Chapter Six

Ladybug grunted as she curled around Mylene, cushioning their graceless fall to the ground. Ivan was quick to approach and comfort the girl, nodding his thanks to the spotted heroine. Ladybug nodded in return and flung her yoyo to retrieve the next falling victim. She wasn't sure if it was coincidence or her natural Ladybug-luck that kept them all from falling at once, and right now she didn't care. No one had gotten seriously hurt, and that was the main thing.

Ladybug grunted as she caught Juleka, the goth-like girl wrapping her arms around Ladybug's neck as she swung them to the ground. The goth was shaky as she let go, but gave a wavering grin. "Awesome," she chuckled, drawing a short laugh from Ladybug before she launched herself up for the last student.

She crashed into Nino, rolling and cushioning his impact just as she had Mylene. As she stood, Ladybug gave a sigh of relief at the last of them being saved. Her spirit hardened as she looked up to the Eiffel Tower and tossed her yoyo. She didn't know how she knew, but she was utterly certain that Hawk Moth was still up there.

As Ladybug landed on the viewing platform, she kept her senses open for any sign of the super villain. Hawk Moth always seemed like the kind to go for a sneak attack rather than the overt destruction of his akumas. Wait, his akumas! Where were-?

As if in reply, the swarm of blackened butterflies rose around her, lifting her up with unnatural strength as she thrashed in their grasp. Before she could get her balance back, the swarm parted and let her drop back to the distant ground. Ladybug yelped and swung her yoyo to land back on the observation deck.

The sound of the swarm drew her attention as it swirled in the distance, coming around for another attack. Rather than a fearful gaze, Ladybug smirked. She prepared her compact and leapt from the tower, swinging the glowing weapon at the swarm in a graceful and very familiar dance. As the heroine landed with a roll back on the deck, she reopened the compact to release a burst of snow-white butterflies.

As the awe from her actions wore off, Ladybug cast her senses out yet again, wincing with frustration. Hawk Moth was gone, probably whisked away by the last of his powers while she was busy with his swarm. The heroine's fist tightened at her repressed emotion before relaxing. She still had a job to do.

It was time for the last of this tragedy to be finished with.

Marea hissed as she leapt up, her trajectory bringing her within sight of her own body. Time seemed to slow as she took everything in. Her former body wrapped in sheets, gasping for air. And the mysterious shield-wielding Turtle hero that seemed to guard her. Where the hell had he come from?!

Marea landed, skidding across the gravel covering the roof, and prepared her sword with a frightening grimace. Even weakened, she was more than a match for any Miraculous wielder. Hawk Moth himself had told her that. She leapt with a cry at the Turtle, her sword falling like an executioner's axe.

Faster than she could see, the Turtle's shield blocked her attack, a wave of force emanating from the weapons. As the Heian leapt back to prepare for another attack, she was surprised to see the Turtle stumble back as well, panting heavily. So, he was weak after all, she thought with a sneer.

But as she prepared to charge again, Marea gasped as her sword shattered in her grasp, the shards dissolving into black mist that drifted toward the Turtle hero. no , not to him; to her other self! Marea grunted against a wave of exhaustion that crashed over her. Her essence was dwindling, leaving her without the means to replenish her energy. That was the Turtle's plan! But Marea would never let that happen!

Marea formed a spear from her essence and charged. The Turtle, with speed that belied his apparent weakness, lashed out with his shield's edge to smash apart the spear tip. But marea kept going and slammed into the hero himself, sending both of them rolling across the rooftop. Marea kicked and sent the hero crashing into an AC unit, a grunt of pain escaping the hero.

With a grimace of fury and triumph, Marea blurred to the hero, fighting of the dizziness that came with the skill, and formed one last weapon; a sword to strike down this fool. She would kill him and take his Miraculous. Ten she would bring it and her body to Hawk Moth so he could once again unlock her Darkness and restore her full power. Then she would find Ladybug and Chat Noir and peel their suits from their hides before she took their Miraculouses as well!

