Chapter 50: Peace

It's morning in the Agreste manor. Adrien is visiting his parents in their bedroom, talking to them, despite them both being comatose. Plagg blatantly refuses to enter the room. When Adrien asks him why, Plagg asks back why Adrien bothers talking to his parents when they're out cold. Adrien answers that he believes they can hear him. Plagg replies that's all the more reason for him not to enter their room. If they can hear him, they'll find out Adrien is Cat Noir. Adrien concedes this point, but Plagg can't say the full reason—that he knows that Gabriel was Hawk Moth. Adrien also confides in Plagg his feelings of frustration and powerlessness at seeing his parents like that when he can't help them. However, Plagg quickly darts out of sight as Dr. Gerald Theroux comes in to check on Gabriel and Emilie. Adrien leaves him to his work.

Elsewhere in the manor, Felix Graham de Vanily is practicing his cello for his mother. Nathalie Sancoeur is working on developing her plan to beat both Team Ladybug and Team Draco. She's using both the computer and the tablet. Nicholas is in the office with her, tinkering with a rolling desk that Nathalie admits hasn't worked in a long time. She tells him not to waste his efforts as they can just buy a new one. Nicholas admits that he already fixed it. This surprises Nathalie—and leaves her a bit befuddled. Where did he get that talent from? I didn't include it.

A short time later, school starts again. (It's important to check your timing so you know when the weekend falls in relation to all these days at school.) The gorilla again drops off Adrien, Felix, and Nicholas at the same time. Adrien sees Nino and joins him, Nicholas Sancoeur joins Gilles Chastain, and Felix heads in alone. He ignores Marie Chauveau's attempts to flirt with him on his way to his locker. (Despite the fact she (Marie) usually hates straight guys.) Marinette Dupin-Cheng arrives a few moments later. She seeks out Alya Cesaire and is surprised to see Alya with Tristan Fortier. They greet each other, and Alya explains that she was asking Tristan for beginning reading resources for her little sisters. Tristan was happy to oblige and admits he's surprised so many people ask him for learning resources for younger family members. He really thought more people would look down on him. Alya tells him not to think that way "after all, not everyone in this school is like Chloe."

Monique Imhof and Nicolette Lacroix are talking with Monique's boyfriend, Mathieu Anciel. Mathieu proposes they go on a double date. Nicolette likes that idea a lot, but she wonders if she could ever convince Etienne Fontaine to go out with her. Mathieu suggests introducing Nicolette to one of his friends since Etienne's sole love is himself, but Nicolette says it wouldn't be fair to that person. Mathieu shrugs and wishes Nicolette luck at talking to Etienne with anything that isn't a mirror. Monique tells her that if Etienne agrees, they'll set a date and a time.

Sabrina Raincomprix shows up, and to many people's surprise, she's wearing new clothing. She has on an above-the-knees denim skirt and a sleeveless, collared, button-up blue blouse that ties at the bottom of the front. Yvonne Garnier and Genevieve Faucher compliment her on her new outfit. Sabrina explains it's from America and that her American boyfriend, Delmar, sent it to her. What Sabrina doesn't say is that Delmar sent her the clothing because he heard how Chloe Bourgeois insulted Sabrina's wardrobe a few chapters ago and he wanted to cheer up his girlfriend and help her deal with how roughly her friendship ended with Chloe. Much to Sabrina's surprise, she's able to have a normal conversation with Yvonne and Genevieve without feeling she has to be mean for their approval and without feeling like she has to grovel at everything they say, like she did with Chloe. It's a weird feeling for Sabrina, and while she likes the thought of making new friends, she's still worried about being hurt again after her ordeals with Miranda Edgarov and then Chloe.

All members of the cast can be found here: (( photos . app . goo . gl / cgLSrNi71rxfep9e8 ))

