"Tikki, who was Ladybug?" Amira asked the small kwami as she scrolled through the comments of the Miraclesite. The once dormant website known as the Ladyblog was now active with energy as someone had decided to reboot it and update it. She cringed as she found her mom's old posts that were archived on the site. There were several mistakes that only took a simple google search to uncover.
The rock star Jagged Stone never owned a cat.
King Ali only did charities for children, not climate change.
Gabriel Agreste never mentioned any muse by the name of Lila Rossi.
Once again Lila was at the center of it all. Amira stared confusingly at the younger auburnette on the screen.
"See, Ladybug and I are like this." In the video, she crossed her fingers together, "We're best friends."
What kind of person broadcasts their friendship with a superhero? Even Amira knew better and she got that smart from comic books, "Did she really know Ladybug?"
"I can't tell you her identity, I mean that literally. If I try to say her name…" Bubbles came out of her tiny mouth, no sound except for the bubbles popping. "What I can tell you that Lila was not friends with Ladybug."
"So she's a liar." She scrolled through the older blog posts. "Hold on…" Her eyes lingered on an early video, it featured a masked pigtailed heroine. The video was titled The Inside Scoop with Ladybug.
"I wanted to thank Marinette for setting this up, I wouldn't have gotten this far without my girl." As Amira watched, she couldn't help but listen as Alya's voice was excited, light, and focused. She'd forgotten what her mother sounded like. All she could recall was the shouting, the fake sweetness when trying to get info from her, or the poison dripping from her lips. It was like looking at a whole different person.
"Marinette?" Amira went to the francoise dupont website and looked up the name. She got a picture, it was of a class picture. Amira recognized a lot of them: her father's old red cap, her mother's Adrien Agreste's blonde hair, Even back then Juleka and Rose were together. When she hovered over the midnight hair girl with pigtails, the name Marinette Dupain-Cheng came up.
"Caline Bustier's Class of 20XX."
"I might as well use my imherited reporter skills for good." She typed in her name and clicked on the first article. Amira went white as she read the title: Young Teenager Jumps off the Eiffel Tower.
It didn't show her body or her face, but rather the police scene after with her body covered by a blanket. The article had testimonies and comments from family and friends, as well as a video eulogy.
"She was such a happy child, why didn't she tell us?"
"She was acting off, sure but I didn't think she would do this."
"I was her childhood friend, dude, she wouldn't have done this." Her father had his hat in his hands and his head facing the ground.
"We should've seen it coming, but we didn't."
"She's in a better place now, I'm just sorry I never got to apologize to her." Amira frowned at Lila's comment. Sure she was crying just as much as the others, but it didn't feel real. Lila's sadness felt rehearsed, like an actor who was asked to cry on cue.
Amira eyed the picture of the smiling pigtailed girl, "She could have a connection to Ladybug."
Later that day, Amira decided to squeeze information out of her father. She wasn't able to talk to him until dinner time.
"Dad, who was Marinette?"
Nino stopped eating as Amira said those words.
"Well, a marionette is a doll, like a puppet-"
"No, not marionette, Marinette."
"Where did you hear that name from, honey?"
"I was looking at the Miracusite and I found mom's old posts. She mentioned someone named Marinette?" Amira tried to act natural, gauging his reaction.
"She was an old friend, one from my college days." His eyes darted from his food to his daughter.
"Oh, what happened to her?"
"Could we not talk about this?" Nino stated, "It's in the past."
This got Amira's attention, she knew he wouldn't outright say she died at the dinner table especially in front of Nessa. But he was outright dodging it.
She decided to look up the family Dupain-Chengs. Turns out they owned a bakery in Paris. The picture of the taller, more muscular yet kind eyed man standing beside the smaller woman made Amira's heart ache. They had to bury their daughter, far younger than they should have. It made her sad, parents shouldn't have to bury their child.
"Seriously?" She sighed as she stared at renovated and refurbished building that was once a bakery.
"Amira?" Rose Couffaine stepped out of the front door to the building.
"Oh, hey, hi." Amira awkwardly waved to . "What's up?"
"It's good to see you again, how has your father been since his…?" Rose didn't need to say it, but she knew she was talking about his experience as Bubbler.
"He's good, I'm just glad he was safe. I was just getting something to eat, but my maps app led me here." I couldn't exactly tell her I was looking into the death of the girl who used to live in the buliding.
"Ah, I see. You think technology would be perfect, but there are always a few bugs." Rose smiled. "Why don't you come in? I actually just baked some cookies if you would like one."
Amira decided to accept the offer and stepped inside.
"Hi! I'm Raya!" A little girl with copper skin and dark hair rushed up and hugged her.
