Chapter Text
Ladytaur detransformed after Tikki’s timer went out, but before that, Najaquus covered Noxapis’ eyes, “It’ll only be until my kwami recharges” Marinette told her, “We trust you but… you know how this is”
Juleka, who was a little calmer now but still crying, nodded. Later, Ladybug was the one covering the girl’s eyes when Najaquus detransformed. Kaalki was fine, but Sass looked very sick, his skin color was duller.
“I’ll be fine, but you won’t be able to wield me for a while. I’ll explain it later” he pointed at Juleka with his head.
After both heroes were recharged, they stayed in that beach for another while. None of them said anything, words suddenly were something too heavy and sharp, something that didn’t belong in there.
Soon it was night and the Milky Way could be seen in all of its glory.
They were in awe, Paris’ skies (and even Norway’s) were nothing compared to that. While they were sitting under the beauty of that unpolluted night, all the things that happened in Place Vendôme vanished from their minds; there was nothing but the sound of the wind and the lights of the galaxy they lived in.
Unfortunately, the three of them had to put their feet on the ground again quite abruptly when Sass whimpered in pain.
“Are you alright?” Kelpie asked him.
“I need more food, m-my favorite foodss esspecifically”
“I ran out of gummie snakes, do you have any with you, Ladybug?”
“No” and they hadn't bought tofu, so the only option left was eggs, and to get them they had to go back to their cabin. Ladybug covered Noxapis’ eyes again when they teleported to Norway, where some kwamis immediately took Sass to Luka’s bed, the poor thing was too weak to fly.
“Did you do that again?!” Xuppu asked, the snake kwami nodded.
“Oh my goodness! What happened this time?!” Ziggy covered her mouth as Mullo and Orikko opened the fridge so Barkk could take an egg.
“*Shush* he needs to rest right now” Wayzz whispered, “What about you, Stompp?”
“I was summoned during the last minutes of the battle and I don’t think these three would like to talk about it yet” he pointed at the teens with his head “You’ll have to wait to know”
In France:
Gabriel dropped the transformation right after Liam was de-akumatized. He couldn’t feel the shot wounds anymore, but there was a very strong lingering pressure in his chest, like he was suffering a pre-heart attack.
“Why… didn’t you tell me t-that this could happen?!” He growled on the floor.
“You never asked” Duusu shrugged with indifference, while Nooro hid behind him.
“Are there more things you are keeping from me?”
“Yes, but we can’t tell you most of those things unless you specifically ask about them, just like what happened today” Duusu continued.
“And f-for how long…*ugh* will this pain last?” he stood up slowly with a hand on his chest.
“Months”
“What?!” he made the butterfly kwami back off, trembling a little, while the peacock stayed calm, looking at him with a mocking smile.
“The bond between you and Liam was damaged and twisted by the closeness of death. You have to be alive and well in order to do magic properly, and Nooroo’s magic focused on keeping the stamina levels in Liam’s body the highest it could because Liam was using it too-”
“Are you saying that all the akumas I make are Nooroo’s wielders too?!” Now it made sense that Luka Couffaine and Nathaniel Kurtzberg could do as they pleased while akumatized with only really strong wills and emotions on their side.
“Sort of, transmission is a two-way street” the purple kwami meekly said “Since my magic was h-haywire before Ladybug purified the akuma, the bound to the soul of that young man wasn’t properly cut”
“But he died! *ugh*…” he winced, “And the akuma was p-purified!”
“Yes, but as Nooroo said, his magic was haywire so it stayed bounded to Liam’s soul even after the akumatized object was broken because the body said soul belongs to was still warm enough. Had it reached rigor mortis before purification, the bound would’ve been cut completely”
“So this means that…?”
“The pain that w-was transmitting the bond between you and Liam s-stayed there. And since said bond still exist, well… both of you will stay in pain, specially when you transform, until the b-bond finally vanishes. And that will take over a couple of months since Ladybug can only heal and purify bodies and physical things, a soul is something ethereal”
‘No, no, no! It can’t be!’ “B-But I can still make akumas, right?!”
“Yes, but they will be less strong since part of my magic is still bonded to Liam; they’ll also feel some of your current pain, so I don’t think they will be too agile either”
“Aaaand your pain will be even worse if you fuse with my miraculous to make sentimonsters. As I said, you need to be alive and well in order to do magic properly, especially when wielding two or more kinds of magic at the same time”
“And what if I take painkillers or something?!”
“Hhmmm… I guess it could work, but-”
Gabriel made them go back to their miraculous before leaving the room, limping, ‘I need a drink’
Some minutes later:
After recharging Kaalki once more and transforming into Barghallion when fusing with Barkk (so he wouldn’t detransform before they could retrieve the other miraculous), Luka teleported the three of them back to Paris; it was past 5:00 o´clock there. They went to the nearest empty alley from the Liberty, where the Couffaine sister de-transformed. She was way calmer now, but it was clear that her mind was still tormented by her painful death.
“Oh, my dear duchess!” Pollen hugged Juleka’s cheek, sobbing, “I’m so sorry you had to go through something like that. If only I could have blocked your pain…”
Since the first time Ladybug handed the hair comb to Juleka, the girl made clear that she didn’t want to be called queen because it reminded her of Chloé and, quote, if there was a queen around, that was Ladybug. That’s why the bee kwami decided to call her duchess.