The bell rings, and everyone filters to the classrooms. Marinette Dupin-Cheng, Adrien Agreste, Chloe Bourgeois, Sabrina Raincomprix, Ivan Bruel, Mylene Haprele, Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Rose Lavillant, Juleka Couffaine, Nino Lahiffe, Alya Cesaire, Max Kante (with Markov), Alix Kubdel, Le Chien Kim, and Lila Rossi all go to Miss Bustier's class. Kagami Tsurugi, Marc Anciel, Giselle Winters-Blanchet, Marie Chauveau, Suzette Rault, Tsuyu Asui, Stella Tenebrae, Rachel Beauchene, Fumikage Tokoyami, Felix Graham de Vanily, Nicholas Sancoeur, Tristan Fortier, Etienne Fontain, Raissa Deschamps, and Gilles Chastain go to Mr. Haprele's room. Aurora Beaureal, Mireille Caquet, Jean Duparc, Pierre Lefevre, Meg Delphinus, Viktor Vasiliev, Cameran Tylor, Guy Nigels, Nicolette Lacroix, Monique Imhof, Meera Pugliese, Jakeel Aristide, Genevieve Faucher, and Yvonne Garnier walk to Ms. Mendeleiev's class. Luka Couffine, Mathieu Anciel, and many others head to the upper classman classes.

It's a rather normal day at school despite the increasing number of kwamis being hidden by students. Marinette not only has to hide Tikki but also Daizzi and Longg. Adrien has not only Plagg but also Fluff and Kaalki. Chloe has Barbarra with her, and Sabrina has Barkk hidden in her a new purse. Kagami has Tiia, Alya is with Trixx, and Nino's keeping Wayzz. Tsuyu has Froppy with her, and Fumikage keeps Dark Shadow nearby. Pierre has Dee, and Marie is keeping Pann. Plus, Madam Gros has Ellie the elephant kwami. In addition, Lila, Giselle, Nathaniel, Luka, Kim (sometimes), and Aurore all have magical items that currently don't have kwamis.

During the day, Max Kante is called for his mental health screening. He tries to bring Markov in with him, but Madam Gros refuses to speak in front of the robot as she claims it would be "a violation of privacy." Markov has to wait outside. Once the robot is excused, Madam Gros starts with the usual questions about grades and hobbies, family and emotions. Max's grades are impressive, and he shows no negativity towards his family even though it's just him and his mother. He's very proud of his mother and sees her as a role model.

No matter what Madam Gros tries, she can't find anything to use again Max. He's a very well adjusted, mentally healthy kid. She even prods him, asking him about Hawk Moth and being akumatized into Gamer. Max says it was a lesson in humility. He also has nothing but respect for Ladybug and Cat Noir (even moreso, given he's Pegasus, but he's too smart to let that slip). Madam Gros dismisses him back to class and writes him off as a pawn she could use.

The second student Madam Gros calls in is Viktor Vasiliev. She asks the usual questions. He spends most of his appointment with her looking down at his hands or shoes rather than making eye contact. He's a very introverted individual, and he does admit to her that he has a hard time making friends. Madam Gros tries to us this as an "in" to learn more about his psyche, but Viktor just talks about how he went beyond his comfort zone and started this school's Dungeons & Dragons' group, which has allowed him to make a few friends, especially Fumikage Tokoyami. Madam Gros tries to pry into Viktor's family's lives, but he shuts down entirely at the topic. Madam Gros excuses him back to class. In her notes, she marks him as too weak-willed, but she wonders if he's hiding something more concerning his family—something she can use. She notes to herself to follow up with him later.

The afternoon rolls around, school ends, and students disperse to their homes. Tristan Fortier is picked up by his oldest sister, who is plenty old enough to be driving and has her own car by now. They then swing by the elementary school and pick up their three youngest siblings. There's also two other siblings who are older than Tristan who bike home after their club practice. The Fortier house quickly gets loud and chaotic, as it would with seven offspring (plus two parents). Tristan mother tries to coral the youngest ones for dinner while the older ones fight over who gets to watch what show on television. Tristan himself opts to put on a thick pair of headphones and read a book. It does take him a while since he's dyslexic, but he enjoys it nonetheless.

Tristan's father, Emeran, is progressively getting more and more stressed out as the loudness and the bickering continues. It's been a long week at work, and he just wants some sleep, which is pretty much impossible in a house with so many kids—especially three in elementary school. His wife, Elisha, tries to help soothe things over despite the fact she's up to her elbows working with the children. When she pointed that out, instead of offering to help, Emeran snaps. "All I want is some peace and quiet!" He's so loud that everyone does fall silent; there's hurt faces all around. However, Emeran doesn't get any time to feel guilty or apologize because an akuma then lands on his glasses, transforming him into Peace.

Peace hears Hawk Moth's voice (which is once again Nathalie speaking through a synthesizer). Hawk Moth promises Peace the ability to make the whole city calm and sedated so that he can relax. As Peace, he has the power to put anyone who meets his eyes into a laidback trance, where that person goes about life in a lethargic daze, thus not making any conflicts or disturbances.

