Part Three! Happy Halloween everyone! I love, love, love this holiday and the response that I've gotten on this fic. You are all so wonderful!
An Amber Pen: You, my friend, are very smart. Keep your eyes out.
Yellow 14: Why do American's study European history? Or African history? It's because we learn about the world, not just where we live. Plus, America has had a lot of influence in more recent European history.
AnamariaJovel: Thanks so much! And yeah, they have it pretty bad. But I don't know if I'd call it the WORST *evil grin*
C: It's originally Celtic, yes, but it's history in America is really interesting too, especially when you throw in the Salem witch trials. Thank you for mentioning it though!
I don't own Miraculous Ladybug. CHRISTMAS SPECIAL THIS DECEMBER AND LIVE ACTION MOVIE IN 2019 CONFIRMED.
"That's what says you can't stop me," Clara chuckled, tapping her wand condescendingly against Former-Superman's head.
"Nobody can."
Marinette and Adrien watched as Alya paced back and forth, occasionally shooting glances at the two of them and then looking up at the stage in concern. Nino sat calmly at Adrien's feet, head tilted and tongue peeking out ever so slightly.
"Okay, so if you guys are Ladybug and Chat Noir, but you're not because these Kwami things that help you transform are useless, and everyone who is a superhero who might be able to help is now a fucking stuffed animal-"
"Alya."
The girl stopped her pacing and looked up at Marinette, who was studying her with mild amusement. "What?"
"Breathe."
Alya scowled at her friend and crossed her arms over her chest. "Sorry I'm worried about everyone here being stuck as their costumes for the rest of their lives!"
Adrien frowned, eyebrows furrowing. "Alya, we'll figure something out. You don't need to worry."
"And how do you propose we fix everything without your superpowers?" Alya asked, nose wrinkling as she sneered at them.
Marinette and Adrien looked at one another cautiously, then back at Alya. "Are you…feeling okay?" Marinette asked.
"I'm fucking fine," she snapped, her fingertips sparking as she spoke.
Marinette took a shaky step back and Adrien moved in front of her ever so slightly. It was only when Alya saw the hair on the back of Nino's neck rise that she unfroze from her trance and glanced down at her glowing fingertips, her mouth going dry.
"I'm..."
She trailed off, not sure how to proceed, clenched her fingers into her palm, and left the group silently, her floating broom dropping to the ground once she was out of range and startling Plagg from his cat nap.
Nino whined in the back of his throat, trotting in Alya's direction and then turning back in frustration to nose at Marinette's side.
"I know, Nino," Marinette murmured, resting a hand on his head. "Adrien, can you go talk to her? I don't think I can physically get there by myself."
Adrien nodded, grabbed Alya's broom from the floor, and left the gym, Plagg trotting after him. Marinette slid down the wall and onto the floor, careful to make sure her limbs didn't go flying across the room. Nino tucked himself against her side, shoulder's shifting as he got comfortable, and Marinette sighed, running her fingers through his fur without thinking.
"What's going on with her?"
Nino chuffed softly and Marinette glanced over at Clara, still hovering over the stage with an irritated look. Anger glinted in her eyes as she perused the crowd around her, and the purple butterfly around her eyes brightened for a few moments.
"And how are we supposed to fix this?"
"Alya?"
Adrien stayed cautious, knuckles hovering over the entrance to the girl's bathroom door and his forehead leaning against the wall next to it. "Are you okay?"
There was no response and the teen sighed, biting at his lower lip before remembering that fangs hurt like no other. "If you don't answer," he called, rubbing at his stinging mouth with one hand, "I'm coming in. And you know I don't want to do that."
The door creaked open slowly and Alya poked her head out, bloodshot eyes studying Adrien warily. "What?"
Adrien handed over her broom silently, eyebrows crinkling together. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know," she admitted softly, fingers playing with the hem of her sleeves. "I just…got so angry for a minute. I don't know why."
Adrien frowned and reached a hand out, tugging Alya out from inside the bathroom and pulling her into a hug. "It's okay," he murmured. "You'll be fine."
"How?" she demanded, her voice muffled against his shoulder. "Your Kwami's are useless, apparently, which means that until we either come up with some magical way to fix them or you turn over your jewelry, we're all stuck."
