Paris, 2019 – One Year until the Breach

It was official, Ladybug did not like magicians. And not just because one was detonating 'Dove Grenades' right in her face.

When you really got down to it, magicians were a menace to society. Their job is to walk into your home, crash your birthday parties and sometimes even take to a grand stage with the sole objective of making you look like an idiot.

How could anyone like magicians? That's what Ladybug thought as she yanked down on her yoyo, catapulting her body up to her newest perch, a streetlamp overlooking the boundaries of the park.

Overhead, she could spot the giant, and she means comically huge, top hat of her target piercing the dense thicket. 'Magnificent Magni' the pompous jerk called himself, dedicated to proving to his harshest critics that he was the real deal after his latest magic show went down in flames. He'd decided that the opening act of his new show would be adding miraculous to his bag of tricks. Naturally, this led to some conflict that wasn't resolved with Chat Noir pointing out that his name is just 'Magnificent' twice.

Ladybug launched herself forward, diving through the greenery to come down on the villain like a canon ball. She's found out early in the fight that this magician was a twitchy one, and his powers needed time to ready his tricks, which meant that she was better off with quick and decisive moves, pressure the guy into slipping up before he had time to prepare the real fancy moves.

Unfortunately for her, there was no body under the sea of leaves for her to tackle to the ground. No, she landed in the clearing in a clean and sturdy crouch only to look up, greeted not with her enemy but his hat hanging from a tree branch.

"Oh, Ladybug," Her head snapped in the direction of the voice. "Have you come to help with the show?"

He stood leaning against a tree not too far away from her, his pristine magician suit and cape battered and stained with mud and twigs. He had no face, hidden behind a white mask that covered his entire head and had erased all facial features, just a blank white canvas mocking her.

"I'm sure I can find a ticket for you in exchange for your miraculous." His voice was a captivating blend of charisma and enthusiasm, a symphony of sound carefully orchestrated to elicit excitement and anticipation from an eager crowd that wasn't there. After his transformation, it boomed through the air with a commanding presence, resonating with a deep and melodious timbre that demanded attention.

A far cry from the stuttering, quivering man who set his own cape on fire on stage. Marinette's heart went out for the guy. At least, back at start, hours ago when everything was still fresh. Now? He's made this a very long, very messy day. Now, he'd interrupted her date with Adrien. Now, he'd destroyed her lunch. She wasn't interested in chasing this guy across all of Paris.

"And here I thought the superhero gig would get me a free pass." Her gaze flickered between the hat and her foe as she let her yoyo hang slack by her hips. He stored most of his gimmicks in that hat, no matter how smug he was, he had to know it was in his best interest to keep Ladybug far from it. "How about I pay you with some audience participation?"

Spinning around, Ladybug lashed out with her yoyo, the invincible line like a whip shooting out and wrapping around the tree branch. Magni let out an unprofessional cry as he rushed past her but was too late to stop her from yanking down on her tether and snapping the branch, along with the hat, off the tree. Bouncing back on the balls of her feet, Ladybug made a quick retreat, pulling her new prize along with her. Despite the barrage of razor cards chasing her down in her wake, the yoyo line retracted and she caught the hat as it was thrown off the branch.

"And for my next trick-" Ladybug yelled over her shoulder as she launched herself up high into the jungle of branch perches, an environment where her flexibility and mobility reigned supreme. "I will make this magic hat disappear!"

With a smug grin of satisfaction stretching her lips to their limits, she held the hat up to her face, flipping it over so she could peer inside it. She wondered if Magni was the only one who could access whatever he stored in here, or if she could make use of any of his knick-knacks. As any pursuit of knowledge began, Marinette decided to undertake the upmost scientific of approaches. She reached inside the hat and felt around.

And, while she couldn't quite understand the details, that's how a blinding flash of light escaped the hat and knocked her on her ass. This was why she hated magicians.

Again, not just because this trumped-up little twerp hid a razor-sharp card up her sleeve that sliced right through her costume.

They lie to you, manipulate you into buying their illusion. They tell you they magically guessed your card after folding down the corner. They stuff your well-earned money in your ears for a practical joke. They saw their own assistants in half just for fun!

In this case, Magni decided to throw illusion and deception out the window, opting to take advantage of the fallen Ladybug and launch her into the nearest tree with one swift kick to the stomach. "Now, now, little bug." He chuckled, pulling his hat up to his chest and wagging his finger at her in that patronizing 'tut, tut, tut' motion that fit him so well. "No peaking behind the curtains."

