Chapter 7: Miraculous Days of Future Past

From a distant memory of a time that once was, and from a high perch atop the famous Eiffel Tower of Paris, Marinette stood—transformed as Ladybug—watching over a city that was basking in the golden light of the morning sun. She felt like she was at the top of the world, able looking upon it in all its glory and there was nothing that could stop her. This sense of elation was not entirely random; today was a very big day. However, it wasn't a day of celebration nor day of joy. No, she and her partner had a very serious ordeal coming and she had begun to wonder why her kitty cat was late.

"My Lady, it looks like you're on top of things already."

Ladybug nearly jumped. Chat Noir was getting increasingly better at sneaking up on her and this time, he completely managed to catch her unawares. "Chat, you're late!"

The black cat rubbed the back of his head, ruffing up his blond hair in the process. His silly grin disappeared, quickly turning into lip-biting. "Yeah…"

"Just a plain old 'yeah'? No witty come back this time?"

"Well…" He continued to mess up his hair.

"Chat, what's wrong? You're not having second thoughts, are you?" Ladybug leaned forward to take a closer look at her partner. Something was definitely wrong with him. She knew that today was a very important day for them both, so some amount of nervousness was completely expected. This though—this was different.

He averted his gaze and spoke in a soft tone. "It's nothing."

Ladybug pinched her partner's chin and pulled his attention back to her. "Chat, we're going up against Hawk Moth today. I need you to have my back a full one hundred and ten percent, so if you're starting to have doubts, now is the time to come clean. Please."

"I—It's really nothing, My Lady. Just…" His dreamy green eyes were still shying away from her. For some reason he could not face her eye-to-eye. "It's just shocking, you know. After all this while, after every battle that we've been through together, it has finally come to this day. We may finally know the person behind Hawk Moth's mask. It's so exciting, yet terribly frightening at the same time. I'm just not sure if I could face him."

"Well, you're not facing him alone," Ladybug said. "We're facing him together."

"Yeah, but have you ever thought, what if we knew Hawk Moth in person. What if his civilian self was completely different from his mask?"

She wasn't sure where he was going with this, but she could clearly tell that he was somewhat troubled by Hawk Moth's identity. Perhaps after fighting for so long, after getting to know so many new people and making new friends, he feared that he had to fight someone he knew? Ladybug knew that feeling too, but she had already faced her demons a long time ago. She had fought her best friend. She had bested a little child whom she babysit regularly. She faced her uncle in hand-to-hand combat. Hawk Moth should be no different from the others. "Honestly, I didn't think that far. But either way, this is Hawk Moth we're dealing with. Even if I knew this man in person, I would still take him down with no quarter given."

Chat Noir offered a weak smile. "That's the Ladybug that I know." He also whispered softly under his breath, "and love."

"What was that?"

"Yeah, let's get this over with."

Ladybug reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Chat, are you sure? We can postpone if you don't think you're up to it."

"N-No! It's the day we've been waiting for all this time! We can't just let an opportunity like this pass us by. Even if it was just pure luck that you were at the right time and the right place to spot the Akuma leaving his lair, but if we don't do this today, who knows if Hawk Moth might grow suspicious and relocate and we'll never get this chance again and he'd grow smarter and hide his tracks better so we'll never get the same opportunity again and—and I'm just babbling now, aren't I?" Without waiting for her to respond, he turned to watch the rising sun. His stance was different now; his chin was raised, his shoulders held back and his chest thrust out. In that instant, he seemed to cast aside all sense of doubt and stood tall over the city. He tilted his head back and smiled at her. "If we don't do this now, we may never get the same chance again."

"You're right, Chat," she said. She held out her fist to him. "Well, good luck to us then."

Chat Noir returned the fist-bump and together, they leapt off the Eiffel Tower and made their way towards the observatory where Hawk Moth was believed to be operating from.

Getting to the observatory was the easy part. In fact, breaking inside after spotting the masked man in purple coat standing in a field of white butterflies proved simple enough. Problems arose once they had confronted the supervillain in earnest, though.