Juleka didn’t say anything back, but petted the kwami’s head with her index.
“Will you be alright?” Barghallion refrained from hugging her again.
“… I guess… eventually…” she whispered.
“Do you need… something, anything?” Ladybug asked.
The girl just shook her head and walked out of there after handing the hair comb back.
Ladybug placed her hand on Barghallion shoulder, and he held it, looking from the corner of the wall how his sister ran into their mother’s arms, crying a little more as the woman hugged her back in worry as she asked what was wrong.
How he wished he could be there too.
Later, they were jumping on the roofs, directly to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. Previously, both heroes had told the others that, if something happened, and they could not retrieve the miraculous from them immediately after the battle, they had to go there and wait.
The temporary heroes were jumping from dome to dome, to avoid the cameras and journalists. After the permanent heroes arrived, the five teens ran to a roof with no people in the streets nearby. Ladybug took Byakko to another alley and Barghallion did the same with Délirenard, leaving Fáfnir to wait alone for his turn.
They went directly to Norway after retrieving the three miraculous and sending their friends home. At the cabin, Tikki, Kaalki, Pollen, Roarr, Trixx and Longg told the other kwamis what happened, leaving them wide-eyed and horrified.
Luka didn’t think he could hate Chat Noir even more, but after hearing from Pollen that both Chat and Juleka were sucked into Fáfnir’s tornado because the boy in black pushed her (and therefore was the reason she got impaled on the iron fence) the young musician was regretting not shooting Chat in the middle of his arm instead of giving him just a scratch with a bullet.
“We have to get the ring back as soon as possible” Marinette clenched her fists, “But before that, can you guys tell us why Sass got so… sick?”
“Look” Wayzz started, “A kwami using raw magic by themselves is one thing, but a kwami lending a wielder raw magic while transformed is another thing”
“Doing that hurt us since we push our magic to manifest in the tangible world, to manifest in a way our miraculous weren’t meant to use it” Tikki continued, “When you transform, our consciences go back to their ethereal state, to how we were before the miraculous were created and we acquired physical bodies”
“And since a soul can’t actually be harmed, the compressed molecules of our physical bodies stored in your miraculous are the ones that take the toll” Trixx finished the explanation.
“Oh Dear. And will Sass be alright?”
“Yes, guardian, but you won’t be able to use him for at least 3 months or his physical body will be destroyed, and his bracelet will lose its powers” Roar answered.
“Sass won’t really die, of course” Kaalki added “But he will go back to his ethereal state and I doubt the Order could find another sorcerer in this millennium, like the one who made our miraculous, to bring Sass back to the physical realm”
Luka walked up the stairs to his bed, were the snake kwami was resting. He gave him a weak smile after eating his egg “Hey…”
“Sass… I’ll forever be in debt with you” he cried “I don’t know how I will ever repay you-”
“You sssaved Juleka’s life, that’ss all that matterss”
Back at Paris:
Chat Noir had to steal a first aid kit from a pharmacy and run like hell to sneak into his house; all the people who saw him glared him daggers, cursed him or, worse, threw things at him. Even at some point the police tried to catch him.
Everybody was treating him as a criminal.
Adrien’s screams were muffled by the rolled shirt he was biting into as he burned the scratch on his shoulder with an iron he took from the laundry room. His father was a smart man, and it wouldn’t take long for him to figure out he was Chat Noir if he saw the bullet mark. Adrien just couldn’t wait for Ladybug to use lucky charm during the next akuma, he had a photoshoot tomorrow.
The boy cried even more when he poured ethyl alcohol on his burnt skin. When Adrien was done, he curled into a ball on his bathroom’s floor; that was the worst pain he had ever experienced in his life.
Now the only thing left was coming up with a story for his father when he saw his shoulder, ‘If only she had trusted me… the battle would have been shorter and none of this would’ve happened; now everyone must think I’m on Shadow Moth’s side’ “What am I gonna do?!... *sniff* Plagg you can talk again” he ordered him, “Do you have any ideas?”
The kwami remained in silence, glaring at him.
“Come on! One of your previous holders must have gone through something like this! The reputation of my real self is hanging from a thread!”
“… No. There’s no thread. What you did today made Chat Noir hit rock bottom reputation-wise, and no other holder of mine had gone through something like this, so I can’t give you ANY advice. You’re on your own, Agreste”
Adrien never thought he would feel shivers down his spine by being called by his surname, and there he was now. ‘I need to think… I have to think’
Friday, May 18th, early in the morning:
Neither of them did want to know anything about Paris for the rest of the day, unless an akuma attacked again. They ate, took a very long and very silent walk in the Norwegian forest and, when night came, Luka and Marinette just put on their pajamas and went right to bed; their bodies, their minds, even their souls were tired.
And yet, that didn’t stop the nightmares from coming. Luka woke up screaming that night 5 times and Marinette 4 times. The last time he did it was 7 AM and, instinctively, he embraced Marinette.
“Are you alright?” the girl asked him after he calmed down a little.