He had a terrible laugh. It could not be understated how ear-shatteringly horrible this man's laugh was. It was the type of laugh that made you feel unclean, that made you want to cross the street, that hit all the wrong nerves. It was that laugh that made a grumpy, hungry Ladybug bite through the pain in her stomach and rise to her feet. She took off into a mad dash, her charge forward fuelled entirely by her hatred for magicians.

"One. Two. Magnific!"

To make it clear, this is not just because this no-talent hack was reaching into his hat of annoying junk so he could hit her across the head with a-

Ladybug felt herself hit every branch on the way down as she was – for lack of a better word – bitch-slapped out of the park and across the street. She landed face-first in the dirt, her head tilted up just enough to glimpse Chat Noir's feet landing in a far more dignified manner in front of her.

He was holding back a giggle, she could hear it bleeding into his fake cough. Her partner was laughing at this utter injustice. "Chat…"

"Yes, Bugaboo?"

"Did that guy just hit me with a toilet seat?"

"No," Chat's teasing undertone came out stronger as he spoke, helping Ladybug to her feet with an 'innocent' grin. "He said 'One, two, magnific!' and then hit you on the head with a toilet seat."

She shook her head, growling. This was why she hated magicians.

Looking past her trusty partner, she was disappointed to find that he was alone. "Where are the others?"

Chat's lips twisted to a more awkward frown, scratching the back of his neck with an added uneasy sway. "They're still looking for Pegasus' head."

Oh yes, Ladybug reminded herself, they didn't take Magni seriously until he performed the tried and tested 'saw your assistant in half' trick and threw Pegasus' very much still alive and somehow moving head into the river.

Ladybug's face screwed up as she flipped open her yoyo, connecting to the rest of their absent team via their miraculous messaging network. "And that needed all three of them?"

"Give us a break!" Rena Rogue's exasperated voice cut in sharply through the communicator. "One of us got turned into a bunny rabbit, remember?"

That reminder managed to ease Ladybug's tension a bit, enough for her to stifle a chuckle as she reminded herself that Carapace was now very adorable.

Chat used his staff like a pole, leaning his upper body on the tip as his eyes scanned the other side of the street for their villain. "How is Cara-Bun doing?"

It was Viperion's voice, strained and beyond tired, that responded. "He keeps thumping me…"

Rena scoffed, "That's because you're holding him wrong."

Ladybug shook her head, realizing that Chat and her were gonna be on their own for a while. "Just try and hurry up, I don't even wanna think about how long Pegasus can survive without his head." She snapped her communicator shut, restoring it to it's yoyo form and returning her gaze to where she assumed Magni still roamed, searching for the perfect spot for his magic show.

"Looks like it's just you and me, mi'lady." Chat lightly punched her shoulder, clearly seeing how her face failed to hide her stress and exhaustion and balancing the dynamic with his mirth. "Might be time to whip out the old lucky charm."

There was a pause as a more nervous expression overtook Chat, narrowing his eyes as he hesitantly peered down at his partner. "…Speaking of, the miraculous ladybug will cure him, right?"

Ladybug could only shrug, "God, I hope so."

The next thirty minutes were gruelling; Magni wasn't so much a deadly threat as he was a persistent one. Ladybug summoned her lucky charm, only for him to swipe it with his hat. Chat Noir attempts to cataclysm his akumatised wand, he suddenly switches out for a dummy that takes the hit for him. Ladybug lassos him with her yoyo so Chat can jump in for the beat down, he spits a grenade out of his mouth. The two try to keep on the move, he catches them with a rope made from an endless supply of multi-coloured handkerchiefs stuffed up his sleeve (which Chat rightly pointed out was more of a clown thing).

No matter how close they seemed to corner the dude, no matter how much it seemed like he was on his last leg, he always had one last trick up his sleeve or one last gimmick to unleash that'd pull him out of harm's way just in the nick of time. And just to hammer in how, quite frankly, unfair this all was, Magni shook around his hat to see what would tumble out and accidentally found out he could spawn monsters. Cards that stood at the same height as humans, sprouting spindly legs and twisted arms. Why? Because the universe decided that today was the day it got revenge on Paris' resident superheroes for whatever unknown sin they'd committed against it.

All and all, it made for a moment Marinette couldn't have imagined in her wildest dreams; the day she was happy to see Felix.

Well, not Felix.

Okay, not even Argos.

Specifically, she was happy to see the mini hydra he was riding on.

The three-headed beast trampled through the park without grace or care, crushing flimsy card-shaped monsters underfoot and leaving deep imprints in the dirt. Chat's arm wrapped around Ladybug's waist, pulling her tight before slamming his staff into the ground and extending it, rocketing the two up into the air to pole vault over the gaggle of annoying minions and land softly beside Argos.

