Chapter 8: La Nouveau Semaine

A/N: The beginning is kind of bad mostly because I had no idea how to start this chapter, so I do apologize of that. And Coccinelle is the French word for ladybug in case ya didn't know.

The week seemed to pass in an odd blur. Marinette would go to school during the day, hang out with Alya and Nino for lunch and after school, and then head home to sleep, and repeat. She had a couple of nightmares with Gabriel in them as opposed to Papillon causing a ruckus in her head, in those dreams it was only her and Gabriel, no one else. She would always wake up with her heart clenched and wishing for Alya, Nino, or Adrien to be near her.

Talking with Alya, Nino, and messaging Adrien was how she got along. She didn't dare actually visit Adrien in the hospital this week, she had done what she needed and couldn't risk running into his father anymore. Not after what she had seen from him, not after what she had done to him. Her only solace was that the information didn't show up in the news. The only ones who knew was her, Gabriel, Alya, and Nino. She didn't want to tell Adrien just yet, it would be weird to explain that she had technically assaulted his father, and Gabriel obviously hadn't brought the topic up with Adrien himself.

Alya, Nino, and her had agreed they didn't need to spend their nights together. Well verbally they did, Marinette very much wanted to spend her nights with them, but she found the thought to be childish. She didn't want either of them to worry so she stayed quiet, and enjoyed her afternoons with them as she could.

Adrien often helped fill in the times Marinette was on her own before she would go to sleep, he couldn't all the time considering how much he was sleeping. It was enjoyable though, getting to talk with him about casual things, most of it was just Adrien wanting to know everything that he could about her. She always managed to smile when he would ask her questions, and he asked her multitudes of questions. She was sure he knew every obscure fact about her by now.

Nino was making jokes about how in-love Adrien was with Marinette after Adrien sent Nino an entire paragraph just blathering on about everything he liked about Marinette. Alya happily joined in the amusement when Nino showed her the text message, but they refused to show Marinette. She had to pin him down and temporarily steal his phone to read the message they were giggling to each other about, only to throw it back in embarrassment after reading the first few sentences. Marinette told Adrien that she was hearing everything that he was texting Nino, and Adrien responded by quickly messaging Nino not to tell Marinette, she was not supposed to hear what happened in their private conversations. Alya was laughing the entire time.

That Thursday, Adrien informed Marinette, Nino, and Alya that he would be released from the hospital sometime over the weekend. There was excitement between the three of them to hear that he was getting well enough to be released. The fear of Adrien dying was so far away, but something else was bothering Marinette, it was Papillon. Occasionally Marinette would ask Adrien if he had seen anyone acting with suspicion, anyone who could possibly be Papillon in disguise, trying to get to him.

The fact that Adrien reported no one in his vicinity was suspicious or even showed a threat unnerved Marinette more than it comforted her.

What was Papillon doing?

Why was he being silent?

What could he possibly be planning for Adrien?

Nobody knew. She didn't know. Adrien didn't know. Neither Alya nor Nino had any ideas. The kwamis didn't even know, they supported the idea that Papillon making a move now would be most logical.

But by all accounts, Papillon had done nothing. For two weeks.

Marinette thought she was going to explode.

Tikki suggested that Marinette go and talk to the old man, like she was going to earlier. Marinette had forgotten all about that after Adrien had woken up and Alya and Nino had learned of her identity. She honestly thought she was doing better and didn't need to see him with her friends around, and while Tikki had initially agreed with that train of thought, it was evident now that Marinette needed to talk to someone else with more experience.

Plagg scoffed, saying that Marinette was doing just fine and didn't need to get the old man involved.

Marinette was happy to hear his confidence in her but what he suggested next made her blood freeze.

"Why don't you just use the Coccinelle and Chat Miraculous together, track Papillon down, and end it all now?" He suggested as if it was an obvious path. Tikki smacked him, but Plagg barely reacted, instead watching Marinette's face.

"What?" Was all she could manage.

"N-nevermind what he said Marinette," Tikki quickly stumbled out, she was about say something else but Marinette beat her to it.

"The Miraculous can be used… together?" She stared at Plagg's bored expression.

"Oh course, using the Coccinelle and Chat Miraculous together gives one incredibly powerful abilities and heightened senses. You would be able to track down Papillon right away and take him down without much of a fight," Plagg explained casually. Tikki smacked him again.

"But the use of our Miraculous together is not to be taken lightly!" Tikki scolded Plagg as he gave her a disgruntled look and floated out of Tikki's reach, her eyes following his movement.

Marinette could barely hear them, "Powerful abilities?" She mumbled out in wonder, that could mean anything. That must have been why Papillon wanted their miraculous, if their miraculous could be combined and used together, their abilities used together to create an even more powerful being then themselves, abilities that even the kwamis were cautious to tell their wielders about for fear of what could happen. Who wouldn't want to possess that kind of power? Tikki had turned to her in concern. It now made sense why Papillon wanted them, it all made sense.