“Y-Yeah, it’s just that… no, I’m sorry, you already have your fair share of what-if-horrors in your head”
“It’s okay. You can talk to me”
He sighed, “In one of the timelines I erased yesterday… you and Kagami died” he held her tighter, “And I dreamed that I couldn’t use second chance and… some more things happened and everyone but me ended up dead”
Marinette ran her fingers through his hair, “You have no idea how I wish I could tell you everything will be okay, but without Sass for the next months… we’ll have to be really, REALLY careful”
They both fell asleep again; luckily, nothing else awoke them this time.
Neither felt like cooking that day, so they went to a restaurant in Sydney with no TV’s inside. It was 06:00 PM already in that time zone, so they couldn’t get what people call breakfast; but the farthest they could be from Europe, the better.
When they finished, they finally turned up the internet in their cellphones. Both knew it would be bad, but what they read in all those posts and articles really surpassed their expectations.
The videos of the last akuma attack seen from many different angles were all over the world. Chat Noir pushing Najaquus and later Noxapis, Juleka’s impalement, Ladybug shooting at the akuma and breaking down shortly after, Liam’s dead and bloody body on the floor, Najaquus shooting at Chat Noir. Also, according to the police report, Liam was now at a hospital in a catatonic state; doctors were waiting to see if he would get better by himself or if they would have to send Liam to a psychiatric ward.
The oceans of opinions and comments online could be divided in 4 kinds: the ones that were condemning Chat Noir’s actions, the ones that were suspecting the Cat “hero” had been siding with Shadow Moth all along, the ones that were worried about Noxapis and Liam’s wellbeing and the ones who were wondering what Ladybug would do at the next akuma attack now that using fire guns was an option on the table.
Some organizations (inside and outside of Europe) were using the incident for their own agendas. Among them, people that were pro gun-regulations and anti-police brutality in the USA were using Ladybug’s breakdown with quotes like ‘real heroes don’t enjoy killing’; and pro mental health organizations were using Liam as an example of not letting things go too far before seeking help.
What impacted Luka and Marinette the most was the press conference held up by France’s Prime minister, in which he declared Chat Noir as Persona Non Grata and an outlaw. Regardless of not having actual proofs of him allying with Shadow Moth, he had committed obstruction of justice and, given his actions, he was a danger to Paris.
The Prime Minister asked Ladybug and Kelpie to persecute him and bring him to justice.
“Holy shit” Luka whispered.
“Indeed”
“I mean, the cat deserves this, but… woah…”
“Yeah…” Marinette sighed, feeling a very distant pang of sorrow for the boy despite everything, remembering their first months together as a team, thinking she had a friend she could rely on during their battles against evil… But that boy was long gone, “Oh dear, how are we going to do this without Sass? Chat has the other most powerful miraculous on the face of the earth”
“Then we need a hell of a plan and a lot of help… especially help from adults who know the most about miraculous”
She gulped, “Do you really think the order will help us out like that?”
“I hope so. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We can’t keep them in the dark about Su Han forever either, and they could help Liam too”
“You’re right” she sighed.
A couple of hours later, at Agreste Manor:
The pain in his chest didn’t decrease at all, even with the highest non-threatening dose of painkillers.
The only way Gabriel could sleep last night despite the pain was after getting totally exhausted with the most agonizing hours of exercise in his entire life and not eating for the rest of the day.
That morning, nothing changed. Pain, pain, pain. But it didn’t compare to what he felt every time he transformed into Shadow Moth. The pain stored in the bond Nooroo and Duusu talked about was simply unbearable.
And that wasn’t it. When he tried to make an akuma for the first time after yesterday’s battle, flashes of images from inside a hospital obstructed his vision; it was Liam’s point of view — and said flashes appeared every time his pain peaked beyond the agonizing usual—, did that mean the young man could see HIS point of view with each peak of pain?
‘I need to dull the pain, and the bond could weaken along with it’ and for that, he needed something stronger than painkillers “Let’s try with dexketoprofen”
A while later at Paris:
‘Dammit, why did that had to happen on a Thursday?’
Every time Juleka fell asleep, it wasn’t long before the nightmares attacked again, nightmares about her bleeding rivers. She woke her mom up 3 times that night. ‘Mom has been through a lot, she deserves to rest’ Juleka thought after her latest nightmare and decided to stay awake.
Juleka had to sit on her bed for a little while before leaving, summoning courage for the day, ‘I have to face this, whether I like it or not. It’s only for one day, then I can burry my head in the ground for the weekend’ “Thank goodness I’m not on my period” seeing blood again that soon was the last thing she needed.
During all that morning, the poor girl flinched with every loud sound, kept herself away from anything too pointy made of metal (even forks made her feel uncomfortable). The talking was the worst, the classrooms, the hallways, every time they could the students talked about yesterday’s akuma, making her relive what happened. If Juleka focused enough, she could feel the iron fence impaling her chest again.
“Are you okay?” Rose asked her during lunch, snapping her out of another reliving.
“Y… Yes, don’t worry. It’s just… I saw Noxapis in the news” she lied “It was so… so…”
“Yeah, I still can’t believe they have been showing the video of Noxapis bleeding, uncensored in all of France’s news” Nathaniel commented.
“I guess the police wants people to take this seriously” Kagami said, “I mean, even more than before. No more people risking their safety to get videos of battles, thinking Ladybug can just will them to life with no consequences. Just look at what happened to that Liam Rosseau guy”
“Do you really think Ladybug would shoot someone again?” Rose put her hands on her chest.
