Chapter 04: Silencer


"We're looking for new talent! Stunning musical and visual skills are a must! With a brand new style that everybody will die for, you have two weeks to send in your video!"

Marinette and the rest of Kitty Section gasped in excitement at Bob Roth's announcement, the girl lowering her phone to beam at them. "It's the perfect opportunity to showcase Kitty Section!"

"And the stage clothes you designed, Marinette." Luka reminded, causing the girl to blush.

"I-If we all pitch in, two weeks is more than enough time to make an awesome video!" Marinette encouraged them. "Everyone in?"

"Here we go!" Rose cheered as she pumped her fist, prompting them all to cheer with her.

And so it went for that time, with the band creating and finalizing a brand new song while Marinette worked on the recording and their costumes.

Rose, the vocalist and songwriter, got a violet customized unicorn cat mask with similarly designed pauldrons.

Luka, the guitarist, got a blue customized unicorn cat mask with similarly designed pauldrons.

Juleka, the bass guitarist, got a purple customized cat mask with her mask lacking the horn her friends' own had, with similarly designed pauldrons.

Ivan, the drummer, got a red customized unicorn cat mask, with spiked elbow pads and a strap-like chestpiece.

Satisfied with everything, they all cheered as they sent their video into Bob Roth's contest.

However...

"Hey, Marinette." Marinette looked up from her phone when Luka took a seat next to her on the couch, having just finished another rehearsal in the boathouse. "Still no news about the contest?"

"Maybe they didn't like our song..." Marinette replied despondently. Was a week too long or too short to wait for a reply?

"They must have received a ton of videos." Luka reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "They probably haven't made their pick yet."

Just as Marinette smiled in appreciation, Ivan called out in worry from a porthole.

"Uh-oh. You better take a look at this, guys." Ivan's call had the others peering out with him via their own portholes, all gawking at the big screen of the TVi Studio in the distance.

Or rather, the playing video of XY poorly mimicking their song and costumes.

Marinette quickly opened her phone to watch it directly, her frown deepening as XY got applauded and commended by Alec after he was finished.

"Wow! Loving that new look, XY!" Alec praised. "You've really outdone yourself this time! How'd you come up with this style? It's so... original!"

"It's all in here." XY cockily gestured at his head, giving a smirk at the camera.

"But that's our original style!" Ivan complained, with the others having huddled around Marinette and her phone.

"And your costumes and masks." Luka added.

"And your melody...!" Marinette was just as offended. "And your music! This can't be fair! It should be you guys up there on that screen! Bob Roth and XY better have an explanation for this!"


However, once they got to TVi Studio, they got denied entry by two security guards.

"They're not here right now."

"Seriously?!" Marinette pointed up at the big screen above. "They're right there on live screen!"

"You're not allowed in." Security Guard B rejected them anyways. "You have no invitations and the show's already started."

"But it's our show!" Marinette protested.

"Not our problem, miss." Security Guard A shrugged.

"What do we do now?" Juleka asked after being driven away.

Marinette crossed her arms in thought before sighing in defeat. "If we can't force our way through ourselves... we call in somebody who's a lot better at getting their way."

One phone call and six minutes later, Marinette silently bore the surprised stares she got as Chloé stepped out of the limousine. "I am only here because I was extremely bored at home! Dupain-Cheng, you better have a good reason for using up your favor."

"Marinette?" Ivan asked as lowly as he could without getting Chloé's attention. "How and why do you have Chloé's phone number?"

"She, um, gave it to me a while back, saying that she'd owe me a favor after what I did for her during that premiere for the movie Adrien starred in." Marinette personally had weird feelings on that. Chloé had been acting strange recently, but it was still for the better. She still had her mean moments, but they seemed to be lessening as time passed. However, in exchange for Chloé's lack of usual bitch moments, she gained more 'shock victim' moments.

Words could not describe how extremely distressing it was to often discover a stray Akuma butterfly beelining straight for Chloé, only to have to hastily distract the depressed blonde however she could manage.

Because Marinette really didn't want to deal with Chloé being Akumatized into either Antibug or Queen Wasp again. Or god forbid, a whole new Akuma.

"So let me get this straight." Chloé leaned against her limousine, staring up at the big screen after Marinette had explained the situation. "XY plagiarized your music video and is claiming it to be his own, and you want to meet him and demand that he returns the rights to you?"

"Yeah!" Marinette confirmed. "I can't stand by and let my friends' work get stolen!"

