smiled at him. Jason gave her a small smile back.
"Alright, then." Bruce agreed. "Whatever happens from here on out, I promise you this, Ladybug. You asked for our help, and we will give it. Hawkmoth and Mayura will be found."