"You weren't part of the game plan today." Ladybug grunted, dropping into a low crouch, stabilizing herself as the Hydra's multiple necks wiggled violently. "Not that we're unhappy to see you."

For the last month, Ladybug and Chat had been floating the idea of putting together a 'main team' of their miraculous roster. People they believed had enough experience and trust to take on extra responsibilities and be the main heroes expected to show up for Akuma fights, leading to the current line-up: Rena Rogue, Carapace, Viperion, Pegasus and Vesperia (who was currently battling a terrible cold).

Argos stood tall above the recovering heroes, the dark blue shades of his face alight with a sneer. "I was watching how badly you were buggering it all up and decided someone needed to do their job right."

Chat Noir rolled his eyes but didn't think it worth making a rebuttal. Instead, he slipped down the side of the hydra, watching the minions swarm around its legs, and thrusted his staff forward like a spear to knock them away. Felix had come a long way since his days of pretending to be Adrien in order to ruin his social relations, he'd put Argos' villainous debut behind him and strived for a better life. However, he was still Felix. And ultimately, as the London folk would put it, Felix was a bit of a prat.

"Save the disparaging remarks for when we're in the clear." Ladybug said gruffly, peering down at the spotted wand in her hand; still no closer to figuring out her lucky charm. "Somehow this is the key to getting the akuma…"

Argos shrugged, "Maybe it's just telling you where the akuma is."

"We already knew where the akuma was." Chat paused to deliver the mother of all golf swings on a card monster that was trying to climb up the Hydra's tail. "The lucky charm wouldn't tell us what we already know."

A beep echoed from the three's miraculous weapons. Ladybug nodded at Chat and Argos to continue holding the army of paper cuts at bay as she flipped open her yoyo, hoping for at least some good news from Alya. "Please tell me there's no more missing limbs."

"Everything's accounted for," Rena sounded breathless, as if she were on the verge of coughing up a lung. "We fixed Pegasus. He'll have us over there in a jiff."

Ladybug hesitated to ask, staring down at her bug phone curiously. "You fixed Pegasus?"

Viperion coughed, quietly adding "With duct tape."

Pegasus' icon appeared on her screen; his voice strained. She imagined he was fighting back a poor stomach. How did vomiting even work when your head was- Nevermind. "I was not ready for today."

Surprisingly, Carapace's icon popped up too, but all that came out was chewing noises. Yeah, Ladybug thought, none of them were.

"You can't stall the show forever, Cretins." Magni's shrill cry broke through the white noise of skittering paper with ease. "A true magician never runs out of tricks; I can outlast any of your feeble efforts. This wand's power has cemented the one and only Magnificent Magni as the world's most powerful magician!"

As if to emphasize his boast, he a ripped a saw blade out of his hat, launching it directly at where Chat was hanging from one of the hydra necks. Digging his heels into the sentimonster's side, Chat barely had enough time to launch himself skyward, narrowly avoiding the deadly throw. The hydra wasn't as lucky, the saw cutting directly through the neck and decapitating it. "This guy just never shuts up, does he?" Chat whined; landing ass-first next to Argos.

"You have no room to complain, Alley Cat." There was a bit more bite to Argos' voice, glaring down at where the left hydra head used to be. The fallen head, instead of turning to dust or keeling over, roared in pain, but still managed to move about, slivering around the battlefield like a snake and chomping down on anything that got in its way.

Chat looked on with a small pout, "I thought hydra heads were supposed to grow back."

Argos narrowed his eyes, "I'm sorry, is my mythical sentimonster not as cool as your non-existent one?"

"Bugaboo," Chat called, ignoring Argos' glare. "How are we on that Ladybug master plan?"

Ladybug fell silent and still, the only movement being the beating of her heart and the shifting of her gaze as she tried to focus on all factors at play. They needed to get the wand. It's the source of Magni's power. It makes him feel like the most powerful magician in the world. He likes grand displays. She has a fake wand. She had miraculous heroes. She has… She has…

"I have a plan!" She laughed in triumph, but only briefly before her features sharpened into a focused stare. "Rena, when you guys get here, I need you on me. Everybody else hold back our rigged deck."

Argos scoffed, "That's it? We're just going to overwhelm him with numbers and steal the wand by force? I was expecting something more complex."

Ladybug shook her head, "No, we're not going to take the wand. He's going to give it to us."

