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Paon and Renarde AU
"Volpina" Rewrite

Chapter 2: Woman Scorned

"This will do, I guess," Chloe said as she took the small paper from Sabrina the next morning. After leaving the park yesterday, Sabrina had come up with the idea of getting a copy of Lila's receipt from the jewelry store for Chloe. She sighed in relief as she slipped behind a stairwell, watching her friend walk over to Adrien, Marinette, Alya, and Lila.

"Oh hey, Adrikins!" Chloe turned to the girls. "Marinette, Alya,-and Lila! Nice to meet you. Is it true that Paon saved your life?"

Lila smiled. "Of course! It was right before I left Italy. He saved me from a tama victim who was angry I beat him in a classical instruments competition."

"Oh, really?" Chloe crossed her arms. "Then how come the news stations in Italy haven't covered it at all?"

Alya and Adrien flinched. Sabrina smiled. Chloe had Lila there!

But Lila was unfazed. "That's because the government put a temporary hold on reporting it. They didn't want to raise a panic about tama attacks spreading outside of France. I had just gotten clearance to talk about it yesterday."

Sabrina gripped the banister tightly. Man, she was good! But it wasn't over yet.

"If you say so," Chloe replied, "But I heard from a little birdie that you're a superhero like Paon?"

Everyone-sans Chloe, Sabrina, Lila, and Adrien-gasped.

Lila glanced around nervously, but her voice was confident as she answered, "Well…yes. I inherited Volpina's necklace from my grandmother. But that was supposed to be a secret." She glanced at Adrien, who shook his head furiously. "I can't have Queen Bee coming after me, after all."

"You mean this necklace?" Chloe jabbed at the pendant. "The one you bought yesterday?" She shoved the receipt in Lila's face.

"Where did you get that?" Lila snapped.

"Wait, you mean you're not the descendant of a superhero?" Adrien asked.

"And Paon didn't save you?" Alya crossed her arms as she glared at Lila.

"Nope!" Chloe said, "It was all a lie! And this-" She snatched the necklace from Lila's neck, "Isn't some superhero charm. Just a cheap trinket!" Chloe threw it on the ground and stepped on it, cracking its surface.

Sabrina gasped. This-this wasn't supposed to happen! Chloe was just supposed to expose Lila, not…not…

Amidst the whispers of her peers, Lila bent down, gingerly picking up the broken necklace. She looked up at Chloe, who sneered, then ran off, crying.

"Chloe!" Adrien shouted.

"What's wrong with you?" Alya snapped.

"That was completely uncalled for!" Marinette cried.

But Sabrina wasn't paying the four of them attention anymore, eyes on the front doors the sobbing Lila had run through. Her stomach twisted.

This wasn't supposed to happen at all.

0000

In an unknown location in Paris, a woman dressed in yellow and black tended to the spirits around her. She jolted as she sensed the aura of a potential victim. As if on cue, the dome of her attic opened up to reveal the Parisian skyline.

"Jealousy, deceit, and the desire to be a superhero? How delicious." A spirit floated to her. "She reminds me of you, my sweet. All you'd ever wanted in life was attention, but no one ever gave it to you, did they? Not even as you lay dying." She tsked. "But perhaps you could save this poor girl from a similar fate, hmm?"

The woman stretched out her hand. The spirit landed on her palm, where it floated bright yellow and turned into a bee. "Fly away, my precious worker bee and transform her," she said as she released it into the city.

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Lila collapsed to her knees in front of a pole in a random street, catching her breath. She'd been running aimlessly for who knew how long, eyes too blurry with tears to see where she was going. Now, she was lost. But she didn't care. How was she supposed to go back to school, anyway? No one would like her after what Chloe did.

Especially not Adrien.

Lila clenched her fists. Damn that Chloe Bourgeois…damn her! If only she could get her back; if only she were a real superhero…

Distracted by her anger and tears, Lila didn't notice the bee-like spirit that flew into her necklace.

"Oh, you poor, poor dear," a feminine voice soothed, "My name is Queen Bee, and I will gladly grant you the power you seek. The spirit I've just sent has offered to give you the power of illusion and stealth. All I ask in return is that you give me Paon's miraculous.

"Do we have a deal…Volpina?"

"Yes, your Majesty." Lila smiled as she was bathed in a yellow light.

