Chapter Text
Atop Montparnasse Tower, Ladybug sat on the edge of the roof, feet kicking idly while she went through the basic yo-yo tricks. Her supersuit had changed dramatically from the spotted spandex onesie that had first appeared when she donned the earrings of the Ladybug Miraculous. While she still wore an underlayer of the spandex-like magical hexweave, she now wore a cropped hooded jacket over it, three black spots over her chest, while thick lantern sleeves stood out in white. Her gloves bore armored segments in black outlined with red, ending in subtle claws. The mask had expanded from a simple domino to a partial cowl, protecting her jawline, while the lenses had become a blue tint over her now silver eyes.
She heard the sound of boots landing on the roof behind her, glancing in her partner’s direction to acknowledge her presence.
“Another quiet patrol?” Chat Noire questioned. She’d taken to tying back her green-streaked platinum hair into a short ponytail that did nothing to take away from the wildness of her mane.
“Mr. Pigeon again,” Ladybug groaned. “That’s the sixty-fourth time. I don’t see what Hawkmoth is getting out of him now that we’ve got all his potential strategies down-pat.”
“Probably still licking his wounds,” Chat replied, joining Ladybug at her perch and wrapping her arms around her waist, resting her chin on her spotted counterpart’s shoulder.
“You really did a number on him, Kitty,” Ladybug recalled, her hand rising to cup her partner’s cheek.
Their lips met in a quick peck, some of the tension leaving Ladybug’s shoulders.
For a moment, it was just the two of them on the roof of the skyscraper, overlooking the city below.
“Got something on your mind, Bugaboo?” Chat asked, filling the silence.
“I wonder if things could have gone differently,” Ladybug admitted.
“Bunnyx told us that was the best possible outcome,” she reminded. “You’re still here, still Ladybug,” she pressed her hand over her partner’s heart, while chitinous claws traced the faint lines of cracked veins framing the feline heroine’s cheeks. “And I don’t regret for one second what I had to do.”
Ladybug took her partner’s hands in her own, and put some distance between them.
“You shouldn’t have had to,” she whispered, letting go and pulling her knees to rest her chin on. “I should have seen through Lila’s lies sooner. Hell, the first thing I ever heard about her was her lying about us being friends!”
Ladybug’s fist slammed onto the roof, lightly cratering the concrete beneath.
“And I recall you calling her out on that,” Chat Noire reminded her. “You gave her a second chance after Volpina. That she used it to betray us is on her.”
“We trusted her, and she stabbed us in the back,” Ladybug growled. “She took a bullet for me, and it was just so she could sink her own claws in to rip out my heart!”
“She abused the trust we placed in her,” Chat Noire agreed, standing up and offering her a hand. “But our team is stronger than ever. Fu may have had to move to London, but we’re Guardians now, and you’re a Sage for kwami’s sake.”
“I never asked to be a Sage,” Ladybug turned away.
“I can’t think of anyone more qualified to be one,” Chat replied. “And no matter what happens, you aren’t alone here.”
Ladybug took her outstretched hand, standing with her.
“You and me against the world?” she said with renewed energy.
“Always,” Chat Noire smirked.
The moment was broken by the chirp of Ladybug’s yo-yo.
“No rest for the wicked,” Ladybug groaned, flipping the device to its smartphone configuration. On seeing the report on the screen, she promptly swore.
“And when it rains, it floods,” she stared.
“Another upgrade to your yo-yo?” Chat Noire raised an eyebrow.
“You’re right, there’s some perks to being a Guardian and a Sage,” Ladybug told her. “And thanks to Dad and Chloé, I was able to get scan signatures for Pierce’s Enhanced and Audrey’s Magi, so I can track when they pop up, along with any Akumas or Sentimonsters Hawkmoth and Mayura send.”
“Even though Mayura’s been MIA since the Huntress knocked her into the Seine,” Chat Noire pointed out.
“No body, no brooch, no confirmation,” Ladybug reasoned succinctly. “And it looks like we’ve got the trifecta of terror tonight.”
“Call in the cavalry?”
Switching her yo-yo to a more arcane mode, she scrolled between the half-dozen icons hovering over the nebulous portal. Flicking the leafy green and reddish-orange emblems up, she sent the message to her best friends.
Leaping from the tower, they began the trek across the city to where trouble was afoot.