Rena perhaps took the phrase 'I need you on me' a tad literal as a portal opened above Ladybug's head two minutes later, spitting out Rena like a bad cough and leaving her to collapse atop Ladybug. The portal closed, then re-opened beside them. Then sputtered and closed again, this time opening behind Magni. Then under a monster. Then sucking up a tree. Until finally Viperion, carrying a bunny with a familiar green shell on his shoulder, and Pegasus, looking like a mummy made of duct tape, rushed through.

Pegasus keels over, breathing deeply. "I'm sorry, it's hard to aim the portals right when my head keeps tumbling off!"

Ladybug shivered at the thought, spluttering to yell out to Viperion. "Activate second chance, now!"

Two seconds flashed before Ladybug's eyes as Viperion called out his power. He was frozen for that last second, a possible lifetime passing before his eyes before his head suddenly reeled back with a jolt, exhaustion materializing in an instant. "Watch out for the squirrel."

The fact that he said it so sternly, as if he were scolding a child, made Ladybug flush with embarrassment.

She shook off the shame and pulled Rena aside, leaving the rest of the heroes to hold off the paper army while she explained her planning. With Rena's abilities, Ladybug conjured up a magic show of her own, holding aloft her pokadot wand for Magni to see as she spat out massive serpents and warped the surrounding environment to her whims. Such power granted to her by her superior wand. Clearly, her wand made her immensely more powerful than his wand. Why, she'd even be willing to trade hers for his. After all, her wand doesn't need that pesky akuma to power it.

The only hitch in her plan came when Chat Noir's staff caught her foot mid-step as she moved towards Magni, alerting her to the, as Viperion's warning foretold, the squirrel she was about to step on and trip over. A fall that probably would have had her dropping her wand, allowing Magni to take it without giving up his own.

With her partner's quick save, the way forward was clear and soon enough Magni's wand was in her possession. Realizing the deception as Rena Rogue's illusions disappeared in a puff of smoke, he lurched forward, desperately grabbing for the want. However, he was too late as Ladybug snapped it in half and… Nothing. Magni's transformation returned to good old stuttering Melvin, the day was saved, miraculous ladybug fixed Pegasus and Carapace, but no akuma rose from the wand.

"W-What happened? I can't be here! I have a show to do, you know." Melvin's face, beet red and sweating bullets, looked ready to explode in panic. Quickly, Ladybug crouched down to steady the man before he hit the dirt, smiling widely as him as she slowly led him towards the nearest bench.

"You were akumatized. Don't worry, nobody was hurt."

"Oh no, I'm… I'm so sorry. This show was a disaster. I messed everything up, I'm ruined!"

Ladybug patted him on the shoulder. "As a professional clutz in my own time, trust me when I say that you can bounce back from this. Just, try to be more careful." After a pause, Melvin sighed with a short nod. "Good, now the police will be here soon to ask you some questions and make sure nothing's wrong. So, sit tight, okay?"

She moved away, back towards the centre of the park, letting loose a sigh of her own as she frowned at the crumbled wand in her hand.

"Another false butterfly, huh?" Viperion grumbled, the rest of the heroes crowding around the scene.

"That's the third one this week." Chat crouched down, peering at Ladybug's hand from the underside, as if that would tell him anything new. "The old Hawkmoth never did anything like this."

Carapace, slumped against a tree as he observed that he had apposable thumbs again, spoke low and woozy. "Why would he? It's not like being a fake gave the akuma any new tricks, right? Worked the same way, went down the same way."

"He's got a point." Pegasus slowly nodded, fearing his head would tumble again if he were too vigorous. "In fact, these fake akumas seem like a downgrade since Ladybug doesn't even need to purify them."

Ladybug sighed, "Well, the new Hawkmoth isn't as experienced as the old one. Maybe they just haven't developed their power yet."

"I don't think so," Rena interjected, fingers squeezing her chin as her face scrunched up in that journalistic pondering look that was so completely Alya. "There's been a few rumours going around Paris. Real shady, underground stuff."

"About?"

Rena reached into her pocket, pulling out her communicator to show off a chain of text messages with her 'informant'. "People have been saying there's a new black market for the criminal underworld; someone selling people superpowers."

"Whoa, selling superpowers?" Carapace's eyes widened.

Rena shrugged, putting her messages away, sharing a fearful look with Ladybug. "Don't have much evidence yet, but I'm starting to wonder if maybe it's connected to the false butterflies."

