Chapter Text
Hawkmoth won.
It took a few seconds for Gabriel to truly understand what it meant, as Cobra, the wielder of the snake miraculous, strode confidently towards him, her raised hand over his slowly opening and letting the Cat ring and Ladybug earrings wall into his waiting palm.
"Here you have it, boss!" The girl chirped, looking proud of her handiwork.
He ignored her, slowly, almost reverently looking at the items, before putting the ring on his finger, the metal glinting almost ominously right next to Amelie’s ring. From the ring, a cat-like creature emerged, its body pitch black and its too-green eyes looking at him unnervingly. The cat gave a lazy glance around but, despite its relaxed posture, the man could see something ancient, cold and dark lurking behind those irises.
"Huh. So this happened. Should have expected traitors." The feline creature shrugged, looking around as multiple people, including Mayura, visibly shrank. "Guess we’ll see what happens, then." He commented, his smirk widening to inhuman sizes, razor-like teeth peeking out.
"You don't seem that upset at being captured." Gabriel noted. Nooroo, as timid as he was, put in more of a fight, which was concerning, considering what he knew of the Black Cat.
"Been there, done that." The cat waved dismissively. "And hey, people like you never think too hard about their wishes, so really, I just have to wait for the kid to get me back and enjoy the show in the meantime." The creature's green eyes pinned him indifferently, as if he was but a mere bug, causing shivers to creep along his spine. So this was the kwami of destruction... Gabriel idly wondered how Chat Noir, that incompetent child, could even bear to be in the kwami's presence.
" That's 'cause I actually like the kid, can't have him running in terror at the idea of what he's playing with now, can I?" The can answered in a lackadaisical manner, floating around and making (terrifying) faces at the people surrounding him while Gabriel was putting on the earrings.
The Ladybug kwami's colors were just that bit off. Almost too bright to look at as she smiled widely, eyes closed.
"Hawkmoth. I would say this was a pleasure to meet you, but that would be a lie." She giggled, sparkles accompanying her every moment. Then her head turned, and her giggle took a hysterical edge, the sound that should have been sweet instead reminiscent of chalk and nails on a board.
"Really takes you back, huh, sugarcube?" The cat commented as the ladybug was visibly trying to set his collaborators on fire with her mind. “But hey, at least pigtails wasn't burnt to death, this time."
" Let them try ." The ladybug wasn't smiling anymore and she floated back towards Gabriel, who felt his hackles rise as her gaze. It was as if she looked through him, judged his entire existence, and found him wanting.
"Let's not waste any more time. Considering the state you left our chosen wielders in, there is no chance of them getting us back." The kwami began with a no-nonsense tone. "Make your wish, but do keep in mind, that you will regret making it."
That was ... odd. Gabriel didn't know if this was the kwami's last ditch attempt to dissuade him from making his wish, but he shook his head and began the incantation.
The miraculous began sparkling, red for the ladybug, and black for the black cat, and two streams of light began circling around Hawkmoth, whose expression was slowly, but surely, turning into one of triumph. Then, he opened his mouth once more.
"Let those who followed me in my quest have their wish." He said, feeling magnanimous as he could almost feel Emilie coming back." As for my own! Kwami of the Black cat, Kwami of the ladybug, Grant me mine and let me turn back the hands of time to undo my mistake!"
The two kwamis were rising higher, their expression eerily still, until they began speaking.
"May you get exactly what you wish for." The Ladybug said, her voice echoing slightly.
"And may you choke on it." The Cat added, sniggering.
A column of light burst from the ground, flooding the room in a sickening mix of red and black, before growing ever more.
Ladybug lost.
Marinette was laying down, her back on the grass, eyes looking at the incandescent skies of the summer sunset. She was covered in scrapes and her everything hurt, but none of this mattered.
She had lost. She should have seen it coming, but the way she did made it hurt even more. Tikki...
She sobbed, her eyes burning.
"Tikki... I'm so sorry..."
She wasn't the right person for the job. She always knew, she should have made sure Al- No.
Another person she failed came to mind. Her partner... Was he alright? All alone, facing everyone else...! She felt a jolt coming from her ribs and her head throbbed as she struggled to get up, but her efforts were ultimately in vain as she found herself with a face full of warmth and fabric, someone's chest, probably, who was trying to push her down, back to her initial lying position.
"Noooo..." She moaned, blinking to try and get rid of the light spots flooding her vision. "Let me gooo Chat...Chat needs help..."
The body against her tensed, then she felt an exhale, before two arms pulled her in a crushing hug.
"I should have guessed that it was you... I didn't dare to hope." A very familiar voice reached her ears and she tried to look up, but her vision was swimming too much. All she could see was a mop of blond hair and a familiar scent reached her nostril. Something in her mind tried to tell her something, but the blow her head sustained as she lost her Miraculous had her brain careening away and she was still reeling from... Everything.
"Ch-Chat? Why... Did they get to you? A-Are you injured?" She clumsily tried to inspect him and one of the arms hugging her raised to the back of her head, touching it, causing her to hiss in pain.
"Am I-You're concussed , Marinette." The boy stated, disbelief dripping from his voice, trembling slightly. "I'm sorry my Lady... I couldn't protect you." Chat Noir took a shuddering breath. "And I couldn't protect Plagg either... I couldn't protect anything..." She could almost feel the despair and loathing laced in his voice, and since she couldn't do much else, she settled for hugging him back.
