Chapter 54: Babel
It's morning and a school day in Paris. Nathalie Sancoeur has forced herself out of bed and is continuing to work in the Agreste manor, managing Gabriel Agreste's brand line to keep it running in his absence. (She can handle the operations, but she can't design new clothing.) Nicholas Sancoeur watches her, worried, as it's clear her health is still poor. Nathalie is surprised he can feel concern about her and then tells him not to be. She has to keep things moving.
Alongside her work for Gabriel, she's pulled up information on superheroes and akuma victims. She's continuing to hone her strategy as she's feeling the pressure from the Draco/Rhino/Tarantula team (she does not know about Madam Gros and the elephant miraculous yet.) She knows she needs to get the ladybug and black cat miraculous before someone else does—and as many other miraculous as she can. She begins studying the newest heroes and re-evaluating Ladybug and Cat Noir. That's when Amelie calls Nicholas, as the carpool to school is leaving. Nicholas excuses himself.
At school, Marie Chauveau leaves Suzette Rault behind and immediately siddles up to Felix Graham de Vanily, just as he's getting out of the limo. He's uncomfortable with the attention and disgusted by her, but he hides it well, and Marie never notices her crush's lack of interest. Suzette is clearly annoyed at being dropped in mid-conversation.
Adrien Agreste meets up with Nino Lahiffe and Alya Cesaire inside. Alya is showing them all a new photo app on her phone, and then demonstrates it by taking a selfie with all three of them, then glitzing it out with stickers and effects. Alya then notices Marinette Dupin-Cheng walking by and grabs her, saying that the four of them should take a selfie together. Alya and Nino make sure to maneuver Marinette next to Adrien, and she instantly freezes up and babbles. The selfie of all four of them shows Marinette with a very stiff, freaked-out face. Alya and Nino then make an excuse to leave Adrien and Marinette alone, and they walk off.
Adrien starts talking to Marinette normally, and she sticks to single-word answers so as not to babble any worse. However, Kagami Tsurugi notices the two of them interacting. She politely inserts herself in the conversation, picking up on the same topic they're discussing. Marinette, still sticking to single-word responses, quickly gets sidelined. That's when Kagami makes her move. She brings up family, showing concern about Adrien's parents, and then takes Adrien's arm and walks him to the lockers. Marinette starts to protest. Kagami very subtly calls her out, something like "do you have something you want to say, Marinette?" Both Kagami and Marinette know that Kagami is done waiting; she's given Marinette enough time to confess. And since Marinette hasn't, Kagami is making her move. Marinette attempts to speak, even using the breathing techniques she knows, but it's hard as she does view Kagami as a friend. Marinette eventually just says "no" and has to watch as Kagami escorts Adrien away.
Elsewhere on campus, Alix Kubdel is walking to her locker in a daze. She's still processing everything she learned about the present and the future in the Burrow. In doing so, she sees the school with new eyes. Things she never noticed before. She glances at Adrien and Kagami, now knowing that Adrien has Plagg, Ziggy, and Kaalki hiding nearby while Kagami has Tiia tucked in her purse. She notices Sabrina Raincomprix slips a milkbone into her locker, likely feeding Barkk. Not so far away, Tsuyu Asui and Fumikage Tokoyami are talking, and now Alix knows they're Froppy and Tsukuyomi (not Crow-man, like Paris still thinks). Luka Couffaine, who is texting on his phone nearby, is Alpha and leads the B Team. There's Marinette, Alya, Pierre, Chloe, Nino…so many others are superheroes or supervillains on the sly. And she's one of them, with Fluff napping in her backpack. When Madam Gros walks by, it takes all of Alix's nerves not to duck, hide, and spy on her—as she knows Madam Gros is trying to recruit and use the student body.
Stella Tenebrae calls Alix several times before Alix responds, lost in thoughts. Alix apologies, but Stella can tell there's something wrong with her friend. She asks, but Alix denies. Alix clearly feels uncomfortable as she has not yet perfected her poker face. It's also clear she's worried about Stella for some reason and tells her something vague along the lines that "bats aren't what they appear to be."