Arriving at the Grand Palais, they heard the sounds of screams as people fled.
“Wasn’t there a symposium or something here tonight, hosted by Tsurugi Industries?” Chat Noire noted. “What are the chances someone got akumatized over a rivalry?”
A hastily-muttered Lucky Charm gave her a telescope, with which she spied through the windows of the event hall.
“Dammit Mendeleiev,” she swore softly. “Kagami said she was discussing some ‘fringe’ science, and warned her that she’d face pushback, especially given whose research she was referencing--some American nutjob named Frakes.”
“I didn’t see you saying anything about Doctor Pines’ work,” Chat Noire pointed out.
“Doctor Pines didn’t chase kids around with a buzzsaw and cause a major blackout,” Ladybug countered.
Her observations caught sight of another flash of movement against the tide of the crowd.
“And it looks like the trifecta is all coming to one place,” she noted, collapsing the telescope and clipping it to her hip, just in time for their fellow Miraculous Holders to arrive.
Tortu Verte had upgraded her suit with a helmet that reminded Ladybug of her best friend’s big sister, while Foxtrot’s orange and white had gained more golden accents, three fluffy fox tails swaying behind him with a flame-like etherealness. On his hand, a sigil was flashing.
“Heads up, dudes, we’ve got more trouble,” the vulpine hero held up the sigil. “Foxfire’s here too.”
“Just what the doctor ordered--payback,” Ladybug bared her fangs, before barking orders. “Tortu, Foxtrot, get the civilians out of harms way, Chat and I will take point.”
With three nods of affirmation, the heroes leapt into action. Entering through the skylight, the quartet had a bird’s-eye view of the scene. Foxtrot was quite to cast his Mirage, creating flashing neon signs and cordons to guide the fleeing crowds safely out the doors.
The Akumatized Mendeleiev bore pale green skin, neon violet hair, glowing goggles that hid her eyes, and a stark hazmat suit with a high-tech backpack connected by a flexible fibre-optic cable to a pistol like a paint gun.
She currently had said gun pointed at a familiar eyesore, who had her hands raised in surrender. The young woman wore an eye-searing combination of a corseted dress with lethally-sharp stiletto heels on platform boots, topped with a power jacket sporting noticeable shoulderpads. The look was completed with a pair of thick crimson sunglasses, complimenting her similarly red voluminous hair.
“Don’t worry, Riftmaker, I know your theories are sound,” the superpowered mercenary told the Akuma. “It’s something of an open secret among us Knights that our powers come from other dimensions.”
“And why should I believe you, Mrs. Valentine?” Riftmaker gestured with her weapon.
“If nothing else, I’m being paid to help you take down the heroes coming to stop you,” the mercenary replied.
“Very well, and it would seem we have company!” Riftmaker raised her voice and shot a burst of green-purple plasma over the mercenary’s shoulder, forcing Tortu Verte to deflect it with her shield.
“Ha! And now it’s really a party!” another voice sounded as a figure dropped from the rafters, performing a three-point-landing with a flourish of flowing black fabric.
“Magus,” Chat Noire hissed, brandishing her staff.
“And you’re the infamous Chat Noire, and her Lady,” the newcomer took a bow, ribbons fluttering around her. Her pixie-cut blonde hair fluttered in a self-generated breeze, her ruby-red eyes glinting like the cloudy maroon gem at her collar. “Her Grace will be pleased when I deliver your Amoks to her.”
“Over your dead body,” Chat Noire set crackling energy along her staff, forming a glassy blade at the end.
“Oh, this is gonna be fun!” the Magical Girl summoned her weapon, a hefty mace with an orb of glass containing a swirling maelstrom for the head.
To the side, Mrs. Valentine clapped her hands, setting out a ripple through the air that stopped at the walls of the Grand Palais.
“I think you’ll find my powers have grown since our last bought, little heroes, and the buzzing bee is nowhere to be seen,” the mercenary smirked.
“I’ve got the Magus, you two deal with Jessica Rabbit over there,” Chat Noire divided their forces while Ladybug lunged for the Akuma.
The feline heroine dodged a floor-cracking swing, flipping over the burst of force that exploded from the mace, and retaliated with a lash of her staff aimed at her opponent’s shoulder. The ribbons trailing behind her rose up and formed a shield, before more of them chopped down as blades, sending Chat Noire on the defensive.
