Alya sat on Marinette's chaise, fingers curled around the fabric of the sofa. "I'm- I'm sorry. I don't know how, but I must've messed up. He figured out I was Scarabella almost immediately, and because of that, he got his hands on the Ladybug Miraculous."
Marinette put an arm around her friend. "I know you did your best. Besides, Kitty Noire had the same problem, it wasn't just you." She paused. "Though… did you tell anyone? Like Nino?"
Alya bit her lip. "No. I wanted to, it hurt keeping it from him, but… I didn't tell him anything." She looked up at Marinette. "I honestly have no clue how Monarch figured out mine and Kitty's identities."
She knew how important keeping identities secret was, knew how risky it was to tell someone else, but… it still hurt, having to lie to Nino, even just by omission. Her family had always championed open, honest communication as the key to good relationships, to solving most problems. If you were honest with yourself about your own wants and needs, and honest with the other person about what you were feeling and thinking when you did whatever you're disagreeing over, most things could be worked out. It was why she always pushed Marinette to be honest with herself about her own feelings and reasons for doing things - she wanted her friend to be happy, both with herself and her relationships.
"I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually," Marinette reassured her, though Alya wasn't sure whether she was trying to convince her, or herself. "I'm just glad you're okay."
Alya gave her a small smile, before looking down at her hands again. "I just… I wanted to help, somehow. I mean, all of us do, that's why we joined the Resistance, but…"
But she'd had the opportunity to keep things from being as bad as they were. If she hadn't insisted that Marinette take back the Fox Miraculous, if she had kept it like Ladybug had told her she could, then Monarch wouldn't have had that tool in his arsenal.
Then Monarch wouldn't have had Trixx.
"You have helped," Marinette told her. "You did brilliantly as Scarabella." She placed her hand over Alya's. "It's Monarch's fault, no one else's."
Alya let out a sigh. Intellectually, she knew that. She'd told Marinette similar things anytime she was feeling insecure over her own abilities, like she'd failed somehow. But it was harder to believe it when it was herself.
"AKUMA ALERT, AKUMA ALERT," Alya's alliance ring sounded.
"I- I've got to go," Marinette told her apologetically.
Alya nodded. "I know you do, girl. Go."
Marinette smiled back at her. "Tikki, Spots On!"
As she was exiting the hatch door, Ladybug paused. "Were you wearing your Alliance when you went out as Scarabella?"
Alya blinked. "Yes, why?"
Ladybug bit her lip. "Maybe it's nothing, but… I wore a friend's Alliance once by accident, and it logged just how far I'd traveled as Ladybug during that time, and where exactly I went – which were impossible speeds for most humans. It's one of the reasons I haven't gotten an Alliance, in case Monarch or anyone else was able to get ahold of that info somehow and use it to figure out who I was."
"That would require Monarch to be specifically monitoring the Alliance system though," Alya pointed out. "I mean I'm sure he could make an akuma to do that, but they couldn't be active all the time. Either that, or he'd need to have some sort of special privileges that would allow him to get into the system, or be an elite hacker."
"I know it's unlikely, but… just to be safe…"
The akuma alert sounded again. "I have to go," Ladybug said.
Alya smiled. "Kick his ass!"
Ladybug nodded before leaving, for real this time.
Alya stared at her Alliance ring. It was a long shot, but… could Ladybug be right? Pulling out her phone (she suddenly didn't trust her Alliance as much as she once did), she gave Max a call. "Hey, once this akuma's taken care of, mind if I come over? There's something I'd like you to check for the Resistance."
"There's definitely something weird about this Alliance," Max said, looking at the readings his laptop was getting from the plugged-in ring. Thankfully the school librarian didn't mind students talking with each other, so long as they kept it as a reasonable volume. "I examined the specs for it thoroughly when it was first released. It has everything it says it should have, but this-" he tapped on the screen, showing some large number she didn't understand the significance of. "This is way bigger than it should need."
She frowned. "What is it? And isn't that good? I mean, it's even better than expected then, right?"
Max adjusted his glasses. "Theoretically yes, but the fact that this wasn't reported in any of the specs or advertising… large corporations aren't exactly known for their charity. It doesn't make sense to hide something that could potentially be used to help shill the rings, unless there's some purpose to it that they don't want customers to know."
She nodded. She'd sooner trust in a company's greed than their generosity. "What is it, anyway?"
He sucked in a breath. "I'm… not entirely sure. It appears to be for information storage - like how your phone might have a few hundred gigabytes of storage, for instance - but it's closed off from the rest of the systems on the Alliance. There's nearly a terabyte of storage here that, as far as I can tell, isn't allowed to be used for anything."
