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quicksilversquared · 4 years

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Lost Heart: Chapter 24

A Christmas Battle

Magic can be a dangerous thing to play around with, particularly when that magic is tangled up in a curse. When Nathalie Sancoeur experiments with magic that she doesn’t fully understand, it sends her on a path to become Paris’ most dangerous supervillain and tips the balance between superheroes and supervillain.

But which way will the balance fall?

links in the reblog

The text came two days after Marinette and Adrien had gone shopping for a present for his father. Thankfully Marinette was free and her parents were busy with the bustling bakery downstairs, so it was no effort at all to quickly call up Adrien to make sure that he had gotten the text, too, and then transform and start racing across Paris.

Her first stop was the Grand Paris, where Emilie was waiting anxiously near her balcony door.

"I'm more nervous than I thought I would be," she admitted with a laugh as she let both superheroes in. "I just keep remembering what it felt like to transform before, and even though I know it'll be different now, I can't help but worry. And I've never seen proper combat."

"You're more for a surprise element than for fighting," Chat Noir reminded her quickly, holding out the Peacock. "It's a good thing Ma- Jade Turtle came over yesterday to reset the bond. I know he mentioned being busier than usual recently."

Ladybug nodded as Mrs. Agreste took the Miraculous, letting out a delighted gasp as Duusu popped free. Master Fu's sudden uptick in business had been concerning in terms of making sure that their plan went off smoothly, but she couldn't bring herself to be that surprised. People were taking off work now, wanting to catch their moments of relaxation while they could. Thankfully he had left his bracelet with her for just that reason- he couldn't exactly dash (or, well, his version of a dash. A speedwalk, perhaps?) out of his shop to pass it off to her when there was a client with him. He had worked all day, then gone to the hotel to meet up with Mrs. Agreste before eating a very, very late dinner.

His commitment was truly astounding.

"All right, I'll just go ahead and transform, then," Mrs. Agreste said, her eyes on Duusu as she pinned the Miraculous to the center of her shirt. "And I know to wait until I'm needed in the fight, so I'll keep out of the way. Duusu, transform me!"

With an excited squeal, Duusu dove into the brooch. Blue light lit up the room and when it cleared, Paon stood in the middle.

She cut a striking figure. Tall and slender, the base layer of Paon's blue suit clung to her just like Ladybug's. A skirt hung around her waist in blues and greens, open and shorter in the front and long in the back with a gorgeous feathered pattern half-hidden in the folds. Blue and green spiraled through her ponytail, and a sparkly blue and green mask hid the upper half of her face. Knee-high black boots and gloves stretching to her elbows broke the silhouette up.

"Okay, I feel underdressed next to you two," Ladybug admitted with a laugh. "I think my outfit might need an upgrade."

"Ooh, like what?" Chat Noir asked, interested. He glanced up and down Ladybug's suit, trying to imagine it changing. He was coming up blank. After fighting side-by-side with his partner for so long, that was just what Ladybug's outfit was.

"Like..." Ladybug thought about it, then frowned. "I don't know. I've looked like this for so long, I can't really picture it any other way."

Paon clapped her hands together. "Oh! I have some ideas that you might be interested in trying out. I can make sketches later, and you can see if you like any of them."

Ladybug beamed at her. "I would appreciate that, thank you. But for now, I think we have several more heroes to round up. You know the plan?"

"I'll keep out of sight," Paon promised. "And Jade Turtle told me how to track you guys on my fan, so I can find where the fight is. I'll be there."

With that, the superheroes headed back out. They had done a quick Miraculous swap earlier, so Chat Noir could grab Queen Bee, who would be easy enough to find in the hotel, and Dragoness, who...

Well, he had her number, at least. Both as Chat Noir and Adrien. He would be able to track down Kagami. For her part, Ladybug would go grab Alya and Nino.

It made things a hundred times easier when they ended up being together.

"I've not heard anything about an akuma yet," Alya said dubiously as she accepted her Miraculous. Nino was looking frankly startled that they were being tapped again after the fiasco at the end of the previous fight. "Are you sure there wasn't just a false alarm on Twitter or something?"

"We have an inside source," Ladybug said shortly, stepping back to her window. They didn't have any time to waste. Chat Noir had just sent her a quick notification that Queen Bee and Dragoness were ready and were on the lookout for anything strange. As soon as the akuma showed its head, they had to strike. "The Purple Lady was headed to her lair to send out an akuma. We're going to hit before she's ready."