Marc Anciel is keeping to himself, his thoughts distracted by the fact that Nathaniel Kurtzberg is still trapped inside a cocoon of light. Marc checked on him in the morning (he decided it was best to keep the cocoon at the Kurtzberg apartment), and Nathaniel was still trapped. Marc makes a phone call to Principal Damocles, pretending to be Nathaniel's father and that Nathaniel is out sick. Principal Damocles falls for it, but it doesn't make Marc feel any better about lying.
Gilles Chastain is busy helping Miss Bustier set up some plants in her classroom. Nicholas Sancoeur joins them and helps build an easy-to-use watering system for them. Both Gilles and Miss Bustier are rather impressed with his mechanical skills. Nicholas admits he just wanted to help, and he is grateful to Miss Bustier for being a good teacher and to Gilles for helping him when he was a new student. When he says this, Nicholas has a rather stiff but polite and professional way of speaking, much like his aunt.
Giselle Winters-Blanchet is talking with Meera Pugliese and Raissa Deschamps. However, she falls by the wayside of the conversation.I told the rest of the B Team that I would find a secret keeper by the end of the week. But who do I burden with that information? I don't want Meera or Raissa to have to spend their time watching me. I'm still not even certain if I should be using this bracelet when I promised Mom I'd give it to Master Fu! But Master Fu is missing, and I'm worried about him too. What should I do? Giselle does have a mental block about asking for help, stemming from her father. Raissa notices Giselle seems worried about something. Meera assumes it's about the mermaid migration (as she's a space case). Giselle puts on a fake smile and insists nothing is wrong. Alya and her friend circle happen to pass by Giselle and her friend circle at that point. Alya notices Giselle and how she's acting, though she doesn't speak on it at this moment.
The bell rings, and Aurore Beaureal and Mireille Caquet get dropped off a bit late, coming from their morning weather forecast. Aurore is just about as distracted as Alix. She's replaying her decision to tell her whole family that she's Honey Bee over and over in her mind. Will they accept it? Will they understand? Mireille wonders if Aurore is just stressed out from working part-time as well as going to school, and she admits she's worried about their upcoming science quiz. Mireille adds that in part it's her own fault as she stayed out too long on her date with Theo Barbot the prior night. Aurore suggests Mireille go to tutoring, which is something she herself had to do to keep up with the busy schedule. Mireille considers it as they enter Ms Mendeleiev's classroom.
(All students can be found here: (( photos . app . goo . gl / cgLSrNi71rxfep9e8 ))).
A bit later, we see inside Mr. Haprele's class. He's teaching his first period home room class, which consists of Kagami Tsurugi, Marc Anciel, Giselle Winters-Blanchet, Marie Chauveau, Suzette Rault, Tsuyu Asui, Stella Tenebrae, Rachael Beauchene, Fumikage Tokoyami, Felix Graham de Vanily, Tristan Fortier, Etienne Fontaine, Raissa Deschamps, and Gilles Chastain. Felix is incredibly bored, seeing anything less than a private tutor as beneath him. Marie is distracted—not only by Felix, but also by her toe ring and Pann, the Capricorn kwami. Stella is doing leg stretches beneath her desk, Marc is working on the next portion of his manuscript, and Kagami is being a good student, actually paying attention.
Madam Gros enters and announces it's Raissa Deschamps' turn for her one-on-one mental health screening. She asks Mr. Haprele permission for Raissa to leave class, which he gives. They both depart for the counselor's office.
As usual (I hope these counseling sessions aren't becoming repetitive), Madam Gros asks Raissa about her emotions and hobbies, family and grades, friends and future. Raissa is a very energetic individual with a ton of optimism (though Rose Lavillant is even more optimistic). Raissa is incredibly positive about her friends and family, and Madam Gros is pretty much able to write her off as a potential pawn early on. However, she continues the meeting underneath the façade of doing her job. When she asks Raissa about her future, Raissa names a whole long list of things she wants to do: travel around Greece, take a glass-bottom boat tour in Australia, eat all 31 flavors of ice cream at once, make a giant seashell out of ice, learn how to speak Mandarin, save the rainforests… The only flaw Madam Gros winds up finding is that Raissa is a bit distractable.