"And it's empty right now?" Alya asked.
Max nodded. "It appears that way."
"Do you think something used to be there, but was deleted?"
He hummed. "I'm not sure."
"I can check for you!" Markov volunteered. "I've got some of the best data recovery programs available. I was talking with some of my other AI buddies and we decided to dig back up some damning info some major tech companies deleted from their files, see if we can build a case against them."
"Wait, WHAT?!" Max and Alya yelled.
Markov's eyes slid to the side. "Just forget I said that. For a few more months, at least." He blinked, looking at them straight-on again. "Anyway, point is, I don't think even Tsurugi tech could stand up to some of the tools I have. If you plug me into it, I can see whether there's anything you missed."
Max disconnected the ring from his laptop. "Just be careful, okay? I know you have really advanced programs - I built a lot of them - but we don't know what we're dealing with here. There could be some form of malware on it to deter this kind of investigation."
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," Markov assured his friend, reaching down with his 'hand' and plugging the ring into himself. "Let's see here… Oh!"
"What is it?" Max asked hurriedly.
"There does seem to be some way to access the storage, but it's not from any of the usual systems on the ring," Markov explained. "There's this weird program it's connected to that funnels data into the storage area, but the program seems to be waiting for information to get streamed to it? But not from the internet or phone signals or anything else that's usually used for this sort of thing. It's just sitting here waiting for-"
Markov seized up, going rigid.
"Markov!" Max shouted, reaching for the cord that connected his robot buddy to the ring.
"AKUMA ALERT, AKUMA ALERT," the school loudspeakers (and the ring) blared, startling Max and Alya.
"Now? Again?! Damn purple menace can't give us a break…" Alya mumbled.
Markov's face flickered and disappeared, the facial image being replaced by a fox tail.
The exact fox tail that was used as the symbol for the Fox Miraculous.
"Markov!" Max shouted. "What's going on?!"
"The data the program was looking for… it got sent," Markov said. It was disconcerting hearing him speaking without having a facial expression to connect it to. "I reached out to see what it was and… it's here. It's all in the storage area. But I still can't understand it or analyze it properly, the data almost seems to disappear when I try to look at it directly."
Alya's heart raced. Data received via non-normal means right as an akuma attack alert went out…? With a Fox symbol appearing on Markov's screen…?
"Markov, try saying 'Trixx, let's rest'," she said dazedly.
"Trixx, let's rest…?" Markov said, confused.
He glowed, orange light leaving his body, and condensing into-
"TRIXX!" Alya shouted, catching the little fox as he manifested - which was good, since he immediately started dropping to the ground, evidently exhausted by what he'd just gone through.
Her kwami blinked up at her, not seeming to even register her.
At first.
"...Alya…?" he rasped, his eyes focusing on her face at last.
She nodded, tears streaming down her face as she held him close, nuzzling him.
"ALYA!" he perked up, laughing and crying and nuzzling her right back.
Trixx was here, safe in her hands. Monarch couldn't use or abuse him anymore.
She hadn't failed him.
"Are you okay?!" she asked fervently, drawing back enough to look him over. "Has Monarch been feeding you enough? Did he hurt you?"
"He's only been feeding us guinea pig pellets!" Trixx complained. "That's it! For all of us! And he's got us locked away in these little glass containers, they're smaller than basketballs! We can turn around and that's it!"
Her heart ached for the little kwami. "Here, I've got something for you," she said, pulling a grape out of her fanny pack. He devoured it eagerly.
"Is that still good?" Max asked, concerned.
She nodded. "I put some fresh grapes in it this morning, just in case."
Of course the idea that she'd just suddenly recover Trixx unexpectedly was a long shot, but she couldn't keep herself from hoping.
It had paid off.
"You're Rena Rouge, aren't you?" Max asked.
She automatically opened her mouth to deny it… and then closed it. There was no point. Max was smart enough to see through any excuse she might give.
"Are you talking to a kwami?" Markov asked. "I can't see anything, but you two are both behaving like some other being is with you, like when Max meets up with Kaalki."
Alya blinked. "YOU'RE PEGA- actually you know what, that makes sense, given the other people I know she chose."
"You know who Ladybug chose?" Max asked.
"Forget I said that."
Max's eyes shifted to Trixx. "Would you be able to tell us who Monarch is?" he asked eagerly. "Or something else that could help us rescue Kaalki and the others?"
A momentary pang of guilt buried itself in Alya's chest. She'd been so overjoyed to reunite with Trixx, she'd forgotten about all the other kwamis left to be saved.
Trixx opened his mouth, but only bubbles came out. He shook his head. "Monarch's used me so I can't tell you who he is. He still counts as my wielder," he said miserably.
