Chapter Text
Hawk Moth could not believe his luck! Cat Noir had allowed himself to get angry enough to succumb to his Akuma. With the former Ryūko no less!
Neither hero still had their Miraculouses, but together as Duolist they would be his masterpiece! A dark reflection of Ladybug and Cat Noir to torment the heroine and her new partner.
“They are magnificent!”
He supposed Tsurugi-san would no doubt be displeased, but she no longer mattered.
He co*cked his head to the side, feeling a sudden surge of anger behind him. As he did he felt something shoot past his ear - close enough to scrape the side of his mask - and saw a crossbow bolt shatter the monitor in the faux window of his lair, casting the room in a flickering light.
He spun around to see Nathalie, crossbow levelled, wearing a gleaming silver exoskeleton over her clothing.
He narrowed his eyes at the familiar tomoe emblem on the disc on the centre of her chest, from where the exo skeleton extended.
Tsurugi technology.
“Nathalie?!” He exclaimed in shock as she glared at him along the sights of the crossbow, her lips curled in disgust.
“I stood by your side for years helping you and Emilie search for magical artefacts. I stood by your side as Emilie grew ill. I stood by your side as you became Hawk Moth. I stood by your side as you terrorised Paris. The adults I could forgive in the cause of saving Emilie, even the children I held my tongue, I had fooled myself into believing that it was for a good cause, and that everything would be set right once we fixed the world.”
Nathalie tossed the crossbow aside and dropped into a combat stance, hands at the ready.
“But now you've Akumatized Adrien!? Your own son, Gabriel?!”
“Why should I not? He belongs to me, and to think: Cat Noir was living under my roof this entire time!”
Nathalie's eyes widened.
“Adrien… is Cat Noir? That… that explains so much.”
He sighed, gesturing airily.
“It is regrettable that he no longer has the Miraculous of the Black Cat, but he and Kagami will finally take the Miraculouses from Ladybug and her new Cat Holder, and I will make my wish come true!”
“No. You've gone too far this time Gabriel. Let, him, go!”
He spread his arms in a theatric shrug.
“Why? It does not matter if Adrien is Cat Noir or not, he and Kagami are sources of such exquisite anguish and despair, as Duolist they are my finest work - the perfect alliance!”
Nathalie shook her head resolutely.
“I won't let you use Adrien and Kagami as pawns for your insanity. Release them Gabriel, do the right thing by your son for once in your damn life!”
He looked her up and down, sneering condescendingly.
“Or what? Have you come to stop me? And how will you do that without a Miraculous? A few toys - undoubtably purchased under false pretences from Mrs Tsurugi - are hardly a match for me!”
Nathalie grinned mirthlessly.
“I don't need a Miraculous to destroy you Gabriel. I never have.”
She charged, he brought his cane down in a two handed strike, but she grabbed it with both hands, the exoskeleton allowing her to easily hold it at bay as she let loose a litany of accusations.
“You have lied at every turn Gabriel. To Adrien, to me, to yourself! You say you are doing this to bring Emilie back, but how many times have you had Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses practically in the palm of your hand, only to indulge in chaos, because you wanted more? More Miraculouses, more power! For what? Is bringing Emilie back not good enough anymore? Do you want to rule over the world as some kind of monarch?!”
He grunted, putting on a burst of strength, and shoved her away, swinging his cane around behind his back in a flourish.
“Why should I not? Why shouldn't I rule with Emilie at my side? This world is flawed, with the Wish I can make it perfect, a utopia!”
Nathalie charged in with a flurry of jabs, driving him back while swaying out of the way of his own blows.
“Any world you would make would be a dystopia!” She dropped, sweeping her leg to cut his own from under him. “I won't let you remake the world in the image of your madness!”
She drew one arm back, and dove towards him, bringing her fist down, clearly intending to strike his throat, but before she could make contact he swung upwards with his cane, striking the glowing chest piece, and grinned in satisfaction as it shattered, and the glowing lights at the joints flickered and dimmed as Nathalie stumbled, caught off-guard.
As he stood, he gloated at his erstwhile assistant.
“Your little toys can never match the might of a Miraculous!”
His celebration would be short-lived, however.
“Unlike you, Gabriel, I do not rely solely on trinkets.”
Nathalie kicked his knee, causing him to lose his balance once more as she backed away, clutching the shattered core of her chestpiece.
***
Nathalie retreated to the elevator.
While the Tsurugi prototype had greatly enhanced her strength, she knew she could not match the stamina of a Miraculous Holder, especially now that it was damaged.
To the room at large she called: “Security Override: Mayura, Eleven, Three, Eighteen! Intruder in the sanctum, activate countermeasures!”