Kagami just shrugged. Every one who fought in that battle yesterday was very tense. And not being able to vent about it, even a little, made it worse. Still…
“Do you guys think… the new temporary heroes would fight again?” Marc asked nervously and Kagami turned to face him, after all, she knew he was the new dragon hero since their fight against Phanuel “I mean… I wouldn’t blame Noxapis if she doesn’t show up to an akuma fight again-”
“You wouldn’t?” Juleka asked him with wide eyes.
“Of course not. What happened to that poor girl was just… too much… coming back from death after agonizing like that” he hugged himself “But the others… w-what would you think about them if none of them shows up?”
A heavy silence fell on them. They already knew Ladybug’s work was something serious, but now they and the rest of the world could finally see how incredibly dark things could get for a hero.
At different points since yesterday’s akuma, the teens couldn’t help but wonder how the hell Chat Noir could be so reckless when he knew well that meant dying over and over again. Then again, after yesterday, they all learn the was something deeply wrong with that boy’s psyche.
“Byakko would” Kagami broke the silence, clenching her fists on her knees “Something tells me she would, I don’t think she would abandon Ladybug. I mean, I’m not saying the bee heroine is a coward, her situation is different; but if we talk about Byakko… you know what I mean”
“Yeah… she seems like the type that doesn’t give up” Nathaniel smiled, “And something tells me that Délirenard will show up too”
The mood lightened up a little for most of them. On the other hand, that conversation got Juleka fighting back some tears, she was deeply moved by her friends’ understanding. That also got her deep in thought.
She was so glad that her friends wouldn’t think less of her masked alter ego, regardless of her choice. Still… ´Would I wield Pollen’s miraculous ever again if I’m asked?´
At the miraculous order’s temple:
Telling them what happened to Su Han caused a big commotion among the men, but the one caused when they learn about the events during their latest battle was even bigger and louder. Now all the high ranked members of the order and the two wielders were sitting in a circle on the floor of a big room. Once again, the kwamis translated everything.
“*I have to admit it, I would be so mad at you right now for not taking the ring back at that moment if it wasn’t by the fact that your countdowns had already stared after defeating the akuma. There was nothing left to do*” the second in charge sighed.
“So… what should we do now?” Luka asked.
“*I’ll be straight with you, kids. Without Sass, taking the ring back will be extremely difficult. One thing is repairing and bringing back objects destroyed by Cataclysm… but that power wasn’t meant to be used on living beings*”
The two teens gulped hard when their kwamis translated that, having a vague idea of what was coming next.
“Living creatures and humans touched by cataclysm will be charred and turn to ashes” continued another member of the order “If a person is wearing an active Miraculous, cataclysm will break a few of their bones and/or cause decay in the flesh, leaving a large dark necrotic scar. The scar will gradually darken as the necrosis slowly progresses and spreads over the victim's body*”
“But the miraculous cure can fix it, right?” Marinette asked anxiously.
“*Of course, but breaking bones and enduring necrosis pain during a battle is a risk we cannot take. Shadow Moth could seize the opportunity to take the miraculous from anyone hit by Cataclysm. Yes, you could use ‘Resistance’ fusing with Stompp, but that would only last 5 minutes with your ages and only one person at a time can use it*” the oldest member in the room said.
“What if I use Kaalki to teleport where the ring is at?” Luka suggested.
“*If Voyage could be used like that, Wang Fu would’ve used it to get the butterfly miraculous back a long time ago*” the youngest monk in the room gave him a sad smile.
A heavy silence fell on the room, until the second in charge stood up.
“*I think I know what we all are thinking. Right, my friends of the order?*”
Every one nodded solemnly.
Paris, 3 PM:
Adrien got out of school early since that was going to be one of his last photoshoots before finals season. Adrien would have minded before —his precious time with his friends, cut short— but now his modeling sessions were a nice break, especially that day.
He just couldn’t believe all the things his schoolmates and the teachers were saying about Chat Noir, speaking of him as a criminal. But that nothing compared to how his heart dropped to his stomach when he finally knew about Chat Noir being declared as an outlaw by the prime minister ´No one fucking cares that I’ve sacrificed myself so many times! What the hell happened to the world?!´
He didn’t know if he wanted to cry or punch something so instead he focused on posing which was hard hearing the workers talking about yesterday’s akuma and bad-mouthing Chat Noir —and not being able to tell them to shut up since it could look suspicious—, not to mention the pain he was in and the heat from the reflector felt worse using a wig. A couple of billboards' owners let the Agrest Brand put advertisements with Adrien’s face on it as long as he was unrecognizable, aka, wearing wigs and contact lens.
Adrien knew Nathalie was a little sick that morning, so he could tell the photograph, wardrobe and make up teams that they wouldn’t be doing anything with short sleeves that day.
And then his father entered the studio.
Gabriel had to wait some hours to get dexketoprofen since it needed a prescription. His personal doctor was easy to bribe but right now, he was coming back from vacations. Since he had free time, he decided to spend it making sure everything was going smoothly but…
“Why haven’t you started with the other outfits?” he said after inspecting the clothes rack.
“Your son told us you wouldn’t use them” a stylist said, making Gabriel turn around with such an angry look that made Adrien shiver a little.
“Why did you…? *Argh*, whatever, we don’t have time for this. Go put in the other outfits, now”
“I can’t! I… I-I tripped. I have a bruise. You don’t want it to appear in the photos, do you?”
