Chapter Text
“AKUMA ALERT. AKUMA ALERT. PLEASE RETREAT TO A SAFE PLACE UNTIL THE THREAT IS NEUTRALISED.”
The alarm tears the night apart. An akuma, another one, as has become standard over the last four or so years, attacking Paris, the City of Love and more recently, Heroes.
The city's eponymous hero, tired to begin with, groans into her pillow and tries to ignore Tikki tugging at her hair.
"Come on Marinette!" she chirps. "Someone out there needs Ladybug!"
"Ladybug needs sleep," she mumbles, but as the alarm continues to blare she screws up all her best quality Inner Strength and forces herself from bed. After an unenthusiastic transformation, she clambers gracelessly onto her balcony and takes a cursory look around, but so far she can't see anything.
Across the city, lights are coming on in peoples houses but she sees very few leaving them to take shelter in an Akuma Bunker; she can't blame them. Given the choice herself, the only place she would be right now is in her bed.
“AKUMA ALERT. AKUMA ALERT. PLEASE RETREAT TO A SAFE PLACE UNTIL THE THREAT IS NEUTRALISED.”
She checks for reports on her yoyo and sees that the akuma is causing trouble not far from the hospital, so with one last sigh she sets off in its direction. Along the way she meets Chat Noir, bounding along with a level of energy that's frankly indecent at this time in the morning.
"Ladybug!" he exclaims. "Nice night for it, eh?" Summer is slowly coming to a close; they're in its dying gasps now, so she supposes he's not wrong. Once winter hits these fights are going to take a lot more out of her.
"The akuma's at—"
"The hospital," he finishes, tone losing its good humour at once. "I know."
The first sign that something is very wrong is the smell of burning concrete. The second is the rapidly encroaching light coming from the hospital's direction. With most of Paris still asleep, it's distinctly out of place.
"What's going on?" Ladybug mutters. Chat Noir offers no reply.
Next comes the first quake; something causes the Earth to move, the air to tingle and crack with energy, a great seismic shift, and the heroes look at each other.
"That's not good," Chat Noir mutters. "Come on, My Lady."
They approach the scene at a cautious pace, keeping to the shadows. The closer they get the brighter the light does, until they're only around the corner and Ladybug is beginning to squint.
"What do you think it—"
A shrieking wail cuts her off, making her gasp and clamp her hands over her ears. It rips through the air so loudly she can feel it, so loudly it hurts.
They huddle together until the wail tapers off, and she dares to crack her eyes open. Chat's fake ears have gone flat to his head and he's grimacing in pain.
"Okay," he says, "officially worried now. What the hell was that?"
They never get the time to speculate. His question is answered almost immediately.
The light dims away almost completely and the searing heat fades. Marinette opens her eyes. A white-haired woman stands before them, staring. Or, she thinks she's staring. She doesn't know if the woman can actually see—her eyes have been replaced by two orbs that resemble tiny suns—but she does seem to know that she and Chat Noir are there.
When the akuma doesn't move to attack, which is odd in itself, she asks, "Who are you?" hoping for something that will help.
The akuma opens her mouth and slowly, softly, speaking in a voice that echoes and refracts like many shards of glass, says, "I am... Morning Star."
Marinette nods. "Okay, Morning Star, what's wrong?"
"Where... is he?"
"Where is who, Morning Star?"
"Where is—my son?" Oh no.
"I—Your son?" Chat asks. "I don't—I'm sorry, ma'am, we haven't seen him. Where was he last?" But Marinette is eyeing the hospital in the distance with an increasingly queasy feeling.
"Chat," she mutters. Morning Star's attack had begun at the hospital.
"If you tell us what he looks like we'd be happy to help you find him!" he continues, oblivious to Marinette's fears. Oh no, she thinks again.
Morning Star stares at him for a long moment, then says, "He is only small. J-Jacques. My Jacques. My little boy." Oh, no no no. Marinette understands what has happened with a sudden, dread-filled clarity, and she could cry, but Chat is still trying to help because he hasn't realised.
"There's a lot of little Jacques in Paris, ma'am," he says, keeping his tone as light as he can because even though he doesn't know what's wrong, he knows that something is.
"Chat," she says again. "She came from the hospital. She's looking for her son. Her name is Mourning Star." And then she sees everything click into place in Chat's eyes and his breath leaves him in one long woosh.
"No," he says. "Oh no." My sentiments exactly, she thinks, looking back to Mourning Star, who is still watching them, awaiting something.
