All rights to Miraculous Ladybug belong to Zagtoon, Method Animation, Thomas Astruc, and Disney. This is my own creative work.
Celeste's body broke not long after her heart. She had just made it to the fountain where the marble and flowing water would graciously hide her from prying eyes. Another victim of the wicked Chloe Bourgeois and her conquest of life.
Her once adorable outfit crumbled into a wrinkled mess, her back trembling, and the remains of her notebook were huddled to her skin as if a piece of her was ripped out and tarnished. A silence fell over the crowd, a nervous tension that had become routine. Marinette would be overjoyed if it were the hearts of the people reaching out to a fallen soul, but it wasn't. Dread was laced and sewn in, weaving expectations and panic into a toxic pallor blanketing the air.
They saw the source come in near-record time. A black, glowing butterfly.
It wormed its way into the cracks in Celeste's huddled body. A pang echoed, and the girl's crying stopped too abruptly to be natural. Her head raised with the hum and outline of a butterfly on her now glaring features.
"Masquerade… I am Hawk Moth." A deep voice came in the girl's head. "I see your face is in disguise, yet your wish is in plain sight. The ones you adore, Ladybug and Cat Noir, have no interest in meeting you – they simply prefer to play their games and hide amongst the masses. There is no way to tell who is real and who is fake."
"I want…" Celeste's bubbly voice had frozen into cold fury. "I want the real Ladybug and Cat Noir…"
"That will no longer be a concern. From now on, everyone around you will be whoever or whatever you wish them to be. But you see, I too have a very real desire. I grant you this power in return for one thing…"
"Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous! Very well! Time for a costume change!"
Her fingers slid the book shut. From the pages came a black substance that oozed onto her skin, down her torso and legs and enveloped her face. The guests began to yelp and scramble as the human-shaped mass of shadow and negativity strode towards them.
The girl trudged in a zombie-like fashion as the magical ooze faded. As if out of a twisted fairy tale, it swirled and showered over her body, peeling away, and revealing graceful steps in a black ballgown with violet roses and a black laced overcoat. Her hands reached out for the vile magic and opened an ebony fan curved in the shape of an open book. Her soulless yellow pupils behind a violet rimmed mask opened as violet wings extended in a flash of sparkling dust.
The newly transformed Celeste smiled fanning herself. "Good evening unto you all, I am Masquerade. Is it not a delight to don a mask and pretend to be what you are not? Now is your chance to truly get out of character!"
"Excuse me!" Chloe marched towards her. "Who do you think you are, trying to steal my brilliant costume!?"
"Sweetheart, let's not anger the nice Akuma!" Her father timidly warned.
"You're right, two guests in the same costume is something of a faux pau." Her fan folded with a reverse flick into her claw-like fingernails. "Since I wear it better, how about you try something new, like… a janitor!"
"What!? Ridiculous! Utterly ridicu-"
With a flick of her wrist, the Akuma set loose a flurry of sparkles. The glittery blast enveloped Chloe, lifting and twirling her as she screamed. When the glow faded, her dress was gone, replaced with a smudged jumpsuit, boots coated in some unknown goop, and a broom in hand. She was now sweeping the ground to clear it of dirt, ironically.
"Anyone else?" Masquerade asked.
If the crowd had been worried before, now they'd all but exploded in fear. They ran in all directions, screaming for heroes, help, mercy, everything in between. They knocked over tables, the lights came unstrung and dropped, and every last scrap of food now had dirt as an unexpected seasoning.
"Aw, man! I was really hoping to get some more snacks…" Marinette swore she heard Adrien whine.
"Wha-ALYA!"
As always in the face of danger, Alya ran in the opposite direction of everyone else. Nino followed behind her as she took cover behind an overturned snack table. Her phone was already in hand, along with that now-trademark common sense be darned grin of hers in the name of her beloved blog.
"We really need to have a serious discussion about your hobbies!" Nino yelped.
Alya turned to him. "You're dating the owner of the Ladyblog, boy. Comes with the territory."
"Alya, are you kidding me!?" Marinette rushed over to her friend. "Just once, can't you do the sensible thing!?"