“What?! Adrien, you have to tell me when something like that happens! You are a brand ambassador, do you know how bad it would make me look if the public sees you with a bruise?!”
“I’m sorry” he looked at his feet.
“Whatever, let's just cover it with make up. Keep working everyone”
“NO”
“EXCUSE ME?!” Adrien shook his head, looking at his father with the hardest expression he could make despite his fear.
Maybe it was the excruciating pain, maybe it was the stress, maybe it was the frustration of not being able to make akumas, maybe it was the hangover from drinking all that vodka before sleeping. Whatever, one thing was clear for Gabriel: he was going to make Adrien do was he was told to, no matter what.
“I… said… PUT ON THE OTHER OUTFITS!” he pulled the shirt on his son from the side of the neck with both hands.
“GET OFF ME!”
All the people around could only stare. Getting jobs in the fashion industry was difficult and Gabriel paid well enough; they knew the man would fire anyone who dared to get involved or record that with their cellphones. That tug-o-war didn’t last long, tho; the fabric of the shirt teared all the way from the neck to the middle of the sleeve.
A round of loud gasps echoed in the studio, along with some surprised curses. A half of Adrien’s wound was uncovered for everyone to see since the boy didn’t properly put the bandage on and it slipped over the last hours. Plagg watched everything from a corner, ‘Oh boy, you got a storm coming’
“What the…” his father stepped back, wide-eyed, “What happened?”
Adrien hugged himself, his lower lip was trembling.
“Adrien…” Gabriel tried to put his hand on his son’s right shoulder, but the boy backed off “That wound was made with heat or fire…” another step forwards by the man, another step backwards by the boy “Wasn’t it?” and again “Son…” and again “Please, tell me”
Finally, Gabriel took a step long enough to finally reach Adrien and the boy only slapped his hand away without even looking at him.
“TELL ME WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!”
That yelling was out of concern, but the blond teen didn’t see it. He could only hear what he thought was his father demanding an explanation about something that could damage the brand’s image. So Adrien decided to use something he watched on a movie.
“I did it to myself, okay?!” he yelled back, “I was… so numb! My friends have left me, my girlfriend left me, my first and oldest friend was taken to jail… dammit, even my mother left me!” Adrien had stopped acting at that point, “The only person I have left is you, and you’re nothing but a... stupid… ice… dictator robot that only talks to me to give me orders! I WISH YOU HAD LEFT INSTEAD OF MOM!”
As Adrien ran to the exit, he basked in all the compassionate looks from the people at the studio. The boy knew that was the closest thing to comfort he was going to get. He had to admit it, tho, yelling at his father felt… amazing.
When the young model was outside, all those looks turned into anger and fear when they turned around to see the eldest Agreste, who was in shock “T…Take him home, Gorilla” he ordered the bodyguard, “Our doctor will be there shortly”
Gabriel waited a couple of minutes before going back to his other limousine, where he stayed in silence at least until they drove next to Place Vendôme. He couldn’t help to shiver and put a hand in his chest.
´Great… now on top of all this, I have to deal with a rebellious teenager´ still, the words of his son echoed on his mind. If he was gone instead of his wife, nothing at all would’ve happened.
His wife, his beloved Emily…
The sound of a notification in his cellphone caught his attention. It was his personal doctor, the plane landed on the country some hours ago, now he had the medicine Gabriel asked for and was heading to the manor “Good”
Some hours later, France 8:00 PM
Ladybug, Hallufox —Luka wielding the fox (while also wearing the Tiger’s miraculous without fusing with it)— and Ghodakura (The 3rd in charge of the miraculous order, fusing the horse with the dog) stepped out of the portal, into the hospital where Liam was at.
“Good evening” Ladybug said to the receptionist, ignoring all the surprised people behind them, “We’d like to see the patient Liam Rousseau”
They would not be able to get the ring back from Chat Noir anytime soon, so meanwhile, a half of the miraculous order was orchestrating a plan.
The other half looked all over the temple’s scrolls to come up with something to help Liam. From what the two teens told them, it didn’t take them too long to deduce that his current condition was a consequence of the akuma’s magical bond not being properly cut. And that helped the order to come up with a way to help in that same afternoon.
A nurse quickly guided them to Liam’s room. He was on a gurney, with an old bearded man and a young woman sitting near him. The eldest in the room stormed out when he saw the trio in costumes walking in their direction. “How dare you come near my son?!” he screamed with bloodshot eyes, followed closely by his son’s fiancé, “Haven’t you done enough to-!”
Annette blocked her future father-in-law by putting a hand on his chest. He turned around giving her a puzzled look, but her eyes were focused on the trio in front of them
“I’ve seen what you’ve done for Paris all this time, and I can say with confidence that you guys aren’t stupid. You wouldn’t be showing your faces near Liam if you hadn’t come up with a way to get him out of his catatonic state, would you?”
“You’re right. We might have found a way to get him back to normal” Hallufox said.
“But we need to take him to a bigger room for that. Of course, as long as you let us” Ladybug gave the old man a pleading look.
The old man stared at them, clenching his fists and his jaw, but at the end he sighed and let them proceed. Soon, many members of the hospital staff crowded the new room’s glass wall to get a peek of what would happen inside, especially young interns.