She excuses Raissa back to class. Then she heads to Ms. Mendeleiev's class and calls Meera Pugliese for her screening. Unlike Raissa, Meera is rather sedated and dreamy. She often doesn't reply right away when Madam Gros asks her something, and her answers frequently are non sequitur. For example, Madam Gros might ask Meera about her classes. Meera would reply with something outlandish, like "I love going to class, especially when we learn about how the centaurs used to study the stars."
Halfway into the session, Meera completely derails the topic at hand. She pulls out her cell phone and begins showing Madam Gros photos of mushroomed-shaped rocks, tropical butterflies, and poor-quality superhero paparazzi. She insists they are all connected, as the animals of nature have blessed the superheroes of Paris. It takes a while before Madam Gros can even get a word in, at which point she excuses Meera and puts a huge X through her name.
At length, school ends. Students eagerly leave their classrooms and meet up with their friends in the hallway. Marc Anciel checks his phone, but he has no messages from Nathaniel, so he assumes that means Nathaniel is still trapped. Le Chien Kim gets a message from Ondine. He excuses himself from hanging out with Max Kante and heads to the pool to meet his girlfriend. Meera joins Raissa and Giselle, showing them the same photos on her phone that she showed Madam Gros and explaining her theory that sentient animals blessed Ladybug and Cat Noir and the others. Kagami gathers her fencing equipment and makes her way to Adrien, planning on talking to him as they walk to practice together. However, Lila Rossi has been noticing how Kagami has been moving in on Adrien. She steps into Kagami's path, making up an excuse to talk with her and delay her. However, this only serves to give Chloe Bourgeois an opening. Chloe takes Adrien by the wrist and starts showing off some new accessories she bought, fishing for compliments. She then insists they take some selfies together. (She also noticeably snubs Sabrina as she does this.) This makes not only Kagami and Lila but also Marinette jealous. Adrien tries to subtly bring up the fact that Chloe is Queen Scorpion, getting her to fess up without revealing his identity (so he can maybe help her and get her to have a Heel-Face Turn), but Chloe doesn't really pick up on it. Alix Kubdel is also watching things unfold, finding it very awkward as she knows who winds up with who in the future. She glances around at various couples and crushes, such as Marie who likes Felix, Tsuyu and Fumikage, Nicolette who likes Etienne, and Mylene and Ivan. She even notices some crushes that haven't manifested yet and how those characters are interacting with each other.
Speaking of Ivan Bruel, he is helping Miss Bustier hang up the higher portions of a bulletin board. Sabrina Raincomprix is texting her American boyfriend, Delmar, in English. Fumikage and Viktor Vasiliev are setting up for the school's Dungeons & Dragon's group. Fumikage invites Tsuyu Asui to make a character and join them. Tsuyu admits she doesn't really understand it as the rules seem very complicated, but she does have time until her ride comes, so she'll watch. Luka Couffaine finds Juleka, and they walk home together.
Alya again notices that Giselle seems stressed and is absentmindedly tugging on her bracelet. She excuses herself from Marinette (after telling Marinette that she really needs to talk to Adrien). Alya interrupts Giselle, Raissa, and Meera's conversation and asks to speak to Giselle alone, who obliges. Once alone, Alya asks what's wrong. Giselle denies there's anything wrong. Alya asks bluntly "is it about Snow Leopard?" (as Alya knows Giselle is Snow, and Giselle knows Alya is Rena Rouge). Giselle is so surprised she can't hide the fact that Alya is right. Alya prods her to talk about it. Giselle voices her concerns about finding a secret keeper and troubling her friends and/or family into looking after her while she transforms. And should she even be transforming; what would her mother want her to do? Alya admits she can't answer the last question. But as a person with friends, she says that if Marinette needed anything, any secret, any help, Alya would listen and would never consider it trouble. Friends are there to help. And Giselle shouldn't feel as if she's an inconvenience to her friends.
Outside the school building, Meera and Raissa wait for Giselle to catch up. They decide to begin working on some light homework that they had assigned, which in part involves accessing the school's website through an app on their phone and answering the questions digitally. Their parents arrive at the same time. Usually Raissa takes public transportation home, so it's an unusual day when her mother arrives to pick her up (her mother happened to be doing errands in the area at the time, so decided to pick her daughter up). For Meera, her father usually does pick her up, so it's not uncommon.