Landing on the floor, only her feline instincts warned her to leap before the ground beneath her exploded.
“What the hell is your deal!?” Chatt Noire screamed, helicoptering on her staff to reach the rafters, the Magical Girl following.
“I am Carlotta Grimaldi, and spacetime bends to my will!” she shouted, the metal beneath her groaning as she lunged in a blur.
Swinging her polearm, Chat Noire severed the rafter, sending the Magical Girl’s charge into a spinning plummet, before she abruptly slowed her momentum.
“Calamity!” Chat Noire hurled a crackling orb of destruction down, which Carlotta intercepted with her mace.
The spell exploded, negating her space-warping magic and allowing normal gravity to assert itself on her stunned foe, who struck the ground with a painful-sounding thump followed by a low groan.
Tortu Verte and Foxtrot would prefer to fight back-to- back, to cover each other’s blind-spots, but against Mrs. Valentine that strategy was a liability, given her ability to teleport anything within her domain, including herself and others. Against the space-manipulator, Foxtrot’s flesh-step was the best defense for dodging, and his illusions from Mirage were able to distract her.
In their favor was the fact that Mrs. Valentine’s own wardrobe worked against her, leaving her prone to stumbling in her own heels, which provided the perfect opening for Tortu to slam her in the side with her shield. The mercenary went reeling, but with a snap of her fingers teleported to land on the heroine in a tackle, to which Tortu flipped her over her shoulder and suplexed her to the floor, pressing the edge of her shield under her chin.
Ladybug ducked and wove around Riftmaker’s shots, not daring to test what her weapon did, considering the Akuma’s name.
She did not have “get trapped in an alternate dimension” on her itinerary.
“Whatever Hawkmoth is offering, it’s not worth it!” Ladybug exclaimed, avoiding another blast.
“Proof of my theorems is most certainly worth it!” the Akuma declared. “One hit, and I will prove it by using you as a conduit to create a bridge between alternate Earths!”
That gave Ladybug pause, but the hairs on the back her neck standing on end gave her warning to throw herself to the side, a clawed hand passing through the air right where her head had been.
“You…” Ladybug hissed, grasping the outstretched wrist and digging her claws in to hurl her attacker over her shoulder, spinning on one heel and delivering a bone-fracturing kick that sent the pink-furred vulpine figure right into Riftmaker, whose weapon went off point-blank into her torso while being pinned under her.
At the same moment, Mrs. Valentine snapped her fingers to teleport out from under Tortu’s shield, and Carlotta let out a scream of utter despair, the gem on her chest going completely dark before it burst forth in mass of roiling dark nebula teeming with pitch-black lightning that enveloped the Akuma, mercenary, and Foxfire, who gathered her bearings and tried to flee even as her fur lit up with green and violet sparks.
“Tortu!” Ladybug shouted, her and Chat falling back to their teammates.
“Shellter!” Tortu Verte roared, summoning the geodesic shield as the maelstrom reached them and batted them back like a buoy in a tsunami.
In the heart of the storm, Foxfire screamed, the two halves of herself at war once again as she felt…magnetized, like she was pulling something to her from beyond what should have been possible, the corrupted and decayed blood of a deity burning within her veins even as the colliding magics electrified it into new life, the sluggish maroon tracing a trail from her lips brightening to a shimmering royal blue as it seeped into the chaos and forged the connection into place…
All seemed well in Paris, at least on the surface. There were no supervillain attacks, no giant monsters running around. But within the park where Alix and Kim were having an argument, the tension was so thick you could slice it with a knife.
“You gotta be kidding me dude? You really think you can beat me?” Alix said as she pointed at the roller skates on her feet. “See these things? Clearly it’s your first time outside of a pool so let me remind you that these let me go faster than you!”
“No shot!” Kim exclaimed. “My legs are longer, and I can run faster! So it doesn’t matter if you’re wearing skates! I’m still gonna beat you! Three laps around the park, go!”
A few of their friends sat stood nearby. Primarily Alya and Cerise, who couldn’t resist the temptation of running across town to record this the second Nino told them what was happening. “Don’t you think this is a bit stupid, them arguing like this?” Cerise asked, worrying about potentially attracting an Akuma.