"I'm scared Chat..." She admitted, finally, finally allowing herself to cry after so long. "I've tried for so long, I did my best, I tried not to get hurt when everyone left me, when Lila threatened me and got me expelled ..." She felt chat tense against her. "I gave up everything to be Ladybug. E-even Adrien …” She finished with a small voice, before an odd sound, half laugh and half sob, tore out from her throat. "Looking back at it I was so, so stupid.... Why couldn't I meet you first, Chat, things would have been so much simpler this way..."
The boy just stayed silent, hugging her tighter, his chin resting on her shoulder.
"Each time I had to tell you no, I felt so horrible, and you were so understanding, too... I tried forgetting about him when he started dating Kagami, but I couldn't, and I couldn't bring myself to accept you because you deserve so much more than me." Her fingers were digging into the fabric of the boy's shirt. " You deserve someone that would love all of you, not a wishy-washy obsessed idiot who can't decide between you and her friend..."
They spent a moment in silence, her crying in her too-good-for-her partner's arms, while he just held her. From the corner of her eyes, she could see a rapidly expanding pillar of light coming from somewhere, probably Hawkmoth's lair.
[I wish to go back in time to undo my mistake]
[I wish for ###### to be saved and for ###### to be happy]
[I wish to become a great ######## who can find great ####### easily! …]
[I wish that #### and # can be together forever]
[I wish to become a rich and famous celebrity! I wish to be the center of ######’s universe, and I wish for ####### to suffer. ]
"How petty." Plague snickered in the black space his counterpart and him were occupying. "So many Loopholes..." The cat flew around, then noticed something odd. "You okay sugarcube? Normally you'd try to stop me..." He turned towards Tikki, to see her closed eyes, a smile fixed on her as if it were bolted on her face.
"Why would I care about a bunch of selfish, murderous traitors ?" She asked Plagg genially, as if she was asking about the weather, which caused the cat to purr.
"Oooooh yeah, you talking my language here. Just think, all the bad luck I can curse them with." He almost cooed to the other. " Every victory they’'ll achieve will taste like ash, any achievement they get will only further their fall~"
"Oh Plagg, you're such a romantic~" Tikki was fanning herself with her hand as the cat cackled and circled her, poisonous black particles trailing after him and devouring everything. "Do me a favor?" She finally asked after a while, causing the cat to perk up.
"Sure, what's up?"
Tikki smiled. It looked like the jagged edges of broken glass and the screams of the damned.
"I think you’re going to love this."
"I know it's too late for regrets but... It's so stupid.." Marinette laughed as the realization hit her like a truck." Here we are at the end of the world, and my regret isn't not confessing to Adrien..."
Chat made a curious noise, though it sounded like he, too, was crying.
"My only regret, my wish..." She sighed, falling bonelessly in his embrace as the pillar almost reached them " It's that I wanted to be the Ladybug you deserve..."
As the pillar hit them, and she felt herself fading, falling into white, Marinette noticed two things. First was that she heard chat's voice telling her something, but her ears felt like they were filled with water, she couldn't hear his words. Second was that her kwagatama, Tikki's gift, flashed red before dissolving into ladybugs.
Marinette's eyes opened and she bolted up, taking in her surroundings. She was currently sitting in the grass, in the middle of the park near her house. She wondered for a moment why she was here, before she gasped, finally remembering the recent events. Then, she felt a hand squeeze hers and looked down. It was a boy, blond haired, wearing a grey dress shirt, a black waistcoat, black slacks and shoes. He had a pale face, with very familiar features, and an overall neat and serious appearance. The boy stirred and his free hand (that was not holding hers, she tried to ignore) rubbed his eyes. He blinked blearily, until he looked at her, sleepily. He had pale blue eyes, almost grey, she noticed. The boy opened his mouth.
"My..My La-dy?" He yawned, a bit confused, and it took her a few instants to realize that she was looking at Chat Noir's civilian form.
"Chaton?" She couldn't help but ask as the boy smiled thinly, almost shyly at her.
"It may not be in the most favorable situation, nor in the one we both wished for." The boy spoke, smoothly and steadily. "But our time as Chat Noir and Ladybug is over now, therefore, I have to ask, will My Lady grace me with the honor of knowing her name?"
Marinette had to roll at the sheer amount of cheese she could hear dripping from his words and slapped him lightly on the arm.
"You know who I am, kitty, but fine." She straightened herself and, oddly enough, felt a bit nervous. "H-Hi! My name is Ma-Marinette, Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" She stuttered? Why did she stutter? Wait, she only did that around... .No. Nonononono... She put her head in her free hand as her face began flaming. In embarrassment! Yes, embarrassment!
Chat's expression turned slightly smug.
"A pleasure, ma Marinette ." He said, finally getting up and getting far too close to her face for her comfort. She idly noticed that her hand was still in his and that he was taller than her, even sitting. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Felix Agreste. Not that Felix, I assure you that I have higher standards when it comes to my behavior... Possibly." He mused, not reassuring her in the slightest and-Wait, Felix Agreste ?
"But Adrien doesn't have a brother?" Marinette asked lost, before Felix' smirk widened and he pecked her on the cheek, his lips then brushing against her ear.
"He does, now that being Adrien and being Chat noir at the same time is impossible." He leaned back as the implication slowly sank in Marinette's already frazzled brain.
...
...
...
Marinette's face took on the rather fetching shade of a firetruck as she leaned back, pointed at him in shock and horror and her mouth opened and closed, the only sound escaping her throat being the muffled cry of a pterodactyl.
Ignoring her distress, Adrien Felix that mangy cat lifted the hand prisoner in his and lightly kissed the top of her fingers.
"I look forward to getting along with you, my lady." He purred, and Marinette's overworked brain decided it was a great moment to stop working.