Chapter Summary: The thrilling conclusion!

She couldn't do this. She couldn't. Ladybug dodged back, raising her trident to defend weakly against a blow from one of Chat Noir's sabers as he pressed forward in attack. How had Hawkmoth accomplished this cruel trick? Money? Promises of freedom? Oh, goddess, had he threatened Chat's sisters? Her mind reeled with betrayal, but her honed senses and muscle memory kicked in, keeping her a scant step ahead of her aggressor.

She leapt back and began to circle Chat Noir, gaining a bit of breathing room. He turned to watch her, his chest rising and falling as he panted. His eyes were cold...lifeless. Was he really the Chat Noir she knew?

Wheels turned in Ladybug's mind. Chat Noir knew how she fought better than anyone in Rome, but the reverse was also true. Her executioner's strength was also his weakness, she reasoned. She knew every trick he had up his sleeve.

Neither opponent could defend well, similar to his match against Chat Blanc. This fight would be quick and dirty - and definitely lethal. She despaired for a moment, struggling to weigh her own life against that of her best friend.He won't hesitate, she told herself coldly, so you can't either. She stepped into range with a quick stab of her trident, a testing thrust. He batted it away with a saber and she jumped back again before he could employ the other one.

Ladybug was out of time. Any residual reluctance drained away when she caught a glimpse of Bridgette's tear-streaked face above her. No more planning; she had to act or lose her life.

Chat Noir growled in irritation as she stepped back one more time, thinking she retreated in fear. She could almost swear she saw fangs gleam as he bared his teeth. Surely Plagg hadn't joined him for this?

Ladybug cast her net in a wide arc over the space between them, hoping to entangle his swords before he could slice through the jumbled web. He dodged to one side, but her net caught one of his arms and the sharp weights knotted into its edge sliced shallow cuts against the back of his leg.

She'd taken the precaution of tying her net to her wrist - a tactic that could backfire, but proved useful this time. She yanked the rope hard, pulling Chat Noir off balance. If she could loop the slack of the net one more time, she'd have him...but she hesitated again. He slithered out from under the net and backed away.

You damn yourself, Damnata! she mentally scolded.

Chat Noir took a chance and lunged forward. He caught her off guard and she nearly dropped her trident as she raised her padded arm to take a blow from his swords. She gave ground, backing up almost to one wall of the arena under his attack.

"What, you don't want to be close?" he taunted. "I thought you liked it when we were close."

Ladybug's heart sank, but she kept silent.

Bridgette leaned back, eyes closed. Tears of stress and anguish leaked from the corners of her eyes. She would stay to the end, but she could barely stomach watching her own twin sister fight that monster in the ring. She felt a hand on her shoulder and glanced back to see Felix. He wore an uncharacteristic expression of concern and she attempted a smile to reassure him. It crumpled under the weight of her own sadness. She bit back a sob, instead taking a deep breath to steady herself. The pressure of his hand released her and when she looked back, Felix was gone from the booth. Clearly he wasn't able to handle strong emotions. She couldn't decide whether to feel pity or derision as she looked at his empty seat.

Ladybug felt pressure mount as the minutes passed. She needed to end this fight soon. Without Tikki to help her, she was growing tired. She dodged under Chat Noir's whirling blades with a speed she'd previously thought supernatural. Coming up under his guard, she pulled her dagger free of its place at her hip.

"Now or never," she muttered, grimly bringing the blade up.

She gasped in surprise when Chat Noir smacked her hand away, the dagger skittering across the sand. He cracked her hard against the jaw with his sword hilt, knocking her to the ground. Ladybug struggled to rise with one arm underneath her. Chat Noir sat down on her, trapping her against the rough earth. It ground painfully against her shoulder blades. He swung his sword in an overhand arc, intending to bring it down on her, but she interposed the ragged remains of her arm padding.

The sword landed with a thwack! that jarred her frame and rattled her teeth. The next blow would be her death, she knew. Ladybug stared her murderer directly in the face, intent that he never forget. Chat's hooded eyes were no longer green, but purple in the shadow of his mask, a bruised, repugnant shade that disgusted her. Despite her intention, she shut her eyes and turned her face away.

A startling yell shook her. She felt Chat Noir's weight shoved aside. A blur of limbs and muscles tackled him and Chat Noir rolled over and over with a stranger, the pair grappling furiously. It was Chat Blanc!

Ladybug scrambled to her feet just as she heard a roar of rage coming from Emperor Hawkmoth. Where had Chat Blanc come from? Why was he helping her? Her mind swirled with questions as the Emperor barked orders at his guards, but they couldn't reach the sand in time. Enraged, Chat Blanc rained blows down on Chat Noir, more than a few hitting the mark. He caught sight of Ladybug's discarded dagger near his knee and picked it up.