Adrien pulled back, holding her at arm's length and staring at her for a moment. "What did you say?"
Alya raised an eyebrow. "Give up your jewelry? You can't actually consider that, Adrien."
"No, no, I'm not," he assured her, dropping his arms and beginning to pace the hallway, Plagg trotting alongside him. "What you said, about fixing it magically."
"Yeah…?"
He grinned at her, fangs flashing in the dim hallway lighting. "So, you're dressed as a witch! Which means that right now, you are magical, and you can totally fix this!"
Alya frowned, fingers tightening around her broomstick. "I don't know…I'm not really a witch, Adrien. I wouldn't even know where to start."
Adrien paused in his pacing. "Well…we'll help. There's got to be something that we can use in this school. Like…I don't know, what do witches use? Spells? Potions?"
"Yeah," Alya murmured, eyebrows crinkling as she slid her hand down her broomstick and tilted it so that she could sit down onto it. "Let's go talk to Marinette. See if maybe she has any ideas."
Adrien agreed and they headed back for the gym, only to find Marinette sitting by herself and looking off towards the locker rooms. "Where's Nino?" Adrien asked in concern.
Marinette gave a grimace and fiddled with a screw on her knee. "I think he was getting ready to change back. His um…his bones kept shifting."
"I'll go check on him," Alya declared, setting her broomstick against the wall next to Marinette and starting for the locker room door.
Adrien grabbed her shoulder before she could go, eyes flickering between her and Marinette. "I think maybe you should wait here. We uh…we don't know if he'll be…you know…dressed when he turns back."
Alya flushed a dark crimson and nodded immediately. Adrien instructed for Plagg to stay with them and then darted off, cape fluttering behind him as he ducked around students that had now become bored and were discussing whether or not Ladybug and Chat Noir really were powerless like Clara had said.
The locker room was dark when Adrien entered, but what he realized quickly was that even though he couldn't see, he could sense where everything was and was able to move around with absolutely no problem.
A soft grunt led him into the shower area, where he used his heightened senses to find and kneel next to Nino, who had positioned himself over one of the shower drains. Why, Adrien didn't know, but he could only assume that transforming from a wolf to a human wasn't comfortable.
"You good, buddy?" he asked in a low voice, reaching a hand out and settling a hand onto Nino's head.
He whined under him and pushed his hand away, and Adrien obliged, sitting down onto the floor cross legged and scooting back a little to give him some space. "Okay, man. Just…let me know if you need me."
Nino chuffed quietly and Adrien tuned out the following sounds of bones creaking and breaking, trying instead to think of ways in which Alya could fix Plagg and Tikki so that they could solve everything.
It was only when Nino shuddered and coughed, a human cough, that Adrien sat back up and reached out, hesitating ever so slightly with his hand in the air. "Nino?"
"Yeah?"
His voice was raspy and dry, and he was clearly out of breath, but Adrien couldn't help but smile at the sound of his voice. "Good to have you back man. Are you uh…do you…I mean-"
"Am I naked? No."
There was laughter in his voice, tired though he was, and Adrien laughed, finally putting his hand down on Nino's shoulder and rubbing it gently with his thumb. "Can you get up okay?"
Nino shivered under his touch and his head shook. "I um…I need a minute."
"Okay."
They sat silently for a moment, and after a few seconds Adrien frowned. "Dude, are you hurt?"
There was a shuffling sound, and Nino cursed softly. "Guess I caught my arm on the drain grate. Just a small cut though. How did you-?"
He trailed off and they both went silent, each of them knowing exactly how Adrien had known that Nino was bleeding. "Adrien, it's-"
"I'm gonna go."
Adrien was gone in an instant, the lack of footsteps indicating that he had become a bat and flown off, and Nino sighed, pressing his palms to his eyes and sighing deeply.
"Great."
When he returned to the gymnasium, limping in pain, Nino found Marinette and Alya talking excitedly, an old book they had probably gotten from the library cracked open on the floor between them. "What's up?"
"Nino!"
Alya leapt to her feet and practically tackled him in a hug, knocking the breath out of him. Nino caught Marinette's smirk before it turned into a look of confusion. "Where's Adrien?" she asked.
Alya pulled back quickly, face flushed, and her eyes searched the area. "Yeah, where'd he go?"