"But you can tell us where he lives, can't you?" Alya asked eagerly. Though thinking about it for a minute, if he kept them locked up, they may not actually know for sure. She deflated at the thought.
Trixx perked up. "That's right! His home is Chat Noir's home!"
"WHAT?!" she and Max screeched.
"I mean it's-" Trixx tried to explain. He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence.
Being pulled into a ring like it's a black hole will do that.
"No! Don't go!" she shouted, hugging Trixx tight to her chest as he stretched like spaghetti towards the Alliance ring.
He grit his teeth, pushing back as hard as he could, trying to stay with her. "I- I think you'll have to let go," he ground out. "I can't resist much longer and I don't know what'll happen to you if you're still holding me."
"I'm not letting you go!" she declared, holding on even tighter.
Whatever happened, so be it. She wasn't letting him go again. Not when she knew what he was returning to.
Slowly she started being pulled towards the Alliance as well, unable to muster up enough friction against the floor to stop herself.
Finally she hurtled forwards, the pull of the ring on Trixx sending her off her feet, and headfirst into the ring.
Literally into the ring.
It felt like she was being squeezed through a tube of toothpaste while barreling down a waterslide, with the added bonus of little shocks of what felt like static electricity pricking at her several times per a second.
Overall, not an experience she would recommend.
Either three seconds or thirty years later (she was pretty sure the three seconds was more accurate, but time felt wonky while in whatever-she'd-just-traveled-through), the tunnel-thing spat her out, still clutching Trixx.
"WHAT-?!"
The man, whoever he was, didn't get a chance to elaborate, as Alya promptly crashed onto his face.
She winced. His nose would be in pretty bad shape after this. Hopefully he wouldn't need surgery-
Oh. The man was Monarch.
Never mind.
She hoped his nose was broken in five different places and would never heal straight.
Thinking quickly, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, congratulating herself for making sure the case she bought for it was not only attractive, but highly protective. After all the effort she had to go through to "borrow" Sabine's phone while her own phone was broken back on the day when Monarch first stole the Miraculous (and about a million other things happened as well), she wasn't going to chance it getting broken by a simple drop anymore.
Seems it was also effective at protecting during digitization and travel over… the internet? The phone line?
She'd have to bump her four star review up to five stars.
"This just in," she announced, starting a livestream. "Alya Cesaire here, in Monarch's lair! He–"
"SILENCE!" he bellowed, stumbling to his feet. She ran away as far as she could. Which wasn't very far. Did this room even have doors?
He advanced, swinging his cane at her.
The metal bludgeoned her hands. Even with her attempting to maintain a vicelike grip on her phone, she couldn't keep hold of it any longer. It clattered to the opposite side of the room. She couldn't tell whether it was broken from here – the room wasn't exactly well-lit, was he allergic to light? – but even if it wasn't, she doubted he'd give her an opportunity to grab it.
"ALYA!" Trixx yelled, floating in front of her as if to shield her.
She clutched her hands to herself, wincing. She was gonna have some monstrous bruises on them after this, bare minimum. That was assuming nothing was broken, which she didn't think was a safe bet.
"Ladybug and Chat Noir will be here any minute now!" she yelled, trying to sound more confident than she actually was. "They'll kick your sorry ass!"
"Really?" he asked coldly, striding over towards… were those the other kwamis? Did he just buy the smallest fishbowls he could find and stick the kwamis in them? He smirked as he touched one of his rings to a fox symbol on one of the containers.
"No!" Trixx cried.
"Trixx, your power is now mine!"
Trixx disappeared into his… ring?
One of several rings it seemed. Each with a kwami symbol on it.
"What did you do to Trixx?!"
"Nothing he isn't used to," he said, waving her off. "He's a kwami, he's made to serve."
She wasn't surprised by his attitude. Monarch had never shown much concern for other people's right to autonomy or to make decisions for themselves. That didn't stop the deep wave of loathing from upwelling within her. Just dismissing a sentient being's right to self-determination because they were different from you… he was the worst sort of person.
"Now, what to do with you…" he mused. She backed away even more, aiming to get as far from him as possible. "Ziggy, your power is now mine!" he called out, touching a different ring to the goat kwami's container, sucking her into it.
"Genesis!" A cage appeared around her, complete with metal bars.
"Now just wait here quietly," Monarch purred. "All of this will be sorted out soon. Then I'll figure out what to do with you."
"You won't get away with this!" she declared, gripping the bars of the cage. "You won't be able to cover up my disappearance forever."
"My dear, who said anything about covering it up?"
Her heart sunk with dread.
He shot her a terrifying grin. "People won't look for you if they think you're already dead."