Chapter Text
Finding people to turn into Akumas was far more difficult than Tessa had expected. Honestly, her respect for Hawkmoth grew several notches. Finally, she gave up. “Nooroo, detransform.”
“Didn't find a target?” Uzi asked, sitting on her workbench and idly filing her nails. “And for all the fuss you made for getting to be first...”
“Hush you,” Tessa deadpanned. “Nobody is feeling anything negative. Everything just feels genuinely positive and happy.”
“Almost as if Paris is relieved that the previous Hawkmoth is in jail, or something,” Uzi snarked. “We'll probably have to start engineering negativity.”
“Fun,” Tessa snarked. “Well, whatever. Jaybird and I have a date in the evening anyway. Hate to interrupt it.”
“Have fun,” Uzi told her. “I, meanwhile, gotta make sure Sabrina's puppy crush on me doesn't go anywhere. She's far too young for me, after all.”
“If you reject her outright,” Nooroo began, “Then perhaps...”
“Nope,” Uzi shot him down. “One, I'm not dealing with Vanisher again, and two... it's really not nice, to be rejected.”
“Oh, very well,” the Kwami sighed. “I guess we'll have to wait.”
XD
The trio spent the next few days doing nothing about their plans to be the next Paris supervillain, instead just... going about their own paces. But on occasion, they vented to each other.
“...Mom is awful,” Tessa said. “I mean, not Louisa levels of awful, but it's getting there. And, you know, she's your mom too, but...”
“I didn't know I had a sister until you turned up,” Uzi replied dryly. “If I wasn't so good at emotional repression, I'd have gotten Akumatized over that. I think I figured out that she was awful. How old are you again?”
“Less than a year younger than you,” Tessa sighed.
“Which means that she went and tried again immediately after I was born,” Uzi pointed out. “Solver. I mean... have you heard what Chloé was like before V got too trigger-happy?”
“I've heard rumors,” Tessa replied grimly.
“I felt her emotions on multiple occasions,” Nooroo provided. “She was... deeply unhappy.”
“Yeah,” Uzi groused. “She was practically Rachel, trying to emulate Mom. Trying to get the faintest bit of positive attention out of her.”
“Yeah, I don't think she was ever going to get any,” Tessa sighed. “Mom barely knows anyone's name, and I can't tell if it's deliberate or not. We're just too unimportant to her.”
“So,” Uzi declared, Nooroo nodding in sync with her. “When she steps foot in Paris, we kill her.”
“Agreed,” Tessa and Nooroo chorused.
XD
The two girls and their Kwami were just mindlessly clicking through the channels on their TV, when suddenly...
“And welcome back to Prime Time with Nadja Chamack, as I interview the new Ladybug and Chat Noir!”
The girls stared.
“Neither of them is the original anymore,” Tessa pointed out.
“Nadja won't care,” Uzi muttered, a gleam in her eye. “V is gonna put her in her place, and whoever Dottie is is likely to rip her a new one...”
“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” Nooroo asked.
“Only if you're thinking what I'm thinking,” Uzi replied.
“She's likely to be upset about this,” Tessa grinned. The trio settled in to watch.
“So,” Nadja was saying, “What made the two of you take on the legacy of Ladybug and Chat Noir?”
“We were chosen as replacements,” Neko Mata drawled, leaning back on the couch. “Chat Noir retired, and now I'm Neko Mata. Ladybug was forcibly retired, and now we have Dottie over there.”
“I can speak for myself, kitty,” Dottie snapped. “But yes, that's what happened.”
“And are you taking over from the romance department too, then?” Nadja purred.
The two heroes blinked. “Say what?”
“Ladybug and Chat Noir were, of course, partners in more than one way,” Nadja elaborated. “Whatever chose you, surely had to have chosen another couple?”
“That's an entirely baseless assumption!” Dottie exclaimed.
“Ladybug and Chat Noir didn't retire at the same time,” Neko Mata pointed out. “Your assumption is completely fallacious. Besides, I'm single, still waiting for the Mr. Right. Or Mrs. Right. I don't mind either option.”