But Plagg had suggested that she use the miraculous together, and she didn't necessarily want that, "That sounds… Overwhelming."

There was almost a visible sigh on Tikki's part, though Marinette was a bit surprised. She barely wanted the Ladybug miraculous when it was presented to her, why would she want to use the two miraculous together? The thought of having incredibly powerful, probably god-like abilities, was terrifying to her. To have such power would be crushing wouldn't it? To have abilities greater than the whole of your existence, who would want that?

"I don't-" Marinette's head was swimming with the idea of having such power, of facing off with Papillon with such abilities, of facing him alone, "I can't do that."

Plagg frowned while Tikki gave her a sympathetic smile.

"It would be faster you know, we wouldn't have to keep playing his game, you wouldn't have to worry about Adrien while he's in the hospital. We could take him out one-on-one, and be done with it," Adrien wouldn't have to be involved and get hurt again, were the words Marinette could hear beneath Plagg's reasoning.

"N-no," Marinette said, "I-I can't, I won't-"

"Shh, Marinette it's okay, you don't have to do that." Tikki cooed, floating up to Marinette's face.

"Don't make me do it alone," She finally mumbled out, she needed Chat there, she couldn't do it alone.

There was a flash of guilt across Plagg's face, he floated over and landed on top of Marinette's head, "Nevermind," Was all that was offered.

Throughout the night Marinette tried to let the idea go, to not think about it, but it stayed in the back of her mind no matter what she did. Plagg stayed on her head, probably as a way to keep from looking at her. She knew he was concerned for Adrien, and probably didn't want to risk him getting hurt again, especially so soon. Marinette didn't want that either, but at the very least if Adrien was going to go out as Chat Noir again, than she would be there with him as Ladybug watching his back the entire time.

The selfish part of her mind reasoned that she didn't want to be alone.

That was true.

But it continued its tirade but saying that she didn't want to get hurt. It asked what would happen if Marinette was in Adrien's shoes. Something about that terrified her. She didn't want to get hurt, but she certainly didn't want to let Adrien get hurt instead. Neither of them deserved that.

Her head continued to play with the thought of Adrien being in her shoes though. What would he do? Would he have used the Miraculous together? If Papillon did attack, Adrien would have to use the coccinelle miraculous, he wouldn't be able to purify the akuma without it. But would he be able to hold his own with such little experience acting as Ladybug?

They had no experience with each other's powers.

There have been many a time in which Chat Noir's abilities were indispensable to her. What would she do without them should the situation arise?

You could learn how to use the abilities yourself, a thought whispered in her ear.

That sounded like a good idea.

It was certainly more doable than attempting to use the Miraculous together.

That Friday after school Marinette went off on her own for what she told Alya and Nino was "Miraculous training." Alya and Nino didn't hide their concern at her mentioning it but Marinette reassured them as much as she could. She was going to practice using the Chat Noir Miraculous the rest of the evening, just to get a feeling for it.

She hopped from roof top to roof top as Ladybug, trying her best to be discreet and not be seen by too many people as she looked for an empty place for her practice. After some distance, she finally found a small abandoned warehouse in an old factory section of the city. There wasn't much to the area of the warehouse but it was enough to move around for combat.

She released her transformation, Tikki floating out of the earrings and Plagg floating out of her pocket and looking at her.

"Are you ready?" he asked simply and she spun the Chat's ring around her finger once more to assure that it was secure.

She took a deep breath to calm her excited nerves, "Yes" Tikki floated off to the side and landed on an empty nearby box to watch.

"Remember, Blah blah blah, you only have 5 minutes of transformation left after using the Cataclysm," Plagg half-heartedly reminded her, Marinette nodded in response.

Not really sure what to actually do with her hands, Marinette raised her arm slightly as she called out for Plagg to transform her.

She went through the normal motions for a transformation, the tingling sensations she had gotten use to for the Ladybug transformation were more intense for the Chat Noir transformation, but they went away as soon as it was done.

The first thing she noticed was the sound.

It was almost startling, how intense the sound was, as if she could hear everything around her. The ears atop her head twitched as a pigeon landed nearby. It was an odd sensation, and she felt that she almost couldn't focus with all of the sounds going on around her. Tikki's voice was what pulled her out of the hypnosis she went into whilst listening to everything around her.

"How do you feel?" Tikki asked with amusement.

Marinette had unwittingly closed her eyes at the transformation, when she knew it was done she slowly peeked an eye open. Her hands were in her foremost view and she saw the little claws sticking out of her black gloved hands. They clinked as she turned her hands in observation and tapped them together.

"I feel, odd," was all Marinette managed to say, Tikki laughed.

"Our Miraculous tend to have different sensations applied to them, particularly when stronger senses by our animal representations are accounted for," She explained.

"If I listen hard enough, I feel like I could hear a pin needle drop on the other side of town."