"Oh, hello, I'm Amira."
"I let her eat a cookie or two already. It helps when you already have ovens built into the building.
"This used to be a bakery, right?"
"Oh, yes. Many years ago." Rose stared at the cracked windows, the broken walls, "My wife and I actually bought this building a few years ago. My wife used to live on a boat with her family, but we decided to move here, so we could have some actual space."
"A boat? Were her family pirates?" Amira joked
Rose laughed, "Only my mother in law."
"Hey, Rose, I got the groceries." Amira turned to see the famous dark and teal highlighted hair of the Luka Couffaine of Kitty Section. The girl had forgotten that she was in the house of two of the members of Kitty Section. She had seen him in concert videos and interviews, though his hair was now longer, going down to his shoulder and he was sporting a goatee.
Curse her bisexual fan crushes!
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Couffaine. I really like your songs especially Serpentime, Lady of Miracles, Midnight Fantasy, and Masked Hearts. Could I have your autograph? I won't do anything with it, I promise. I also have a question about the song Midnight Fantasy, people have been-I'm talking too much, aren't I?" She was rambling, wasn't she.?
"No, it's fine, it's always nice to meet a fan." Luka shook her hand. "And Midnight Fantasy is my favorite too."
"Uncle Luka, you promised to play with me." The girl pouted.
"I'm sorry, Raya. But I've got a work emergency i have to deal with." Luka sighed. "I won't be home here tonight, sorry Rose."
"No, it's fine, I can just hire someone to babysit for Raya."
"I could babysit her if you want." Amira offered.
Rose turned to Amira, "Really? You would do that?"
"I have plenty of experience with my little sister and it would only be for a couple of hours." She said, "As long as I can bring someone over to work a school project on." She did have a project to work on, though it was also backup in case an akuma decided to strike while she was babysitting.
"Of course, we'll pay you and I'll let Nino know you'll be staying for a while."
"Thanks." Well, she hadn't quite got the answers she was looking for yet, she was at least getting something out of her disappointment.
"So, what do you want to watch?" Soon enough, Amira and Raya were on the couch, a bowl of warm popcorn rested on the table in front of them.
"The Ladybug and Chat Noir Movie!"
Amira hadn't seen the movie yet, but her father didn't seem to like it, "Alright, I'll just pull it up and…" The opening scene began to play as she took some popcorn from the bowl.
A knock on the door made her turn around.
"Hey Leo, come on in." She stepped aside so the Bougeosis boy could enter.
"So you got stuck babysitting tonight?"
"I'll have you know I offered to do it, anyway how have you been since transferring to Dupont?" Leo had started college at Dupont just a few days ago. They weren't in the same class, he was ms. Mendeleev's care and she was Ms. Bustier.'s class. She did spot him a few times in the hallways.
"Good, most people are nice to me, though there are few who seem to be out to get me."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, but it's nothing I haven't experienced in New York." He reassured her.
"Okay, but if anyone messes with my friend, I will take them down." She said with a knuckle crack.
Leon was surprised at her loyalty then smiled. He never had a real friend before, one who had his back. "So what are we watching?"
"The Ladybug and Chat Noir movie."
"I think my mom tried to petition to have Queen Bee in the movie." He recalled his mother complaining about the lack of Queen Bee when they watched it together. "But the director was adamant to not have the heroine in there unless she was a twist villain."
"Well, this will be my first time, watching this, so no spoilers."
"I give you my word as a Bourgeois, I shall not spoil it." He dramatically swore.
"What the heck!?" Amira shouted at the tv screen, "What is this sudden romance between Chat Noir and Rena Rouge?"
"Yeah, wasn't Chat Noir in love with Ladybug?"
"Exactly and what was up with her voice? Why did they have two different actresses for her singing and character voice?!" Amira made a mental note if Miss Chance ever got a movie to not hire this director for the film. Both kids were watching the tv screen as Raya slept on Amira's arm. Apparently the girl was a deep sleeper as she hadn't woken up through all the action scenes or the teenagers ranting.
"I know! And why would be Ladybug be afraid of cats? God, the writing in this movie is terrible. What is the director thinking?"
"At least the animation is good."
"Yeah, the only decent thing about the movie." She grumbled. She slowly pulled Raya off of her, "I'm going to get an extra blanket, you want anything while I'm up?"
"Another pillow would be nice, thanks."
"I shall find the fluffiest pillow for my liege." Amira mockingly bowed for him.
"Whatever, my lady." His smile turned her stomach into knots. She quickly went to find their supplies.
Why is my face red? She thought to herself as she searched the house, "He's just a friend, I haven't even known him for a couple of weeks."
"You're talking to yourself again." Tiki pointed out.
