Marinette awoke with a start. What had happened? Where was she? How-
Gabriel! She remembered, shaking her head to clear the fog. She'd been kidnapped. Her earrings, Tikki, both gone. But where was she now? And why was her head pounding? He'd knocked her unconscious. She vaguely remembered Gabriel pushing her through the window and knocking her head against the brick when she had fought back. So where had he taken her? Picking her head up and looking around, Marinette found herself trapped, handcuffed to a chair in the middle of an open room. It was dark, but she could tell it had to be a warehouse or abandoned building of some kind; the walls were streaked with cracks and the floor was fairly damaged, something that had come with age and neglect. Marinette tried an experimental tug of her arms and groaned when the handcuffs proved to be both locked and just tight enough to keep her from slipping through.
"Well well well, look who's finally awake!" Lila's sickeningly sweet voice cooed as she strolled through a doorway, Gabriel following right behind her like an overeager puppy. "Let's see what we're working with." The lights were flicked on and Marinette squinted against the sudden harsh light. "Are you kidding me?" Lila swore, marching forward and grabbing at Marinette's face. "Her earrings are gone. What did you do with them?"
"What?" Gabriel stepped forward and growled in frustration. "I didn't touch them. She must have hid them."
"Hid them? While she was handcuffed?" Lila let go of Marinette's face with a huff and Gabriel hurried to defend himself.
"Before that! Before I brought her here! She's clever. Must of known I was coming."
"And you failed to notice they were missing until after bringing her all the way here? You're a failure, Gabriel." Lila raised a gun that had been previously settled on her hip and Marinette's eyes widened in shock.
"I'll find them! I'll find them!" Gabriel promised, arms raised as he backed away. "Give me an army. We'll search all of Paris!"
"And why should I believe that would be a good use of my resources and time? You've done nothing but fail me! You don't even know where they are!"
"But I can find them! I found out what room she was in, didn't I?" Gabriel turned at Marinette's scoff of annoyance. "Shut it, kid."
"The hotel clerks have a reputation for being terrible gossips, so I don't see how that proves anything."
"But I know what room she was in. I'll search there."
"You think I couldn't do that myself?"
"Please, Lila, I-"
Gabriel Agreste fell to the floor, a gunshot to his chest, and Lila turned to her hostage as the girl struggled against her cuffs.
"Where are your miraculous?" Lila demanded, stalking forward.
"I don't know!" Marinette cringed backwards as Lila's hand made contact with her cheek. "I don't! They were gone when I woke up!"
"I'll ask you one more time. Where are the miraculous?" Lila demanded again, hand fisting in Marinette's shirt and pulling her forward. "Do you want to end up like him?" Lila nodded to Gabriel's body with a smirk. "That's where you're headed if you don't speak up."
"You're insane." Marinette spat, causing Lila to back away in disgust. "You've gone off the rails, Lila. This isn't even about the miraculous anymore, you're-"
"I want revenge. On you. On your friends. On this whole city. You made my life miserable in lycee. And I thought it was ladybug. All that time in college and lycee I went easy on you, because I thought you were two different people. But now..now.. you're a murderer, Marinette. And you thought me lying was bad-"
"I'm not a murderer! I acted in self defense! Lila, please, I don't have my miraculous. I don't know where it is." Suddenly an idea came to Marinette and she hummed quietly. "I guess it's a possibility that..no..couldn't be."
"What? Speak up! What are you saying?"
"It's probably nothing." Marinette managed to lean forward just a bit, her chair tipping slightly.
"Tell me or I'll shoot." Lila threatened, hand tightening in her weapon.
"Well, Gabriel did reveal my identity yesterday. The Guardians could have confiscated my miraculous in my sleep."
"I thought Ladybug- that you were the guardian." Lila raised an eyebrow, skeptically processing Marinette's words.
"Oh I am. Of the Chinese miracle box. But there are lots of miraculous in the world. Lots of different boxes. Sure, I'm the guardian of this box, but my power can't even compare to the League of Guardians. They really do value their secrets and well, I can't blame them if they decided to rid me of my miraculous after I was exposed. Those are the rules, you know." Marinette leaned forward a bit more, on her tiptoes now, thanking the kwamis that Lila was too distracted to notice.
"Where would I find them?"
"Oh. Mmmm. My best bet? Tibet."
The pain hit almost before the sound as Lila struck Marinette across the face once more.
"Stop lying to me!"
"I'm not!" Marinette promised. "Didn't you hear? Gabriel took a trip to Tibet. That's where he found the butterfly and peacock in the first place. You could have asked him if…well, you know." Marinette motioned to the body on the floor and Lila gave Marinette a hard shake.
"Stop playing with me, Marinette. You're not getting out of this."
"My team will come for me, Lila. You can count on that. And until they do, I'm going to make sure you regret every thing you've ever done." Suddenly, with her feet under her, Marinette lurched forward, launching her and the chair off the ground just enough to slam into Lila and take her to the floor. Lila struggled under the weight of the chair and Marinette hurried to move just so, causing Lila's arms to get tangled between the chair, Marinette's arms and the chain of the handcuffs.
"What are you doing, idiot?" Lila demanded. "You're not going to break out like this! Now we're both stuck!"
"I don't need to break free." Marinette smiled victoriously as she tugged at the cuffs again, forcing Lila to move closer. "I just need to keep my enemies close.." Marinette leaned back and locked her teeth onto the broach on Lila's chest.
"Hey! Don't do that!" Lila tried furiously to untangle her hands from the chains as Marinette pulled the broach free and dropped it into her lap.
"And my kwamis closer!" Marinette yelled as the kwami appeared, looking around in confusion. "Nooroo, dark wings rise!"
