Chapter One

As dusk settled upon the Paris, the ancient city breathed a sigh of relief. Another day passed, another akuma defeated and cleansed by the beloved Ladybug and Chat Noir, another swarm of glittering magic ladybugs that repaired the great city. The people were safe, once more, from the clutches of the dreaded terrorist Hawk Moth.

In a dimly-lit urban apartment near the center of the city, the opinion on the day was much, much different. Within the loft emerged a whorl of dark, nearly black, purple mist. In a heartbeat, the mist drifted into nothingness to reveal a person.

In the middle of the loft stood a tall man dressed in a purple dress shirt with a prominent butterfly-like lapel and black slacks, with silver gloves and black dress shoes. In the center of his collar was a butterfly-shaped brooch. But the most striking part of him was the silvery mask that covered his face, leaving only his eyes and mouth visible.

This was Hawk Moth.

Hawk Moth sighed through gritted teeth and released his transformation in a pulse of purple-pink sparks, allowing the kwami of the Moth Brooch to emerge. The kwami, Nooroo, drifted exhaustedly to a table and collapsed, his wings drooping. And yet, even as tired as he was, the kwami couldn't relax. Not when he knew what was coming.

After a few moments of tense waiting, his prediction came true. Hawk Moth, his visage obscured by the night, grabbed a table and threw it across the room in an impressive display of strength. His anger indulged for the moment, Hawk Moth settled and allowed his fury to simmer, to turn from burning heat to chilling cold. The cold fury of a true mastermind.

"Yet again," Hawk Moth muttered intensely, "Ladybug and Chat Noir have foiled my akuma." True, the victim hadn't resolved her grudge, but at the moment it was small reward for yet another failure. "This method is not working," he grudgingly admitted, the words burning his pride. But it was the truth.

The number of akuma he had thrown at the so-called heroes was approaching a full hundred. Nearly a hundred attempts, and none had succeeded. True, some had come close; oh so close. But in the end it was all the same: failure. Hawk moth idly considered a famous quote of Albert Einstein: "Insanity is attempting the same action over and over and expecting different results." His akuma clearly weren't getting the job done.

"There has to be something else," Hawk Moth whispered, "something I'm missing." A faint gasp caught his attention and he flicked his gaze to Nooroo. The kwami tried to hide his emotions, but the little creature was rather transparent for something so old. He was hiding something.

"What am I missing?" Hawk Moth questioned, looming over the butterfly kwami. Nooroo glanced to the side, just a flick of the eyes, but it was enough. Hawk Moth slammed his palm to the table less than an inch from Nooroo, eliciting a faint yelp. "Tell me." Those words, quiet and so intense, were a direct order. And a kwami could not defy its master, not directly. Nooroo bowed his head in sorrow, a state of mind he was now far-too-familiar with.

"There are other powers," Nooroo said, his high voice faint. He may have to obey, but he didn't have to make it easy.

"What powers?" Hawk Moth demanded.

"Different powers; different Miraculouses. Each has more than one power." Even in these dark times, Nooroo still enjoyed explaining; sharing his knowledge. It was why Plagg had so-often labelled him a "scholar". "As a Chosen," Nooroo stressed the title, of which Hawk Moth was not, "grows closer to their kwami, their life forces begin to … resonate. As this happens, they are able to more easily pass on their skills. This manifests in both overall physical powers, but also in new unique powers."

As Nooroo watched his non-Chosen mull this new information over, he couldn't help a little burst of rebellion. "You didn't honestly think Lucky Charm and Cataclysm were the only powers of the Ladybug and Black Cat?" he asked lowly.

Hawk Moth's fists clenched in frustration, but he held himself under control. "What other powers do I have?" he asked, teeth clenched.

"The powers you can use," Nooroo refused to call them his powers, "will emerge slower than others. I am not willing, and our energies are fighting against each other, which inhibits the process."