Nino's eyebrows furrowed and he looked back over his shoulder with a sigh. "I don't know," he admitted. "I turned back, accidentally scratched myself on the drain grates in the showers, and I guess he smelled blood and freaked."
Both girls winced and Plagg, who had been curled up on Marinette's lap, leapt out of it and trotted away. No one protested his leaving, now knowing he was more intelligent than all of them combined and was most likely looking for Adrien. Instead, Nino gestured to the book and raised a bushy eyebrow.
"What'cha got?"
Alya hefted the book into her arms and turned it around. "We went down to the library while you were doing what you were doing, and found this in with the texts from older civilizations. It's basically a list of different spells that were all transcribed at some point that people kept for historical purposes."
"We've been going through it to see if there was some spell that maybe Alya could use to turn Plagg and Tikki back to normal," Marinette interjected. "But the closest thing we could find was a spell to return an inanimate object to it's former being."
"Like a pencil back into a tree," Nino guessed. "Huh. Couldn't you just…make up a spell? It should work no matter what, right?"
"Have you ever seen Halloweentown?"
"Still," Marinette murmured. "It's worth a shot."
With a side glance at Clara, who was starting to grin evilly, Marinette pushed herself to her feet and leaned heavily on Alya's shoulder. "Let's go find Tikki."
Plagg found Adrien sitting silently on a window ledge three stories off the ground, a leg dangling over the edge and his fingers tugging at the cape around his shoulders. He purred softly and climbed into Adrien's lap, startling the boy a little.
"Jesus, Plagg. You're just as annoying now as when you can talk," he joked weakly.
Plagg gave him a look that made Adrien chuckle and he glanced out over the city. "I'm fine," he said, answering the unasked question. "A little…a little freaked."
The cat gave a soft chuff and nuzzled his arm, and Adrien allowed himself to scratch Plagg behind the ears. "I smelled Nino's blood and I…I wanted to bite him. That's what's happening, isn't it?"
Plagg peeked up at him, bright green eyes blinking.
"We're…becoming more like what we're dressed as. It's why Alya got so mad, it's why I wanted to drink blood, why Nino transformed."
Plagg meowed sadly and Adrien sighed, pulling him closer. "Which is why Clara isn't rushing anything. Because eventually everyone will really believe that they are what they dressed as. I'll believe I'm really a vampire and Alya will believe she's a witch and Marinette…"
He trailed off and his fingers tightened in Plagg's fur. "Marinette will literally become a doll. And then the miraculous' will be so easy to get from us."
Plagg bobbed his head once and crawled from Adrien's grip, taking his cape in his teeth and pulling delicately at it, trying to get Adrien to come inside. The boy rolled his eyes and tugged the cape from Plagg's grip, effectively getting it away but also making the cat lose his balance and go tumbling from the ledge.
Adrien cursed and leapt after his companion, curling his fingers around the scruff of Plagg's neck and then instinctively flinging out a hand and slapping it against the wall. He came to a jolting halt, one that made him grimace in pain, and realized with a start that he was dangling by one hand from the side of the school.
"Shit," he grumbled, twisting his arm and settling Plagg down onto his shoulders. "It's getting stronger."
Plagg meowed and nipped at Adrien's ear. Adrien sighed, dropping the rest of the way to the ground and running around to the school entrance. "I know buddy. We gotta fix this. I hope Marinette and Alya came up with something."
His heels clacked at the tile floor once he was inside, and upon finding the gymnasium empty of his friends, he turned to check the kitchen next, promptly running into Mylene and nearly sending the poor girl to the ground.
"Woah, sorry!" he yelped, reaching a hand out to steady her.
"Watch where you're going!" the girl snapped, adjusting the princess tiara on her head. "Don't you know who I am?"
Adrien blinked in response, a feeling of dread settling in his stomach, and he looked around the room at the rest of his schoolmates.
Ivan was grumbling incoherently, his movements jerky and uncoordinated. Chloe looked awful, her tail flaking and her lips chapped to the point where they were peeling. The people who had been turned into stuffed animals were no longer moving, no longer blinking, and Adrien felt his heart rate-
Wait.
He froze, pressing two fingers to the side of his neck and shuddering.