Nino and Alya exchanged a look, then transformed and followed Ladybug out the window. She kept low to the rooftops and out of sight, checking her yo-yo for any notifications. Within a minute, one popped up.

Akuma at the Arc de Triomphe. Purple Lady spotted.

"To the Arc," Ladybug ordered, changing her direction at once. "You two will be on the akuma."

She didn't miss the 'as always' that Rena Rouge muttered, but she decided to ignore it. Now was not the time to get into another argument with them.

...but they also weren't getting their Miraculous back after this battle was over. If the superheroes were needed again for whatever reason and they needed more than just Ladybug and Chat Noir, there were three other options to go to first. Rena Rouge was turning into too much of a wild card and Carapace would always follow her lead. It stunk- after all, Nino and Alya were good friends- but Lila had their ears, it seemed, and that made them liabilities.

People taking the initiative was good, generally. But the superheroes had to act as a team, and Ladybug and Chat Noir were meant to be the undisputed leaders in these battles.

Then the Arc appeared up ahead, and there was no more time to mull over their misbehaving superheroes. Ladybug had one second, two, three to take in the scene below- the rampaging akuma that looked like a knock-off Bubbler in the street, the Purple Lady on top of the Arc, the three other members of their team coming in from the other direction-

And then Ladybug plunged into battle.

The Purple Lady was at the top of her game. Within a couple minutes, it was obvious that Dragoness and Chat Noir would have to be the ones facing off against her, with Queen Bee back on the akuma and both her and Ladybug on standby, ready to abandon the akuma and join the other two with the Purple Lady.

He had briefed Dragoness and Queen Bee on the way over. The akuma was a secondary concern; once the Purple Lady fell, the akuma would be lost and easy to take down. If Carapace and Rena Rouge could at least keep the akuma from interfering with their fight, they would be good. Ladybug and Queen Bee would not get too tangled up in the akuma battle, so they could jump over to help Chat Noir and Dragoness. Once Paon showed up- and yes, he told them about her- then Dragoness could retreat and, once they had the situation under control, go try her hand at battling the akuma.

Chat Noir couldn't help the way his lips quirked up at the memory of when he had told Dragoness that. She had groaned loudly- one on one combat was more her thing, and sword-on-sword instead of whatever... well, whatever akuma attacks were- but agreed. After all, the others would be rejoining the akuma battle shortly enough and getting it wrapped up quickly.

Hopefully.

Fighting the Purple Lady was a whole lot of trading off, darting in at her from opposite sides to keep her guessing. Chat Noir had to keep all of his focus on her, his feet moving fast as he and Dragoness parried blow after blow. The Purple Lady was getting frustrated, it was obvious. She had tried firing off a couple spells as he and Dragoness approached that Chat Noir had just barely managed to block, and she was clearly itching to try more.

But she couldn't. Not with both of her hands and all of her brainpower occupied by her fight with Chat Noir and Dragoness.

His mom had to be moving into position now, Chat Noir knew. The news about the akuma was out now, and their dots would have stopped moving across the city on her communicator. She had to be careful not to get spotted- after all, the public still thought that the Peacock Miraculous was on Hawkmoth's side, and if the Purple Lady caught any sign of her then their element of surprise would be lost- and had to find the perfect spot to hide until she spotted her opening.

They just had to hold the fight until then.

Sword clashed against baton, then against sword. Yells from the akuma fight echoed across the square. Chat Noir let Dragoness take the lead, since he had to keep track of- well, everything.

How Ladybug did this during their other akuma battles- keeping track of everything enough to figure out how to proceed while still fighting- was beyond him. If Dragoness weren't such a strong fighter, he would have to commit all of his energy and attention to the battle and he wouldn't ever get to glance around to see what else was going on. As it was, most of his attention had to stay on the Purple Lady so that she wouldn't catch him by surprise.

Fencing bouts had never been this difficult. His breath was coming heavy, his heart racing. There was absolutely no time for reactions as he countered every strike that the Purple Lady made. He could only breathe when she switched the bulk of her attention back to Dragoness, and even then it was just a short break before he had to be fully in again so that his teammate could catch a breath of her own.

Three minutes later, his baton buzzed. Chat Noir nearly missed it- he had been about to pick up the fight from Dragoness- but when he realized what it meant, he managed a competitive smile.