"Where is he?" she asks again. Her voice is haunting, echoing. "Where is... my baby?" There's a locket around her neck that an increasingly panicked Marinette thinks may be her akumatized object, if she could only get hold of it somehow. But how could she trick her? Or distract her?
Stalling for time, Chat Noir asks in a strained tone, "Can you tell us your civilian name, Mourning Star?" When her eye-orbs flare up he adds hurriedly, "So we can help you find—find Jacques!" He chokes on this last part, this awful little lie, but the light dims again and they are able to look at her.
"E-Elise," she says.
He nods. "Alright, Elise—"
"But you are Chat Noir." She turns her head to Marinette. "And you are Ladybug. Hawkmoth will help me find Jacques, if I—if I give him your Miraculous. He has lost someone as well."
Fury fires through Marinette all at once and she snaps, "Hawkmoth is lying to you, Elise. He's using you—"
"I am Mourning Star." The light flares up again, blinding and burning, and once more the heroes are left unable to see. They go stumbling back, away from the immense heat as Mourning Star shrieks, "I want my son back! You will not keep me from him!" Mourning Star sweeps her arm out in one sharp movement and for a split second, Marinette is confused—
Until her feet lift up from the ground—
She's flying—
Chat Noir is screaming her name—
Her world explodes into a dazzling shower of stars because—
She's hit—
Impacted against something. A wall, she realises in the final moment before she loses consciousness.
When next she opens her eyes there's a roof over her head and sunlight streaming in through a nearby window, intermingled with—
Marinette narrows her eyes, sight still bleary. It's smoke, she realises, and her eyes slide shut again. It's smoke. They snap back open. Smoke—Fire—Mourning Star. Sucking in a jagged breath, she bolts upright and the thin blanket that had been covering her falls away.
"C-Chat?" she calls, throat dry and sandpaper-y. But no one answers. She looks around the cramped office space and realises that she is alone, which means Chat Noir is fighting Mourning Star alone.
She stumbles to her feet and over to the window, seeking out her friend, but he's nowhere in sight. The street outside is decimated, she realises, her stomach dropping. Devoid of life and strewn with wrecked emergency service vehicles. Gaping, she realises that the whole world has gone mute.
"Chat?" she repeats, but quietly and to herself; she can tell that she's alone in this building. She tracks her partner from her yoyo and, pausing only to drink from the bottled water he had left behind for her, she sets off in pursuit of the fight.
They're at the TV station.
She has to force herself not to consider the morality of fighting this woman. Elise is a victim, she thinks, and all that can save her is stopping her. She passes an abandoned news van, crushing a stray mic underfoot, before she reaches the scene. The windows on one side of the building are shattered, decorating the ground she sprints over to reach her partner before something happens. (She doesn't even entertain the thought that in her absence something already might have.)
It's the sole spark of relief she's felt all day when she reaches the lobby and Chat Noir is right in front of her. He looks worse for wear and unspeakably tired, but he grins a feral grin when he sees her.
"Nice of you to join me, Bugaboo!" he says, just as Mourning Star bursts through a wall. They're blinded by the light and run for shelter. "You've been out for seven hours," he says in answer to the question on the tip of her tongue. "Woke up for a while at around six-ish but other than that..."
"Thank you for saving me, Kitty," she says.
His answering smile is wan. "Anything for my Ladybug." They don't address the slight, underlying tension that the danger of their situation has given rise to; the kiss they had shared at the start of the summer, in the light of the Eiffel Tower, stood atop the Arch de Triumph. She's glad of it. She wouldn't know what to say.
They're hiding in a stairwell and can hear Mourning Star storming closer and closer—light beams through the gap between the door and the floor —and she passes them by. They breathe dual sighs of relief.
"We need a plan, Ladybug," he says, "and we need one fast."
So they make a plan. And it fails. They make another. That one fails too.
They try to corner her but she just blows the corner up. Chat tries to grab her, hold her still while Ladybug takes the locket from around her neck. Mourning Star sets herself alight and Chat has to throw her from his grasp, yelling, the ends of his hair sizzling. These two attempts alone take hours to coordinate and after Chat narrowly escapes being burnt to a crisp, the sun is well across the sky, the evening beginning to tease at them.
She beats them back, they withstand it, they get better at predicting her attacks and moves and responding in kind, but her power level is completely sporadic and more than once she just erupts. Ladybug and Chat Noir sprint down a high street and they know she's on their tail, but if they can only outrun her long enough to find new shelter, they can think, they can plan, they can—
"Ladybug! Chat Noir!" She skids to a stop and whips her head around, wondering who the hell is calling out to them in the middle of this mess. "Over here!" A shop owner is frantically waving them over and they dash for her, if only to usher her back to safety before Mourning Star sees her. "Come here, there's a route to a shelter through the back!"