He didn't have a pulse.
"Fuck," he hissed, spinning away from the still complaining Mylene and sprinting out of the gym. "We need to fix this now."
Plagg meowed in agreement and jumped from his shoulder, scampering ahead of Adrien and leading him to the kitchen. Upon entering, he sighed in relief, finding Marinette, Alya, and Nino all there.
His smile faded, however, when he saw how short Marinette had gotten since he had last seen her. Her skin had an almost wooden look to it, and her eyes were glassy. Alya was clearly fighting off whatever she was feeling, if the clenching fists was any indication.
Nino was the only one of the three of them who seemed mostly unaffected, and Adrien had a feeling that it was because, aside from the wolf aspect, werewolves were still at least half human and had consciences and morals.
"Guys?" he tried tentatively. "I um…I don't mean to freak anyone out, but-"
"We're forgetting who we are," Alya snapped over her shoulder at him. "I know, dumbass."
"Alya."
She shivered under Nino's touch and clenched her hands again. "Sorry, Adrien."
He shook his head and stepped over to them, holding Marinette steady by the elbow as he peeked over their shoulders at the tiny ladybug that was crawling around the counter top. Plagg leapt up onto the counter and gave a tiny whine, nosing at the bug anxiously. Marinette gave a tiny yelp, but when the bug purposefully fluttered onto Plagg's head, she couldn't help but smile.
"I guess Tikki's still…Tikki. Sorry for canning you," she chuckled.
The ladybug's wings fluttered and Adrien turned to Alya, searching her eyes. "Alya. We need you to do this. We know you can do this."
"I've been trying!" Alya yelled, her voice holding a hint of panic. "You think I don't want to solve this any more than you do? I'm turning into a bigger bitch than Chloe!"
"Not possible," Marinette protested. "You-"
She cut off abruptly and all three of them turned to look at her. She was struggling to speak, they could tell by the way she was glaring in the general direction of her mouth. And Adrien couldn't for the life of him figure out why she couldn't speak.
"She didn't draw bolts and screws on her face," Nino realized in horror. "So she can't talk."
Marinette looked at Adrien, fear in her eyes, and he gripped her biceps gently. "Hey," he murmured, bending down until their foreheads touched. "You'll be okay. I promise. You're strong."
She looked at him like he was absolutely insane, and Adrien managed a closed mouth smile, hiding his fangs to keep her calm. "Have I ever steered you wrong, M'lady?"
The next look she gave him made him grin fully, fangs and all, and he turned back to Alya without saying anything else. "Alya. You got this."
She opened her mouth to respond and froze, eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. "Who…where…why…?"
Adrien swallowed and looked at Nino helplessly. The werewolf spun Alya to face him with no hesitation, hands staying firmly on her shoulders as he spoke. "Alya. Come on. I know you know the words. I know you can fix this. I know you can fix them. You know the words. You need to hold on for like, one more minute."
She squirmed under his grasp, ripping away and pressing her hands to her forehead. "It…hurts," she gasped out, fingernails digging into her scalp.
"I know," Nino murmured softly. "I know. But you can do this. I believe in you, Alya."
Alya shuddered and twisted to look at Plagg and Tikki, who were sitting patiently in front of her, Tikki on Plagg's nose and Plagg's tail curled tightly around his paws. "Ab Ordinario animalium magicis, reversus est."
The words meant nothing to the other three. But it wasn't the words that seemed to do the trick. It was the way Alya held her hands, like she was holding an offering. The way she twisted her wrists until her fingers, sparking gold and purple, brushed over the animals in front of her. The way the sparks turned to black and red and green, swirling under her palm and flowing over Plagg and Tikki like a shower of sparks. It was the way it got brighter and brighter, until finally everyone but Alya had looked away from the scene to shield their eyes.
And when it died down, Tikki and Plagg floated there, testing their limbs and antennae and tails to make sure they were fully functional.
And it was then that Adrien remembered that Marinette couldn't speak in order for Tikki to transform her.
Seeing the look of distress on his face, Tikki waved her paws at him and smiled warmly. "It's okay, Adrien," she promised. "I've had mute Ladybug's before. She just has to tap the earrings a couple times and the transformation will work. After that, she'll be able to speak just fine."