"Depends on our definitions of 'sensible.'"
Marinette groaned. She loved her friend but there was the very real chance Alya would give her a gray streak by the time lycée was through. For now, she might as well throw caution to the wind herself.
The disguised hero stepped out towards Masquerade. Adrien gaped, following.
"Celeste, listen to me." Marinette called in a tone she hoped her friends would not put two and two together with. "You're a fan of the real Ladybug and Cat Noir, right? They may not be here, but I can tell you they wouldn't like you hurting people in this way."
Masquerade clenched her fan glaring at her. "You're right about one thing…. They're not here!"
She swung out a newly formed blast that Marinette just escaped by a single fiber of her magical suit. She rolled out of the way and saw the blast had reached the mayor instead. Where there was once a lavish political suit, there was now a greased undershirt and a straw hat along with a piece of hay in his mouth, a cattle rancher's look.
She dodged another blast and caught it striking Nadja Chamack. One second her hair was combed and arranged, the next it was dyed pink and gone through a shredder. She wore a jean jacket that met the same fate, alternate colored leggings and a star mark over her right eye. The once reporter now used her remaining microphone to scream her lungs out, looking ready for a Jagged Stone concert.
Marinette blanched, sweating at the idea of becoming an instant cliché. Just as her foot slipped back her hand came into the grip of another. She turned and yelped as Adrien dragged her away from the villain, now engulfed in her own chaos.
"Adrien, what are you doing!?" Marinette asked.
"Getting you somewhere safe!"
"I'll be fine! I-"
"No, I can't let anything happen to you!" He stuck her behind a tree at the far end of the park. As fate would have it, it was the one where they sat moments earlier. "Stay here! I'll go get the others!"
And with that, he charged back into the fray again.
Marinette's breath escaped in one exasperated sigh. There were pinpricks of tension she did not even know were there. Then there was the fact that Adrien held her hand! Adrien! Her hand!
She shook the thoughts away. Trouble was afoot and he had given her the chance she needed.
"Tikki, time to transform!"
Nothing.
"Tikki…?" Marinette looked down to her arms. "Oh, right…"
She somersaulted out into the open spinning her yoyo in trademark fashion. It had never felt so good or natural to fall into those familiar instincts. But when Adrien, or Cat Noir, saw her, he gasped and leapt back. Not just a simple bounce, but a full reverse cartwheel as well, the same gymnastic skill he'd displayed with the ball earlier.
"Marinette, what are you doing!?" Adrien reached for her hand again. "You need to stay out of the way!"
"Uh, Marinette… I think you might be confused!" She didn't blame him for that either as she spoke. "It's me, Ladybug! Here to handle that nasty old Akuma!"
"Wait, Ladybug?" He blinked.
"The one and only!"
Masquerade swept a new ray of sparkles. Her yoyo's spin blocked them in a blinding flash of red upon violet, forcing her to squint. She was now the one playing guardian as she stepped before Adrien with no loss of speed in her movement.
"I have this covered!" She shouted glaring at the approaching villain. "You need to get somewhere safe!"
"Wh-no! Marinette, this isn't the time to play around!"
"I told you, I'm not Marinette!"
"I can't let you be hurt! Stop trying to be brave!"
Adrien's words in time with the next blast rocked her core to where she had nearly fallen over. Her foot dug into the dirt and skidded away layers of dust and pebbles. His words mingled and echoed with the blast, the sparks of light and his voice sending fissures down her head. At this point, even she was confused.
Yet she gave her best Ladybug smile, and for some reason, it felt real. "I'm just doing what I can to help."
Adrien said nothing. His feet did the talking, taking him to Alya and Nino and dragging them a distance away.
So far away they hopefully saw nothing of the redness on Ladybug's face.
He had spoken those words to Marinette – his classmate Marinette in a Ladybug costume. Now she'd returned those words as the actual Ladybug. No one with even the slightest lick of common sense would be able to ignore that. Even Kim would be able to put two and two together at that point, and he changed into his swimming trunks when Adrien mentioned he was 'swimming in money,' like out of a cartoon.
This night would be the death of her. Tikki would get double her quota of macaroons for the caution.