So engrossed in her thoughts was Marea that she failed to hear the sound of her doom approaching. Not that could have if she tried; he was, after all, silent as a cat. All she experienced was heart-stopping agony that went beyond screaming as Chat Noir's silvery staff smashed through her torso and drove her to the ground right next to the Turtle, black mist oozing like blood from the wound. Mist that slowly returned to its original source.

"Time for you to go back home," Chat Noir spat. He lifted his right hand, the hand with his ring, and summoned his greatest power with a cry of "Cataclysm!" Motes of dark power swirled into an orb of sheer entropy above his palm, and his closed his fist to harness that power. Like lightning, Chat lunged to slam his hand against the back of Marea's head.

The Heian, to her credit, didn't scream. Rather, she gasped, her back arching, and relaxed with a calming sigh. The essence of entropy spread across her and broke her down to her most fundamental components. But no power, no matter how great, can truly destroy the human soul. Or even parts of it.

Marea exploded into a wave of Darkness that washed over Chat Noir and Lao Wugui before rising and merging into a thin cloud that began to return to Lila's body. Wugui stood with a groan and stumbled to Lila's side, expanding his senses to examine the Reformation. Where the Darkness was having trouble, he balanced the flow, easing its way back into Lila's soul.

Ladybug arrived as Wugui was finishing his work. He opened his eyes to find his patient breathing evenly, her skin returned to its natural olive shade rather than the sickly pale covered in burning-red blush from before. The girl was exhausted, and may have hazy memories, but she would be okay.

Fu stood and released his transformation, having only enough time to catch Wayzz before he stumbled to his knees. Chat and Ladybug rushed to his side to help him, easing the old man down. Fu hissed as his back began to spasm, his joints sore from all of this activity.

"I'm getting too old for this," he admitted wryly. Chat actually laughed at his words and Ladybug grinned. With a deep breath and the help of his chosen heroes, Fu returned to his feet. "I believe I will take the stairs to the ground," Fu said. "Can't have the Paris press thinking their is a third hero running about all of the time." Both heroes nodded in understanding; both of them had known that this was a last-resort kind of thing.

"However, they may see a few more before this mission is over," Fu commented, just loud enough for the heroes to hear him. The duo glanced to each other, silently communicating over the old master's words. When they looked back to ask him about it, he was gone. Chat's ear twitched at the sound of the roof's door closing with a dull metallic thud. Whoa, time out; how had he moved so fast?

The heroes attention was drawn away from that question as they heard Lila stirring. Both approached and knelt before the girl to help her sit up. "Wh-where am !?" she asked quietly. "The last thing I remember-" The girl's mumblings were interrupted by an elated gasp.

"Oh my god, you're Ladybug" she shouted. "And you're Chat Noir!" The girl's wide smile turned to a frown as she looked down at herself, and squeaked in mortification at her state of undress. She clutched the sheet she wore to her chest and she glanced sharply at Chat, the only male present, who pointedly looked away.

"What happened?" Lila asked. Ladybug pursed her lips as she quickly thought over what exactly to say.

"You were taken over by Hawk Moth," she decided to reveal. Ladybug hated to keep out parts of the truth, but it was best if she, and the rest of Paris, thought that this was simply another akuma, if a much more powerful one. "Chat Noir and I were able to free you from his control."

"Hawk Moth," Lila growled, "that little-"She continued to spit several words in Italian, words that the spotted heroine highly doubted were complimentary.

"Maybe we should get you back to your place, yeah?" Chat asked. With deft fingers, he quickly tightened all of the knots in Lila's makeshift dress before scooping her up and launching himself across the rooftops of Paris toward Lila's home, though not before the duo shared their traditional fist bump.

Nodding to herself, Ladybug swung herself toward the foot of the Eiffel Tower, specifically toward the cluster of ambulances that were taking care of the former hostages. Ladybug landed in the middle of the group of teens and tossed her yoyo into the air with a cry of "Miraculous Ladybug!" The yoyo exploded into a swarm of glowing ladybugs that rushed around Paris, repairing damage from the onslaught of Hawk Moth and his Heian. And fixing the minor injuries of her unaware classmates.

