Chapter 11: Silencer
In school, Adrien Agreste happens to run into Giselle Winters-Blanchet. She's still a bit lost in her own thoughts as she's trying to figure out her own powers. She is internally freaking out when he says "hi" to her as she can't convince herself that he's not Hawk Moth. They have an awkward but normal conversation, and Adrien doesn't think anything is odd about it because he's used to talking to Marinette Dupin-Cheng, who is also prone to random freak outs.
After school, Marinette meets with Ivan Bruel, Rose Lavillant, Juleka and Luka, who are the band Kitty Section. Mylene Haprele also joins them for moral support as she's Ivan's girlfriend. They're all excited but nervous as they entered a contest hosted by the rock star XY, which will allow the winner to debut a music video. They all worked really hard, and they hope they win.
However, when XY airs his "announcement" commercial, it's instead him using Kitty Section's concept costumes and demo music, claiming them as his own. There's no hint of the contest whatsoever. All of Kitty Section is upset, so they decide to go to the station and demand answers personally.
The six of them actually manage to find XY and his father/manager Bob Roth, who pretty much gloats about stealing from them and rubs it in that they can't do anything about it. After all, who is the public going to believe? A well-respected producer or some punk kids? This pisses off pretty much everyone. Juleka is mad as those are Rose's lyrics, and Rose is mad because those are Juleka and Luka's instrumentals. Marinette is upset because Luka is the one who helped compose it, and Luka is mad because Marinette made the costumes that XY also stole. Ivan is mad because that's their effort, and Mylene is angry because all of her friends and her boyfriend are all angry. Bob Roth shows no empathy and blows them all off.
The pickings are ripe for Hawk Moth, who sends an akuma their way. The akuma winds up on Luka, who fortunately is briefly muted as he's transformed into Silencer. This stops him from revealing that he's also Alpha.
Panic arises as Silencer starts stealing voices. Juleka pleads with him, but he brushes her off. Rose pulls Juleka away and sends out an Akuma Alert via the app, promising Juleka that Ladybug and Cat Noir will save her brother. After all, Ladybug and Cat Noir did save both of them. Silencer corners Marinette, but he tells her that he could never hurt her (using the voices he's stolen) with a rather poetic confession of love. Silencer stalks off to find Bob Roth, giving Marinette time to transform into Ladybug.
As Ladybug explores the studio looking for Silencer, she encounters the members of Kitty Section, who haven't fully fled. They want to help. Luka is a friend of theirs—and family in the case of Juleka. Ladybug tells them it's dangerous; they should trust her to handle it. However, they insist. So Ladybug tasks then with blocking the entrances and exits on the first floor. Don't let anyone in or out except Cat Noir. She also is firm that they're to protect themselves. They all agree and do as she says.
Ladybug continues her search but is ambushed by Silencer and loses her voice to him (no thanks to Bob Roth, who uses her as a shield). Cat Noir shows up, thanks to the notification through the Akuma Alert, cracks a few puns, and then communicates with Ladybug via texting. (This section of the chapter is largely similar to the canon episode but there are some differences, like what Kitty Section does.)
Kitty Section decides to go a step further in helping Ladybug and Cat Noir corner Silencer. They first explore the first floor. When the find out he's not there, they move on to the second. And so on. Meanwhile, Ladybug finds Bob Roth holed up, and he orders her to protect him. She's pretty annoyed at this point, so she masking tapes him to a chair. Then she makes a fake Lucky Charm. (It's also worth noting that long-time use of a miraculous helps cultivate a personality trait—at least in this fic. For Marinette, it is very clearly her creative problem solving skills. Other users will have one talent developed as the storyline continues.)
With the help of Kitty Section, they corner Silencer. Cat Noir helps trick him into activating Ladybug's Luck Charm for real. This allows them to de-evilize Luka and purify the akuma. Bob Roth shows up at that point and gets tricked into an engineered public confession about how he stole from Kitty Section. He promises to make their music video, and they all cheer. "Pound it!" Ladybug performs her world-healing wave. Then they wonder where Marinette went, which prompts Ladybug and Cat Noir to sneak out.
Marinette returns a few minutes later, and Kitty Section tells her the good news about how Bob Roth got busted publicly and how they're getting their music video. She then asks Luka if he's okay, and he repeats his very poetic confession of love to her as he doesn't remember anything about being Silencer. Marinette is very flattered, but she knows she loves Adrien more.