As if karma had its ear to the ground for her mental whining on complications, Adrien jumped in again.
"Well, aren't we all dressed for the occasion." The cat boy leapt in and knocked away Masquerade's glitter attack with a swing of his staff. "Evening, milady. Thought you could use one more dance partner."
"Adrien, please. I told you I could handle it."
"Uh, think you might be a spot confused, bugaboo." Cat Noir winked spinning his baton. "Tis your kitty in shining armor here to save the day. Night, in this case, I guess."
She blinked. "Wait, Cat Noir?"
"The one and only!"
"Ugh, thank goodness for that. But hold on…" Ladybug pointed between here and there, now and then, Adrien and Cat Noir. "I could have sworn you were… and then you…"
Now he was the one blocking blasts and standing before her. She chalked it to his showboating attitude, but that was a statement meant for Cat. Marinette was no longer sure of her words or thoughts or who they were for. In the meantime, the attacks pressed harder, faster, forcing her partner to give ground.
"Stop this, already!" She shouted when one speck of magic slipped through his guard and just missed their forms.
"What can I say? Protecting you is my job!"
"Adrien please, just stop acting cool!"
The roles were reversed once more, with him smiling back at her. "Hey, I'm Cat Noir. What do you expect?"
The only thing that was the same here was his words returning to rattle her further.
Masquerade, inching ever closer, lashed out, flicking a massive pink sphere towards them. Cat readied his baton and rushed in, putting on the show of his life with her as the only spectator as usual. She rushed in after as both their forms vanished into the light. She shot her yoyo somewhere into the shine and it broke. Her eyes settled, staring deeply into the inky black of night to regain her senses.
Turning back, she smiled to him and recalled her yoyo. "I've got your back, too, kitty."
He smiled in turn. "Guess I'll have this dance, then."
Cat Noir bolted towards the villain. He swatted at her with his baton while she rebounded and guarded with her fan, the clashing sounds of metal ringing over and over. He swung one armed from above, he batted with both hands, he rapid-fired the tip, all too fast for Masquerade to follow, beating her further and further back with his flurry of blows. He spun his staff overhead, the metal vanishing into the night. Masquerade was helpless with Cat's strike appearing out of nowhere repeatedly until she was knocked over to the metal fence at the other end of the park.
"You! Try your luck as a salesman!" Masquerade fired once more.
Cat vaulted and smacked the blast into the merry-go-round feet away. I happen to like Ladybug as she is, don't you?"
Ladybug blushed. She blushed, at one of Cat Noir's quips. The Adrien thing needed to be banished from her head.
"Milady?" Cat asked.
That's right. Adrien didn't come up with puns or pet names or came on like a juggernaut towards the ladies. If a boy was blond and had a black mask and was in a leather catsuit, it was Cat Noir. She was talking to her partner. End of story.
"Uh, nothing!" She yelped, noticing her silence.
"Right… so, anyway, I'm gonna make my million-dollar guess and say the Akuma might be in her fan. Which is good, cause she needs to-"
He stopped, mid-joke. Cat Noir would kill to send out a pun. This was not helping her 'not-Adrien' argument. "She needs to…?"
"Uh, nothing…"
"Right…"
Ladybug threw her yoyo out. The string, guided by her thoughts, curved and looped through the discarded trays on the ground and remaining tables. They clanged together when smashed and flew before freefalling towards them. The two heroes caught a tray by one handle and pressed them to their arms.
The heroes jumped and landed with precision atop the lampposts. Masquerade spat out a whole index of careers and the lame costumes to go with them as she fired. Each blast would be swallowed by its own reflection as they hit the tray and dissipated. Several hops, skips, and jumps along the posts and leapt, landing a double flying kick that sent Masquerade into one of the last upright tables.
"It may be time to call in some reinforcements!" Masquerade seethed, rising shakily. "All you wayward souls, come forth. You shall now be knights, loyal to me and me alone!"
"NO!" Ladybug cried.
The guests, the ones that were forced to hide when running didn't cross their minds as an option, were hit with her ray. Whatever costumes they had with all their colors and uniqueness, vanished as the light solidified into grey, bulky armor. The helmets they now wore completely obscured their faces. It was Darkblade all over again.