"And what if he denies it?" Chloé pointed out. "Remember when I did the same to you last year? If I hadn't gotten thwarted by your signature on your product, would you have gotten better chances of beating me?"

"Hey, nobody told you to take my designs." Marinette shrugged. If Chloé was already treating that past event like it was nothing special, she'd do the same. "Besides, this is the same thing on a greater scale. XY cannot get away with this."

"Fine." Chloé sighed. "But let's talk about this plan of yours, Dupain-Cheng. I think it's good... except, it sucks. So let me do the plan, and that way, it might be really good."

Marinette blinked after a beat. "...wow."

"Right word, wrong emotion." Chloé snapped her fingers. "Jean, get me my laptop! Dupain-Cheng, send me a copy of that video!"

Once again, Chloé went up a level in weirdness as she and Kitty Section watched the blonde proceed to hack into TVi's cyber network, it's security apparently amusing to the snickering girl.

"Um, Chloé?" Rose hesitantly spoke up. "Who taught you how to hack into international networks?"

"Oh? I just learnt it when I got bored." Chloé replied casually, now uploading their video from Marinette's phone into her laptop. "I watched Kanté do something similar once, and I decided it'd be an interesting skill to have incase I ever wanted to blackmail or torment somebody without having to leave my hotel. Now, let's get to humiliating this poser and dragging his reputation through the cyber mud."

In the minds of Chloé's classmates and Luka, they all immediately had the same thought in unison.

'''''Everything this girl just casually spoke is very terrifying!''''''

"...done." Chloé stopped typing and leaned back, pointing a manicured finger up at the big screen above. Almost on cue, XY's video suddenly glitched and crashed before showing Kitty Section instead.

"Wh-What did you just do?!" Rose shrieked.

"I hacked into their airwaves and played your song over XY's." Chloé shrugged. "Sure you guys might get accused of illegally hacking into their airwaves, but XY isn't really as likable as he is popular. When everybody sees how similar both your music and costumes are, he's going to be coming under heavy fire."

To TVi's credit, they did wrest back control of their airwaves before a full minute passed. But to Chloé's credit, a horrified Marinette quickly discovered that the blonde hadn't been exaggerating the reactions.

In anything, Chloé had downright downplayed them.


"So, XY, care to explain what that video was?" Alec's smile seemed rather bloodthirsty as the host turned to face him. "Because that looked a lot like yours just now."

"Oh, just some eager fans, I guess." XY answered, hoping that his panic wasn't showing. "Besides, shouldn't you, like, go after them for hacking into your network or something?"

"Oh, we will be going after them, but you see." Alec held his hands together behind his back as he started to circle XY. "I couldn't help but notice just how your music and costumes were quite too similar for something you claimed to be original. In fact, I don't know those kids, but I can clearly say that they're a lot better in the costumes department compared to you."

Alec paused to raise his phone, gesturing at the paused image of the band midperformance.
"Plus, this is your first ever showing with this style in public. Or at least, it's supposed to be. No matter how you look at it, these 'eager fans' copied your style way too quickly... Unless, they weren't the ones who did the copying."

"Puh-lease!" XY scoffed. "You think I, the XY, would've needed to copy those fakers?!"

Alec hummed negatively as he scrolled down something on his phone. "Looks like you're the only one thinking that, 'cause these kids? Either you've got a lot of enemies, or they've got a lot of supporters. I think it's best you check it out yourself."

XY floundered, before looking towards his dad for support, only to see the man in the middle of what was probably a very distressing call. Opening his own phone, XY got blindsided by the notifications he immediately got spammed by.

Foxy Specs Ladyblogger
How dare you plagiarize my friends, you overgelled jerk?! My boyfriend had you as an inspiration! You better hope there's a security detail between us if we ever meet face to face!

Steady Shell coolbeats
Not cool, dude. Not. Cool.

Adrien Agreste Ligne_de_mode_Agreste_Official
I am personally displeased by the probable actions you have taken against these people, Xavier-Yves Roth. However, it can be rectified if you admit the truth and let them appear on the show as Bob Roth's contest would have properly allowed. I would have much harsher words to speak but my father's PA is literally overwatching me type this in. I'm honestly surprised he let me get away with this much, given how many people on here seem to follow my word like it's the law.

Jagged Stone Croc_&_Roll!
This is not Rock and Roll, XY! Not Rock and Roll at all! You just don't do that, especially to my favorite designer's friends!

Anarka of The Liberty! couffaineoftheseas
Rip off my kids and their band, huh?! You better keep clear of the Seine if ya don't want a cannonball blowing yer guts out!