Both Raissa's mom and Meera's father are perturbed to see them, seemingly texting away on their phones, rather than talking to each other or enjoying the nice weather or doing something that isn't a digital pacifier. Meera's father is the more irate of the two as he sees the phone as fueling Meera's delusional imagination. Mrs. Deschamps doesn't like that Raissa is increasing the phone bill, again. It also doesn't help that they see other students glued to their phones. Marc Anciel is using his to log into the B Team's chat server to try to help Nathaniel. Nino Lahiffe has taken a call to book his next DJ gig. Mireille Caquet is talking to her agent, and Genevieve Faucher and Yvonne Garnier are talking selfies of each other and decorating them with an app.
Back at the Agreste manor, Nathalie picks up this negative emotion and frustration. She can tell there are people who are angry at technology and at teens who do nothing but play on their cell phones. She's about to ignore it. It's a commonplace enough emotion, and she really needs to reserve her strength for powerful, dark feelings. However, that's when Nathalie's trait of strategic planning kicks in. She realizes one particular power she could give to this victim—a power that would great cripple all of the superheroes' efforts. She checks to make sure Amelie and Solomon aren't watching, then she slips into Hawk Moth's lair and transforms just using the butterfly miraculous. As female Hawk Moth, she sends an akuma towards Mrs. Deschamps and Mr. Pugliese.
At Francoise Dupont High School, both Meera and Raissa are having to endure lectures about valuing phones over people. Meera is unfazed, and Raissa can't get a word in to explain they were doing homework. This leads to both Mrs. Deschamps and Mr. Pugliese touching the same phone at the same time—just as the akuma lands on it. (It's probably Meera's phone, being confiscated by her dad.) They're akumatized into two distinct beings with distinct designs but the same name, purpose, and power. Their name is Babel, and they have the ability to scramble communication. Meera tries to talk to them like normal while Raissa quickly uses her phone to send the akuma alert, but her father blasts it with a laser-pointer-like laser beam, which glitches the phone out. The two parents immediately turn on all the cell phones, tablets, iPods, and computers in the area. Because of this, for the first time in this whole fic, there is no city-wide akuma alert to warn people to evacuate from the akuma situation or to inform Ladybug and Cat Noir that there's trouble they need to deal with.
To further compound things, Babel then abducts both Meera and Raissa, tying them up with living USB to Micro-USB cables. The girls protest and struggle loudly. This catches the attention of both Giselle and Alya, who happen to be exiting the school building at that time. Giselle is incredibly alarmed and worried as those are her two best friends. Alya quietly asks Giselle if she's going to go transform and save them. Giselle hesitates, stalling for time by checking her cell phone (to see if there's any new messages from the B Team). But her phone is glitched. Alya checks her phone only to find out the same. Alya thinks quickly on her feet and realizes that this means that Ladybug and Cat Noir won't know about the akuma until it's too late. She tells Giselle that she's going to deal with that and runs off, leaving Giselle hesitating and uncertain about what to do.
Alya knows she promised Ladybug and Cat Noir only to use her powers when called upon—but this is an emergency. She transforms into Rena Rouge and races to the roof of the school. From there, she casts a massive illusion, like sky writing, calling for Ladybug and Cat Noir and warning all of Paris that there's a new akuma victim.
This does allow people to take cover and evacuate. Principle Damocles activates the akuma alarm. "Warning this is not a drill. There is a real akuma. Please evacuate the area calmly." However, that too glitches out, spewing static instead. Fortunately, Rena Rouge's skywriting is enough to attract Marinette and Adrien's attention (as well as civilians, who leave the area). Marinette runs off to transform, and Adrien sneaks away from the fencing club as they're being evacuated (yes, the school's lockdown procedures truly suck).
They meet on the roof where Rena Rouge is waiting. By this time, she's down to one minute on her timer. She has just enough time to explain what is happening and point them in the right direction before she has to bow out to transform back. Ladybug and Cat Noir thank her and head out to deal with Babel. It's worth noting that they don't realize that Babel is actually two people.