"No!" she shouted, running toward him. "Stop! Stop!"

Chat Blanc either ignored her or didn't hear. He gripped the dagger with both hands and drove it down into Chat Noir's chest to the hilt. Chat Noir's yell of pain and frustration was mirrored by Hawkmoth overhead.

Ladybug spared the Emperor a glance, just in time to see him strike Bridgette, who clutched something in one fist. Off balance, Bridgette tipped backward and fell out of the high box onto the sand with a sickening smack.

Ladybug would have screamed, but a frightened choke of tears cut off her voice. Before she could rise from Chat Noir's side, Chat Blanc was already racing to Bridgette. He whipped off his mask and slid in next to her, kneeling over her prone form.

"She's dead!" he cried, raising his head to reveal Felix's patrician features. He touched Bridgette's hair, her arm, unsure whether to move her.

"No, she's not," Hawkmoth wheezed, seeming to need all his strength to lean out of the box overhead, "The butterfly. Pin it on her. Now. It can't heal her, but it will sustain her life."

Felix did as he was told, wresting the small charm from her grip and attaching it to her tunic. Ladybug glanced up at Felix's father. He had gone completely gray, both in hair and skin color. The Ageless Emperor was aging right before their eyes!

"Mm-Marinette?" A soft voice, hardly more than a sigh, recalled her to her own tragedy.

Marinette pulled off her mask and knelt over Chat Noir. His eyes were green again, and filled with pain. His shallow breathing frightened her. She watched helplessly as blood leaked out heavily around her dagger. She gently stripped his mask away and stroked his cheek.

"I'm here, Adrien."

"What happened? Where am I?" He seemed genuinely confused.

The stories were all true, Marinette realized. Chat Noir had been bewitched by the Emperor's magic. She recalled the odd blackness shadowing him, the way he'd grown distant. Now his connection to the Emperor was broken, either because of his wound or the theft of the butterfly brooch. Regardless, she'd been a fool, and now it was too late.

"It...doesn't matter." She leaned over and kissed his forehead. "I love you, Adrien."

His eyes closed and his shallow panting began to ease. Marinette inched closer to him, her heart breaking. She'd seen this so many times. The important thing now was to make sure he wasn't alone. She lay down full-length in the dirt next to him and took his hand in hers, careful not to touch or move the dagger. Her heart wrenched and her stomach knotted with every struggling intake of breath.

Something hard pressed against her side, under her arm padding. With a start, Marinette remembered Tikki's broken pieces secreted away in her gladiator costume. She sat up and pulled them out, pressing the pieces together to make the little figure whole. A small flicker of hope blossomed in her chest.

"Tikki," Marinette breathed, hardly daring to exhale, "Tikki, I need you."

"Marinette!" came the quiet but clear reply.

A faint glow glazed the halves of Tikki's statue. Marinette pressed on, determined.

"You don't need the statue! This old dirt can't confine you. You have my heart, Tikki. Come live… in me."

At Marinette's strident words, red fire rose from the broken bits and blazed forth before her eyes. Marinette stayed still as it centered itself over her left breast. Her air left her body in a whoosh as the fire slammed into her - not burning, but warming her to the depths of her soul. Marinette closed her eyes as a sense of peace, of fullness and wholeness, washed over her. When she looked down, her hands were luminous. A silent force compelled her to clutch the two pieces of clay in her fists and they became charged with light.

"Felix!" she commanded in a voice that was doubled, resonating with Tikki's speech as well as her own, "Take this! Quickly!"

She threw a piece of Tikki's broken statue to him. He caught it one-handed, keen eyes taking in the magic glow that renewed its lustre.

"What do I do with this?" he asked.

"Something miraculous!" she shouted back.

The half Marinette held was brightly aflame, but it didn't burn her. She took a deep breath, then pulled the dagger from Adrien's chest, pressing the piece down in its place. Felix simultaneously set his half over Bridgette's heart.

They flared violently and went out.

Marinette stared down at the spot on Adrien's chest, afraid to move her hand. The whole left side of his torso was slick with blood. Then she felt movement under her palm, a deep, slow heartbeat that grew strong. She cast away her bit of clay and wiped at the blood, inspecting Adrien's flesh closely. No sign of injury remained - not a scratch or scar.

Twenty feet away, Felix supported Bridgette's back as she sat up with a cough. They embraced tightly, the young man burying his face in Bridgette's tangled tresses.

Marinette melted in relief, bringing her head to the ground as tears began to flow.