Queen Beetch theofficialchloebourgeois
I always knew there was something smarmier than normal about you. Looks like you really are a talentless hack.

More and more posts kept flooding in, much to XY's distress. This shouldn't have been happening! Couldn't these fools understand that he had just been inspired?! He was the famous one! He was the one with the most record deals! He was the Star!

Not these nobodies!

The skin around XY's eyes reddened as a familiar and glowing butterfly mask-like hologram manifested before his face when an unnoticed dark butterfly fluttered into his mask.

"Greetings, I am Hawk Moth. It's always so sad when the masses cannot understand the truth of what it means to be a star, all of those loud noises drowning you out. But I can give you the power to silence them all and show them just what it means to be the star. All I ask in return is that you retrieve the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Chat Noir. To sweeten the deal, I will take no part in the shaping of your new form or powers, for it will be you and you alone to quieten those who accuse you of being talentless and lacking in creativity. So, do we have an accord... Silencer?"

"Don't worry, Hawk Moth." XY's grin grew malicious as dark miasma flooded off his form. "I'm the best at what I am!"

His grin, hidden from sight, became absolutely predatory, eyes glowing with sinister delight as he roared.

And what escaped his maw was not a sound that evoked terror, but rather, a deafening silence that engulfed even that.


An unexpected advantage of watching the live display was seeing exactly when XY got Akumatized. Without waiting for a reply, Chloé shoved Marinette's phone into her hand and smoothly entered back into the limousine. "Jean, drive away!"

"Of course, Mademoiselle." Jean immediately drove away from the Kitty Section, having been appointed as her personal chauffeur for one sole reason. "Are you off to aid Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

That's right. Chloé had trusted Jean with Biiri's existence. Thankfully, Jean of the past was just as loyal as she remembered, assisting Chloé in exploits as Aera. Jean himself had been thrilled to actual tears that Chloé (from his perspective) seemed to have taken her role as a heroine much more seriously this time and had really done his best to aid her.

Good thing Daddy doubled his pay like she'd asked. "Be sure to get to safety, Jean. Biiri, darken the skies!"

Just as she finished transforming, Jean had already opened the roof section as Aera soared upwards into the sky.

Up here, Aera had a better perspective of the sheer scale of damage XY's Akuma had already wreaked across Paris. Originating from TVi Studio, a dome of translucent energy seemed to have spread from it, slowly but surely growing in size and distance.

Within the dome, colors seemed to have faded away. Not so much that it had practically gone all black and white, but so much that even if the dome wasn't present, Aera could still see the line which separated the dulled domain from the rest of the world.

What was more important however, were the civilians stumbling about. They were clearly panicking, but Aera quickly noted two disturbing facts.

The first was that many of them kept stumbling over, as if terribly imbalanced by something.

The second was that she couldn't hear a single thing from them despite their clear indications of screaming.

So, fighting against her instincts and common sense, Aera prepared to fly forward into the dome-

"AERA, NO!"

-only for Ladybug to tackle her out of the sky, the two flying heroines tumbling into a messy landing and rolling until they reached the waiting Chat Noir's feet, Ladybug's groan muffled between her breasts.

"You know, I feel like a lot of guys would pay lots of money to see you ladies in such a pose." Chat Noir teased, his brows waggling playfully at their compromising position.

"Please, they could never handle our service fee." Aera stood up and dragged the blushing Ladybug back to her feet. "So, why did you knock me out from the sky? The effects of the Dull Domain don't seem to be fatal."

"Huh, you named it." Ladybug gestured for them to backstep a few meters as she began to explain. "I was closest to the Akuma when it happened, so I've got a good look at the situation. Silencer, the Akuma of XY, got Akumatized after getting severe castigations at TVi Studio, both from Alec and online viewers. I'm not excusing his plagiarism, but something like that really would warrant Hawk Moth's notice. As for this... Dull Domain..."

Ladybug gestured at the area before them, civilians stumbling out with their screams no longer being cut off the moment they crossed the boundary. "It seems to steal sound itself. Anything that can or should make a sound really doesn't."

Chat Noir shrugged. "That doesn't sound too bad."

"You'd think that, but there are some side effects." Ladybug pointed at the stumbling civilians. "With their sense of hearing all but gone, they're incredibly disoriented from just running. Think of how bad it'd be for us who'd either be flying or jumping about."