Thanks to Rena Rouge's sky writing illusion, the B Team also knows there's danger. They all try to log into their chat server to coordinate their efforts, but with communications scrambled across Paris, none of them are able to reach anyone else. This also applies for Ladybug and Cat Noir's support team. They can't contact Rena Rouge, Carapace, Kamaitachi, Hachiko, or Bunnyx without finding them in person. Furthermore, Madam Gros lacks the means to contact her team: Tarantula, Rhino, Draco, Queen Scorpion, Sir Silver Hart, or Shark Regina. All according to Hawk Moth's plan. With this one akuma, she has effectively hamstrung all of her opposition and isolated Ladybug and Cat Noir. She encourages Babel to take their miraculous. (All of this is done through a synthesizer so Nathalie still sounds male.)
Ladybug and Cat Noir corner the male portion of Babel and begin fighting him, trying to break the item that holds the akuma. Giselle Winters-Blanchet is still watching from the steps of the school. She can't contact the B Team, and she can clearly see Ladybug and Cat Noir took off in one direction—but Meera and Raissa were taken the opposite way, held prisoner by the female portion of Babel. Giselle remembers how terrible it was when Meera was akumatized into Surrealist and both she and Raissa were kidnapped. She remembers when Raissa was akumatized into Acid Rain and how helpless she was without her mother's bracelet. Giselle decides to risk it; she can't let her friends get hurt. She finds a private corner and transforms into Snow Leopard. Then she takes off in the direction opposite of the golden duo to save her friends.
The two akuma victims aren't just traveling at random. They're targeting the cell towers and TV antennas and radio stations around Paris. Soon, the whole city comes to a standstill as there's no news reports, no radio broadcasts, and no phone calls keeping everyone up to date on the situation. Even things like traffic lights get scrambled because those are a form of communication. (And as Babel's powers grow, it's likely they could even begin to scramble written text, like books, as well. After all, Babel is an akuma victim whose powers develop as time passes, sorta like Maledicktator.)
Ladybug and Cat Noir are pretty effective against the Babel they're facing. They work great as a team and are able to coordinate their moves well, cornering Babel and stealing a few of his accessories to break. Though they have yet to release the akuma. They're able to keep the pressure on Babel so he can't imperil any civilians; they bind one of his arms with Ladybug's yo-yo. Cat Noir leaps in to Cataclysm Babel's laser pointer, but that's when Babel reveals his powers have grown further. He manages to strike Cat Noir in the middle of saying "Cata—" and this serves to scramble Cat Noir's language and ability to speak. He, well, babbles. Ladybug actually chortles at the sounds coming out of his mouth, and Cat Noir's body language reveals he's pretty happy that he got "milady" to laugh and smile. However, both do realize the danger of Babel. If they're struck, they can't activate their special abilities—nor would they be able to transform back into their civilian selfs (much like how things were in Silencer). In Peace, they revealed they recorded themselves saying their catchphrases on their cell phones just in case something like Peace and Silencer would happen again—but thanks to Babel, their cell phones aren't working, so their back-up plan is already disabled.
By this point, Snow has cornered the other half of Babel. She demands Babel let the hostages go. Babel, of course, doesn't comply, forcing Snow to do some acrobatic dodging. She can't get close to Meera and Raissa to help them. Raissa is doing her best to plead with her akumatized mother, but her cries fall on deaf ears. Meera is just going along for the ride. Snow is desperate to save them.
Their fight crosses in front of the public pool, where both Ondine and Kim see them. Ondine is confused, wondering why no akuma alert has been sent. Kim gets out of the pool, dries his hands, and checks his cell phone—which reveals to them that it's been glitched. Ondine quickly realizes that this means no one in Paris is able to call for help or backup. Kim tells her to go help Snow. Ondine agrees and transforms into Dauphine, taking off to the fight. Kim lags back, keeping an eye on Ondine, but also doing his best to get through to the rest of the B Team.