"Thank you, Tikki," she whispered. "Thank you."

A light touch on her shoulder made her lift her head. Adrien sat up next to her, a quavering smile passing over his lips as he looked from Marinette down to himself.

"This isn't quite the outcome I was expecting," he commented mildly.

Marinette's laughter burst through her tears as Adrien gathered her into a hug.

Bridgette, Marinette, and Adrien waited anxiously outside Emperor Hawkmoth's palace suite, crowded by a sycophantic retinue that alternately wailed and whispered to each other. Felix, after stating in no uncertain terms that none of the three were to be molested by the guards, had closeted himself with his father.

It was clear to all that the Ageless Emperor wouldn't last much longer. The skeletal figure gently carried back to the palace had been nearly unrecognizable. His dry lips and ashen, paper-thin skin looked like ancient papyrus about to disintegrate into dust and blow away.

Felix had taken the purple butterfly charm back from Bridgette when he'd gone in to see his father.

"By rights, it's still his, although I don't know how much good it will do now," he'd told them.

The normally sarcastic young man had lost all hint of mocking in his tone. Today's revelations had worked a change in him, Marinette was sure of it. After what seemed like hours, during which several of the retinue had laid down against the walls in exhaustion, Felix came out of the room visibly shaken.

"He's dead," he said quietly. His eyes flicked over to Adrien, who still stood in his bloodied arena garb. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Adrien asked, puzzled.

"Just… sorry," Felix didn't elaborate, scrubbing his fingers over his blue-gray eyes.

"That makes you Emperor now," Bridgette gently reminded him.

"Yeah. Yes. It does. What time is it?" he blinked at them blearily, clearly lost in the swirl of events.

Marinette herself felt much like a leaf in a stream. Compassion for the disdainful man blossomed within her and she put a hand on his arm.

"Come sit down," she suggested, drawing him to a pair of chairs with a small table between them, the kind of setting that made the hallway seem warmer but had never been used.

Felix took her advice, settling into a chair with a long sigh. He stared down at the butterfly brooch.

"I won't wear it," he decided as Bridgette sank down into the chair next to him.

"I think that's wise," she agreed. "Power isn't meant to last forever. Your sense of stewardship becomes warped."

He stared at Bridgette for a long time. It was long enough to make Marinette uncomfortable, but her sister didn't seem to mind.

"I have to make some decisions," he said after a time. "You're officially free from your agreement, Bridgette. If I'm honest, I have to say that I regret it somewhat. Your presence in this palace has made the last month here… bearable. I can send you home, but I wonder if you'd consider marrying me instead?"

Marinette was shocked, thinking she'd misheard him, but Bridgette simply sat and looked at him with an inscrutable little smile on her face.

"A generous interpretation of what you just said is that life without me is unbearable, Felix. If you promise to work on your compliments, then the answer is yes." Her smile widened as Felix covered his face with both hands and laughed.

"I promise," he replied, his normally dour features turning sanguine.

"Um… congratulations?" Marinette offered, searching her sister's expression and seeing only happiness.

"You two," Felix replied, her comment bringing the pair of gladiators back to his attention. His face dropped back into its haughty lines. "I own you now. I think it legally stands that your execution was mis-managed, Ladybug."

"That's not-" Adrien started, but Felix cut him off.

"I won't mince words. I'm not in the business of revenge, and if I were, there's none to be had. I extend a rudis to both of you - as soon as one of these lackeys brings them, you're both free."

Felix snapped his fingers and a man took off running to find a pair of the symbolic wooden swords.

"Free?" Marinette echoed, hardly daring to believe her ears.

"Free," Adrien confirmed.

He took her hand and lifted it to his lips.

"If you'll excuse us, Emperor Felix, I think we have some things to discuss as well."

THE END

A/N:

So, this is what I was doing for four months in the latter half of 2017 when I completely disappeared from this site! If you made it all the way to the end, thank you! And thank you to everyone for reading in any case. Please comment; I am always looking to improve. And if you have questions, please let me know - several readers have had some great questions about this world and the details, and I am preparing some "side story" type responses to those. If you want more, please just tell me.

This work is a part of the Ao3 collection Miraculous Big Bang 2017. That's why I have an illustrator - we were partnered by the moderators. It was a four month long project with expectations that the finished piece would be fully edited and proofread.

To that end, invaluable assistance was brought by my sweet friend livinglittlelie. She's on Ao3, although I honestly don't know if she has a profile on ff dot net. Another location to find her Miraculous fictions is on tumblr - the blog writinglittlelie. She's great and I highly encourage you to read her stuff!

To find more by me (short pieces and artwork) visit tumblr at my blog lalunaunita.