"Ladybug, Chat Noir. How nice of you to drop in," he said with his back against them. He spun around and shifted his weight, resting on the jewel-encrusted walking stick by his side. He wore a confident and smug grin on his face. "Would you care to leave your Miraculouses behind?"

"Not a chance, Hawk Moth." Ladybug began spinning her yo-yo in circles while Chat Noir extended his baton into a staff. "Today, you're going down and we're the ones who will be taking your Miraculous!"

"You, take my Miraculous?" Hawk Moth cackled with laughter. He laughed so hard, Ladybug wondered if it was a good time to sneak in a shot and take him by surprise. On the other hand, it could just be a lure and he was baiting them to make the first mistake. The standoff did not last long though; in the end, the supervillain finally composed himself to speak again. "Let me tell you some cold, hard truths, Ladybug. I know for a fact that the both of you will be unable to fight me."

"Tall words, Hawk Moth. But can you back them up?" Ladybug said. She threw a quick glance at her partner, who remained silent all this while. Maybe he was still being very nervous about this. She hoped that he would still be able to put his all into this; she couldn't afford to have him be distracted in the middle of the most important fight of their lives.

"Of course I can. I know for a fact that you both are heroes. That means you would put down your very lives to protect the people of Paris."

Ladybug narrowed her eyes. "What have you done?"

The supervillain bared his teeth, his smile both wide and mocking. "Nothing… yet."

"Then let's get him!" Chat Noir suddenly spoke. He launched himself at the supervillain, only to quickly double back as a swarm of white butterflies flew into his face. Remaining undeterred, he began circling to the right while Ladybug approached from the left. They had planned to flank him from both sides. No matter how skilled a fighter he was, it should be nearly impossible to put up a good defence on both side simultaneously—or at least that was how Chat Noir had explained during their preliminary tactics discussion. He was the skilled fencer, after all, and Ladybug trusted him on this.

Hawk Moth raised his walking stick, pointing the long cane towards the broken glass where Ladybug and Chat Noir had made their entrance. A wave of darkness suddenly engulfed the man. White butterflies turned dark amid the swirling vortex of wings that surrounded the supervillain. The swarm became a raging torrent and then, as quickly it had begun, the darkness had dissipated. By the time Ladybug had realised just what really happened, it was already too late. The flock of Akumas had already left the building, spreading their tainted wings as they made their way across the skies of Paris. They would blot out the sky and bring about a new twilight upon the City of Lights.

"Hawk Moth!" she shouted in vain.

The supervillain smiled. "Now you have to decide what's more important to you. Fight me here and you forsake your beloved Parisians to my evil Akumas. Or be the heroes you claim to be and sacrifice yourselves for the sake of the peoples of Paris."

Ladybug's eyes widened. This was not part of the plan. This was never on the table. They were to fight Hawk Moth and beat him, not deal with this complication. Besides, she had never seen him command more than one Akuma at the same time. An entire flock spreading all over Paris? That set a very frightening precedence. Either he was a lot stronger than they had anticipated, or this was just all a ruse to distract them. "How did you manage to do something like that?"

"It wasn't easy," the supervillain said. His smile was so full of it.

"That just means that we need to beat you quickly. Once we take your Miraculous, your evil spell over the city will be over."

Hawk Moth simply laughed at her. His sheer confidence was like a reinforced steel wall that metaphorically separated the both of them. "So you think you can beat me so easily? Know that the more you talk, the busier my evil Akumas will get and soon, all of Paris will be in a crisis that you have started."

"No. We'll beat you and end this once and for all. There—there must be a catch. Maybe your transformation will drop after five minutes," Ladybug said. She only had her own experience to draw on. If Lucky Charm and Cataclysm had a depowering timer, what are the chances that Hawk Moth had a similar limitation? "You can't just expend so much power without consequences."

"You're welcome to wait and see," the supervillain said with a chuckle. "There is just so much that you don't know about your Miraculouses, isn't there?"