“And I have a girlfriend,” Dottie said, arms crossed. “This line of questioning ends here.”
“But surely, you're planning on settling down, finishing Université, things like that?” Nadja tried.
“...How old do you think we are?” Neko Mata asked, frowning.
“I'm still in Collège,” Dottie added.
Nadja blanched. “You... you're children?!”
“...it really wasn't clear, was it?” Neko Mata asked.
The woman had her head in her hands. “...No wonder a collège student claimed to be your best friend,” she muttered. “You're... you're both in collège yourselves... Paris is being protected by children....”
As the two heroes looked at Nadja with wide eyes, Tessa stood up. “You can feel that, can't you, Nooroo?”
“Despair,” the Kwami whispered. “Yes... Perfect.”
“Nooroo... Dark Wings Rise!”
The new Purple Empress opened the top of her cane and withdrew a white butterfly, a wave of her hand darkening it into an Akuma.
“I'll wait here, then,” Uzi deadpanned.
Purple Empress didn't answer, her Akuma slipping through the glass as if it wasn't even there, winging its way towards the TV studio.
Still on air, the two heroes were trying to comfort the newswoman, with varying degrees of success. “Were Ladybug and Chat Noir children too?” the woman demanded.
“I don't know,” Dottie was saying. “Maybe not?”
“They had the time limits we do,” Neko Mata pointed out. “Adults don't have those.”
Nadja turned green. “Oh, merde... they were kids... I didn't know, you have to believe me!”
‘Kids don't have to be doing this job, you know,’ a little voice whispered to her.
“Children shouldn't be doing this,” Nadja whispered.
‘You're an adult. Even you could do a better job. It doesn't have to be the kids.’
“I'm an adult,” Nadja asserted, standing up. “It doesn't have to be you, kids. I can do the hero job myself.”
Neko Mata and Dottie were backing away for some reason. Nadja frowned. “Where are you going?”
‘They're being stubborn. Don't they understand that this is for their own good?’
Of course. “You're just being stubborn about this,” Nadja said. “It's for your own good. I promise.”
“I've heard that before,” Neko Mata muttered.
‘Take their Miraculous for yourself, Mama Bear.’
Nadja fell into the transformation almost subconsciously, and Mama Bear opened her eyes. “Give me your Miraculous, children.”
“So much for a more heroic Butterfly!” Dottie yelped. The cameras cut to static.
Back in the hotel room, Uzi let out a low whistle. “You're terrifying, Tess.”
“Dark Wings Fall,” Tessa said, and grinned at her sister. “Thank you!”
Uzi shook her head. “I'll get my suit.”
XD
Cyn put the remote down and glanced at her father, who was staring, face aghast. “It would seem... that the new Butterfly... learned from your example,” she drawled.
“That's not helping, Adrienne,” he whispered. “Mon dieu... whoever they are, they're far more insidious than I was. Did you see her?”
Cyn nodded. “She was repeating... the commands... as if they were her own thoughts,” she agreed. “It reminds me... of the Imperius.”
Gabriel turned. “...the what?”
“Imperius... curse,” Cyn repeated. “I suspect... that the new Butterfly... might be one of my fwiends. I have seen no evidence... of a Magical world... in this world. I checked... all the usual... spots. For someone... to use the Butterfly in this manner... they have to be one of... my fwiends.”
“I see,” Gabriel muttered. “Are you... going to stop them?”
Cyn thought about it. “I won't... be fighting... the Akuma... yet. I'll wait... until I return... to school. Oziyah... would yell at me... if I did.”
Gabriel blinked. “...Who?”
Oh, right. “She reincarnated... as Chloé,” Cyn told him. “Oziyah... was her name... when I first met her. So that is... what I call her.”
She looked down at her fingers, the [null] poking through. “She'll yell at me... anyway. But it will be born... of worry.”
She shook her head and looked at Gabriel. “It's... okay, Papa. I will be... fine.”