The people of Paris clapped and cheered at the familiar display. Ladybug took a quick moment to assure the people that the threat was dealt with and that she and Chat Noir were still up to any challenge Hawk Moth could throw at them before swinging her yoyo and vaulting away.

As the heroine swung back to her parents' bakery, a quick check of the school website confirming that classes had been cancelled for the day, Ladybug grinned to herself in triumph. Hawk Moth had sent his most powerful weapon against them, and once again had failed. Hopefully, he would just go back to akumas. And the irony in the thought that she would prefer akumas over … well anything, did not escape her.

But maybe, after this, the mad Butterfly would take a break. Wasn't likely, but she could always hope.

A furious scream echoed across a loft in Paris as a certain Moth-villain threw furniture across the darkened room. Safely hidden, out of sight and out of mind, Nooroo breathed a sigh of relief at the recent victory of Ladybug and Chat Noir. The butterfly kwami was honest enough to admit he was disappointed that he hadn't been rescued, but was also selfless enough to be happy that they had won yet another battle.

Nooroo gave a wavering smile at the thought of his fellow kwamis. Hope, a delicate flame burning in his soul, had wavered. But it still burned as steadfastly as ever. He would be rescued. And when he was, he would do everything in his power to nurture a new hero, to atone for his false master's crimes and allow a new Butterfly to rise. A false master that, if Nooroo was reading his emotions right (underneath the fiery maelstrom of anger and hatred), would be returning to the tried-and true-method of akumas. No more Heians.

As Lila emerged from her room, freshly clothed and shaking of the haze of confusion that had plagued her the last few hours since she had been rescued by Ladybug and Chat Noir, she couldn't help but wonder if memory loss of this scale was a side effect of akumazation.

All the fansites and the support sites for akuma victims agreed that victims had no memory of their actions during their "stints". Some even used it as reassurance that those actions had not been those of the victim, and thus not their fault. But Lila's amnesia had gone even further. She had lost the entire previous day.

Well, at least she had another chance to make a good impression at school. If anyone asked questions about her apparent "lies", she could brush it off as not remembering. Maybe, just maybe, this was a blessing in disguise. Just like her mother always tried to assure her. And she had been able to meet Paris' superhero duo!

Lila's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. Her mother and brother paused in the doorway, their arms full of groceries. Groceries that fell to the ground as they rushed to hug her. Carmine was actually crying as he stroked her hair! Mother was thanking every deity she could think of, as well as Ladybug and Chat Noir, in breathless Italian. And through it all, Lila couldn't keep herself from breaking down and hugging her family back.

Maybe, just maybe, her life was about to get better.

As the sun set on another day in the City of Light, Master Fu and Wayzz meditated with identical faint smile on their lips. Even without Wayzz's aura-sense, Fu could feel the tranquility that had been brought by the destruction of the Heian. Wayzz, having that skill, could feel it even more.

As the sun finally passed below the horizon, both masters held out hope that, sooner rather than later, the world would be at peace yet again.

And so, dear readers, ends the brief foray of "Miraculous: Darkness Ascending". Sorry if the ending seemed rushed; this was always an experiment of sorts and I wanted to finish it off. Hopefully, it was a satisfying end.

Since I never gave myself the chance earlier in the story, I want to elaborate on Lila's backstory that I alluded to in the first chapter. In this story, Lila and Carmine's father was a con artist and never married to their mother. Kids at her school made fun of her for being a bastard (literal sense). Their father was never around and eventually just dropped completely off the radar. I think this would affect any kid, and helps explain Lila's "tendencies" in a slightly sympathetic light.

And in case you guys couldn't guess: I love Nooroo! He seems like a complete cinnamon roll, and like he loves to learn and explain things, which relates to my own inner scholar. I want to see more of him in the next season (which won't come out on Netflix until September - grrrr!)

Hoped you guys liked this work, and check out my other stuff if you feel the need. As always, leave a review on anything you do or do not like. I always appreciate feedback. It nutures the flames of my creativity. You guys are awesome! See ya!