“Mayura Override initiated. Intruder detected! Deploying security countermeasures.”
The window started to iris shut, and the room lights turned a harsh red as numerous weapon systems emerged from panels in the domed walls. She mentally thanked Robostus for the inspiration, as she stepped onto the elevator platform and started to descend, smirking as she saw, and heard, Gabriel fruitlessly ordering the computer to stop, only for it to defy him.
She needed a moment to breathe, and as she descended the elevator platform into the antechamber that connected to the elevator to Gabriel's atelier, and down to the crypt, she took stock:
Gabriel had been breathing heavily, he was winded, even with his vaunted Miraculous powers. She had not wasted her advantage, and Gabriel's focus was no longer on the Akuma Battle.
With luck, the heroes would be able to free Adrien and Kagami swiftly. If not, she had a contingency for that as well.
As she sped to the elevator beneath Gabriel's atelier, shedding the now useless exoskeleton as she went, she smiled grimly, imagining her assault on Gabriel as her chessboard: She had spent over a month manoeuvring the pieces exactly where she wanted them - if Gabriel thought she had no further moves to make, he really didn't know her at all.
***
“This is impossible!” Purple Tigress cried out in frustration as yet again the Akuma duo repelled their attacks. “They’re freakishly synchronised!”
“Don’t give up!” Bluebird replied as she dodged a swing from Catastrophe’s baton. “Nobody is unbeatable!”
She wished she felt as confident as she sounded.
The battle so far had passed in a blur, a flurry of strikes and parries. The Akuma Duo were clearly skilled combatants, and each covered the other's weaknesses, constantly switching opponents back and forth with uncanny fluidity.
“You have no chance against us, we are two fighting as one, we are Duolist!” The Akumas intoned, their voices creepily in sync as Catastrophe rained blows down on her.
Bluebird tried her best to block the blows with her fan, but she was still getting pushed back.
Being constantly on the defensive, she could not strike back against Catastrophe, and Tigress was busy fighting Kurobug.
She broke away, leaping back from Catastrophe and flinging quill darts at him to cover her retreat, only for the Akumas to switch places, and Kurobug to block them with her yoyo while Catastrophe caught Purple Tigress with his baton.
Just then, a piercing screech of anger split the air, and Skyger dropped from the sky, barrelling into Catastrophe, sending both Akumas tumbling away from the two heroines.
Bluebird furrowed her brow in thought in the moments the tigerbat had bought them. Her fan was not ideal as a melee weapon - she’d learned that much fighting Guillotine - and if she was blocking with it, she couldn’t use it to land a blow.
What she really needed was two weapons, like how Cat Noir could split his baton.
‘Tessenjetsu: Way of the striking peaco*ck’
The words, like an instinct, or a half-recalled memory, shot through her mind. She didn’t know where they came from, the voice which spoke them, or what they meant, but she found them driving her actions as she raised her fan above her head in both hands, and pulled her arms apart.
Her fan flashed, and the next moment she flourished a pair of war fans.
Unlike her normal fan, they were smaller, collapsible fans with no feathers, and five metal spokes each, which ended in curved blades resembling a bird's talons. She found that the spokes were perfectly spaced to allow her to slide her fingers between them, to grip the fans as fist weapons, in addition to the more traditional method.
“Now this is more like it!” She grinned, as she charged back in, the same strange instinctual memory telling her how to fight with her Tessen.
How do I know that word? She thought to herself.
But she set such considerations aside as she caught Catastrophe’s swinging baton on one fan, pushing it aside, and spun in to strike with the other, raking the talons across his chest while Kurobug was occupied with Skyger and Purple Tigress double-teaming her.
He grunted in pain, but quickly brought his own weapon around to force her away, looking at her with his cracked visage and all too familiar eyes.
“Please, just give up Bluebird. You owe me that much!”
She frowned as she held her fans defensively.
“What? What do I owe you Cat?”
“Mayura… if we never stopped her… if we never found out who she really was… I- this is all your fault!”
Bluebird came up short, dropping her arms as the words felt like a dagger plunged into her heart.
“How- how can you say that? It’s not my fault- I… I didn’t ask to be made!”
She thought she saw a flicker of regret in Catastrophe’s eyes, just as she was caught off guard by Kurobug’s yoyo slamming into her side, sending her sprawling to the ground, crying in pain.
“Bluebird!”
Tigress yelled her name and she and Skyger leapt protectively between her and the Akumas.
Her mind was reeling, and she struggled to force down that familiar darkness in her thoughts that threatened to escape once more at Catastrophe’s words. Mayura was Nathalie, but if this was the real Cat Noir, why would that be so devastating to him?