“Do you have videos of Liam talking in your cellphone?” Hallufox asked.
The woman immediately showed him some of them. Now that he knew what Liam’s normal voice sounded like, the fox hero made an illusion of the young man —after fusing with the tiger, so his countdown wouldn’t start—. Tears pricked at Anette’s eyes when she saw her fiancé’s mirage, standing as if nothing bad happened to him.
Ladybug took out the turtle’s bracelet and put it on Liam’s wrist. “Transforme moi” said the fake Liam and a magical light engulfed the real’s one body, giving him a turtle-themed hero costume; a round of gasps could be heard from inside and outside the room. After that, Ladybug went to the end of the gurney and transformed her yoyo into a big rectangular mirror, which was a portal to inside the miracle box.
Ghodakura unfused from Kaalki and gave her food to recharge, meanwhile, he pushed the gurney into the mirror. When the young man was completely inside, Hallufox held the mirror in place and Ladybug —still inside the room— put both of her hand at the sides of Liam’s head.
Then Kaalki slowly recited a spell and the heroine in red repeated everything she said, being really careful to not mess any of the pronunciation. When she was about to finish reciting, the temporal dog hero put inside Liam’s mouth a fistful of leaves and flower petals that were previously soaked with some of Tikki’s tears and a little of her spit.
Finally, the order member drew a symbol on the young man’s forehead with ashes, and that was it.
Liam spat out what was put in his mouth and started to panic as he coughed when he saw his surroundings. Ladybug got out of the way, and the eldest hero quickly took the gurney out of the pocket dimension. “De-transforme moi” said the fake Liam and the turtle theme costume faded.
The young man’s eyes darted all over the room as he breathed fast and shallow. When Liam noticed Ladybug’s presence, he screamed from the top of his lungs and fell from the gurney
“No, no, no, no, no!” he backed off to the farthest corner from the heroine in red “I’m not an akuma anymore! Don’t shoot me! DON’T SHOOT ME!”
The girl in red covered her mouth holding back a sob.
“Please, don’t shoot me” he kept repeating, curled into a ball while crying as Anette went to comfort him.
Hallufox put his hand on Ladybug's holder, and she instinctively put her head on his chest, then he embraced her “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” the vibrations of the gun shot echoed in her hands again.
“*Shhh* You didn’t have a better option. You did what you had to” he caressed her hair.
The doctor in the room went to close the room’s curtains to protect them from the hungry looks of the bystanders, staff and interns recording them like journalists ´These poor people had already been through enough´
At Agreste Manor:
Dexketoprofen’s daily dose should not exceed 75 mg. and a 25 mg film-coated tablet’s effect lasted 8 hours, which meant that Gabriel only had 3 attempts a day using it. Or so that would’ve been the case. Only like half of the pain went away after taking the medicine, and it felt the same after transforming.
Before taking the next step and fusing with Duusu, he tried to make a regular akuma as Hawk Moth and ordered the young woman he picked to run and jump over the roofs of moving cars and lifting heavy vehicles. Just like the kwamis said yesterday, the akumas could feel his pain too, which made them less agile and weaker. Growling, he took the akuma back, leaving his most recent victim confused in the middle of the street.
“This just won’t do!” Their akumas wouldn’t be match for Ladybug like that, he had to get rid of all the pain. Maybe he could take the medicine while transformed? But for that, he had to wait.
Some minutes later:
When everybody was calm enough, the 3 heroes explained in detail what happened to him after asking the doctor in the room to open the curtains again.
“Your brain was… stuck since it was still storing some… let's call it 'leftover haywire transmission magic' in its electrical signals. The little ritual we did some minutes ago helped us to get rid of that leftover” Ladybug said.
“This was a magical incident, so don’t you start thinking we can heal people in vegetative state and such” Hallufox faced to the little crowd recording them from outside, better to stop a rumor before it spread.
“Now that we made that clear, you can close the curtains again” Ladybug nodded to the doctor and he did it “In order to do the ritual it was necessary to make you wield a miraculous” she pointed to his wrist “So you could bond with the magic inside the pocket dimension we pushed your gurney into. That way, my purifying magic could clean your brain easier and faster”
Liam finally noticed the bracelet and the little green flying creature near him, “Hello, I’m Wayzz, the kwami of protection. Right now, you’re wearing my miraculous”
“H-Hello”
“Now, can you please hand it back?” Hallufox asked.
“S-Sure” he stood up with the help of his fiancé. The boy extended his hand, but the young man walked by him and handed it directly to Ladybug, “Thank you… and… I’m sorry for making you feel bad. I just… it felt as if yesterday happened only minutes ago”
She took a deep breath, stopping a sob from coming out, “It’s alright. I’m sorry I had to put you through all that pain”
“Actually… my chest still hurts a lot… it’s feels as if I’m about to have a heart attack, why?”
The member of the order put a hand on Ladybug’s shoulder, “*I can take it from here if you want to*” the girl nodded after Wayzz translated that. The man proceeded to tell Liam basically the same things that Nooroo and Duusu told Gabriel in his manor after Invidia was defeated.
“Wait, now that I think about it… this means he can feel this pain too, right?”
“Right” Ladybug and Hallufox answered at the same time.
“Good” he growled, “But how long will the pain last?”