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"Um…did you…did you really need to break Lila's necklace to prove she was a fake?"

Sabrina had been mulling over the best way to phrase this question all day-when she hadn't been drowning in guilt, that was. Sure, she'd wanted Lila taken down a peg or two after she lied about being the fox holder and insulted Paon, but she couldn't help but feel that Chloe had gone too far.

Chloe, who was attending a meeting between her father and the mayor of Rome, stopped digging through the closet. She scoffed as she turned to Sabrina. "Of course I did, Sabrina. I want everyone to be sure that Lila's nothing but a filthy liar. I can't have Adrien running around with a fraud, can I?"

"No…" Sabrina mumbled. "But that necklace was pretty expensive…"

"Oh, please!" Sabrina flinched. Chloe wasn't supposed to have heard that last part. "I could buy ten of those things if I wanted." Chloe tossed another dress away.

Of course she could, but 89 Euros was a lot of money for everybody else.

…which made Sabrina feel even worse about what had happened. Great. If only there was some way to fix this-

People outside screamed.

"What's going on? I can't concentrate with all those people screaming!" Chloe yelled.

Sabrina ran to the window to find a giant meteor hurtling towards Paris.

0000

Any artist worth their salt knew to study the greats, and Nathanaël made it a point to visit the Louvre often. But unlike previous visits, he found it impossible to enjoy himself.

His pencil snapped against his notebook. "Ugh! Why can't I just let it go?"

Duusu poked his head from Nathanaël's bag. "Lila's words were very hurtful, so you have every right to be upset about them, especially since they aren't true. You've purified every spirit we've encountered so far and should be proud."

"I…I guess." Sure, he'd purified every spirit, but not before screwing up each time. "But she's my partner and for her to think so little of me…" Was she really his partner, though? Nathanaël hadn't been in the courtyard when Chloe had exposed Lila's lies, but the gossip he'd overheard in the aftermath told him that Chloe had broken Lila's necklace. Which meant it couldn't be a miraculous because miraculouses where infused with magic or something like that, according to Duusu. But Duusu had also said he'd sensed a kwami next to Lila yesterday...wait, hadn't Sabrina also been there-

Nathanaël blinked. Wait, what about the park?

"Oh my God!"

Nathanaël turned to the source of the scream, a woman pointing at the window, where a meteor was hurtling towards the museum. Screaming, people fled the building, shoving past a frozen Nathanaël.

"You've got to be kidding me," he whispered. He could barely take down a person. How was he supposed to take down a meteor?

Duusu flew out of his bag. "You need to transform! Now!"

"But-but I can't!" There was no way he could stop this.

Duusu grabbed his cheeks, tears forming in the kwami's eyes. "You have to! If you don't, the meteor will destroy the city!"

Just no way-

"Please! You're the only one who stands a chance against it!"

Nathanaël shook his head. Duusu was right; he really was the only one. "Duusu, Feathers Spread!"

Duusu was sucked into his brooch, which turned blue and green. A dark blue mask cast over Nathanaël's eyes. His clothes transformed into a navy bodysuit with light blue gloves and boots, accompanied by a three-feathered tail. Red circles with black centers formed at his wrists and at the top of the boots, completing the look.

He ran to the roof, avoiding direct eye contact with the meteor as he thought. His fans wouldn't even scratch the thing, but maybe his Aria-

An orange, white, and brown figure flashed past the corner of his eye, then hurled the meteor further into the sky, where it turned into dust.

What?

The figure landed on a nearby building, then walked forward to face the gathering crowd below. Its-no, her-long, brown hair flowed in the wind as she declared, "I am Volpina, the only superhero Paris needs!"

0000

"What?!" Sabrina and Chloe shrieked. After the meteor had vanished, Chloe had flipped on her TV, where Lila stood dressed in an orange and white bodysuit, the caption 'Paris's Newest Hero?!' written below.

"That's impossible!" Chloe screamed, "You gave me the receipt! I broke that cheap necklace! There's no way she's a hero!"

Sabrina knew it was impossible, which meant only one thing. Mumbling that she needed to use the bathroom, she ran out of Chloe's room and into the nearest closet, Trixx in hand.

"Y'know, this whole 'everyone thinks Lila's the real fox hero' could've been completely avoided if you'd just shown up sooner," Trixx admonished.