Later that evening, Giselle Winters-Blanchet is studying the Ladyblog again. She can only come to one conclusion. "I've been akumatized. Somehow it's long term, which means Hawk Moth is plotting something bad." She knows she needs to go to Ladybug for help—Ladybug is the only one who can purify an akuma after all. However, what if her going to Ladybug is part of Hawk Moth's trap? Furthermore, purifying someone means destroying the object the akuma resides in—in this case, it's her late mother's bracelet. Giselle can't bear to have that destroyed, though she knows Ladybug can also reverse damage too.
Giselle has clearly been torn on her options and internal debate for a long time. But she decides the only thing she can do, the right thing, is to go to Ladybug. But that brings a new dilemma—how does she even find Ladybug? But that is the decision she makes—she will go to Ladybug.
The stress of the whole situation causes her to transform. She's even more panicky now. Her father calls through the door, asking if anything is wrong. She lies and says she's fine; after all, she can't let him see her as a superheroine. With the cool-headedness of Snow Leopard taking over, Giselle decides the best thing she can do is go out for a walk—or rather, a skate—and enjoy the last time she'll have her powers. (Giselle's personal development is self-confidence.)
Because she can double tap with her skates and cause ice to appear, Snow can pretty much wander the streets and roofs of Paris (the ice does vanish fairly quickly after she's passed by). Since her weapon is a ribbon dancer's stick, she gets caught up in skating and dancing and humming and just losing herself to the movement, forgetting all the pressure she's been under.
She happens to skate by the Agreste manor. Adrien notices the passing chill and looks up in time to see her go by. He's surprised to see Snow Leopard with no adversary. He decides to join her ice skating and finds the appropriate cheese potion for Plagg. Plagg protests, not wanting to transform. He tells Adrien that he's not supposed to use his powers for fun, but Adrien justifies it by saying that they do need to learn about the new heroes, like Snow. Adrien transforms into his ice-themed Cat Noir, leaps out his window, and tracks Snow down.
Snow has been so caught up in dancing that she almost falls over when Cat Noir touches her with a "may I have this dance?" She's flustered, heart beating wildly, at her crush appearing. Figuring it's her last night ever as Snow Leopard, she agrees and the two ice skate and dance together.
They wind up on a rooftop; both enjoyed themselves. Snow, again more confident than Giselle, tells Cat Noir "thank you" and "good-bye." The good-bye sounds so final that Cat Noir asks about it. Snow realizes that if she leaves now, she'll never have the chance to talk to him again—she'll never get to tell him how she feels. But she knows, she knows if she speaks up, she'll get rejected because he loves Ladybug.
Snow tells Cat Noir she admires him. He's surprised to hear this. She admires his puns and optimism and openness and especially his courage. He inquires about the last one. She tells him she admires how brave he can be to tell Ladybug all the time that he loves her even though he knows how much it will hurt when she says she doesn't feel the same. Snow says she's not like that at all. Cat Noir is surprised as Snow was plenty brave against Frozer. Snow explains that that's not how she really is—she's always afraid she'll be an inconvenience to people. She heads to the roof's edge to leave.
Cat Noir senses something is wrong and just says her name. Snow turns and confesses her feelings for him. Cat Noir is again surprised as he missed the obvious signs of her crush. He then hesitates because he knows what he'll say next will hurt her. Snow says it's okay; she asks him to continue. Cat Noir says that he considers Snow to be a great friend and he's honored by her feelings—but he can't return them because he's in love with Ladybug.
Snow says she knows. She's hiding tears as she thanks him for the dance. Then she says a very final good-bye and uses her ribbon dance stick to swing into the night. Cat Noir internally cringes, wondering if he could have done better.
He returns home and detransforms. Plagg teases him, saying he should stick with Snow. "She's another cat, after all. And there's nothing wrong with keeping your options open." Adrien tells him that that wouldn't be fair to Snow, but he does wonder if there was any other way if he could have been nicer about what he had to stay. Plagg scoffs, saying if Cat Noir had been any nicer, he'd be a bag of sugar.
Snow makes it home and is crying in her bed. At some point, her transformation wears off. She knew it would hurt, but she didn't realize it would hurt this bad. She's just hoping that getting rejected will help her move on beyond Cat Noir.
To be continued in Chapter 12: Prediction…