Ladybug gripped the string of her yo-yo tightly and spun it faster. "Bring it on then!"

"Ladybug, I don't think this is a good idea," Chat Noir said. "The people are more important than this man over here. We have to get going before people get hurt!"

"But Chat—"

Her partner was already beginning to move towards the exit. "Ladybug, we need to go before everything gets worse!"

Despite her wanting to protest, she knew that partner was right; the priority had to be on the innocent civilians and the more time they wasted, the more people would get hurt. She was very reluctant to let go of this opportunity but she knew her place. She knew her duty. She remembered her promise to the people on that day when she fought Stoneheart and saved the mayor's daughter in front of the Eiffel Tower. Ladybug scowled at the supervillain. "Once this is over, I'm coming back to wipe that smug grin off your face!"

"Take you time, foolish girl. I shall be waiting—if you're still alive by then." Hawk Moth was still laughing like a madman as Chat Noir and Ladybug left through the same window opening in which they had arrived from.

The streets of Paris were already in chaos by the time Ladybug and Chat Noir descended upon their first supervillain. They quickly fought to subdue the large, muscular and golden-skinned man carrying a pair of dumbbells who was terrorising the local gym. Chat Noir crushed the man's weightlifting tools with his baton while Ladybug caught the escaping Akuma with her yo-yo. Without wasting time to celebrate their first victory, they hurried on to the next victim without hesitation. A man of leaves who commanded the wind and nature was next, an environmentalist who was scorned by some large corporation or other. In quick rapid succession, the superheroic duo subdued the man and then went on to take down a fiery dancer and a cold mistress of water and ice afterwards.

If there were bards and minstrels to sing songs and write poems of their heroics, today would be the day when the miraculous tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir would be the greatest story ever told. In less than an hour, Ladybug and Chat Noir had defeated nearly a dozen supervillains. However, the city was still under siege. There were still scores of Akumas fluttering about, seeking and latching on to citizens at a seemingly random manner and turning them into powerful supervillains hell-bent on only one thing: to obtain Ladybug's earrings and Chat Noir's ring.

By the two hour mark, the superheroes of Paris had defeated nearly two dozen of these powerful beings with no end in sight. They had been fighting continuously without the advantage of their special powers and they grew weary with each new enemy that they faced. They knew that if they resorted to their powers, they would have to waste precious time to let their respective kwamis recover afterwards. And so they continued to fight, intentionally handicapping themselves, risking more than ever as they put down dangerous supervillains in their war path.

Eventually they met a famous hunter mocked for what may have been a recent spate of fiascoes and failures. Now that very hunter had taken the form of one enormous crocodile with razor-sharp spines jutting out from its back, proclaiming a great hunt throughout the city of Paris. Unsurprisingly, Ladybug and Chat Noir was its prey. The Crocopine would snap at the heroes with its enormous teeth and swipe with its powerful tail. When they tried to stay out of its reach, it hurled spines as long as javelins at them.

"Where the hell is the Akuma hiding?" Ladybug dodged another barrage of spines as she swung in circles around the Crocopine. "I don't see a single thing on its body!"

"I don't know, maybe there's a clock inside its belly?" Chat Noir twirled his baton to form a make-shift shield, blocking another dozen or so spikes coming his way.

"I wish." Ladybug back-flipped over a large garbage bin and ducked behind it. She rested her back against its wavy metal exterior and exhaled. Sneaking a peek around the corner, she spotted the Crocopine lurking close by, its head turning from side to side as its eyes scanned the streets for its prey.

Chat Noir dropped down to her side from above. "Maybe you can try to use your Lucky Charm."

"You know I can't, Chat. If I do—"

"I know, but I can cover for you while you let your kwami eat… well, whatever your kwami eats. There's still a lot of cat left in me." The black cat pounded on his chest as a gesture of strength.