The male portion of Babel is now on even footing with Ladybug and Cat Noir, with Cat Noir stuck babbling nonsense. Ladybug realizes that there's a huge risk if she gets struck too, so she knows she can't wait or hesitate. She uses her Lucky Charm, which produces an item she's not immediately sure how to use. Cat Noir comments on the random nature of it, but his remark is completely gargled. Ladybug finds it easier to focus when he's like this, as he's even less like Adrien and her heart doesn't overreact due to flirting. Ladybug's mind, however, is racing as she puts her creative problem solving skills to use. She shouts to Cat Noir that this likely isn't the location that the Lucky Charm is pointing to, so they should lead Babel elsewhere. In that moment she's plotting with Cat Noir, Babel points his laser at her…
Dauphine joins Snow Leopard as she tries to hold the female portion of Babel at bay while rescuing the hostages. Snow is glad to see Dauphine. She starts to apologize about acting without a secret keeper, but Dauphine cuts her off—tells her not to worry and to focus on the matter at hand. They make a pretty great team, as Snow can freeze the water Dauphine summons with her surfboard. This is enough to temporarily trap Babel. Snow leaps to her friends, telling them that she promises to help them. Her mannerisms and words are clues, and it doesn't take too much for Raissa and Meera to begin to suspect that Snow is actually their friend Giselle.
Snow is able to get Meera free just as Babel breaks through the ice and throws them off. Snow, being a leopard, lands on her feet and protects Meera from the fall. But Raissa is still trapped. She tells Meera to get to safety while she goes after Raissa. Meera explains to Snow that this akuma victim is Raissa's mother, and that her father was akumatized at the same time and went off in a different direction. Snow starts to say "I know," which earns her a raised eyebrow from Meera. Snow stammers a correction, trying to protect her secret identity, and jumps back into the fight.
Ladybug is babbling hopelessly, which earns snickers from Cat Noir. She glares at him, and he just shrugs. Fortunately, Ladybug still has her Lucky Charm. Unfortunately, she still doesn't know what it does. Furthermore, she's on her countdown. If things don't change, Cat Noir would be trapped in his superhero form—but once Ladybug transforms back, she's stuck babbling still, she won't become Ladybug again. They both realize they have a narrow window to defeat Babel before things get harder. And they're still no closer to locating his akumatized item.
It's also not just Ladybug and Cat Noir who had their language scrambled. Civilians have gotten hit with the laser pointer, making evacuation attempts harder. Roger Raincomprix cannot verbally direct traffic, Nadja Chamack cannot keep people up to date with the news, and even Wayhem gets lost when the street signs get inverted and no one can talk effectively. Female Hawk Moth realizes this and urges the male portion of Babel to pressure Ladybug. Don't give her a chance to escape. As soon as she transforms back when her timer runs out, she'll be easy prey and her identity will be revealed. Babel complies and focuses all his attention on fighting Ladybug. She gets struck repeatedly, which angers Cat Noir, and he charges in recklessly.
Against female Babel, Dauphine decides to use her special ability, Echolocation, which reveals a non-visual route to a helpful location. Now, this helpful location can be an escape route, the area an ally is, a setting perfect for the heroes to make an ambush… So Dauphine isn't certain why Echolocation is sending her to the place she envisions. But she tells Snow to follow her, and they bait female Babel into chasing after them, with Raissa still in tow.
This leads them back to where Ladybug and Cat Noir are fighting the male Babel. Both Ladybug and Cat Noir have a Eureka moment, realizing they were having so much trouble with the akuma because there were two victims. Ladybug also gets her "spots vision" and realizes that Dauphine's surfboard is the final piece in her Rube Goldberg machine. Being unable to verbally communicate, Ladybug signals with hand gestures. Cat Noir understands right away, but it takes the B Team a moment to get what she means.
Dauphine and Ladybug use the Lucky Charm and the surfboard to coral the two Babels together. However, both refuse to go down without a fight, leaving the two superheroines with their hands full. But they also serve as a distraction, which allows Cat Noir to leap in their blind spot and steal the akumatized item from both Babels. He pieces the item back together and then destroys it, releasing the akuma. Snow Leopard lunges forward and rescues Raissa before she hits the ground. Ladybug purifies the akuma and does her world-healing wave, which reverts their language back to normal, so all four can "Pound It."
Snow helps Raissa get on her way, and Ladybug and Cat Noir talk to Mrs. Deschamps and Mr. Pugliese. Then the superheroes depart.