"Trixx, now is not the time to gloat." She was right, of course. And as much as Sabrina hated the idea of having to fight, of potentially screwing things up, she knew she had no choice. She couldn't risk Paon getting tricked out of his miraculous and Paris falling to Queen Bee. He and her dad worked too hard protecting the city for that. She took a deep breath.

"Trixx, Tail Out!"

0000

"Lila?" Nathanaël gasped. She really was the fox heroine. So those rumors about her miraculous being broken must've been wrong. But that didn't explain why the meteor just disintegrated…

Lila-Volpina-spotted him. Smiling, she leapt from the building and landed before him. "Nice to finally meet you, Paon." She held out her hand.

"Same here." Nathanaël shook it, teeth clenched as he smiled back. Did she really think that he hadn't heard what she'd said back there?

"I'm sorry I haven't been around to help. I came from abroad-" Volpina froze, gaping as she stared past Nathanaël.

"What? What's wrong?" He turned around to find a woman dressed in yellow and black, her face partially obscured by a black mask. She vanished.

"My grandmother warned me about her! That woman is Queen Bee!"

Nathanaël's heart hit his chest. "She's the one-?"

"Yes! And she's getting away! You go left, and I'll go right. Whoever finds her first calls the other."

"O-okay!" Nathanaël leapt over roofs as he looked around for Queen Bee. Why had she chosen to show up now? Was it because now there were two of them?

"Oof!"

He crashed into someone, knocking them both down. Rubbing his forehead, he groaned, "I'm sorry. I…"

The orange-haired girl across from him wore a similar costume to Volpina's. But where Volpina's gloves stretched past her elbows, the girl's cut off at her wrists. Her ears were smaller and her 'tail' fluffier, as well. Plus, her boots reached her knees, while Volpina's stopped mid-calf. The green eyes above her black mask widened.

"I am so, so sorry!" she cried. She pulled Nathanaël to his feet as she got up. "I didn't mean to knock you down! I didn't mean to ditch battles, either! I was just so scared of messing up and-"

The girl rambled on as Nathanaël tried to translate what she said. "Wait, wait, wait. You're supposed to be Volpina?"

"I knew there had to be a better name than Renarde," the girl-Renarde-huffed, "But of course she takes it…"

Nathanaël rubbed his chin. "So, if you're the real fox heroine, then Li-Volpina must've fallen victim to one of Queen Bee's spirits." That would explain the meteor and Queen Bee's sudden 'appearance'. Just to be sure… "Renarde, what are your abilities?"

"I can shapeshift, turn invisible, and create illusions."

Yup, definitely explained the meteor and Queen Bee. "Okay, we need to track Volpina down and destroy the thing the spirit's hiding in. It's the only way to stop her."

Renarde nodded. "Right. So, I'll go left and you go right? O-or what do you want to do?"

Nathanaël put a hand on her shoulder. "Your plan sounds fine. If you find her first, call me on your…your…" Where was her weapon?

Renarde removed her tail, which transformed into a whip, its handle sliding up to reveal a screen.

"On that."

"Got it!" Renarde snapped her whip, which wrapped around a chimney, and swung away. Nathanaël took off in the opposite direction, smiling.

He'd only spoken with Renarde for five minutes, and already she was proving to be a much better partner than 'Volpina'.

0000

While I was doing research on animal and insect symbolism for this AU, I discovered that ancient Greeks associated the bee with the underworld, which sounded so cool that I knew I needed to make Queen Bee's powers related to death and spirits. Under normal circumstances, the bee's miraculous's dominant abilities have nothing to do with the dead, but when corrupted by a wicked user…

Queen Bee's supernatural abilities made even more sense when I found out that the peacock is associated with immortality. Life and death? Immortality and the afterlife? What a perfect balance!

As for why Nathanaël's mind 'blanks' while thinking about the park the other day, in this AU, kwamis immediately cast glamours over their users' identities to ensure that their identities cannot be discovered. Whenever someone gets close to uncovering a user's identity without that user's consent, their mind blanks.

Terminology:
-Paon's "Aria" = allows the user to sing a song that has a different melody and different effect each time. Aria is always beneficial to the user, but its unpredictability makes it hard to form a strategy around it.

Other Notes:

-89 Euros = $99

As always, thanks for reading!

twilightwrites
10/13/16