"You didn't answer my question," Hawk Moth observed. "What other powers? Tell me … NOW!" Nooroo flinched at Hawk Moth's sudden shout. It took even more force to get Nooroo talking.

As Nooroo grudgingly described a total of three separate abilities, each distinct from his power to create akuma, Hawk Moth's hidden blue eyes widened as a plan began to form in his mind. A sinister grin stretched across his lips as he remembered the new piece on the board. Especially at the sound of a certain "dangerously Forbidden" power.

"Nooroo, dark wings rise!"

Lila Rossi kicked open the door to her small bedroom, clutching her backpack in her fist. Today had (for lack of a better term, Lila prided herself on her vocabulary in any language) totally sucked!

Her chances with Adrian had been shattered beyond repair, she had been akumatized and beaten down by Ladybug, and to top it off she had been assigned a mountain of homework! Lila huffed and threw her backpack at the wall and onto her bed.

A soft knock at her door drew the girl's attention to a visitor. In the doorway stood a young man a few years older than her, with the same chestnut hair pulled back in a loose tail and light blue eyes. Their mother's eyes.

"What do you want, Carmine?" Lila asked lowly. Her big brother merely gazed at her with his usual stoic calm.

"Madre with be working late," he informed, before walking away. Lila barely waited a heartbeat before clenching her fists in frustration. Of course she was! That was the norm, not the exception!

When their mother had informed her and Carmine that the company she worked for was moving them to their office in Paris, she had originally been excited. Maybe that meant a raise, but it definitely meant a chance to get away from her school and the continuous line of cold-hearted kids who did nothing more than make her life miserable.

What their mother had failed to tell them was that more money meant even more time in the office. Their mother had always had to work hard to provide for them, but at least she had been home some. Now, they were lucky if they saw her twice a week, for less than a minute at a time!

That was why Lila had tried so hard to make friends. So that she could hang out with them and not have to come home to an empty apartment while her brother studied and worked his part-time job. And as to how she had gone about it, lying was a part of her (in more ways than she cared to admit to herself). Exaggeration was a part of her home culture, an artform that everyone participated in. It wasn't her fault that these French kids were so freaking gullible! And she had had a chance with Adrien Agreste, the super-rich, super-hot model!

Now she had no model-boyfriend, no friends, and her "stories" were clearly already crumbling at at school, which meant she would be ostracised there, too! The only teeny-tiny upsides to the day were the students remaining ignorant of her true secret and her akumazation.

Now that had been awesome! Forget a Miraculous, she wanted that again. The feeling of another person connecting with her, the sensation of raw power flowing over her her skin and into her, and the freedom that came with such strength! And Ladybug, that jealous, conniving, selfish bitch had taken it away! Just like she had taken Adrien!

Lila growled as her frustrations mounted and collapsed on her bed, eyes stinging. She scrunched up her face; she wouldn't cry! Crying was for the weak; she wasn't weak. She clutched the foxtail necklace she had bought, the vessel that her akuma had rested in, and tried to wrestle her emotions under control.

So wrapped up in her thoughts, she barely noticed the sound of beating wings. The very familiar sound. Lila's eyes shot open and she sat up to see a nearly-black purple butterfly in her room, circling her. The mystical insect drew closer and finally landed on her necklace, disappearing in a burst of black energy. The Italian grinned as she felt the familiar presence of her savior.

'Ms. Rossi, we meet again. Ladybug may have foiled us this time, but there is much she doesn't know. About me - and about you. I can offer you revenge on that miserable insect, and I'll even toss in a certain golden-haired boy.' An image of Adrien, smiling sweetly with that angelic face, flashed across her mind's eye.

"What do you want me to do?" Lila asked with relish.

'Follow my akuma and it will lead you to my lair. There I will grant you greater power, the power to finish Ladybug and her pesky cat.' And just like that, the butterfly reemerged, taking the connection with it. The insect fluttered around her, as if urging her to move.

Lila felt grim joy rise in her chest. Revenge would taste even better this way. With that thought, she quickly snuck out and followed the black butterfly.