———
Chat Noir ran across rooftops, searching high and low for any sign of Lila or her gang. The voices of his teammates rang in his ears as they cleared sections of Paris, slowly creating a loop around the city as they worked to find their missing leader.
"Section twenty seven clear." Chat spoke, stopping suddenly when he noticed something pink out of the corner of his eye. "Wait..wait a moment." Chat stepped closer and the object moved closer, slowly coming into focus.
"Chat?" Rena asked over comms. "Did you find something?"
"It's a pink butterfly…an Akuma." He took a step back, afraid to be akumatized, but instead of pursuing the butterfly waited, watching him carefully.
"Shit! Should have known Lila would try something like this." Nino cursed. "Making my way to ya for back up dude."
Slowly, Adrien reached out for the butterfly. Surely he could resist Lila if he tried, and at the very least maybe she would slip and give him a clue-
"Kitty Noir." The voice echoed in his mind the second the butterfly made contact with his hand. "I am Chrysalis. I can amplify the powers you've already come to know. All you have to do is find me and take down Lila once and for all."
"Yes, Chrysalis." Chat Noir was overtaken by pink bubbles and instantly he could tell the difference. His costume hadn't changed a bit, but he felt stronger, more aware, faster. And suddenly there was a voice in the back of his head telling him to run, telling him where to go, leading him to Marinette.
"Uh guys!" Carapace called over his headset. "Chat Noir was just akumatized!"
———
Team Miraculous followed Chat Noir, quickly falling behind.
"He's so fast! I can't keep up!" Carapace hollered, barely missing a loose pipe as he jumped to a different roof.
"Do you think Lila's akumatized him to fight Marinette?" Rena worried, just a couple steps behind her husband.
"If that is the case then we must not let him win!" Madre Orso took a particularly big leap and landed in front of Carapace before darting ahead.
"But we can't be sure that's what's happening!" Polymouse reminded as they ran. "It's better not to engage."
"What if it's Marinette?" Sabine, now Lady Beetle, asked. "She could have gotten the butterfly miraculous!"
"But if she had the miraculous, wouldn't she just come to us?" Tom, now PureBread, asked.
"Unless she was injured or otherwise compromised." Queen Bee frowned. "Come on Marinette." She whispered to herself. "There's no way you're not okay."
———
"Help! Help you idiots!" Lila called, summoning a horde of her goons. They streamed through the door and looked for a way to help, immediately going for the chains. Marinette began to squirm and kick and throw her body around, making it as difficult as possible as Lila fought back, making it impossible for her goons to lay a hand on the chains that bound them. "Take the miraculous off her!" Lila screamed as Marinette gathered her courage, slinging herself forward and landing face first on the concrete, the chair and Lila on her back. Shifting slowly as the goons worked to right them, Marinette moved the broach ever so carefully down her body and into the waistband of her pants, just in time to be lifted back up and searched.
"I don't see the miraculous. She doesn't have it."
"Are you fucking blind?" Lila screeched, trying to turn around and look for herself, only managing to twist their chains tighter and send the chair falling to the ground again. "She's transformed you imbeciles! She has to be wearing it somewhere!"
"And you're never going to find out where." A snarl cut through the air and Lila turned, eyes wide in panic at the sight of Chat Noir.
"Get him!" She yelled, frantically kicking her feet to try and escape as Chat easily beat back the goons with his staff. "Undo these!" She squealed to a nearby goon who quickly whipped out a pin and undid the lock, letting both girls free. Chat hurried toward Lila but stopped when Marinette's transformation suddenly wore off, leaving her slumped over in her chair.
"Shit! Marinette!" Chat Noir ran forward and took her into his arms just as the rest of Team Miraculous entered the building. Lady Beetle and PureBread ran to Marinette, pulling her and Chat both up into their arms as they cooed over their daughter.
"She's gone!" Pegasus cursed, coming up beside them. "Anyone have a visual on Lila?"
When the rest of the team answered with various forms of 'no' Pegasus fled the room, followed by the rest of the team, minus Marinette, her parents and Chat Noir.
"We'll see if we can find her. She can't have gone far!" Carapace promised.
"M'lady." Chat whispered to Marinette who groaned.
"I'm so tired." She complained, looking up at him with a small smile. "I knew you'd find me."
"Couldn't have done it without you. How'd you get the butterfly?"
"With my teeth." Marinette smiled, turning to the two new heroes. "Maman? Papa?"
"How'd you guess?" Tom laughed. "I'm going to join them searching for Lila. I'm so glad you're safe." He kissed Marinette's head then followed the others out of the building.
"We should go too." Chat prompted his partner, tail flicking around anxiously behind him.
"Oh, yes! Here! Tikki, Spots off!" Sabine hurriedly returned the ladybug kwami to her holder, pulling a cookie out of her pocket and passing it along with the tiny god. "I'll make my way home. I'm sure you all will be hungry when this is over. I'll get dinner started." Sabine offered, stepping away and turning to leave.
"Wait! Maman! I um..I have someone who could really benefit from a quiet night in the kitchen…if you don't mind." Marinette held up the shivering little kwami, gently handing him over to her mother who lovingly stroked the tiny being's head. "This is Nooroo. Take this." Marinette handed over the butterfly miraculous. "Stay safe. Nooroo," Marinette addressed the kwami. "My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Ladybug. I'm giving you to my mother. You're safe now, okay?"
"Y-yes Guardian."
"Ready?" Chat asked, holding out a hand for his partner.
"As I'll ever be. We end this tonight." Marinette promised, placing both of her earrings back onto her ears. "Tikki! Spots on!"