Adrien nodded and let go of Marinette, now at eye level with his torso, and gave Plagg and weak smile. "Plagg? Transform me."
Marinette tapped her earrings quickly, before she could fall, and within moments she was back to full height, her mouth opened and limbs working perfectly. Adrien still had his fangs, however, and he could still make out the faint scent of Nino's bandaged cut. He could only assume that, in their costumes, they could move and function like able bodied people.
"Won't Clara just turn you guys into something else?" Nino pointed out.
Alya shook her head, sinking to the ground and gripping at her hair as she did so. "No," she choked out. "Their magic…is really strong. She can't…transform them…because they're already transformed."
Nino knelt next to her, eyes glittering with concern, and looked up at the heroes in front of him. "Go ahead," he assured them. "I've got her."
From there, it was a matter of getting Clara's wand from her grip, something that was done easily with taunting and a little bit of sneaky black cat/bat action. Basically, Adrien discovered that, even as Chat Noir, he still had all of his vampire abilities, so one bat transformation and dive later, he held Clara's sparkling wand in his mouth and was handing it over to Ladybug in seconds, wings flapping to keep him afloat.
She snapped it with ease, a sadistic sort of glee in her eyes, caught the butterfly to purify, and then chucked the pieces in the air with a cry of "Miraculous Ladybug!"
Adrien yelped as he turned back into Chat Noir, crashing to the floor as ungracefully as one could. When he ran his tongue over his teeth, he found that his fangs hand vanished completely, and his pulse was back as strong as ever. Marinette was grinning behind her mask, rubbing at her elbows, and everyone in the room was slowly getting up from where they had been thrown or tossed. A few students who had been flying animals were now either stuck in the rafters or had fallen from the air the moment they turned back, which was something they hadn't thought of.
Clara herself still stood in the middle of the stage, her eyes wide and filled with confusion. "What…happened?"
Ladybug stepped over to her as Chat picked himself off the ground, a small smile on her face. "Nothing you could control. You were going to announce the winners of the costume contest."
Clara blinked a few times, looking around at the students in the gym, and winced. "I got akumatized, didn't I?"
"Yeah," Chat confirmed, moving to stand next to Ladybug. "But it's okay. You weren't in control. We know that. Everyone here knows that. You're good."
Clara nodded slowly and Chat and Ladybug turned to look at one another, eyes roving the others form and studying it. "Alya and Nino?" Ladybug suggested quietly.
Chat nodded and they left the gym, turning back to their Halloween costumed selves in the hallway and running for the kitchen together, tucking Tikki and Plagg inside their clothing before barging in. It was a good call, as they found Alya helping Sabine off of the counter, her fake fairy wings bobbing and her fingers massaging her scalp. "What happened?" the woman was asking.
"Um…an akuma," Marinette answered, pushing through the group and giving her mother a tight squeeze. "We-"
"Have to let your dad out of the janitors closet!" Nino yelped, clapping a hand to his forehead and causing some fur to drift to the floor.
"You have to what?" Sabine demanded.
Marinette smiled sheepishly. "Um…dad was a bear? And so he like…started to believe he was a bear…soooo we had to lock him in a closet so he wouldn't hurt anyone."
Sabine pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed deeply. "All right. The one in this hallway?"
They nodded and she left the kitchen instantly, leaving the four teenagers alone in a silence so awkward that they could feel it. "You did it," Adrien said around the fake fangs now in his mouth, looking over at Alya with admiration.
The girl flushed and glanced down. "Not really. It was just…a spell."
"Nope," piped up Tikki from Marinette's pocket, flying out and zooming over to Alya so that she could tweak her hair. "It wasn't just a spell."
"Pardon?"
"She's right," Plagg said, lounging casually on Adrien's shoulder in an effort to not stray too far from his person. "Spells don't work unless the people casting them actually want the spells to happen. And considering what a hard time you were having focusing because of what Clara did?"
"You're really the reason anyone is normal now," Tikki confirmed.
Alya ducked her head, a small smile on her cheeks. "Um…thanks."
"You know," Marinette said, a smirk on her cheeks. "They still haven't announced the costume contest winners."
Alya groaned and Nino grinned, grabbing her by the hand firmly. "We'll go check that out. I'm…."