The garbage bin was suddenly flung aside, smashing into the nearby wall and crumpling like a soda can with a most sickening crunch. The guttural growl that followed was the cue for Ladybug and Chat Noir to take off before a large tail swept across their hiding spot. Ladybug dodged and launched herself towards the rooftops while her feline partner vaulted after her, whirling around only to deflect another dozen or so missiles that were flung in their direction.

"We're running out of options, Ladybug. If you won't use your Lucky Charm, maybe I can find some use for my Cataclysm instead."

"No Chat, don't." Ladybug threw her yo-yo skyward to unleash her magical power. "Lucky Charm!"

A long and slender red fishing rod materialised overhead and dropped onto her open arms. She stared at the implement with a puzzled look. "What am I supposed to fish with this?"

The crack of a sharp spine colliding with Chat Noir's metal staff brought Ladybug out of her thoughts. Her partner stood with his back against her, spinning his baton-staff in a defencive manner. Another volley of spines flew towards them, then scattered to the expert twirling of his weapon. "Snap out of it, My Lady. You gotta stay focused and stay sharp! We're on a clock here—"

"Wait, what did you say?" She remembered Chat's words. It was so silly, yet it totally made sense. She ran out in the open to face the Crocopine while yelling to her partner, "Chat, cover me!"

"My, what a big mouth you have," Chat Noir said as he landed close to the supervillain. "All the better to show off that stinking breath of yours?"

Enraged, the Crocopine launched a storm of spikes at the black cat. He spun his baton at blinding speed, deftly knocking the projectiles aside. All this while, he inched himself closer and closer towards the creature. When he got close enough, he took a swipe at it with the metal rod. It ducked and spun aside to avoid the blow and, going through the same motion, swept its tail underneath his feet. Chat managed to leap over the powerful appendage and went for an upward swing. His weapon caught the supervillain underneath its chin. It threw back its head and let out a loud yelp.

Ladybug took the opportunity and threw a fishing line into the supervillain's open mouth. Her aim was true, the hook reaching the depths of its belly. With a tug, she pulled a large, round analogue clock from out of the depths. As she reeled the object towards herself, she realised that this was it. All that was needed to do was to break the clock and the Akuma would be released. She could wait for it to reach her, but Chat Noir was closer and could do the deed much sooner. She called out to her partner: "Chat, do it now!"

Chat instantly jumped after the clock with his baton raised over his head. The Crocopine spun on its heels and presented its back to them. It was a desperation move: all of its remaining spines were loosed in that single instant. Ladybug watched the scene play out as if time had suddenly slowed down to a crawl. Chat Noir took his eyes off the clock for a very brief moment to look upon his Lady. He smiled the sweetest smile she had ever seen. His eyes went back to the clock. One downswing was all it took to smash the clock into pieces. The moment his foot touched the ground, he spun around and batted a multitude of javelin-like spines out of the air. Moments later, they began to dissolve into black wisps of smoke that disappeared with the wind.

Once the threat was over, he spun around to meet his Lady and offered a smile. It was a weak smile, for there was a slight trickle of blood forming from the side of his lip. He dropped to his knees and fell flat on his face.

Ladybug immediately rushed to her partner's side. There were puncture wounds littered all over his body, but the spikes that had caused them had already disappeared along with the Akumatized victim's transformation. Blood trickled out of Chat Noir's wounds, seeping into his costume and staining Ladybug's own spotted suit. "Chat! Chat!"

His eyes were glazed as he lay in Ladybug's arms. She wasn't aware that her tears were dripping onto his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out at first. He coughed, and now blood stained even his mouth. "L-Lady… bug…" His voice was soft and raspy.

"Chat, please stay with me. Please… I—I don't know what to do…"

"N-Not your f-fault…" His hand found its place on her cheek. He caressed her face for a while before lowering his hand and placed both hands over his chest. There, he began to tug at the ring on his right ring finger. "F-Find… another C-Chat…"

"No. No, you silly cat. You're my one and only Chat Noir. There can't be any other." Ladybug leaned forward and placed her hands over his own. She didn't want him to take off his ring. She didn't want it to end like this. "Please, Chat…"

Despite her protests, he still tugged at his ring and pulled it off. In a flash of light, Adrien Agreste was Chat Noir no more. He looked into her with those dreamy, green eyes of his.