"A portable akuma you could store in an object and save for a rainy day? Maybe even with the benefit of not coming with a forced deal with the butterfly user. That doesn't sound implausible." Ladybug chewed on the end of her nails through the fabric of her spandex, feeling a fresh cold chill tug at her. She could feel it in her bones, Alya's reporter instincts were onto something, and it was only going to get worse. Hawkmoth usually targeted regular civilians, people who were emotional, but not dangerous in of themselves. Now, this new Hawkmoth might be putting powers into the hands of genuinely dangerous criminals.

"I'd buy that for a dollar." Chat muttered before pushing himself to his feet. "So, we're thinking Melvin bought an akuma? He didn't seem to know what was going on, and he's not exactly a good actor."

"Or someone could have bought it to use on him." Viperion spat out, the disdainful thought making for a bitter taste on Ladybug's tongue even though she wasn't the one to voice it. The idea of someone forcing an akuma onto another as some form of prank or revenge, it just wasn't right. "Or someone bought it and accidentally let it loose."

Carapace looked like he was going to throw up, though Ladybug was sure that was due to him still feeling dizzy. "Dude, anyone could have one. It's like everyone just got a bomb in their pocket."

Ladybug shook her head. "And none of them know how to use it properly." She took a moment of silence, pushing down at all those doubts and fears gnawing at her stomach, trying to find it in herself to smile. "We'll see if we can find any leads. In the meantime, you guys all did some good work today, even if we were dealing with some… Unusual circumstances."

"I feel like I missed most of it…" Carapace muttered with a dejected frown.

Chat was quick to jump over to him, pulling the boy to his feet with a shining smile. "Hey, it happens. Most of my career is getting taken out by the akuma, remember? If you didn't take that hit, we might not have known it could have happened in the first place! Then Magni would have gotten the drop on us."

Ladybug did not have any trouble smiling at her kitty. There had been a definite shift in her partner since Monarch's defeat, a certain earnest and upbeat energy, one no longer held back by the need to impress the audience in his head. He no longer held his eager and infectious joy to himself, he let it be free to lift up those around him. Perhaps part of it was the introduction of more regular heroes, a new sense of responsibility to not let them fall down the same pitfalls of self-neglect he used to put himself through when he thought he wasn't good enough.

"Chat's right, even our cuter moments can serve to teach us something." The day Monarch died was the day a great weight lifted from both Ladybug and Chat Noir, and not even the new Hawkmoth could take that from them.

"Besides," Rena giggled, leaning into Carapace to cradle his head against her chest. "I personally thought you made for an excellent bunny."

Seeing the happy couple embrace one another, Ladybug turned to address Argos. "Also, I know you weren't called in, but you were a big he-" Only Argos, as well as his senti-monster, were no where to be seen. Somehow, they had been so wrapped up in their discussion they hadn't noticed him leaving. "And he didn't even stay to hear the team meeting. Great. Just great."

She wasn't going to growl out a few unlady-like words at Felix's expense, this just being another instance to add onto his pattern of rude and dismissive behaviour regarding the team, but Chat's gentle hand clasping her shoulder managed to keep her calm. "Argos has always been a bit aloof. Let's just be happy he's making an effort, huh? He did save our butts after all."

"It wouldn't kill him to make friends with the teammates he's trusting with his life." She pouted.

Chat laughed. "I dunno, Felix seems like the type of guy who might combust if he makes nice with others too much."

Later, Ladybug and Chat found themselves returning to the park, victory ice cream in hand as they sat down on a bench. Her date with Adrien was officially cancelled, the restaurant she picked for the perfect date had closed down after the akuma attack, her destroyed dress hadn't been restored by the miraculous ladybug and apparently Adrien had some family matters suddenly come up anyway. Was it selfish to say this is why she was going to be so happy that they'd start being able to delegate akuma stuff to other heroes soon? It probably was. Don't think about it, she shook her head, focus on the ice cream. The delicious, ship-heavy ice cream that allows you to tolerate Andre blatantly ignoring your insistence that you're already in a relationship.

"You never told me how it went down." There was enough an edge to Chat's voice despite the chipper tone to make Ladybug's head snap back to look at him. "You never talked about it at all after the press conference."

His eyes weren't on her, they were looking up, alerting her to the figure that loomed over them. The sight made her heart stop, kicking every flight-or-fight response into high gear, and yet she couldn't help but stare.

Gabriel Agreste, his image preserved in stone, stared back.

It was her first time seeing the statue in all it's stolen glory. She knew about it, she'd watched the press conference about the funds being diverted to erect it, she'd heard Adrien mention it now and then, but she'd never seen it. She actively avoided it. It was a twisted, sinister, cunning little display that held such a devilish meaning for her alone.