Oh.
Oh no.
“Don't listen, it's just the Akuma talking!” Tigress reassured her, as she and the tigerbat stood guard over her.
“Akumas just amplify what's already there, you and I both know that!” She propped herself up on one arm and covered her face with the other. “He's right, if it wasn't for me, none of this would have happened! It’s all my fault, if I’d just let Mayura-”
Tigress snapped her head back to look at her, and Bluebird was taken aback by the depths of the emotion she saw - and felt - in those eyes.
“You don't know that! Maybe something worse would have happened without you! What about everybody you’ve saved? What about everybody whose lives you’ve made better?” She paused only to block a yoyo strike from Kurobug with a snap of her whip. “You saved me! So don't you dare say the world would be a better place without you in it!”
Bluebird thought she saw tears glinting in her sister’s eyes as she pulled Bluebird up by her arm, and Bluebird gave her a quick hug before flourishing her tessen once more.
“Touching…” Kurobug drawled, drawing their attention back to the Akumas just as a yell cut across the battle.
“CATACLYSM!”
Cattix came flying in and grabbed Catastrophe’s baton, having caught the villains completely by surprise. The metal stick breaking to pieces under her touch.
“Hah, shoddy knock-offs, no match fur the real thing!” Cattix snarked, as Purple Tigress, Bluebird, and Skyger rejoined the battle, Bluebird chuckling at the cat pun, despite herself.
“My partner need not rely solely on one weapon, pretender.” Kurobug intoned.
“We are as one in all ways.” Catastrophe continued. “In thought…”
“...in action…” Kurobug swept the area around the pair with her yoyo, driving Cattix back to the other three.
“...and in power!” Catastrophe flung his free hand to the sky.
“Catacharm!”
“Kuroclysm!”
The Akumas had spoken at the exact same moment, and the heroes could only only look on in horror, as a white sabre covered in black cat pawprints appeared in Catastrophe’s hand in a flurry of white magical beetles, and Kurobug’s yoyo became wreathed in crimson destructive power.
Cattix looked from the villains to her and back again, holding her extended baton across her body defensively.
“No offence, but we could really use Ladybug right about now!”
***
Marinette stop
“Tikki, spots-”
“Marinette, stop!”
Marinette blinked in surprise as Alya grabbed her arms and interrupted her transformation.
She was sitting on her knees on Alya's bed from where she, Alya, and their Kwamis had been watching the news report on the Akuma.
Tikki was floating over Alya's shoulder, looking at Marinette with a concerned frown as the other girl continued.
“You can't go out there! You're still injured, you said yourself how much it hurt you to transform in New York!”
Marinette knew there was truth to Alya's words, but still…
“I have to! It's my responsibility, there's an Akuma, they need Ladybug!”
Tikki flew in Marinette's face.
“No, Marinette! Alya's right, you'll never heal if you keep transforming. They need my power but it doesn't have to be you! You three talked about this!”
Marinette sank back on her haunches.
“But Tikki… I'm Ladybug, Master Fu chose me, and now he's gone… It's my duty, all of it!”
Tikki's expression softened and she rubbed Marinette's cheek.
“I know, but if Fu was here right now, what would he say?”
Marinette sighed. “Probably some proverb about a bird with a broken wing needing time to heal, or something?”
Tikki giggled. “Exactly! You've done a fantastic job at gathering allies, now let them help you!”
Marinette deflated. Her chest ached, and she felt so very tired.
“Ok Tikki. You're right.”
Marinette closed her eyes and removed the earrings, and didn't protest as she felt her Kwami retrieve them from her hand.
“Take them to Centi.”
Alya raised an eyebrow.
“I thought I was meant to sub in for you?”
Marinette opened her eyes and squeezed Alya's hand apologetically.
“Yes, and I still want you to. But you have no experience with Tikki's powers, and a double Akuma with a copy of both my and Cat Noir's powers is not a good one to be learning the ropes. Centi has used my Miraculous before as Lady Blue, and she was Blue Bug.”
Alya slowly nodded agreement, but Marinette could tell she was disappointed as she accepted the earrings from Tikki and put them in her bag.
Tikki floated beside Alya as the redhead lent over and kissed Marinette on the cheek. “We got this M. Just relax!”
Alya climbed off the bed.
“Trixx, Let's Pounce!”
As Rena Rouge and Tikki departed from the balcony, Marinette fell back on her girlfriend's bed with a sigh.
They were right, of course, but it felt strange to be the one left behind as her friends went off to fight the Akuma.
It felt wrong.