Masquerade pointed her folded fan towards them as her knights assembled behind her. "Do as I command! Capture and restrain those fake heroes!"
Ladybug retreated to the lamppost and felt the world rock beneath her soles. In their heavy suits, the knights had made it to her in an instant and were now shaking the post to bring her down. The girl hero clutched the metal and begged gravity to lay off – she would prefer not to knock the heads of transformed people.
Cat, meanwhile, had found a shakier perch atop one knight's shoulders. He balanced perfectly even as the person danced around attempting to shake him. Another knight attempted to knock him off with a club, but he leapt away to that knight's shoulders and the weapon only struck the first knight's head. Cat was saved the trouble.
He flipped back next to her as she returned to the ground. The two found themselves surrounded before a ring of transformed people. Ladybug hated those moments when villains fought dirty like this.
"Now to complete the look," Masquerade cackled. "What's an army without a general, after all?"
She flicked her fan once more, but Ladybug blanched with who was in the line of the attack.
"DA – MR. DUPAIN!"
Her father was still behind one of the tables, where their family's snacks had been piled so elegantly at the night's beginning. The man hadn't moved to keep watch over his wife, who was also there. His large size made him too eazy a target.
Her father gave the biggest hugs with his large body, but now that would be turned into a weapon as those large arms became enveloped in armor. A cape fluttered from his back, spikes grew from his shoulders, and his footsteps now left craters in the ground. When the light dissipated, gone was the kind father she knew, and in his place was a human-shaped wall of metal with the intent to destroy.
"Now, loyal servant, do away with this imposter! That fake outfit doesn't fit the dress code!"
The transformed man drew an ornamental great sword coated in jewels that gleamed and a polished blade from his belt. Swinging it into a battle stance, her hair fluttered in a spiraling gust. The man charged with the blade forward, aimed at his own daughter's heart…
…Only to clash with the steel of Cat Noir's staff. He curved and spun the rotund weapon and twisted the large knight's sword away. When the blade came for him, he dodged it by a hair as it thrust past his raised right arm.
"Sorry, but I don't think you checked party etiquette," he taunted. "No playing with sharp objects!"
The thin staff against a sword so large it could cleave a building in two didn't seem like a fair match to Ladybug. Yet Cat clashed and parried the blows of her father move for move, the magic in his weapon handling the force with ease. The weapons struck once more and rose, pressed against each other in a fiery duel of sparks between man and boy.
Cat smirked; pure enjoyment stretched on his face. "Gonna have to put this away! CATACLYSM!"
His ring hand was enveloped in the familiar black sparkles. With a step and a drawback of his baton, his opponent stumbled. The sword was easy prey for his fingers to brush upon it. The steel turned to dust in an instant.
"Nice one, kitty, but I don't think your power falls under party etiquette, either." Ladybug joked.
"If I'm gonna play dress up, might as well pull out all the stops."
"Well, do me a favor and just stop. Here's where the party really starts. LUCKY CHARM!"
Ladybug threw her yoyo. The shower of hearts and ladybugs danced as it spun, the familiar magic glowing without pause. Out of the light came…
…A spool of ribbon.
Ladybug caught the object in her hands. "Ribbon? I don't think her costume needs any more additions."
"Well, hey." Cat quipped. "Maybe your Lucky Charm is telling us to 'wrap' things up."
Ladybug laughed and laughed to the point she might bust a lung. The back of her mind screamed the simple question of why, but she wasn't sure. Cat Noir reflected the same thought, raising an eyebrow. "Y-You're so funny! Hahaha!"
"Um… you've never laughed at my jokes before. Like… ever."
She knew that. There was no reason to laugh before and there was no reason to now. But the whole Adrien and Cat thing was still somewhere surging along lines in her brain. The hero just drew a hand to her face. "Ugh, I just want this night to be over!"
Her Ladybug vision triggered: a tray of plastic masks as souvenirs for the party's end, the ribbon, Cat's staff, Masquerade's fan.
"I've got it!" She yelled.