"Ma'am, thank you for trying to help, but you can't put yourself in danger like this," Chat says as they reach her.
"Yes, and we can't go to the shelters either," Marinette adds, trying not to wince as the stitch in her side makes itself known. "We can't stop fighting, or risk leading Mourning Star to a place filled with civilians."
"You need a break," she says firmly, leading them inside. "Just come to the shelter for a while and get yourselves together. Maybe make a plan." She catches the wary look the heroes exchange and adds, after a reluctant pause, "We won't try to make you stay."
Ladybug looks at Chat Noir, who shrugs; couldn't hurt. It's not like Paris is going to get any more smashed up in their absence... Or that their presence is doing much to help.
"We'll rest for a few minutes," she says finally. "Thank you, ma'am. We'll think of something! Come up with a new—a new plan." Because all the other plans have been so successful.
The woman, Marie, leads them through the back of her shop to the alley behind it, and sure enough they come right to an Akuma Shelter entrance. She opens the doors, calls inside, "I'm back! But be ready; Ladybug and Chat Noir are with me." The hum of conversation dies a quick and brutal death, and Marie stands back from the suddenly silent passageway to allow the heroes inside, smiling thinly.
They go down into the bunker and are met with the stares of about fifty people, crammed in together and scared out of their minds. The sight makes Marinette lose her breath.
"Ladybug? Chat Noir? Are you going to stop Mourning Star?" asks a little boy, huddled up to his mother. Marinette stares at the two of them, suddenly seeing another two people in their place.
When she's silent, Chat Noir answers. "We're going to do our best, little guy. Until then, you just stay nice and safe in here, okay?" His voice is beginning to strain, so Marinette takes him by the arm, gives the silent room a smile, and drags him to a quiet corner.
"I think we need more help," she says. "I'm trying to think of who would be helpful right now."
"Rena Rouge," Chat says immediately. "She could create some sort of... calming illusion?"
"And Carapace," she agrees. "Queen Bee too. We might need to paralyse her."
"So the whole team," he summarises, grimacing. "We need the Miraculous and their wielders. And to get them all without Mourning Star stopping us."
"Obviously one of us will have to keep her distracted. I'll—"
"I'll do it, Ladybug," he says, an odd shine in his eyes. "I want to—I'd just feel better if I were keeping an eye on her personally." There's something in his voice that she can't identify but she agrees nonetheless.
"Okay," Ladybug says loudly, for the benefit of the crowd, who follow her movements as Chat Noir joins her. "I'll round up the troops. You concentrate on Mourning Star, alright Kitty?"
He nods, mouth set in a grim line. "Ready when you are, My Lady."
She runs to Master Fu, sheltering in his own home with no apparent regard for the disaster zone Paris has become outside, and collects the Miraculous she needs.
"Be careful, Marinette," he stresses as he hands them over, closing one of his ancient hands over her own black-gloved one. "Mourning Star—She is unlike any akuma I have ever seen."
"I'll do my best," she promises, making to stand before he holds her still, his face grave.
"You need to do better than your best, Marinette. You need to win. Failure here is not an option." She feels another weight pile onto her shoulders, but she bears it and forces herself to her feet. Outside, Paris is falling; she needs to stop it.
"We're going to win, Master Fu," she says, resolute. "We're going to save Elise."
She goes to find Alya first. Her friend is sheltering in the park, conveniently with her second target, Nino, as she so often is these days.
"Ladybug!" the girl cries upon seeing her. She bolts from her hiding place and Nino follows with more hesitance, glancing around half crouched. "What's going on? Mourning Star—It's crazy!"
"I know, Alya, which is why I'm here. We've never faced a threat like this before, so I'm sorry to ask but—"
"We'll do it!" she bursts. "Where are the Miraculous?"
"Alya, chill," Nino says. "But what, Ladybug?"
She sighs. "This is a big one, you can probably tell. We need the help, but I wouldn't begrudge either of you saying no."
Alya shakes her head. "No way, we're with you one hundred percent Ladybug," she says, and Nino nods, looking no less apprehensive but resolute.
"Thank you," she says, handing them over, and as the two transform she adds, "I'm bringing Queen Bee in as well. Just follow the sounds of fighting and you should find Chat Noir. And hurry! He won't be able to hold out for much longer." Mourning Star has already decimated the police forces who tried to help; the heroes are completely alone.