An amok lands on Peace's watch, granting Peace the nightmarishly-colored songbird senti-monster "Mute." Mute is pretty self-explanatory. Anyone or anything that Mute lands on is rendered speechless (so, a bit like Silencer, but Mute can't mimic voices). Hawk Moth orders Peace and Mute to fill the whole city with "peace and quiet" and to steal the miraculous from those who would dare disrupt the tranquility. (Or should the senti-monster just be called Quiet?)

Of course, being in his home, Emeran's family quickly falls victim to his hypnotic powers. Any of his children who make eye contact with him wind up sedated and dazed, wandering around as if disoriented. The only one who escapes this fate is Tristan, who is still up in his room reading with headphones, so he has no idea what's going on. Which means it takes all the longer for someone to raise the akuma alert.

It's not until Peace wanders into the street with Mute flying beside. Soon, civilians are wandering around, dazed and careless. Those who haven't been effected by Peace have to navigate around those who are hypnotized. Cars have to swerve to avoid people. Some try to blare their horns, but Mute silences them, leaving innocent civilians unable to hear the warnings.

Roger Raincomprix hurries to the scene to try to handle the traffic and accidents while ushering civilians to safety, and Nadja Chamack begins to broadcast, telling citizens to avoid the area Peace was last sighted in. Both of them are entranced and muted fairly quickly, but their message gets out, which alerts the heroes to the situation. Both Marinette and Adrien transform and race to the scene. Other heroes around the city also tune in and begin communicating to coordinate their efforts against this new threat. Chloe doesn't bother to wait. She realizes that Peace isn't on Madam Gros's side. So she transforms into Queen Scorpion and runs toward the chaos.

The B Team coordinates their efforts digitally. Luka/Alpha tells everyone to remain out of the fight and keep a low profile—and then, track the akuma and the amok's route. With Hawk Moth and Mayura active (so they think), they might be able to find Hawk Moth's lair. Or at least narrow down where in the city it is. The B Team agree, transforms, and scatters throughout Paris, retracing the damage Peace and Mute have caused to find its source. They also keep an eye on the news in case they have to leap into the fight.

The golden heroes meet up as Ladybug and Cat Noir. Ladybug stops Cat Noir from rushing in. She points out that Peace entrances his victims with eye contact, so they have to make sure not to look into his eyes. Cat Noir flirts that it'll be easy because "I've already been blinded by your beauty, milady," which causes Ladybug to spazz out in front of him. Even Cat Noir isn't oblivious to things this time, and he asks Ladybug what's wrong since she usually gives him the cold shoulder. Ladybug does her best to talk straight without her tongue getting tied in a very Marinette way. She finally has to turn away from him, take two steps back, and gulp down several breaths of air before she tells him (without looking at him) to "keep serious and focus on the akuma." Cat Noir raises an eyebrow, but he doesn't push the issue any harder. He doesn't put two and two together that Marinette is Ladybug despite the display because he has become rather desensitized to girls freaking out around him.

They ambush Peace and Mute and nearly end things right there, except Peace twists around to confront them and they have to fall back to avoid looking into his eyes. Both sides face off against each other. Peace makes a speech, declaring Paris to being on its way to becoming a utopia where no one fights anyone, no one causes chaos, and everyone is content. Cat Noir snaps back that all Peace is doing is brainwashing people. It's not true peace; it's tyranny. Peace tells him off for not seeing his vision, and the three begin fighting again with Ladybug and Cat Noir doing their best to find and destroy the akumatized item.

Because of their experiences with Silencer, they know they can't let Mute land on them—otherwise, they'll be unable to transform back or use their Lucky Charm or Cataclysm. However, Peace is a very smart opponent. He has Mute hide among a flock of Xavier Ramier's pigeons (after sedating Mr. Ramier) so that the heroes lose track of the senti-monster.

Ladybug uses her Lucky Charm, and together with Cat Noir, she manages to corner Peace. However, that's when Mute dives in to attack. Cat Noir cries out a warning, but it's clear Ladybug can't evade in time. Then, Queen Scorpion leaps down from above and destroys Mute with her Dissolve ability (proving that her technique, which destroys magic constructs, is also effective against senti monsters.)