Paon was in position. Another buzz- a double one- would go off when she was coming up. Down on the street, Ladybug yelled something to her teammates before swinging into her own position, enough behind the Purple Lady that she wouldn't be noticed. Her yo-yo dangled just from her fingertips, ready to strike. Chat Noir chanced a proper glance in her direction and Ladybug gave him one of her determined little nods, focused and ready to work.

That expression on her face was actually pretty adorable, especially paired with the tiger ears and whisker stripes that she had adorned at some point during the fight, but Chat Noir didn't exactly have the time to appreciate that before the Purple Lady's attention was back on him. He parried and went for a blow, forcing the Purple Lady back half a pace. She recovered quickly, going for a heavy blow in his direction that he dodged. Their weapons crossed again in a quick one-two-three-four.

Bzzz. Bzzz.

Two buzzes. Paon was moving up. Chat Noir forced himself to split his attention, waiting for exactly the right moment to move back. A flash of blue in the corner of Chat Noir's eye caught his attention and he grinned, gesturing to Dragoness to flip back and bouncing back several paces himself to get out of the Purple Lady's reach. She stepped forward, as if to follow him, when she noticed Paon, now fully on the Arc and straightened to her full, commanding height.

The Purple Lady froze, eyes wide and disbelieving. Chat Noir nodded to Ladybug, but his partner was already in motion, her yo-yo lashing out and wrapping around the Purple Lady, pinning her arms to her sides. The Purple Lady shrieked as she realized that she had been caught, thrashing to try to get free, but Paon and Chat Noir didn't give her a chance. In unison, the mother-son duo struck, knocking the Purple Lady to the ground and sending her sword clattering to the side. Without any hesitation, Chat Noir reached over and grabbed her Miraculous. The transformation released in a second, an exhausted Nooroo coming free and bowing to the pair of them before returning to his Miraculous, leaving Nathalie furiously struggling on the rooftop.

He barely recognized her. The muted warmth in her eyes was gone, replaced by an icy coldness. Or, rather, an icy fury.

"Queen Bee!" Ladybug called, her voice carrying easily above the sounds of the still-raging akuma battle. Glancing over, Chat Noir saw that Dragoness had already joined the battle on the ground. "We need your Sting!"

Queen Bee appeared in a blur of yellow, dashing towards them. She pulled out her trompo, activating it in a flash before stabbing Nathalie's side. She seized up in a heartbeat, and Ladybug took the opportunity to recall her yo-yo, drop off of the roof, and dash over to the police barricade that was starting to form around the outside of the area. She was back thirty seconds later with two pairs of handcuffs. One pair got snapped around Nathalie's wrists, and the other was hung from Ladybug's waist, ready for when Mr. Agreste appeared.

And just like that, it was over.

Chat Noir swallowed hard, the adrenaline surging through him congealing in a lump in his throat. That made it more real. His father would be going to jail tonight and likely would not be coming out for a long, long time. Even if he had gotten used to the idea- he had certainly had a decent amount of time for it to sink in, and recent days aside, his father hadn't acted very fatherly for a very, very long time- seeing his father behind bars still wasn't something he felt particularly prepared for.

He didn't know if it was really something anyone could have felt prepared for.

"I'll sit with her," Paon promised, settling next to Nathalie. "Right now, I think there's an akuma still for you guys."

Chat Noir nodded, following Ladybug down to the ground. Carapace and Rena Rouge looked frankly baffled when they appeared, glancing up to where the Purple Lady had been, but they didn't question it, particularly when Ladybug's yo-yo snagged the final akuma and sent them flying straight into a lamppost.

With its power leaching fast, the akuma wasn't hard to defeat. Ladybug cast one final Miraculous Cure, the magical ladybugs sparkling just a bit brighter than normal as they put everything back to normal.

Or maybe that was just his imagination.

"It's over," Ladybug sighed, her entire body relaxing as the last of her Cure faded away. "It's really, actually over. That's just..."

"We still have to give a police report and get the Miraculous back," Chat Noir reminded her, wrapping an arm around Ladybug's waist to keep her upright. He paused when beeping reached his ears. "...okay, how many people used their powers? Queen Bee, obviously, but...?"

"Both Carapace and I did, because all of a sudden there were only two of us fighting the akuma," Rena Rouge piped up, appearing at his side with one hand on her hip and an irritated look on her face. "Well, three at first, but Queenie didn't exactly have her head in the game."