"Adrien?" Ladybug gasped. "You—you're Chat Noir?"

"C-Cat's out of t-the bag, huh?" A smile formed on Adrien's lips. It was a weak one, but it was all that he could afford in this state.

"Adrien, n-no, it can't be…" She squeezed his hands as her tears flowed onto both their hands. It was all too much for her. Losing Chat Noir was already devastating; Chat Noir and Adrien Agreste all in one day? No words could describe the amount of pain that she was in. Then suddenly she pulled her hand back and stared at her ring finger, looking utterly dumbfounded. When did Adrien manage to slip his ring onto her? She tried not to pay attention to that mischievous, yet pained, grin on his face. "Adrien…?"

"Looks like w-we're engaged now, My L-Lady…"

"Adrien, you can't. You're Chat Noir. I can't do this… please!"

"I love you, My—My… Lady…" Adrien's strength left him and he would not hold her hand any longer. It fell lifelessly to his side, his eyes closing one last time.

"Adrien, I love you! I love you too! I have loved you ever since that day in the rain when you first gave me that umbrella of yours! Do you remember? Please tell me you do. Please, Adrien, wake up. Wake up, damn it! Wake up, please!" Ladybug wrapped her arms around the limp body of her former partner and brought him up for an embrace. She held on to him for what seemed like an eternity, while her sobs continued to soak up her mask and her face.

"I'm so sorry, Ladybug."

She was only vaguely aware of the new voice coming from her side. She barely registered the small black cat kwami hovering beside her but she didn't say a word. She continued to bury her face in Adrien's chest. That was all that she could think of now. That, and her failure. If only I hadn't been so impatient to break the clock…

"Ladybug, I know you're in a state of shock, but now is not the time to wallow in grief. Paris still needs Ladybug. Paris also needs a new Chat Noir." The black cat kwami slowly hovered closer to her face and reached out to touch her cheek.

"Y-you're wrong," Ladybug said. She gently lay Adrien's body down on the ground and knelt by his side, her head hung down as she stared at the ring on her finger. "Paris doesn't need Ladybug. At least not this one. This Ladybug's such a careless and useless wreck. I don't deserve to be Ladybug."

"W-What are you saying?" the kwami asked.

Ladybug stared and toyed with the ring on her finger. She clenched her fists and shut her eyes. Her hands reached up to her ears, wanting to remove those precious stones that had been with her ever since the first day she became a superhero. There was a soft and melodious note that sang like the plucking of a harp's string in that brief moment when two Miraculouses brushed against one another. "If I wasn't Ladybug, all of this would never have happened. If someone else were Ladybug—someone stronger than me—Adrien would still be alive today. None of this would have happened."

"Ladybug, no!"

The kwami's pleading voice sounded distant, and very soon she could no longer hear its voice. In fact, she could not hear a single thing around her as she was engulfed in a bright, white light. She felt a brief yet magical tingling sensation from both her finger and her ears, but before she even realised what was going on, everything was already fading away as if it was all but a dream.

"Mari, run!"

Nino's voice shook Marinette out of her daze. She blinked, trying to reconcile everything that had just stormed back into her mind in that one instant. She stared at her friend who was desperately trying to act brave in front of her. She thought of Alya and Adrien. She couldn't be in two places at the same time, but yet all her friends needed her. She simply had to help. With her mind made up, she calmly got up to her feet and looked for the quickest way back to the warehouse. She had to turn her back on Nino. She could not, and would not, allow for the same mistake to repeat itself—she had to find a way to save those two idiots even if it meant facing down Hawk Moth herself.

"Nino," she cried out to the boy as she spun around and prepared to sprint towards her destination. "Please do me a favour?"

"Anything for you, Mari!"

"Don't die."