"Alright, what's the plan, bugaboo?"
Ladybug took his hand in hers. Cat almost blushed as she stared right at him. She yelled. "Retreat!"
Her kitty Casanova gave a yelp. She ran away to the end of the park with him in tow, though with a lack of speed given his protests and the growth of four left feet in his composure. At the back, she saw Masquerade's pale skin flush into a violet red watching them run. "Gotta time it just right!"
"Enough of these games!" The villain yelled. "I've settled it! You're going to be clowns!"
"Sorry, Masquerade, but Cat Noir's already there!" She called back with another complaint from her partner.
Masquerade shot her cosmetic blast one more time, swirling with malicious force. Their shadows grew longer, the attack mere moments from hitting them. With a cry, she released Cat and the two ducked behind the same tree she hid behind moments ago. It struck the bark and strung it in streamers and polka dots just as the heroes vanished behind.
"Follow my lead." Ladybug whispered with Cat holding the ribbon and tying it to his baton.
Ladybug leapt out once again, this time with a cute curtsy. "Evening, milady. This is a paw-sitively claw-ful cat-tastrophe, we've got here. I'm feline like there's not much we can do here. Love to indulge you but my heart's a cat-toy meant for another."
Masquerade blinked. Her knights had frozen as well. "Wait, what?"
Cat Noir bounced out after, crossing his arms and huffing. "Always with the jokes, Kitty. Why can't you ever take things seriously. Where does that attitude of yours even come from? It's attractive sometimes but come on!" Ladybug gave a cold glare and a promise that he would get punishment later when Masquerade was turned.
The two leapt through the scores of armored soldiers before they could react. Masquerade gasped watching the two of them spout off in the ways the other knew so well. There was enough confusion going around for one night, enough to make the collective head of Paris explode. Moreover, it was toying with the Akumatized girl's expectations even further; a pang of guilt ran through the hero's spine, but that had to be dealt with later. For now, the waltz of deception would have to go on full blast. The two swerved and circled around the girl like the jesters she'd planned to make them.
"S-Stop! Stop! You're not-You! You're not supposed to act like this!" Masquerade screamed, turning left and right. She threw another blast. "B-be someone else! Anyone else!"
In her panic, the blast missed by a country mile. But the flash blinding all in a near radius was enough to work with.
Cat now stood prim and proper, arms behind his back. He ran a claw through his hair and flicked it away. "Good evening, mademoiselle. I'm Adrien Agreste, so delighted to meet you. Mayhaps I could invite you to dance, so long as it adheres to a suitable standard. I would not want to disappoint my father, or anyone else for that matter."
Ladybug almost tripped, freezing as Cat put on the most stiff and haughty representation of her crush she had ever seen. If there were not going to be words before, there would be now. She glared sending that message to him.
The hero dodged another blast in time and played the angle herself. "OH MY GOSH! I'm late again! I could sleep through World War III if it came to it. Where is my homework!? Do I have all my commissions done! GASP! There's the boy I'm crushing on! This will be the day I confess to him or my name's not Marinette Dup-"
"HA!" Masquerade screamed. "Don't think you can fool me! I saw my blast didn't hit!"
"You sure about that?" Ladybug/Marinette asked.
"W-Well, um…"
Ladybug's inner Mount Vesuvius was erupting with all manner of improper and insane thoughts. It was a desperate maneuver, but she'd cross that bridge later. "Too late, anyway. Cat! NOW!"
Cat winked and yanked his baton. "The big finish!"
Masquerade looked to her form. In all her panic, she had been oblivious to the red and black-spotted ribbon now wrapped around her. A fact she only had a second to notice before they twirled her like a child's top. She spun in a blur of purple and violet until the ribbon ran out. Her fan was now flung above their heads, landing in Ladybug's hand.
With a crack in her grip, the fan snapped in half. True to form, a black butterfly fluttered out.
"No more evil-doing for you, little Akuma!" She opened her yoyo and spun it in a flash of sparkles, flinging it out. "TIME TO DE-EVILIZE!" At the tip of its arc the yoyo had snagged the Akuma and returned to its sender. She opened the top once more and the butterfly, now a pure white, was released to fly away. "Bye-bye, little butterfly."