"...merde." Is this what she'd be getting for altering the timeline's victims? From what Marinette of the future had told her, Luka had been the one to be Akumatized. Chloé had been selfish enough to shift Hawk Moth's attention to the Roths instead, figuring that she might as well spare one of her future teammates some grief.

But now, they had to deal with what seemed like a more dangerous and powerful version of Silencer.

"So if we can't even approach the Akuma, what do we do?" Chat Noir frowned, his tail flicking agitatedly.

"...then we attack it all." Aera answered as she turned to the two other heroes. "The superpower of my Miraculous allows me to invoke controlled versions of all weather-based disasters."

Ladybug's eyes widened. "So last time was-"

"-me summoning a localized thunderstorm upon Animaestro." Aera finished. "Obviously, I can't do the same here, but I can-"

"Can't we just fly over?" Chat Noir suddenly interrupted her, causing both Aera and Ladybug to regard him. "I mean, you two can fly now, much to my great jealousy, but we could literally get the drop on Silencer like we did with Animaestro. That whole drop from the sky divebomb!"

The heroines exchanged considering glances. It really was a good plan, but...

"Normally, I'd agree with that plan, but..." Ladybug hesitated. "The Akuma's resting spot isn't as easy to get as it was last time.


Ladybug was right, Chat Noir noted. It really wasn't going to be as easy as it had been before.

On the plus side, with Ladybug and Aera saving much of his stamina by each grabbing an arm and flying them towards TVi Studio, Chat Noir would be more than ready for action, especially with their new teammate, who was nothing like Volpina! Even Plagg had been so surprised to learn that his Miraculous could replicate the {Miraculous Ladybug}, with Adrien still feeling giddy.

On the minus side, it was ridiculously disorienting to look down upon the Dull Domain and hear not even the tiniest bit of sound from it. Ever since he'd become Chat Noir, he'd enjoyed his enhanced hearing, even with the occasional sharp feedback from extremely loud noises.

So to look upon an area that had civilians panicking and screaming in total silence deeply unsettled both Adrien at the eeriness and the Cat at the sensory dissonance.

"There." Ladybug pointed out as they all came to a halt before the TVi Studio, all of them focused on the Akuma that had come out. "That's XY, or at least, Silencer."

"Apt name." Chat Noir muttered. It seemed that Hawk Moth was really going for the uncanny valley effect today. What was strutting along was clearly XY, with his ostentatious pendant hanging off his neck. However, there were also clear inhuman traits, such as his glowing eyes, the horned tiger mask that had stretched to cover most of his head like a living flesh helmet and his ridiculous carboard attire now been replaced with gaudy purple armor with his lightning bolt emblems and what looked like small booming golden speakers which looked clearly active but weren't making any sounds. "So what's the plan, Bugaboo and Beneficent?"

Aera blinked. "Beneficent?"

"You know, good gal version of Maleficent." Chat Noir shrugged. "I can't leave Bugaboo alone with the special nickname."

Aera winced, just as Ladybug had done back when he had first nicknamed her. "Please. Don't. I'll be fine."

"He seems to be absorbing the sounds?" Ladybug noted, gaining both of their attention as she surveyed Silencer. "Or at least, negating them. Look. There's slight distortions in the air, but instead of spreading out, they're converging on his mask's horn. That's why it's so silent."

"But where's it all going?" Aera asked. "Sound is basically a form of vibrational energy on it's own. It can't just... disappear!"

"Trust me. You're better off not trying to apply the rules of physics on magic." Chat Noir advised. He still remembered the headache he'd gotten from trying to figure out {Cataclysm}'s exact workings, even with Plagg's totally unhelpful 'It just works on whatever you want it to work on, kid.'

"So, do you have a plan?" Ladybug gave Aera a hopeful look that Chat Noir mirrored. Despite her seemingly being the same age as them, it really seemed that Aera was a lot more experienced than them, especially with how she'd prompted them to actually figure out more of what they could do as Miraculous owners.

"If you don't mind... then a straight up attack would be best for now." Aera decided. "Just be sure to be careful with this one. An Akuma powerful enough to create a domain are always the ones with either hidden tricks or ridiculously wide range that don't even need to directly attack you to inflict damage."

Neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir disputed her. After all, they had gotten similar problems from Stormy Weather, Darkblade, Mime, Sapotis, Zombizou, Syren, Sandboy and Frozer.

"Then let's the drop on him." Shaking himself free of them, Chat Nor dropped down into the Dull Domain, fighting the strong shiver up his spine as he landed right before Silencer. "Hey, ugly! You weren't satisfied stealing music, so you've gone for all sounds in general?!"