"You never asked." She said, her lips drawn tightly, her voice quiet and the taste of ice cream now a numb, irritating flavour.

The day the city informed Ladybug that they were planning to build it, that they were so moved by the heroic tale she told of the late Agreste patriarch who bravely sacrificed himself in her stead to give her the opportunity she needed to finish Monarch off that they needed to commemorate it in the same fashion they celebrated her and Chat Noir; it had taken all of her willpower not to vomit. When everyone else sat in front of this statue, they saw a hero, they saw a celebration of the day that evil lost.

They didn't know that the evil – whether Monarch, Shadowmoth or Hawkmoth – was the very man they lionized.

Now that she sat in front of it, the detailed carving of his eyes almost looking to mock her pathetic façade, all she could see was her failure. On that day, evil did not lose, evil didn't even defeat her, the terror of Paris got everything he wanted, and she let him. She helped him. She lied for him and let him be hailed as a hero, one on par with her partner. All while trapping herself in a prison where she couldn't point out how despicable the display was without revealing her own shame.

"Just means I'm polite, doesn't mean I don't wanna know." He had his back curling over the rim of the bench, managing to exude a relaxed aura despite the strained topic. As if staring up at the statue was enough to fuel him with optimism. "You always seemed kind of spooked after all that, which I can understand. Still have a hard time believing he's really gone."

She'd only spoken publicly about that final battle once, the day after it happened. After that, she never uttered a word about it, never spared a thought for it until it was shoved in her face. That conference would have been, what, about- Oh. It hit her. "Has it really been a year already?"

It's the anniversary of Hawkmoth's defeat, she realized. Not just that, she thought with a self-deprecating groan, it's the anniversary of Gabriel's death. Of course, Adrien had family matters to attend to, he's probably still mourning! How could she have been so insensitive, trying to badger him for a date on such a day? She lies to him, keeps secrets from him and then punishes him for following her thoughtlessness. She really was the worst.

"Time flies, M'lady." Chat, ever her life preserver, pulled her out of her self-flagellation with a chuckle, completely unaware of the storm of emotions thundering through her.

She ran her fingers over her face, pushing the tips past her brow and flattening her sweat-glazed fringe. "And now I suddenly feel old." Marinette Dupain-Cheng was a young adult now, she was graduating soon enough, she'd been in the superhero game for four years now; and she still felt like she was that shivering 14 year old whose biggest problems were Chloe and school.

"Don't be like that, Bugaboo; our adulthood's just starting." Said Chat, bumping his ice cream against hers as melted clumps dripped down her fingers. "You sure you won't spill a little?" He looked at her with those big, shimmering eyes holding that delicate, primal innocents that only animals were capable of. It made it hard not to break down and confess it all to him right there, but then again, it made it much harder to confess it all as well.

Why didn't she tell Chat Noir? That was the question Tikki asked her, the question Marinette had asked herself. After all this time, she still didn't know the answer. Out of all people, Chat Noir was the one person she should be telling the most. She trusted him more than her friends, her family, even Adrien. He was her partner, her equal, who had been in this game from the start right alongside her. She knew how much he felt like a sidekick, like a lesser hero, that every secret she kept from him was like acid seeping into his soul.

"How cool did Bugnoire look? Did you really take on an akumatized army all by yourself? How funny did Monarch look when you cleaned house?"

It's not like she hadn't tried, hadn't been close. She had her bug phone out, a fresh and very clear-cut informative message to Chat Noir all typed out the moment she confirmed Hawkmoth's identity; but she never sent it. And she didn't know why. Maybe she just wanted it to be done with, maybe she feared Chat would go after Nathalie, the only close family Adrien had left, for being Mayura. Perhaps it was as simple as forgetting, that by the time she remembered what he didn't know it was too late to tell him without consequences.

Chat was staring at her now, his eyes reflecting the weariness that was weighing down her expression. "Did… Uh, Gabriel Agreste do anything cool?"

Ladybug sighed, "It's over, do the details really matter?"

It broke her heart the way his whole body seemed to deflate at that, but she any comfort she could provide came at too high a price. "I guess not. I just…" He brandished what remained of his cone like a sword, lazily jabbing at the air. "I always thought I'd be by your side to see old Hawky go down. Get to lay down one last one-liner. You know, get some closure."

Question after question, just piling on the pressure on her shoulders, adding to the white noise threatening to burst her ears. It almost seemed cold for a moment, relentless as if Chat Noir knew what she was holding back and intentionally trying to hammer in her sins. All because of a little lie, a lie that, when she thought about it, was quite simply harmless.