Alya clapped her on the shoulder. “Cmon girl, if there’s no place in the world for stupid decisions, would that be a world worth living in? Now who do you think’s gonna win?”
Cerise scoffed. “Alix obviously. Kim doesn’t have a chance.”
Nino laughed. “Look Kim’s my friend as much as anyone, but babe…please tell me you’re gonna record Alix kicking his ass.” Alya kissed her boyfriend on the cheek. “You know it.” She pulled out her phone and began recording as Alix and Kim took off around the park. Everyone cheered as they went around, and as they did, Alya noticed Cerise staring off into the middle distance. She passed the phone to Nino and walked over. “Girl, you ok?”
Cerise snapped out of it upon hearing her words. “Oh yeah! Yeah…just thinking about Heroes Day again.” She’s had that day on her mind the last two weeks. While Alya, Marinette and Alix went off to fight, she stayed behind and defended the Liberty from the re-akumatized villains. Syren came dangerously close to sinking the ship, until Cerise used her Blessing. She lied to Syren that they had actually fled across the river and onto the other side of the shore.
And the worst part? She believed it, immediately left the boat and leapt onto the other side of the river to try and find them…and started to choke. Cerise panicked and cast a spell to push her back in, but it has weighed on her. She nearly caused an innocent person to suffocate.
Alya put her hand on Cerise’s shoulder. “Hey…I know what you had to do was hard. But you couldn’t have known that would happen. You were trying to protect Luka and his mom. The fact that you feel bad about it means you’re way better than you think you are.”
Cerise smiled sadly. “I hope so…oh look they’re almost done!” Indeed, the final lap had come to an end and Alix was streaking towards the finish. “Cmon Alix, you got this!” Alix grinned as she pushed one final time…
“BOOM!” Suddenly a massive shockwave rang out from the center of the park, knocking everyone away. “What the hell?” Alya screamed.
Above the city, the armored form of Gigabyte was on their normal patrol when the shockwave happened. “Shit!” They whirled around in midair and their lenses zoomed in on the park. “An abnormal mass of energy is building up in the center of the park.” ANGIE spoke from within their helmet.
“An akuma?”
“Partially, but not entirely. There’s several signatures I can’t identify.” The air started to crack around the park, dark bolts of energy materializing until a dark sphere formed in the center.
“Holy shit, that’s a black hole!” Kicking their thrusters into overdrive, Gigabyte rocketed downwards.
On the ground, the people fled in terror as the black hole grew. “Run, run!” Alix helped Kim up and away, trusting her watch to protect her. But despite what everyone thought about black holes, no one seemed to be getting sucked in.
Except one. For as Cerise stared into the black hole, she felt something pulling at her. Not just gravity, something that seemed to resonate with her very being. She felt herself being lifted into the air. “ALYA HELP!” Alya grabbed out for her, but she was too slow and Cerise was sucked towards the black hole.
“Hang on girl!” Gigabyte swooped in and grabbed Cerise, firing a rope from their right gauntlet to wrap around a telephone pole, which quickly went taut as Gigabyte tried to pull them both back. But the rope snapped and both of them went tumbling in. Alya’s eyes went wide as she stared into the abyss.
“ALYA!” Angelbug and Cat Noir landed behind her. “Are you ok? What’s happening?”
“Cerise…” Alya turned around. “Gigabyte tried to save her, but they both went into the black hole.”
“Kid, that’s not a black hole.” Plagg said in Cat Noir’s head. “Then what is it?”
“I… don’t know. I’ve seen black holes, I’ve been in them. That’s not one. It seems to be some kind of gate.”
Cat Noir turned to his partner. “You get that from yours?” She nodded. “If it’s a gate, then there’s something on the other side.”
Angelbug turned to her friend. “We’ll get them back, don’t worry.” Alya wiped tears from her eyes. “I trust you.”
“Let’s go!” Cat Noir grinned as he leapt forward, feeling a small pull at his body as he entered, with Angelbug spreading her wings and flying right after.
And across the city, Shadow Moth looked on in horror as his archenemies disappeared. “Nooroo, what is that?” But he suddenly felt the air change as he turned around, seeing another black hole appear in his attic. And he felt himself being pulled in. “No! Nathalie! NOOO!” And he disappeared too. Paris’s heroes, and villains, sent through to somewhere completely unknown.