“I hope so,” Gabriel muttered.
XD
“This is harder than I thought,” V muttered, balancing her staff between two buildings and watching Mama Bear claw her way up one of them, Dottie firmly tucked under her arms. “A lot harder.”
She retracted her staff, reoriented it, and re-extended it, propelling herself away from the leap of the ursine villain. “At least she's not harming Dottie. Small mercies.”
Down in the woman's grasp, Dottie wasn't having the time of her life either. “What will it take for you to just forget the Miraculous and let me go?” she asked plaintively.
“When you retire, child,” Mama Bear replied. “This is a dangerous place, especially for children! What if you got hurt?”
“My Miraculous Cure will take care of that,” Dottie pleaded. “Please, Mama Bear... can't you understand that the only danger I'm in right now is from you?”
“Nonsense,” Mama Bear attested. “In fact-”
She was cut off by someone flying by at high speed and ripping the ladybug hero from her arms.
“Gotcha!” a metallic voice exclaimed. Dottie blinked. Up on the rooftops, V also blinked.
What placed her down was a dark, metallic suit of armor, done up in various shades of purple. The suit had a feminine figure, and a dark purple cape wrapped around them. All in all... that was so very edgy.
“...who are you!?” Mama Bear growled in sync with Dottie's wide-eyed exclamation.
“I am... Dark Wolf,” the newcomer uttered, in a low, dramatic voice. “A staunch defender of Justice.”
V fell off the roof laughing.
“Bite me,” Dark Wolf growled, only making the cat hero laugh harder.
XD
With the addition of Dark Wolf, the tide of the battle turned. Mama Bear, who had almost completely overpowered the two Miraculous users, was now on the back foot. The tide turner was the frankly ridiculous amount of gadgets and features that had been packed into the suit, with nearly every action Mama Bear took having been countered by Dark Wolf.
All in all, it took barely five minutes for Mama Bear to get incapacitated, and for the three heroes to start looking for the Akuma item. Even though Dottie and Neko Mata had been present, they hadn't seen anything until the glowing butterfly mask had snapped into existence.
...as it did now, in fact.
“I've been beaten,” Mama Bear said, in the same unfocused voice Nadja had been speaking in when Akumatized. “Maybe... you are up for it after all.” She looked up at them, and her eyes were glowing purple. “Purple Empress will have to try again next time.”
The butterfly mask vanished as Nadja's transformation bled away, a butterfly rising from her form. Dottie snapped it up and purified it almost on instinct, before the heroes ran over to the newswoman.
Nadja sat on the pavement, a faintly horrified look on her face. “...I was... Akumatized,” she whispered, before looking up at Dottie, eyes wide. “I remember everything.”
“Oh boy,” Neko Mata muttered.
XD
And in her room in the Grand Paris hotel, Zoé Lee let her transformation drop. “So, Nooroo. How did I do?”
The Kwami clapped her paws. “Well done, mistress Tessa! Withdrawing the Akuma before it can be forcibly withdrawn is far more lenient on the Akumatized's memories. It should also be far easier to re-akumatize them, if needed. Good job!”
Tessa grinned, before sitting back down on the overwatch console. “Come in, Anklebiter.”
“Shut the fuck up,” came the immediate reply. “I'm Dark Wolf, remember?”
“I seem to recall having been DarkxWolf first,” Tessa teased. “But oh fine. Your return path is clear, don't forget to engage the cloak.”
“Neko Mata already knows I'm Uzi, by the way,” came the dry answer.
“And we already knew that she was V,” Tessa countered. “But we haven't met her as a civilian yet, so she doesn't know who Uzi is, nor do we know who V is.”
“We kicked the ass of Hawkmoth's wife together, remember?”
“...oh right,” Tessa recalled, as the armor of Dark Wolf flew in through the window and skidded to a halt. “Well...”
“Next objective,” Uzi said as she took off her helmet, “finding the identity of Neko Mata. But not Dottie. We like Dottie.”
Tessa just snickered at her.