Queen Scorpion takes a stance and threatens Peace, saying that Paris is her city. (It's pretty heavily implied that all Chloe wanted to do was show Ladybug up and trump her as a superheroine.) Cat Noir tries to get Queen Scorpion to stand down and convince her that she's working for an enemy, but Queen Scorpion doesn't want to listen to him. All she wants to do is prove she's the best to spite Ladybug over the whole bee comb ordeal.

Peace sees his moment to strike while they're all arguing. He lands a devastating blow to Cat Noir, which stuns the hero. Then he's able to look into Cat Noir's eyes, entrancing him. Cat Noir stumbles to his feet and walks off in a dream-like daze. Ladybug calls for his help, but he's hypnotized. And Ladybug can't follow to help him because Queen Scorpion attacks her at the same time.

Ladybug tries to argue with Queen Scorpion, insisting that they shouldn't be enemies and that the bee comb winding up with Honey Bee was a completely unforeseen set of circumstances that was no one's fault. Queen Scorpion is stubborn and doesn't buy it. And by now, both Ladybug and Queen Scorpion are getting low on their counters.

Peace takes a moment to breathe while they're fighting. Female Hawk Moth, remembering how successful her strategy with Mad Hare was, tells Peace to grab the near catatonic Cat Noir and use him as a shield, which Peace does. He then orders both Ladybug and Queen Scorpion to stand down and hand over their miraculous. Ladybug complies, yanking her yo-yo back into her hand. As she does so, her Ladybug vision lights up—she knows what to do.

Queen Scorpion, of course, doesn't listen and charges Peace regardless of the hostage. Peace easily evades her, and Ladybug sees her chance. She plays a recorded message on her yo-yo phone. The message is of Cat Noir saying "Cataclysm!" After all, the golden duo did learn from Silencer and recorded the phrases they might need—just in case.

The recording is enough to active Cat Noir's Cataclysm. Peace shoves the hero aside, unwilling to get touched by it. And by all good luck, which Ladybug has in spades, Cat Noir's hand flies upward and brushes against Peace's glasses, destroying them and releasing the akuma. Ladybug leaps in and purifies it. She also destroys the watch and purifies the amok.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" One world-healing wave later, and Cat Noir (as well as all of Paris) is back to his senses. Emeran Fortier is completely baffled at what happened. The downside of this is that it causes the B Team to lose the trail of Hawk Moth. In the Fortier home, the whole family also returns to normal—and Tristan is still reading (using techniques to help with his dyslexia) and oblivious to what just happened.

Queen Scorpion leaps backward and snarls at Ladybug and Cat Noir. Cat Noir encourages her to stand down, pointing out that she won't remain transformed much longer, but Queen Scorpion wants to fight.

That's why Queen Scorpion hears Madam Gros contacting her through the Scorpio hairband (much like how Ladybug and Cat Noir can talk to each other through yo-yo and baton). This, of course, means Madam Gros is currently transformed. Madam Gros demands in a very low, calm voice that Queen Scorpion backs off—or forever forfeit her miraculous and her memories of all magic. This pisses off Queen Scorpion to no end, but she does so, taking to the rooftops and losing Ladybug and Cat Noir.

Though the golden duo do have to let her go since Ladybug is also low on a timer. They "Pound It" and part ways.

Queen Scorpion heads back to her home, but finds Draco and Tarantula both waiting on her balcony. They give her an ultimatum straight from their boss—one more step out of line, and they'll pull her miraculous. It's clear by both of them showing up where she lives, that it's a threat and display of power. And Chloe inside Queen Scorpion actually is unnerved by it—though she doesn't reveal anything externally. Both leave with a "it would be a shame if anything happened" remark.

Queen Scorpion times out and turns back into Chloe. Chloe feeds Barbarra some dried fruit and talks while the kwami eats. She needs to be stronger so she can beat Ladybug and reclaim the bee comb—and so Madam Gros and her goons won't intimidate her any more. To do that, she needs to practice. But she can't practice here. Madam Gros is obviously watching. Chloe needs to find some place private to develop the powers of the Scorpio…

Marinette arrives home and gets on her computer. She logs into the Team B chat server, remembering the message Master Fu gave her. She can't delay in telling them any longer.

The B Team is discussing what they found and if they can mark off any sections of the city as being Hawk Moth's lair. Marinette, as Ladybug, interrupts. "I have confirmation from my master. The items you use are connected to the butterfly miraculous."

To be continued in Chapter 51: Guiltrip…