"Oh here we go, blankets." She found a closet with a bunch of stuff inside. "Let's see…" She attempted to grab a cardboard box on a high shelf, but couldn't quite reach it.
She spotted a stool and attempted to use it. Even standing on the stool wasn't enough and had to resort to standing on her tip toes.
"Got i-Woah!" THUD! Amira fell to the floor along with multiple boxes. Luckily, none of them hit her or made her have a concussion.
"Amira!" Leo heard the crash and went to investigate. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I just fell." He helped her stand up. "Thanks."
"No problem, I'll help you clean this up."
Her eyes glanced over the various boxes. She noticed various items, different clothings and accessories. She spotted a pink polka dotted notebook and gently picked it up.
Inside were various sketched designs of every clothings imaginable. There were dresses, shirts, outfits, even a couple of hats. Whoever owned this sketchbook clearly had an eye for fashion.
"Woah, these are good." Leo peeked over her shoulder. "Looks like something out of my mom's designers' journals."
Amira traced over the signature with her finger on one of the pages, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng."
"If I had to guess this belonged to her."
She nodded, mindlessly browsing through pages. Until she stopped at a one that made her eyes widen.
Akuma Redesigns.
"My mom would complain about their outfits all the time, something about them being designed by a color blind monkey?" He joked, "That wasn't even her most elaborate insult."
She chuckled, but her eyes were glued to a certain drawing. It was of the Bubbler, her father's design. It was drawn in the exact same way as his recent appearance, right down to colors and clown like style of the costume. There was even original designs that looked vaguely similar to Mother May I, Heartbeater, and Paperback when we looked hard enough.
Amira had a heart pounding thought: why in the world were these designs so similar to their real life counterparts? Was someone using them as the base for their design?
"Amira, we're back!" She was brought back to reality. In a panic, Amira accidentally dropped the sketchbook and it landed on a random page. It made her heart nearly skip a beat at what she saw. Drawings of a little red being with black spots and antennas wearing various different outfits and accessories. The page was titled, Designs for Tikki.
"Leo, could you make sure Raya is still asleep? I-I'll pick this up." The girl quickly started putting things away and closing the book.
Leo raised an eyebrow but said nothing then nodded. Her hands shook as she put the boxes back together. She waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps to sigh.
"Tikki, I know you can't say anything about her identity but…I need to know." Her voice took on a serious tone, "Was the hero Ladybug Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"
For a few seconds, Tikki didn't say anything. Then she slowly nodded her head.
Amira took a few seconds to process this. Her mom's friend had been Ladybug and she had taken her own life.
With Lila away on work, the kwamis of the miracle box secretly convened in Lila's office of the mansion. They usually talked inside the Miracle Box, but this was a meeting that had to be addressed outside of the box.
"I still don't think this is a good idea, Trixx." Wayzz cautioned, "She will notice one of us is gone."
"Our salvation is at hand, the Ladybug has found a new holder!"
Sass advised, "While we can celebrate, we must be cautiousss. Ssshe can not know we are plotting against her."
"Which is why I propose I go out and find a new holder. The new Ladybug is outnumbered with Longg, Mullo, Pollen, and Roarr being used by the Miraculous Squad." Trixx explained, "We can no longer hide and wait for someone to rescue us."
"Yeah! Take action, be bold!" Barkk exclaimed, fueled by the fires of rebellion.
"As for the liar, she hasn't checked on us in days, it seems she has her hands full with the new Ladybug and Butterfly holder. We must take this opportunity to our advantage, we can't let this slip by us." Trixx explained to the other kwamis.
Thisss might work. If you can get to the Ladybug, we could have more of a chance to be sssaved."
Why Trixx? Why not me?" Klakki huffed.
"Because the Ladybug needs useful allies." Trixx smiled a fanged grin, "Besides you got caught with your portals last time, remember?"
"It would have worked." The horse kwami huffed, embarrassed over their failed escape attempt.
"Then it is settled, I shall go out and find a holder to ally them with the Ladybug." Trixx said proudly,
the guardian may not around anymore, but the kwamis knew better than to sit around and wait for someone to rescue them. And if Trixx exposed a certain liar in the process, then it would just be the icing on the cake.
—
A/N: Enters the room like Emperor Kuzco* BOOM BABY
I apologize for my absence, college has been kicking my butt and I have not been able to write recently or upload as much.
For this transgression, I offer you, my faithful and patient readers not one but two chapters!
Also I have decided to rename the title from Against the World to Missed Chances. I was on the fence for a very long time on whether or not to change the title. So from hence forth, it shall be called Missed Chances!
As always, please favorite, follow, and review. i really appreciate it
Until next time, FallenFairy20.