"He's dead, buried and we'll never see him again." She snapped, only realizing how harsh her tone was when she saw how it made Chat's entire body jolt. Breathless, she quietly, desperately added "What more do you need?"

Really, she rationalized, the details were unimportant. Does it matter if she dropped a piano on Monarch's head? Does it matter which part of the house the fight ended in? Does it matter how Monarch died? He was dead. He wasn't a threat anymore. He meant nothing anymore. It wouldn't change anything for the better if she revealed some missing context. In fact, the details weren't just needless, they were detrimental to everyone, not just her.

When she really thought about it, everyone benefited from this; everyone was happy to have another hero to celebrate – morale was better with a 'redemption' story from Paris' famous recluse with a rough social reputation. Adrien? He got his father back. He no longer had to doubt the love his father had for him, or the better nature hiding under that stoic and pompous exterior. He got to make peace with his father's death. One little lie and everything is made easier. Why, if she'd told the truth, everything would be worse.

Adrien… Adrien would be devastated. His father, a villain who preys upon and manipulates his emotions? Him, a product of a miraculous? Marinette would think of all the questions Adrien would be left with, all the baggage tearing him apart, all the memories that would be tainted by this truth. She was protecting him. She was doing it for Adrien, not Gabriel, not herself, but for the boy who deserved to have a happy ending.

She loved him. She wanted to do what was best for him, to protect him and show him how much he deserves. What was wrong with that? What could ever be wrong with that?

Well, clawing at her raw nerves until she angrily unloaded on her innocent partner was a start.

She gasped Chat's hand, his body instinctively leaning in to lean against her, to seek her comfort. Her voice shook as she spoke. "…Sorry, I didn't mean to snap."

He nods, "I know."

She finds herself resting her chin against his forehead, burying her face in the comfort of Chat's wild hair. "I just want to get past all of 'this'. You know?" She waves her hand around in a gesture even she didn't fully understand.

Soon enough, his hands break free and take her by the shoulders, lightly pushing her away so she could look at him. His smile was small, but genuine, with an additional edge she couldn't identify. "Hey, no worries. I won't pry." A light hiss escapes his lips as he looks down to Ladybug's lap, realizing that, in the half-hearted embrace, he'd dropped his cone into her lap. "I know I can be a bit of nuisance."

Ladybug didn't have to think before acting, her protective instincts kicking in and pushing her hands into action. She took his head in her hands, letting her fingertips brush his hair out of the way, their eyes meeting with shared weariness. "You're not a nuisance. You're the number one partner in Paris, and right now, I just want to focus on how I'm lucky to still have you here."

In her early years, Marinette couldn't imagine getting this close to Chat Noir, even as her more confident super hero identity, without collapsing into a blushing fit. Today, Ladybug leaned in and kissed her kitty's cheek as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Fighting Hawkmoth without you there to back me up, that's a whole lot of bad memories."

The simple action brightened up Chat's face to near blinding levels, and in turn that simple look brought a beaming grin to Ladybug's lips as well. "You deserve to know everything, but I just… Can't right now."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. Take however long you need." His face was so eager, so innocent, so completely trusting of the woman in front of him. It made his next words even harder for Ladybug to swallow without choking on them. "I know that if it was something important, good or bad, you'd tell me, right?"

Chat thankfully didn't notice how quickly Ladybug need to turn away from him gaze to answer, that her eyes found solace in only the mocking expression of the statue above them in the dead eyes of the late Gabriel Agreste. Because looking into Chat's eyes, it was so much harder to come up with excuses.

"You're my one and only partner, Chat; I wouldn't lie like that. I'd trust you with anything."

Ladybug hated magicians, all they did was lie to you and make you look like an idiot. All they did was make false promises of a better world.

Miraculous Paris, 2021 – One Year after the Breach

When Gabriel stood before the visage of Gimi, the weaver of reality itself, he knew his heart had decided on Nathalie. Leading up to that fateful encounter, he'd never stopped to consider who he'd sacrifice for his wish, nor how he would word it to incorporate saving Nathalie's life as well. It was one of those 'cross that bridge when we get there' sort of moments, made under the assumption that he'd have time to think it over before he unified Tikki and Plagg.

Instead, he found his body rotting before his very eyes and his greatest enemy on the cusp of rendering years of sacrifice and plotting pointless. Instead, he found a moment of weakness, where he allowed Marinette's words to pierce his defences and distract him from his purpose. He spent years so sure of himself, building up all the justifications and excuses that protected him from considering his actions in any greater light. And she undid it all in a matter of seconds. Perhaps it was aided by his own approaching doom, but he had to begrudgingly credit the girl for that.