Chat Noir picked up the irritation in Ladybug's expression and hurried to answer before she could. "That was because she had been told to keep an eye out for a signal to come help us with the Purple Lady. She was just following instructions-" he couldn't resist the small dig, he really couldn't- "and it all turned out fine in the end, didn't it? The akuma was defeated, the Purple Lady has been contained and had her Miraculous taken away, and Hawkmoth will be coming to turn himself in soon."

The speed with which Rena and Carapace's expressions changed from annoyed to startled and shocked was almost comical.

"But if you've used your powers, you'll be detransforming soon," Ladybug chimed in. "So if we could head over to that alley over there-"

Rena Rouge nodded at once, snagging Carapace's wrist and practically dragging him off in the direction that Ladybug had indicated. Chat Noir couldn't help but frown in confusion- wouldn't they want to be present when they turned the former Purple Lady over to the police?- before he realized what must be happening. Rena Rouge was Alya, who was the moderator of the Ladyblog. She had just been told that the Purple Lady and Hawkmoth were de-masked and were going to be turned into the police. Of course she wanted to be detransformed and streaming the whole thing live.

"I can stick around," Queen Bee spoke up. "I have snacks for Pollen with me, in case the Sting wears off. Or if we have to stick around after the Purple Lady and Hawkmoth get turned over to the police. And it's not as though everyone doesn't already know who I am."

Chat Noir grinned. "Good. And Dragoness?"

Dragoness popped open the hilt of her sword to check the time on her communicator. "I have the time to spare, as long as we don't end up in a super-long press conference. And since it's just the once..."

It didn't take Ladybug long to return, tucking the extra Miraculous back in her safe box on her way. It went back into her yo-yo- and the look on Dragoness' face when Ladybug tucked the large box into the small yo-yo was absolutely hilarious- and then the yo-yo clicked shut with finality.

"Time to get Nathalie down!" Ladybug called, already heading for the Arc de Triomphe. "And then Mr. Agreste is going to be here in a couple minutes. He's having his driver bring him over."

Dragoness sucked in a startled breath, and Chat Noir suddenly remembered that while Queen Bee knew everything (or near enough, at least), Dragoness hadn't been told about the identities of the supervillains. Of course it would come as a shock to her. Not as much of a shock as it had been to him when they first found everything out, of course, but still a shock.

Before Ladybug could reach up, Paon appeared at the top of the Arc with the still-frozen Nathalie in her arms. She leapt down easily, landing lightly and straightening before making a beeline for the heroes.

"I can feel her trying to twitch," Paon reported. "I wouldn't be surprised if she needs to be kept sedated until we can undo the effects of the curse on her, just so she doesn't end up injuring herself. She would try to fight too much."

Chat Noir nodded. That was a good thought. There was probably something in the grimoire that would help.

Besides, Master Fu couldn't just quit brewing potions cold turkey, surely. He would miss it too much, after spending almost all of his free time whipping up potion after potion for them.

"And I just sent a text to the police, so they won't all clear away," Ladybug added, giving her yo-yo one final tap before closing it completely for the second time. "Hopefully they'll keep two cars for us."

Chat Noir nodded. If Nathalie hadn't already figured out what had happened, she would work it out soon. And it would not be pretty.

"It looks like most of the police cars are over on that street," Dragoness said, pointing. "And some are starting to clear out. Maybe we should go over there right away, just in case they don't get the text."

Paon headed that way at once, with Chat Noir following right behind her. It took him a minute to realize that Ladybug wasn't following. When he glanced around, he saw her standing next to the Gorilla's car, exchanging a few words with Mr. Agreste before putting him in handcuffs. The two of them headed after the rest of the group, walking quickly to catch up.

Or, well, Ladybug was walking quickly. Since he was so much taller, Mr. Agreste was just able to keep up without hardly trying at all.

That was actually annoying.

"Chat Noir," one of the police officers greeted him, and Chat Noir had to pull his attention away from his father and Ladybug to focus. "Can I ask- was this the Purple Lady?"

"M. Sancoeur was the Purple Lady," Chat Noir confirmed. "She's not in her right mind at the moment- she was using the Peacock Miraculous, which had a curse on it until we recovered the Miraculous and removed the curse. The curse pretty much took away a bit of her humanity every time she transformed into Mayura."

The policeman nodded, looking a bit puzzled. "Okay, uh- we're going to need statements as soon as possible. And Hawkmoth...?"