In the attic-bedroom above the Dupain-Cheng bakery, Tikki mediated on the windowsill. Her Chosen was having dinner with her parents, and probably far quieter than usual after her conversation with the Great Guardian. Master Fu was not an intimidating man, physically at least, but he had revealed much to her. It would take some time to sort through everything.

In the meantime, Tikki was taking advantage of the peace in the bedroom. She loved Marinette, the girl was like a little sister to her (in an impossibly long string of little sisters/Chosen) but it was nice to have a short break from the drama of a teenager's life. It was as she smiled in contentment that she suddenly felt a twinge of foreboding.

Tikki's eyes shot open in surprise. Something was wrong, would soon be wrong. What was Hawk Moth up to now?

Plagg inhaled deeply, savoring the sweet, stinky stench of Camembert. Eating it was the best part, but there was something about just smelling it beforehand that helped him relax. And when he was paired with a melodramatic, lovesick teenager, peace was something he really needed.

As the kwami of destruction opened his mouth to bite into his treat, her felt it. A warning, a flicker of tense stillness. Millennia of experience bearing fruit in a warning. Plagg pulled back, his tiny ears shifting as he instinctively searched for a threat. No … it wasn't here ... yet. But something big was coming.

In a wholly uncharacteristic move, Plagg put down(!) his cheese and floated over to stare out the window. What in the Balance was going on?

After a good hour of following the akuma, Lila had finally arrived at her destination: an old clock tower that had been cordoned off due to "structural failings". Lila shrugged and jerked open the entrance, allowing the butterfly access so that she could follow.

After an ungodly number of stairs, she opened the door of the top floor to reveal … penetrating darkness. Lila absently let the door close, and as if in response, a mechanical whirring began. On the far wall of the dome, a window spiraled open to allow moonlight inside, illuminating the figure before her.

Hawk Moth.

The masked man smiled warmly at his visitor, and Lila felt a blush rise to her cheeks. Whoa, what the hell? He was too old for that! Besides, she wanted Adrien! Shaking off her moment of doubt, Lila grinned and entered the moonlight to face her benefactor.

"Ms. Rossi," he greeted in a smooth, deep tone, "welcome to my humble abode." Lila glanced around them, spying no living implements. Clearly, he lived somewhere else. She looked back to Hawk Moth, her grin growing wider.

"So what do I have to do?" she asked. In response, Hawk Moth's smile faded to intense contemplation, his eyes roaming over her. Had she been any less secure in herself, Lila would have crossed her arms over her chest. But she wasn't getting any kind of pervy vibe from him (she had too much of that to last a lifetime), merely deep thought.

"Before we proceed, I need to know that you are … committed to the cause." Lila raised an eyebrow at that; was her hatred for Ladybug unapparent? "This process is … more intensive than akumazation. And far less pleasant." His gaze turned hard, like unrelenting steel. "How far are you willing to go for vengeance?"

Lila looked the ground and considered the question. She thought of her past, the suffering she had endured. She thought of Adrien, that perfect boy who could get her out of the dark pit that was her life. And she thought of Ladybug, the self-righteous, jealous, little … the very thought made her want to punch her in her perfect teeth!

Lila looked up to Hawk moth, determination and fury in her gaze. "I'll do whatever it takes!" Hawk Moth grinned.

"'Whatever it takes.' I like the sound of that, Ms. Rossi." Hawk Moth lifted his cane, beckoning the darkened akuma. The insect fluttered toward the head and disintegrated, the resulting essence phasing into the crystal bulb and reforming. The crystal began to glow. Hawk Moth thrust the cane into the air.

"Emergence!" Hawk Moth shouted, and the cane ignited with black flames. And in a flash, Lila felt him plunge the gem into her, the cane phasing through her flesh and bone and into her … into her soul.

Sudden bout of inspiration produced this. Can't wait to see how it develops!

What is Hawk Moth's new power? What is he doing to Lila?

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