She knows exactly where to find Chloe, of course. The problem would be getting to her; Andre Bourgeois had a special Akuma Bunker installed in Le Grande Paris years ago, filled to bursting with as much state of the art tech as he could pay the workers to cram in. That included a camera linking them to the outside world.
Marinette landed in the hotel through a hole in the otherwise pristine roof and sprinted down several floors until she found the lowest level, the basement, and the fortified doors that were keeping her from the Bee wielder.
"Chloe Bourgeois? Are you in there?" she calls.
For a few seconds nothing happens, as in the distance she hears the battle raging on. Then the heavy steel doors begin clicking and whirring as they open, and Chloe comes striding out to her, Andre shouting after her, "Chloe, you—you get back in here right now!" But she doesn't, and her father makes no move to come out and force her to safety himself. She presses a button on the wall and the doors begin closing again, and just before they do Marinette sees the white, scared faces of her butler Jean and Sabrina peering out.
Then it's just Marinette and Chloe, who is very pale-faced herself as she listens to the destruction happening above. Apparently the shelter was sound proof as well.
"Chloe, thank you for coming out here. We need Queen Bee's help, if you're willing," Marinette says, holding out the hair comb.
The blonde, still shaken, crosses her arms and gives an unconvincing, "Hmph! W-Well it's about time you came to me." She takes the comb with a hand that's shaking and slides it into her hair. (Wonky, but Marinette's not going to tell her that.) "Lets get this fight finished."
With the final hero called to action, she turns to rejoin the fight with Queen Bee hot on her heels.
Marinette feels like she's going to collapse, but—but she can't. She knows she can't. Paris, and Elise, depend on her. She must do better than her best.
Even so, she has been fighting, non-stop, all day. Her head aches, her limbs feel numb, and in amongst the chaos she wonders if her parents are okay or if Mourning Star has leveled the bakery. She laughs but it comes out more like a cry. Even with their bolstered numbers they're losing, because Mourning Star is gaining in power constantly whereas the wielders are seriously flagging.
"What are we supposed to do?" Rena Rouge asks. "None of my illusions are working on her! She just barges right through them."
"The only thing she wants is her son," Carapace points out. "Maybe you could—"
"No I can't," she snaps, cutting across him. "I will not conjure up an image of her dead son, Carapace!" Shamed, he ducks his head and drops out of the conversation.
A boom in the distance shakes the room and they all stop, tensed up, waiting, waiting...
No collapse happens, and they're safe to stay where they are for now. They've already lost two shelters because Mourning Star managed to find them, they won't lose this one. It's a sturdy sort of place, a bank built out of strong marble and limestone, but it won't last for long if they're not careful.
Queen Bee sighs. "I can't hit her with a paralyse if I can't get close enough—"
"None of us can get close enough," Rena Rouge snaps. "That's half of the problem! She's too hot!"
"She's scalding," Queen Bee says. "I'm afraid that even if I did manage to get my stinger to her, she'd just melt it down."
"We need to get her to cool it," Carapace says. "I mean—Well yeah. She needs to cool it, somehow."
"The somehow part is the problem," Marinette sighs, rubbing at her forehead before she looks over at Chat Noir. "Are you coming to help? Or are you spending the rest of the night at the window?"
"She's gone quiet," he says, rather than answer. He's been watching for Mourning Star for an hour solid now, as the moon gleams over the city. "The last time I heard anything out of her was ten minutes ago."
"It's about time," Queen Bee mumbles.
"That's odd." Marinette stands to join him, and they peer around the square outside together, ignoring the chunks of Le Saint-Chapelle that spilled across the city as it went down beneath a blood red sky. "I wonder where she is."
"Maybe she's calming down!" Carapace suggests, though his tone isn't too hopeful. "Maybe if we went and found her now, we'd be able to get the locket from her."
"You said that when she first stopped screaming," Rena points out. "And after she collapsed Le Saint-Chapelle."
"Well what do you have?" he asks, crossing his arms. Rena doesn't answer, just looks down at the floor and begins drawing patterns on the tiles. The Miraculous team are losing, and to do that means not only to fail Paris, but to fail Elise. They cannot let that happen.
As the clock face at the front of the bank hall ticks closer to midnight, the Miraculous team hunker down and prepare for a long night. Outside, the destruction rages on. Any parent would tear the Earth in two if it meant saving their child, Marinette thinks. The problem is, this parent actually could. But they'd get Mourning Star soon. They had to. There was no way this attack could go on for much longer.
Was there?
Outside, the Eiffel Tower is blown apart and its pieces shatter across the city. The last light has gone out.