Female Hawk Moth, however, does not consider this to be a failure. She's now learned how vulnerable the superheroes are to communication breaks. She knows they're also weak against hostage situations and that Ladybug and Cat Noir would surrender their miraculouses for each other. She also still has a hold over four members of the B Team, which she realizes she'll have to use soon, otherwise, she risks losing them all, just like how she lost the lightning bug, frog, and crow.
Snow transforms back into Giselle. She's worried that Meera and Raissa figured out who she is. She sends them a text message, saying that she heard about the akuma incident involving their parents and asks if they're all right. Raissa replies that they're fine and their parents are safe. She adds that it was really stressful, so she wonders if they could meet up for ice cream. Meera and Giselle both readily agree.
At the Dupin-Cheng bakery and home, Marinette has gotten out of the shower and has her towel around her neck. She talks to Tikki, Daizzi, Longg, and Roarr as she logs into her computer. After basic checking her email and social media and Alya's Ladyblog, Marinette logs into the Team B chat server. She takes a moment to catch up on the conversation log, and she's floored by the fact that Firefly has cocooned up and that his secret keeper is keeping everyone posted. As Ladybug, she immediately replies with her concerns and wants to help. The B Team appreciates the sentiment, but they wonder what Ladybug could do. Marinette pulls out the digital grimoire and doubles her efforts studying it. She owes it to them—not only about the whole cocooning process, but to also protect them from Hawk Moth.
She hesitates a moment and then contacts Cat Noir through their personal communication method and fills him in. The kwamis laugh as Marinette freaks out and spazzes, knowing she's casually texting Adrien Agreste. Fortunately for her, Adrien has no idea about all her goofs as he can only see the messages themselves. He is also surprised that Firefly is trapped in a shell, and has been for almost two days now. Marinette as Ladybug asks if he has any ideas while she scans the grimoire, and he has none. He then asks why she's having such trouble when she's been working on the grimoire for weeks now. Marinette/Ladybug admits that it's not only written in Mandarin Chinese hanzi, but an ancient and region specific stylized Chinese/Mandarin code. Adrien/Cat Noir offers to help. He tells her that he actually speaks and reads Mandarin, so that could give them an edge in translating it. He even calls it a "date." It takes Marinette/Ladybug a long while to calm down from that remark, and she agrees, with some pushing from the kwamis. She insists it's strictly a platonic, translation "date," but Tikki knows better.
Elsewhere in Paris, Giselle and Meera and Raissa have met up for ice cream. They're meeting in a park, having fun like normal teenage girls talking about normal topics. However, once all other civilians are out of earshot, Raissa and Meera bluntly and directly drop the bombshell that they know Giselle is Snow Leopard. Giselle tries to deny it, but she's not a good liar. Meera and Raissa are able to coax the truth out of her, and Meera shows some great insight and pegs the magical item as Giselle's mother's bracelet. Giselle remembers what Alya told her earlier that day. She takes a deep breath and tells her friends the whole truth: her mother's bracelet, turning into Snow Leopard, the fact she talks with other members of the B Team, and how she's expected to find a secret keeper but she's afraid of being a burden. She even tells them her mother's dying promise, though she doesn't mention anything about Master Fu or Alya, which means she also can't tell them about the time during Phase Two when she didn't have her bracelet.
Raissa is incredibly excited over this and scolds Giselle, telling her it would be an honor to be a secret keeper and of course they want to help Giselle moonlighting as a superheroine. They're friends! Why wouldn't Giselle trust them with this? Why would she think she's a burden? Why does she feel she has to carry everything herself? Meera asks some rather weird questions, like does the bracelet get power from the sun or moon, or is through crystalline combustion? Does transforming open her up to telepathic communication? This does get Giselle thinking about the source of her magical item's powers, and she does have to admit that she and the B Team have it on good authority that there's a connection to the items they use and Hawk Moth.