So, his wish became not to undo the past, but to preserve the present. Not to sacrifice a life, but to save one, to save one that was dearer to his heart than he'd ever care to admit, to save Adrien from losing another mother. In that moment, his heart had betrayed him and told Gimi that he wished to save Nathalie from the broken Peacock's curse, paying the price by having the miraculous' wounds transferred onto him instead.

At least, that's what he made peace with by the end. However, pressed against a cold wall in his basement, very much alive and feeling; perhaps his heart had betrayed a more sinister wish.

The worst part is that such a possibility didn't sound as reaching as it should. That he could believe that he'd sub-consciously think of a trick wish that would save him from his judgement while also giving the illusion he died to satisfy the populus without ever being aware of such a ploy. That he was such a gutless, selfish schemer to his core that his survival instincts could outsmart his own plans.

He felt his head throb with a phantom pain, the weight of his questions squeezing his brain harder than any alcoholic vice of his youth. "I need to get to the surface," He spoke his thoughts out loud, some part of him hoping he'd hear Nooroo respond. "There is little inspiration in the darkness other than phantoms and demons. Some light will make it easier to think."

However, it wasn't his own strength that pushed him off the wall. A distant, thunderous roar that reverberated through the foundations of the mansion above. It was too faint to tell if it was mechanical or animalistic, the volume carried by the force which shook the walls, the akin to a plane passing overhead. The ground trembled beneath him, and before he could react, the force of it shoved him forward.

In that moment he was deprived of poise, stumbling for balance, but ultimately feeling his knees give way to meet the floor once more. He was sure he had hit his head on the way down as well. That was the only way to explain how, when he lifted his head to peer into the darkness ahead, he found something else staring back.

A figure loomed over him, the body was a pulsating purple visage where all details of expression were wiped away, smooth curves where the eyes, nose and mouth should be with large butterfly wings at its back. It reminded him of the mannequin he'd use to demonstrate his designs.

He knew it wasn't there, not because it wasn't possible, but because it wasn't there. The darkness did not react to the light shimmering through its ethereal outline, his eyes felt nothing from the blinding glow, it did not inhabit the world around it, it was a cutout, a stock image imposed over reality. It wasn't there.

The phantom raised its right arm, each movement sluggish, limp and delayed. A marionette being tugged on by strings rather than bones working in tandem. It pointed away from itself. And despite not feeling himself move, Gabriel's gaze found himself looking in a new direction. A crystal, wrapped in putrid vines and rubble, lit up a little corner of the room. It pained Gabriel to look at it, parts of it, thin root-like tendrils, stabbed into the wall. The crystal was there.

A voice called to him, hearing it like it was his own thoughts. He'd felt it there, in the back of his mind, before, but he couldn't identify it. All he knew was that every word from it seemed to drop a curtain of fog over his mind, narrowing his vision to a mental tunnel.

"Gabriel. Our work isn't done."

Without thought, his body moved.

"Gabriel. You need to survive."

Without fear of one wrong step casting him into the river below, the phantom marionette's strings pulled him through the darkness.

"Gabriel. You need to evolve."

Without purpose, his body was dropped at the foot of the cocoon.

"Gabriel. I'm waiting for you."

Without reason, he reached out to the clear plane of crystal before him, finding the perfect spot between the vine knots to press his palm flat against it.

The surface parted around his touch, as if it was flinching in fear before easing back into his palm. It was solid, but weak, a cold piece of fractured ice sinking into the water as you press down onto it. He could feel something pulling him further, the glow of the crystal taking up more and more of his vision, giving the impression he was sinking into it.

Then something shifted behind the glow. Suddenly it was not crystal, but glass, a window. And in that window, Gabriel saw a dark shape.

"Awaken. Unified again."

He saw a hand rising from the darkness, lunging forward for his own, only to find itself crashing against the window. With the hand came an arm, and soon enough the shape of a small body formed, pressing itself against its crystal cage.

Dull white slits formed on the shape's face, a pale wound opening into wide, pleading pupilless eyes. The delicate ovals shifted radically, their gaze darting around Gabriel, trying to make sense of their surroundings as fear and panic formed in uneven, scribbled lines. Unfortunately, it seemed that, just like him, the figure could make no sense of their surroundings, of their continued existence. Their panic only ceased when their eyes finally focused on Gabriel, the sole anchor of substance to this unknown new world.

And their eyes narrowed in recognition, in anger, in venom.

"We can't let them win. You must run, Hawkmoth."