“*We don’t know, the only one who can feel how fast that bond is fading is Nooroo, Shadow Moth’s kwami*” he frowned “*It could be weeks… maybe months*”
“Hold on” Annette butted in after Kaalki translated that last part, “But you said the two of them are bonded, isn’t there a way you could track Shadow Moth with that?”
“We’re carefully analyzing the situation” Hallufox said, trying his best to look worried about it. The order had already thought of that possibility, and they were looking for information in their ancient scrolls to come up with a way to do it so.
But they said nothing about it, since they didn’t know the exact nature of the bond between Liam and Shadow Moth and if the later could hear or see at will what the former did.
The three heroes teleported back to the temple, then Marinette and Luka teleported to their cabin in Norway after feeding Kaalki again.
“Oh my gosh!” the girl dropped to the nearest couch, “What a night”
“Yeah, thank goodness everything turned out fine” he sat next to her, “Who knows? Maybe in a couple of months we could find Shadow Moth’s lair, wouldn’t that be amazing?”
“Finally winning… A Paris free of akumas” Marinette gave him a tired smile, “Yeah… it would be amazing… Right now, tho, I’m just glad Liam forgave me”
Luka kissed her on the forehead, “Now we have more people on our side. We’re gonna get through this with or without Second Chance”
“Yes” she snuggled with him “With or without Chat Noir”
Before eating dinner, they took a look at their social media and saw Hawk Moth’s latest akuma. She didn’t go on a destruction rampage nor hurt anyone nor spread chaos. No, she just… tested her strength and speed, and then the black butterfly left her body by itself, leaving the young woman confused in the middle of a street.
“What on Earth was Shadow Moth doing?” Marinette raised an eyebrow. Luka just shrugged, equally confused.
Tomorrow, Saturday 19th:
The effect of the first Dexketoprofen dose only lasted 6 and a half hours until the pain increased again. He came up with a hypothesis but in order to prove it, he took another dose while transformed, and he stayed that way to see how long the effects were… and they only lasted 4 hours.
It seemed that wielding a miraculous accelerates the user’s metabolism twice the speed. The time he spent testing the strength and speed of his first akuma after Invidia reduced the medicine effect time.
´Maybe I have to take twice the dose to make the pain go away’ he thought and took another 50 mg a little after midnight, surpassing the maximum daily dose by 25mg. There was some lingering pain, but Gabriel still tested another akuma and the results were the same; yes, they were stronger now, but not enough.
The next morning, Gabriel took the next step in his “experiments” and decided to take the maximum daily dose (75mg) at once to see what would happen.
Some minutes later, there was almost no pain and the akuma had enough speed and strength to fight Ladybug “Alright, let’s do this”
Later that morning:
That young university student thought her classmate loved her, but she was only playing with her heart… and outed her.
Maybe people were more open-minded that decade, but her father wasn’t one of those people. Her mother could help her to escape the man’s grasp before he could do something more after breaking her nose.
She ran crying to the nearest park from her apartment. A street before she could get there, a black butterfly got into her belt, which was turned into a whip.
Now, the two heroes were observing the newest akuma from afar. She was an angel very similar to Nathaniel when he turned into Phanuel, except that, while he looked like made out of marble, she looked like made out of opaque pink quartz, just like her roman-style robe (except for the white and purple details on it and her roman sandals). Her eyes, now three instead of two, were all purple with white irises, no pupils and her short hair was now a very long french braid that reached her hips.
“It seems that the Moth won’t stop with the biblical motifs anytime soon” Bargallion (Luka fusing the horse dog) pointed out.
“Yeah, and this angel has a long range weapon” Ladybug said as they kept watching from that rooftop.
The akuma used her whip to wrap people. Once in her grasp, she could see their most important secrets inside her mind. If her eyes glowed in purple she let them go; if they glowed in white, the whip got tighter around them until making their bodies explode in a pink cloud of smoke and every object on them —including their clothes—, fell to the ground.
But the people didn’t die, instead, they turned into ethereal and translucent versions of themselves, wearing friars-like robes. Then they walked away as if nothing happened, to wander around like ghosts, free of any worries.
If that whip wrapped the heroes —even their clones using Multitude—, not only Shadow Moth would know their secret identities, but their miraculous would end up in his hands and chaos would reign until he finally got Chat’s ring and who knew how much time that would take.
The plan they used on Nathaniel as Phanuel wouldn’t work, an ambush in a place like the catacombs wasn’t an option against a long range weapon as her whip, and even if they got rid of her flight with syrup like that day, her whip would easily reach them.
They couldn’t get close to her so using Venom wasn’t an option either even if one of them let themselves be captured as a bait while using Resistance; once Shadow Moth could see through the angel's eyes the ox motifs in the disguise, he would order her to not bother attacking them until the 5 minutes of Resistance were over.
Fortunately, they could come up with a plan soon that didn’t need temporal heroes, the decided a while ago to let them rest after that traumatic experience with Invidia.
The angel had just turned another person into a friar-like ghost in the middle of a street when both heroes jumped in front of her. They tried to ask her to stop politely first but…
“I’m Raziel, Guardian Angel of secrets. And I’ll protect anyone who is in risk of getting hurt if their secrets come to light… As long those secrets aren’t bad things, of course” the girl dropped the angelic voice when she said that last part, shyly scratching the back of her neck “I’m not gonna protect cheaters, bullies, abusive parents… you know”
“Yes, we know what you mean. But turning people ethereal is not the way” Bargallion said.