Or at least, that was what he had wanted to say. However, Chat Noir grabbed at his completely silent mouth, his voice absolutely gone within the Dull Domain just like the sounds of the civilians.

("That's no good here, pussycat!") Silencer's words didn't so much as speak, so much as have the words all but psychically slam into Chat Noir's eardrums. ("In here, the only one with the beats is ME!")

Chat Noir was forced to dodge downwards as Silencer swung out his arm, the air rippling as something flat and sharp and invisible nearly took off his head. A few meters behind him, a thankfully empty car was promptly nearly shredded apart in the eerie silence.

Guess that explained what Silencer was doing with the stolen sound.

("It's time to play my new record!") Silencer made disk scratching motions, the air beneath his hands rippling and shrieking as more invisible sonic disks manifested. ("I'll call this 'Screecing-'")

It was at that moment that both Ladybug and Aera slammed down upon Silencer, their heels impacting his shoulders. However...

His horn having grown brighter from the attack, Silencer grinned at the clear confusion on their faces as he turned to glare at the heroines, his sonic disks suddenly quadrupling in size and power as the girls backflipped away. ("Ha! Your attacks are meaningless!")

Chat Noir extended his staff immediately, managing to throw off Silencer's aim after whacking his head and causing the flung sonic disks to fly off into the distance. He hadn't actually managed to hurt or hit him, but it seemed that Silencer still possessed the human instinct to dodge when something small and fast was heading for his eyes.

On the other side of Silencer, Aera raised her hands and quickly conveyed some words in French Sign Language.

He didn't know that Aera could use French Sign Language! Chloé had taught Adrien back when they were younger, with the idea of having a secret language that they could use around the adults. Unfortunately, Nathalie did know French Sign Language herself, rendering it almost moot for fun purposes.

He wondered if Chloé was still fluent. He himself was only still so because that was how his mute bodyguard communicated.

{I will be back! Keep him here!}

Immediately afterwards, Aera took to the air, quickly bursting out of the Dull Domain. The moment she did so-

("[Disastrous Blizzard]!")

-the winds and clouds above quickly encircled and thickened after she seemed to scream something, rumbling ominously as the temperature sharply dropped. Directly above Silencer, a pseudo tornado of cold winds started to form, slowly funneling downwards towards him.

A little awed at the sight of the unbelievable weather abnormality before him, Chat Noir was surprised to suddenly find Ladybug at his side, grabbing his arm and securing them against a lamppost with her yoyo while clutching a ladybug-patterned tool in her other hand.

A good thing she did, because Chat Noir suddenly became aware of the increasing strength of the freezing winds now surrounding Silencer in a pillar of swirling snow.

No, not pillar. A vortex that just ripped the Akuma off his feet.


Silencer grimaced as he felt the speed of his spin increase, continuing to hold his breath and blast away the snow and icy water with all of the sound he was being bombarded with. Thanks to his new power, he could nullify any attack that produced noise, absorbing the impact and storing up it's noise for later use.

But this? This was an attack that wasn't dealing as much blunt force trauma as he thought he'd be getting, with him making a terrifying note of just how fast he was spinning now.

Silencer had never wanted to know what it felt like to have his internal organs all stuck against one wall of his stomach, the snow vortex spinning so fast it had stuck him into the center.

Then all of a sudden, things got way too cold, way too quickly.


At 0°C, natural water starts freezing.

At -1°C, human blood starts to freeze.

At -40°C, even the magically empowered blood of either a transformed Miraculous wielder or an Akumatized villain starts to freeze.

The sole reason Silencer was still alive and shivering was because the temperature of his icy prison had stopped plummeting just shy of that deadly boundary, Aera having manipulated it so that only his head was exposed.

{Don't you think that was too much?} Chat Noir signed at Aera.

{No.} Aera signed back. {It was hard enough limiting the damage as much as I could while hitting him with an attack that wouldn't fuel his power. My power is born from the concept of Calamity. I'd like to see you try and be precise with something like that.}

Watching the two devolve into a fervent conversation of hasty hand signs, Ladybug resolved to learn French Sign Language as well and grabbed the horned tiger flesh helmet free of Silencer's head, shuddering at it's feel as she ripped it apart and exposed the fluttering Akuma.

The Akuma she... still couldn't purify thanks to the stupid Dull Domain still absorbing away the sound of her voice into Silencer!

Merde!