This alarms both girls, and reasonably so. Raissa asks Giselle if that means she'll quit being Snow Leopard. Giselle voices all of her uncertainties between her promise and secret keepers, her ability to help and Hawk Moth, and so many unknowns. But then she admits she keeps returning to being a superheroine because she hates seeing her friends and those she cares about hurt. She's figuring it out for herself as she speaks, finally able to put her thoughts and emotions into words—Giselle admits that if she saw Raissa or Meera or any other loved one in trouble (such as her father, her new friend Vivica, or her still sorta crush Cat Noir), she would always return to being Snow Leopard, no matter the risks. Raissa and Meera both understand and decide to support her by being her secret keepers, and they won't take "no" for an answer. This chokes Giselle up, and she wonders aloud "it won't be troublesome for you?" "Absolutely not!" they insist.
Aurore Beaureal is facing that same conversation herself late into the evening. It's after dinner, and she calls her family (father, step-mother, and little brother) together for a meeting. They're all confused and curious (though at the moment emotionally neutral) about why Aurore wants to talk to them all. Aurore herself is incredibly nervous, which is saying a lot for a girl who regularly gets on public television. She takes a deep breath and announces that she's Honey Bee. Both Mr. Beaureal and the new Mrs. Beaureal think this is a joke, but her little brother Guilliame happily announces that he already knew because he was right there when Aurore first transformed. He admits he thinks it's very cool that his sister is a superheroine.
The smiles disappear from their father and step-mother's faces. Her father asks for clarification, so Aurore explains about the comb she found in her purse and how she transformed into Honey Bee during Gunslinger's chapter and how she's been trying to figure out her powers. The expressions on her parents' faces tell her not to mention anything about the B Team, so she doesn't (nor does she say anything about secret keepers or the chance that she could wind up trapped by her own powers). But she does say that she didn't want to keep secrets from them and that they deserve to know.
Mrs. Beaureal is still in denial and refuses to believe it. Guilliame very excitedly admits it's true. Aurore is getting more nervous as she's not certain how to read her parents or if they believe her or if they'll be hostile about it. However, she knows how much she wants them to believe in her—which means she has to trust them too.
She transforms in front of them.
This proves beyond all doubt that she is Honey Bee. And her father is not happy. He breaks his silence, lecturing Aurore in a tranquil fury voice about how dangerous her role in vigilantism is and how foolish she is for using some strange, magical item without knowing anything about it. (This, of course, prevents her from telling them about its alleged connection to Hawk Moth). He emphasizes the risks about chasing down supervillains with lethal powers and tells her she should leave it to the professionals. Aurore very politely counters that Ladybug and Cat Noir aren't the professionals and that the magical items/miraculous they all use protect them better than any riot gear.
Mr. Beaureal is still quietly livid, born out of worry, and demands she hand over the bee comb. Aurore protests, insisting that that's not fair. She hasn't done anything wrong. She's done all her homework and chores, hasn't broken any house rules, she's kept her grades up and managed her job well. Her father argues that she is doing something wrong as vigilantism is against the law. Guilliame protests, as fitting for an elementary student, that it's too cool to have a superheroine sister and that their father shouldn't take that from her. Mr. Beaureal turns to his wife for support. Mrs. Beaureal is clearly torn. She's finally developing a good relationship with her step-children that she doesn't want to damage. However, she does agree with her husband and see his points. "Do you remember how Hawk Moth kidnapped hundreds of kids in Paris? It's just too dangerous!"
Mr. and Mrs. Beaureal use their authority as parents and get Aurore to transform back; they force her to turn over the bee comb to them, which Mr. Beaureal promptly locks in the family's safe. Aurore is crying at this point, insisting it's not fair. She's done everything they ever asked of her, and she only told them she's Honey Bee because she wants them to trust her (and the B Team's rule, which she can't state). Mr. Beaureal is adamant and insists his mind is made up. He sends Aurore to her room, and he threatens to pull her work permissions if she ever again attempts to be Honey Bee.
Aurore locks herself in her room and cries very hard over the injustice of it all. It's not fair her parents confiscated her comb when she did nothing that merits punishment, and it's not fair that they threaten her career when all she wanted them to do was trust her and support her.
When at last she's finally able to stop crying, she pulls out her cell phone. At least dad and mom didn't take this… She logs into the Team B chat server and explains what happened.
To be continued in Chapter 55: Terra Forma…