Tikki barely held in her chuckles.

Something shifted behind her and Marinette felt her body tense and she snapped around to look behind her. She instinctively reached for her yo-yo at her hip. Only to find it wasn't there, only a little bell, it made no sound as she touched it.

Chat's staff was typically on his back, right above his tail, she felt her tail slightly twitch at the thought of it. She reached around and found the staff in the same place, easily sliding it out of the holster, the staff extended to its natural size and she quickly looked up to where the sound was.

Two more pigeons calmly watched her from their perch, nothing else was there.

She let out a little sigh and straightened up from her fighting stance. She took a moment to observe the rest of her costume.

Her outfit's design was mild compared to Adrien's, no designs or cuffs at the hands and feet, no belt for her tail, it was simply attached at the back. Her shoulders were exposed, the gloves for her claws coming up to the middle of her upper arm. She was appreciative at the lack of a bell dangling around her neck, instead replaced by two smaller bells hanging by her hips like a false belt.

The tail would flick and swish as she thought about it, and she could feel the ears on her head move to follow certain sounds. It was peculiar having the extra appendages she didn't normally have as Ladybug.

She took a breath and figured she should actually try moving around, she looked at the staff in her hand, it shrunk at her thoughts and she slipped it back in its holding place. She turned around again and began running the length of the warehouse, her tail dragging behind her in a peculiar way, but it made her feel more balanced, like she couldn't be pushed over. She reached the end of the warehouse and leapt up, pushing off the wall to propel herself in the opposite direction.

She soared through the air of r a moment and landed with a roll, her tail and ears easily moving in or around with her movements. She did this a few more times, running to the end of the building and then launching herself off the walls. When she deemed it was enough, she reached around for the baton again.

Chat staff could stretch to incredible heights, she needed to-

At the thought, the staff extended, slamming into a small stack of boxes behind her and giving the nearby pigeons a start.

Shrink! Shrink! She hurriedly thought before the staff plow into the wall. It snapped back into its baton size.

Marinette gave a sigh; evidently she couldn't let her thoughts wander. She took a deep breath and held the staff out, giving the thought for it to stretch, slowly.

The staff did as she willed and stopped before hitting the wall when she made it stop. This was good. She was getting the hang of this.

For some time Marinette just practiced with the staff, stretching and shrinking it and practicing some moves and spinning it around. Spinning the staff was very different from spinning her yo-yo, it took more effort, but she got better with it as time passed. After much practice running around and using the abilities of the Chat miraculous, Marinette decided it was time to use the final move.

Putting away the staff, she took a deep breath and raised her hand above her head, giving out the call for the "Cataclysm" move. A black ball of energy that just felt like what "bad" would feel like in a physical form materialized before her hand as she clenched her fist around it. She brought her hand down and looked at the small dots of destruction slowly floating out of her hand. She had to be careful not to touch anything, and figure out what to destroy.

Looking around for a moment, it seemed that her only object to destroy was a box. A clench of her fist and Marinette launched herself at a box before her, careful not to let her hand brush against anything else in the vicinity. In the last stride she launched her hand before her and slammed it into the box. She watched as it disintegrated into rust-like chunks and fall to the ground. A weight that she hadn't realized was there had lifted off her shoulders at the action, she no longer felt a swirl of chaos. Was that the cataclysm?

The Chat Miraculous beeped, keeping her from dwelling on the thought for too long and indicating that her transformation had only a few minutes left before it ran out. She released her transformation and Plagg came swirling out of the ring.

Tikki came flying over to the two of them, "You two did quite well!" She cheered, landing on Marinette's shoulder.

"That means I can have some cheese now, yes?" Plagg asked, landing on Marinette's other shoulder.

"We, need to clean up the mess we made, then we'll head home and you can get some cheese," Marinette answered, Plagg didn't hide his groan.

Both Tikki and Marinette laughed before Marinette transformed, Plagg disappearing into the transformation.

The familiar feeling of being Ladybug was welcome, and she took a moment for feel comfortable in the costume.

Ladybug was about to call for the mysterious disappearing light when it occurred to her that she had never done so without using a lucky charm. She didn't even have an object to throw into the air. Unsure of what else to do, she grabbed her yo-yo and zipped it in the air, calling out for the mysterious disappearing light.

It worked, and Ladybug watched as the red blur cleaned up the box she destroyed with her cataclysm and the bother boxes she knocked over with the staff. It was as if she had never been there. Her miraculous didn't beep after the ability, good, she needed to head home and rest.

A/N: That's all for the chapter. Also whoops I'm late, just as I predicted. Finals had killed me, and now attempting to find a summer job is killing me. I drew a pic of Marinette as Chat Noir if ya want a visual. It's on the AO3 version of this story in this chapter.

Anyways, chapters are now going to update every 3 Fridays 'cause whoo-golly, evidently I can't keep up.

Thanks loves, please leave a review, I'm thirsty.