Snatching the Akuma and quickly stuffing it into one of her zippered pockets(Yay! Already a lucky use for them!), Ladybug quickly flew off until she was free of the Dull Domain and opened her pocket, allowing the Akuma free.

"No more evil-doing for you, little Akuma. Time to de-evilize!" Ladybug said as she opened the elytron-like top of her yo-yo to kickstart it's purificative powers and started to swing it for momentum before sending the weapon forward, the elytron-like hatch closing around the corrupted butterfly with a snap. "Gotcha!"

She then opened it up, letting the newly purified butterfly flutter away to freedom. "Bye bye little butterfly!"

Now that that was over with, Ladybug hefted up the ladybug-themed thermometer that had given Aera the idea to defeat Aera.

"[Miraculous Ladybug]!"

Tossing the thermometer up into the air, the {Lucky Charm} transformed into a mass of energy in the form of ladybugs that recreated all of the surrounding damage to a point before Silencer's rampage started.

Satisfied at her work, Ladybug flew back down towards the now normal XY and still conversing Chat Noir and Aera, still using their hand signs. "The sounds are back to normal."

Aera started before humming carefully and sighing in relief. "Thanks, Ladybug."

"Awesome!" Chat Noir extended both of his fists at them readily, his grin infectious. "Pound it?"

"Pound it!" Ladybug fistbumped him, before the two turned to Aera who just stood there staring at the offered fist. "It's okay to do it. It's just a little thing Chaton and I do after some victories. And you were definitely the MVP today."

Aera frowned a little before hesitantly presenting her fists. "Pound it?"

""Pound it!"" Ladybug and Chat Noir replied, their fists against hers'.


"It seems that allowing my son's online comment works just as I planned in fanning the flames of hatred towards XY." Hawk Moth smiled in anticipation. "You may have defeated Silencer, but with more of your new tricks being shown, the more I can prepare the act of vengeance that will truly leave you heroes speechless!"

Hawk Moth's ominous cackle filled the Butterfly Observatory as the window closed out the light.


"And now with XY and Bob Roth out of the way thanks to their many legal problems, please welcome the next big thing in town... Kitty Section!" Alec introduced, prompting a wave of cheers from the waiting bandmembers.

Standing beside the ecstatic Marinette, Chloé watched them all go, only for Luka to stop and give her a weird look. "What is it?"

Marinette frowned. "Is something wrong, Luka?"

"No, not exactly. It's just..." Luka struggled to find the proper words to say. "Are you okay?"

Chloé blinked. "Huh?"

"Your melody is in severe disharmony." Luka clarified. "Your sincerity towards Marinette and the others was genuine, but it kept getting corrupted by something."

If Chloé didn't already know that Luka was an audio sensory-based empath, she'd be feeling rather offended and disturbed right now. "That's called selfishness, brother of Shrinking Violet. Don't you know the horror stories of me from my classmates already?"

"It's not selfishness that stains your melody, but self-loathing, I believe." Luka answered after a pause, causing Chloé to flinch and Marinette to stare in alarm. "I do not know what happened to cause that, but I do hope you learn to hate yourself less. Besides, considering how Juleka and the others didn't immediately reject your plan or shrink away from you after you came, I don't think you've been a horror story to them for quite a while now."

Chloé's jaw dropped as Luka gave a smile before heading up to join the others while putting on his mask, suddenly feeling very uneasy from how Marinette was staring at her. "What?"

"Are you okay, Chloé?" Marinette bluntly asked, not put off by Chloé's glare. Apparently, either her concern was overriding her fear or Ladybug's persona was pushing to the forefront. "I didn't want to question your recent... niceness... but did something happen?"

"...I'm fine." Chloé answered. "I just... I just realized that I'd gotten a chance to fix many things before it's too late for somebody as terrible as me."

"Too late?!" Marinette repeated in alarm. "What do you mean by that?"

"Don't worry about things like that, Dupain-Cheng." Chloé waved her off. "Just enjoy the music."

"...Chloé, you know that you're a good person, right?" Marinette suddenly spoke after a minute of silence. "Ladybug wouldn't have trusted you with a Miraculous if you weren't."

Like hell she was. After all, the two Miraculouses she'd ever owned were both stolen after all.

Not appointed as it had been to every other hero.

Chloé Bourgeois was a villain who still had a lot of atoning to do.


KingVessel: One sad thing about being in the past... is when you're literally staring at moments when you could've done better, but you still get hit by the freshness of how badly you'd fucked up before.