“Sure, they can’t get hurt, but they can’t feel the touch of those who love them either, among many other things” Ladybug continued.
“A small price to pay to be safe” she spoke with her angelic voice again, walking towards them, “Now stay still”
They dodged her attacks while running, leading her to Park des Buttes-Chaumont ´Be careful, it could be an ambush´ Hawk Moth said in her mind, remembering about Invidia’s defeat at Place Vendôme ´Don’t stay at the same spot for too long and whip away anything that comes close to you, don’t let anything touch you’
Soon they were at the park, where Ladybug quickly fused with Mullo, unfused from Tikki and used Multitude keeping her normal size. Then Bargallion —who was actually an illusion— went to hide, as the real Luka as Steed Rouge (Horse Fox) used Mirage to make tens of copies of his Horse Dog alter ego and Multimice.
The first phase of the plan was tiring the angel out a little; which happened quite sooner than they expected, Raziel’s movements were getting slower after the 40th illusion she whipped away and by the 57th she was starting to pant heavily.
“This one as less stamina than previous ones” Steed Rouge said to the real Multimouse as they watched from a branch, hiding, “Or could this be a trick to make us get closer?”
“Whatever it is, it won’t work” and they started with phase 2. All the real multimice —that were hiding in the tres— jumped to the ground just after another set of fake multimice surrounded Raziel in a circle and ran to her, with yet another set of fakes forming a bigger circle surrounding the first one.
Raziel quickly got rid of that set of illusions spinning around with her whip extended, and the second one too. But when she turned around for the third time, her whip finally did hit something solid in that battle.
Raziel gasped when she saw a real multimouse with a necklace getting hit on her face and tumbling backwards while holding her cheek. ´Take her miraculous!´ Hawk Moth yelled, having no idea that the mouse necklace was actually a fake one Marinette made some days ago just in case. The angel tried to stop so she could wrap that multimouse, but due to the momentum she couldn’t do it properly and ended up falling backwards.
At that moment, Luka had already unfused from Trixx and fused with Xuppu —turning into Simian-Steed—, just like first Multimouse (the one with the real necklace) had fused with Tikki. He jumped near the fallen akuma and used Uproar on her. ´NO!´ Hawk Moth screamed inside her mind.
Raziel tried to fly away, but Multibug used her yoyo to catch her right leg. She flapped her wings once more, when suddenly she felt overwhelmed by the strongest nausea she had ever felt. The angel fell to the ground on her knees, holding her stomach. She got so dizzy and her head was aching so much.
Both heroes tilted their heads, confused, what happened to her? Nonetheless, Multibug went to retrieve her yoyo and Simian-Steed was a step behind, ready to take the whip and break it.
From the angel’s point of view, her vision was getting fuzzy and the pain in her stomach increased with ever second. Then the pain started to crawl upwards until it got at the back of her throat.
Multibug was about to untangle her yoyo when the angel projectile-vomited a dark purple liquid on the heroine’s feet. The smell identified the vomit as blood.
Before Multibug could do something, a wave of pain engulfed her body and fell. She writhed on the ground.
“What’s wrong?!” he kneeled beside her.
“It hurts!… just like… *Agghh!*… Invidia’s dark fumes… after I sh-shot him”
He quickly deduced that the blood must have haywire transmission magic in it, just like those fumes from Invidia ´But Raziel wasn’t shot or anything, what the hell?´ he thought as he dragged the girl away from the akuma, who was still vomiting.
Since her yoyo was in the akuma’s blood puddle, neither Multibug nor Simian-Steed could have taken Stompp’s nose ring from it and use resistance; so she summoned Lucky Charm and the yoyo transformed into a very, very long Reacher-Graber tool.
Its handle wasn’t touched by the blood puddle, so Simian-Steed was able to take it, using the tool to take the whip away from the angel in pain and cut it with the transformed horse shoe.
“Miraculous Ladybug!” the heroine said with difficulty, and the swarm of little ladybugs fixed everything. Now that Multibug was no longer in pain, she could purify the akuma.
Back at Agreste manor, Hawk Moth detransformed shortly after the ladybugs swarm fixed everything, and that included cleaning the blood puddle he vomited along with his akuma and healing his inner wounds.
“What… the hell… was that?!” Gabriel yelled.
“Well, that dexketo-thing medicine you took is technically a poison” Duusu said “A very artificial poison, unlike the ones from the grimoire. And it seems that, due to its composition and purpose, the interaction of it with our magic increase it’s effects, the good and bad”
He took the pills bottle out of his pocket and read the side effects. The final sentence said: In case of overdose, gastrointestinal bleeding, ulcers and/or perforations can happen.
“So you’re saying that when I transform… me and my akumas are going to experience an overdose of any medicine… if I take the maximum daily dose at once?!”
Nooroo nodded meekly as Duusu held back a laugh.
“And now am I bonded to that young woman too or what?!”
“No. Her wounds didn’t reach a lethal point before the boy broke the akuma” Nooroo answered.
Gabriel pinched his nose bridge and sighed, a lack of pain for him was now attached to a very dangerous consequence, “There must be a way around this… but what?”