A/N: Time for the wrap-up. To be clear, nobody knows who Azura is except for the heroes. Please don't be mad about the concluding Marinette ship. Thank you all for reading my little fic! Onwards and upwards!

Chapter 4: Epilogue

Chat turned into Hawk Moth for the last time to draw the akuma from Marinette's miraculous.

Ladybug purified it, and then did a random Lucky Charm so she could shout for the Miraculous Ladybug Swarm.

It swept over Marinette and when it cleared, her eyes were wide and alert and she was looking around the rooftop in confusion. Dusuu hugged her first, but then she was tackled by Vixenne and Chat and finally Ladybug.

She melted into the embrace even though she was still reeling from having her mind uninhibited for the first time in six months.

"Are you okay, Mari?" Chat asked when they all pull back.

"I'm not sure," she replied with a frown.

"What do you remember?" Ladybug asked.

"Everything, I think. It's just coming slowly," she replied. Her eyes blew wide and she gasped, "Gabriel Agreste is Hawk Moth. Oh, mon dieu, I was Hawk Moth's henchman. Oh, mon dieu, I kissed him."

She looked like she was about to throw up.

"I tried to kill you all. I got kidnapped. For days. He dressed me up like Mme. Agreste," she moaned. Her face brightened. "But I'm a miraculous holder! And I'm actually pretty good at it."

"You are," Ladybug agreed. "Which is why we'd like to ask you to join the team."

"What?"

"You'll have to navigate the bad press from your previous alliance with Hawk Moth, and his trial is going to be a nightmare, but yeah, we want you to be one of us," Vixenne confirmed.

"Is there anyone to fight now that Hawk Moth's gone?"

"There's always regular crime. And it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out for any new villains," Chat piped up.

"Okay. In that case, I would be thrilled to join the team. Lucky Quartet doesn't have the same ring to it as Lucky Trio, though," she joked.

"We'll manage," Vixenne trilled. "Now for proper introductions, though you actually already know us."

She dismissed her transformation and grinned at Marinette. "Alya Cesaire. Pleased to meet you, Azura. Looking forward to working with you, partner."

Ladybug was next. She beamed warmly. "Juleka Couffaine. Nice to make your acquaintance, Azura."

Chat went last, the Hawk Moth transformation leaving him as he smiled shyly at her. "Adrien Agreste, until I think of a better last name. I believe we've already met, Azura."

"Wow." Marinette looked at her assembled friends. "The Grand Guardian really needs to broaden his horizons from the Francois-Dupont collège."

They all laughed and Adrien grinned the biggest. "Man, it's good to have the old Marinette back."

"I couldn't agree more," she declared.

Adrien continued to stay at the Dupain-Chengs, and he was both a big help in the bakery (in customer service; he was hopeless at actual baking) and in supporting Marinette during his father's trial.

Her testimony was instrumental in charging him with all of the offenses he'd committed.

All costumed heroes were allowed to submit their testimony in the form of written statements or videos. The Ladyblog was responsible for filming these.

Marinette had a hard time looking Gabriel Agreste in the eye after what he'd done to her, but she was kinder than his own son, who would have distanced himself from everything Agreste if she hadn't convinced him to help Nathalie reshape and rebrand the company instead of destroying or selling it. He decided to rename it "Paonne Fashions" in her honor. She blushed when he announced the new name to the press with her and their other teammates standing to the side of the conference podium.

Gabriel Agreste was convicted of a lot of things, ranging from domestic terrorism to sexual harassment of a minor. Marinette had assured the court, face on fire, that she had been coerced to nothing beyond taking off her top and kissing while under the akuma's influence. Adrien had white-knuckled the back of the bench in front of him, fighting not to leap across the low wooden wall and punch his father across the jaw.

Adrien never spoke to his father again until years later when Marinette convinced him to go visit him in prison if she went with him. They became much closer friends over their years as teammates in fighting crime.

The butterfly miraculous was sent back to the Grand Guardian to be locked in a box until a new wielder was needed.

Marinette and Alya slowly fell in love over the course of years of close partnership, and Alya never let Marinette hear the end of her having a Vixenne poster in her room even while she was still being mind-controlled.

They had a double wedding with Rose and Juleka, and Adrien was the man of honor for both Alya and Marinette. A cousin of Rose's was her maid of honor. He continued to admire Marinette even after she was a married woman, as a friend and excellent vigilante.

Crime in Paris was all but eliminated once the Lucky Quartet got on the case, and though some police resented the intrusion, most were grateful for the help.

Marinette attended some counselling for her time as Azura under Hawk Moth's control, but she mostly worked it out be talking to her teammates. It took time and patience to sort out what had been her and what had been Gabriel's control.

She was surprised that the public took to her so well after her part in terrorizing them, willing or not. But all of the akuma victims remembered how she had checked on them and had made sure that they were taken care of them after they were de-akumatized. They had vouched for her, and she had been accepted as one of the good guys fairly quickly.

Dusuu had apologized for helping keep her under, and she had forgiven him. Loyalty to someone as long as his had been for Gabriel Agreste was hard to break, even for mystical energy beings.

There were still times she caught herself missing Gabriel and reminding herself of all the reasons she shouldn't. There were still times she woke up from nightmares with the fog of those six months curling at the edges of her consciousness. There were still times when she would stand at the sink waiting for a telepathic message. There were still times when she thought she saw Hawk Moth or her own dark, feral persona in the corner of her eye. There were still times when certain sights or sounds would trigger a memory that triggered a panic attack.

But then she would remind herself of Gabriel's positive points and how much she cared about his son. Then Alya would wrap her arms around her and sing her back to sleep. Then her parents would call her to help frost the cupcakes. Then she would blink away the specters from the past and Juleka and Rose would guide her down the hall to the next exhibit in the Louvre. Then Adrien would steady her and talk her through her breathing exercises.

No matter how the past traumas tried to haunt her, her friends and family were there to banish them.

She had taken back the name of Azura and had taken back control over her life and her actions.

Marinette was Alya's, and her parents', and Adrien's, and Juleka's, but first, she belonged to herself.