"Was Gabriel Agreste. Several weeks ago, we confronted him and he gave in, telling us his identity and what was going on. He's been working with us ever since, giving us the Peacock Miraculous once M. Sancoeur took his and surrendering the books and scrolls that he had." Chat Noir took a step back to gesture at the rapidly-approaching Mr. Agreste and Ladybug. "Today, he warned us when Nathalie headed up so that we could strike as soon as the akuma appeared. He agreed when we first confronted him to turn himself in once everything ended."

"Cooperation always is a good thing," the police officer agreed. "That should help him, but of course it depends on the full story. Which- well, I assume that there's more?"

Chat Noir nodded. "There is. We'll come in right away after Ladybug and I recharge."

The officer nodded, opening the car door so that Paon could set Nathalie inside. "Okay. We'll take both of them in. And, uh- was the rest of your team involved in discovering their identities?"

Dragoness shook her head right away. Queen Bee was slower, and Paon looked to Chat Noir for guidance.

"Most of the rest of our team was just involved in the akuma battles," Chat Noir said immediately. "We can fill you in on the roles that everyone played at the station, and you can decide after that if anyone else should come in and testify."

"Very well."

Mr. Agreste arrived then, and a second police officer guided him to a second car. He went in without a fuss, settling in and inclining his head to the superheroes. His gaze turned to Paon, and a small, sad smile played across his lips before he nodded to her, too.

Chat Noir didn't look to see if she had returned the gesture.

It didn't take long to get the cars ready to go. Before they did, the first officer returned to Ladybug and Chat Noir.

"Thank you for your service to the city," he told them. "With Hawkmoth and the Purple Lady's reign gone, Paris can resume its normal life again, just in time for Christmas. We'll prepare a statement at once, and perhaps after your visit to the police station for statements you can join the Mayor for an announcement to Paris?"

"That sounds great," Ladybug said, speaking up from Chat Noir's side. Her hand sneaked around his waist, resting reassuringly on his opposite hip. "We can't wait to tell Paris. It has been a long time coming."

It didn't take long to get the Dragon Miraculous back, thank Kagami, and let her go on her way. Paon kept her Miraculous- they knew where to find her, after all, and she had been a superhero all on her own before they even reached the scene- and she went back to the hotel while Ladybug and Chat Noir headed for the police station. They stopped and recharged on the way, and Marinette made sure to check that Adrien was holding up okay. Giving statements would be hard on him, after all, having to relive the discovery and learning about Mrs. Agreste's condition.

Thankfully, he was holding up all right. Having his mom recovered and previously out with them no doubt helped.

Giving statements wasn't that bad. She and Chat Noir had to give them separately, of course, so that they wouldn't influence each other's statements, but it wasn't hard to remember everything once she made sure to take her time. The police recorded everything, taking notes as well as taking video of her statement. They had a few questions to clarify certain points, then they were free to go. The police wanted Chloe and Mrs. Agreste to come in as well, along with Jade Turtle, but those could wait until after the holidays. Ladybug had to show the police the Butterfly Miraculous, too, but they didn't even try to request that she leave it with them.

And then it was time for the big announcement. They did tell the eager reporters who Hawkmoth and the Purple Lady had been- there would be no point in not saying that, because the Ladyblog already had video of Nathalie and Mr. Agreste being put in the police cars by the superheroes- and make sure that they added in the fact that Nathalie had started helping Hawkmoth all on her own but had been cursed into her current condition and that Mr. Agreste had switched sides as much as he could towards the end. No one else had willingly worked with them, including the rest of the household staff and Mr. Agreste's son. Mrs. Agreste had been cursed into a coma after using the Peacock to do good, and she had been woken up recently.

There had been a lot of questions, of course, and a lot of gasping at the reveal of who Hawkmoth had been. But eventually the reporters settled down, after being reminded by both the superheroes and the mayor that the investigation was technically still ongoing and therefore they could only say so much.

"We want to thank Paris for cooperating during akuma attacks," Ladybug finished, beaming out at the crowds. "And for being patient with us as we worked to defeat Hawkmoth and the Purple Lady and then prepare for the final confrontation. We're very, very pleased that everything got wrapped up before Christmas."

"It's our present to you," Chat Noir agreed, ducking his head in so that he could speak into her microphone as well. "We'll be going into the new year supervillain-free. Happy holidays, Paris!"

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #Lost Heart #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste

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