The black ooze appeared on Masquerade's form again and vanished instantly. The shape-shifting villainess was no more, and Celeste, back in her crumpled fairy outfit, was left kneeling.
Ladybug tossed the spool of ribbon in her hand. "MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!"
In a burst of light, the spool vanished. It became a swarm of ladybugs that flew with a jingle in the air and a warm, refreshing feeling. They flew through the gathering of knights, turning them back into the guests and Marinette's father. The transformed people regained their normal outfits, the knocked over displays were reset, and Celeste's notebook returned to one pristine item.
"Pound it!" The heroes celebrated with their usual fist-bump.
"EEEEEEKKKK!" They heard Chloe shrieking across the way. As fortune would have it, the broom was still in her hand. She threw the item away as if coated in slime. "What am I doing with a broom!? Was I doing… menial labor!? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!"
"Ladybug and Cat Noir!" One guest yelled. "They saved us again!"
The crowd cheered. The heroes in question were now with the Akumatized girl, handing her a notebook with two big, bold autographs in its pages.
Alya rushed over to them in the fleeting moments they had. "Ladybug and Cat Noir! Congrats on another great save – this is going straight to the Ladyblog! Quick question, were you really here the whole time, in disguise?"
The two paled. They did even more so seeing Nino look around.
"Where are Marinette and Adrien?" He asked.
"Uh… gotta go!"
Ladybug and Cat Noir shouted simultaneously. They leapt away on yoyo string and baton vault with no delay.
There's your action chapter for this fic. I figure it wouldn't be Miraculous unless there was a hero vs. villain fight.
Sorry this turned out being a day late. This rapid-fire release of chapters I've been doing has been exhausting, however, so I've been rather burned out. On top of that, Friday was a hard day at work for me so I wasn't able to get any writing done. I'd just bought a new game and I just wanted to crash on my bed and play it. So, I didn't get any writing done. I had to crunch the rest of this chapter into yesterday.
Just crunching down and writing these things without reading them over for edits isn't a good idea either. I was so focused on getting it done, I don't knowhow well it turned out, just a longstanding fear of mine.
So, aside from the clear confusion between our heroes, I hope people will also pay attention to how this battle worked out. This was my test for how they would perform in battle in my stories. Cat Noir is the better fighter, while Ladybug is the better strategist. Cat took on the Akuma and her foot soldiers singlehandedly and got the advantage on them, as opposed to normally. For those that were dissatisfied with 'Weredad', even though it hasn't happened at this point, I thought I'd give Cat some revenge against Tom, too.
We'll see how that turns out. Anyway, to the reviews:
Leafgreenflower: Honestly, I wished something like this would happen in the actual show. This is a concept I've seen a few people take on their own. I know a lot of fans prefer to see fan-created content now too, with the whole debacle regarding the show. I think something like this would go a long way for the MCs who only have eyes for one side of each other.
MetroNeko: I think they still had a good heart to heart. They got to talk about hidden sides of their characters. Plus, things that happened here might be up for discussion later.
KaliAnn: I have seen all three seasons of the show so far. I know a big point of contention between fans with Thomas Astruc was the collapse of the redemption arc Chloe seemed to be having. By the end of season 3, they had just thrown it all out the window and kept her as a bratty side villain, and when fans pointed this out, there came the defense of 'it's for kids'. I was just shaking my head at this. Also, yeah, Alya can be a bit much, not to mention she has a habit of jumping in before getting her facts straight. Alya should get a bit more development regarding this herself.
LunaWolf44: There's just something about making characters suffer that writers and readers seem to enjoy too much. You gotta be a sadist if you want to be a good writer, in my book.
XTheauthorthatneverwasX: Yeah, a reveal shouldn't happen until these guys can accept and love both sides of each other fully. That hurdle should be cleared first so they can deal with all the new complications knowing each others' identities would bring.
So, that about wraps it up. The next chapter will likely be the last. After that I'll probably give myself a week's break before I hunker down and get to writing my other projects.
As always, review, favorite, follow!