He paused, glancing between the two of them. "I'm sure you guys have some things to discuss now that everything is back to normal. We'll be in the gym, getting Alya's prize."
"Nino!"
Ignoring her protests, Nino dragged her out the door, letting it swing shut behind them, and Marinette turned to Adrien nervously, fingers tugging at the edge of her pig-tails. "So…"
Adrien ran a hand over the back of his neck, swallowing and glancing up at the ceiling. "So," he repeated with a weak chuckle.
"Would you two just kiss already?"
"Plagg!"
"What?"
Marinette's face resembled a tomato when Adrien finally looked her in the eyes, a blush covering his own cheeks as Tikki tried to shut Plagg up. "Um…sorry about him. He's...obnoxious."
"I am not!"
Marinette managed a chuckle, rubbing her hands up and down her arms and glancing away from Adrien's gaze. "I…thank you. You know, for…supporting me. Literally and metaphorically," she quipped halfheartedly.
"I meant it, you know."
She looked over at him to find that he had stepped closer, Adam's apple bobbing as he reached out and settled a hand lightly at the curve of her jaw. "M-meant w-what?" she stammered, heart hammering in her chest.
"You're strong."
He said it like it was a fact he had always known, something that would never be incorrect, and Marinette shrugged under his touch. "I couldn't do anything to help," she protested. "You figured out how to fix Tikki and Plagg, Alya actually fixed them, and Nino was there to support her the whole time."
"You had the worst luck out of all of us this time," Adrien said quietly, stepping still closer so that she had to tilt her face up to look at him. He pulled the fake fangs from his mouth before speaking again. "But you still managed to keep going, still stood your ground, still helped everyone out. You're the strongest person I know. Have I ever steered you wrong?"
She smiled at the repetition and shook her head. "All the time."
He chuckled and bent down. "Nah. And for once, Plagg's right."
"Hey!"
Ignoring the kwami, Adrien grinned. "I probably should kiss you."
Tikki clamped a hand over Plagg's mouth before he could make any kind of joke and they both grinned when the two heroes finally just shut up and kissed, Marinette's fingers tangling in Adrien's hair and Adrien's free hand sliding over her hip.
"Took long enough," Plagg muttered against Tikki's hand.
"Right?"
"Hey Nino?"
Nino turned away from the punch table and to Alya, who was holding a bouquet of roses in one hand and a gift card in the other, a tiny tiara on her head. "Yeah?"
"I'm…sorry. And thank you."
He frowned and set his punch down on the table, walking over to her and wrapping a tight arm around her shoulders. "Why?"
She ducked her head and frowned at the flowers in her hands. "I was such a jerk. And you were so patient. I'm sorry."
He shook his head and squeezed her tightly. "You couldn't help it. It was the akuma, not you Alya."
Seeing the look on her face, Nino grimaced and turned so that he was facing her. "You're not a jerk," he said, tugging a rose from the bouquet and studying it for a second before breaking the stem towards the top. "You're a beautiful human being who was under a spell that was really the only reason we're standing here right now having this conversation. You saved the day."
He tucked the flower over her ear and smiled gently, eyes glittering under his glasses.
When Marinette and Adrien walked in a minute later, hand in hand, they found Alya's winnings on the floor and Nino pulled up by the lapels of his jacket into a kiss that had made all the students nearby turn away.
"Geez, guys," Adrien teased. "PDA much?"
Alya flipped him off without ever letting up, only breaking the kiss when Nino started laughing at the exchange. "You wanna go, Agreste?"
Adrien wiggled his eyebrows. "On a double date?"
"Fucking hell, Adrien."
He chuckled and tugged Marinette closer, pressing a kiss to her temple and nodding to the dance floor. "There's still a half hour left of this thing," he reminded them. "You guys want to go dance?"
"I suck at dancing," Marinette protested.
"I don't! Come on!" Nino cheered, grabbing Marinette's hand and yanking her to the dance floor.
"Did your new boyfriend just steal my new girlfriend?" Adrien asked Alya incredulously.
The girl shook her head, laughing, and held out her hand. "Apparently. Want to go get them back?"
He grinned and took the hand with no hesitation, spinning the girl in a circle and leading her to join their laughing friends. "Absolutely."
Happy Halloween!
