An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
This is a series of fanfics I've written for Miraculous Ladybug & Chat Noir, but sadly only one of them has been completed so far. I'm still planning on working on them eventually, just trying to muster the motivation for it. I know how the story goes, and how it ends. It's just getting it written down has been the hassle. Mostly just devolved in "who's going to read this? It's not even close to canon anymore" but eh. Maybe one day.
@bambieheart444 nailed it once again with this lovely commission of Marinette <3
It is a direct reference to what transpires in my MLB Fanfic as Marinette wears what her mother wore in the past for a high society event, invited by Kagami as a +1.
I am literally stuck to imagine how Pegabug would react after she processes what's happening. For context, Star basically ventured into Nefertiti's Tomb which was the source of corruption that plagued their world. Problem is that Nefertiti's Tomb was constructed in the Spirit World, and only the dead can exist there. The Miraculous bends this law to some degree, but while Star was dealing with the source, Pega/Ladybug had been stuck with the ongoing war until now.
I've come up with some examples as to how it could go, but something about it doesn't feel right if that makes sense?
[Pegabug's yo-yo slowed, but it didn't drop as her bluebell eyes swept to Star. Two weeks worth of words crowded in the back of her throat, but none of them came out. She wanted to run to him. To tell him about everything that had happened so far. But more than anything. She wanted to hold him.
"You look terrible." Pegabug said. Her voice was quieter than she had intended. Softer like the gentle breeze.
"And you look great." Star replied. A smile curled on her lips before she looked herself over. Aside from the constant ache throughout her upper body and how her legs felt like they were lead. In comparison to him, she looked largely unscathed save for the windblown hair as loose strands framed her face.
"What, charging in here to save the damsel in distress?" Pegabug teased. She crossed the distance with her yo-yo spinning protectively between herself and Marcus. There was no decision in the making, and Pegabug knew that she couldn't allow herself to break. Not just yet.
Even so, her free hand found his jaw. Her touch was careful, where she turned his face into the light. Her eyes scanned for any damage underneath the soot and ichor. The metallic stench had grown stronger now that Pegabug was so close to him. It was so strong that she could practically taste it, and smoke cloaked around him like a weighted blanket. But so was the exhaustion as his eyes were strained and heavy.
Her gloved thumb gently brushed once across his cheekbone, but she couldn't wipe away anything. But Pegabug had to know that he was real.] (Here's the context leading up to this part if you're interested in it. I might rewrite this bit, but i don't know.);
A putrid stench polluted the air. Every breath Star took felt wrong as it choked the wind from his lungs. He cleared his throat before he spat out a glob of saliva on the massive dark mountain beneath him. Only the high-pitched ringing reached his ears as his eyes were glued to his black-stained hands.
His knuckles throbbed in tandem to his heartbeat, and his muscles screamed with a searing edge from the palms up to his shoulders. Flames danced around the base of the mountain, casting long shadows across the mound of bodies. But his eyes were glued to what used to be the giant head of a snake underneath him. It had been crushed and pulverized until there was hardly anything to distinguish it from the mountain aside from its massive body.
“...cien…” A whisper echoed in his thoughts, but the ringing had nearly drowned it out. Star's stained poncho fluttered in the breeze as the tattered cloth softly brushed against itself. Rhythmically brushed against his sore arms that allowed him to focus on something that wasn’t the constant ringing. Then he felt a hand grasped onto his shoulder.
“Lucien!” Her sharp voice was clear and commanding. It immediately snapped Star out of the haze when his head lifted to see Nefertiti kneeling beside him. Her dark hair was pulled into a messy bun to reveal her missing left eye. Yet Nefertiti's single eye had proven to see more than a pair could.
Star's eyes focused through the blurry haze in his vision as he blinked in confusion. The ringing had unknowingly subsided to a distant tune, but at least he was able to hear her.
“Lucien, we need to get you out of here! If you stay any longer, you will lose your chance to return home.” Nefertiti bitterly reminded him. Star knew that it was only thanks to the Crow Miraculous that he was able to keep his body and soul intact. But that protection could only maintain itself for so long. Star didn’t respond with words, only a hesitant nod and a soft hum of acknowledgement.
However, his job wasn't completely finished just yet. Star reached down with a blood-stained hand to place his palm against the snake's corpse. Fiery veins immediately began to spread over the rotten corpse before it branched into the mountain itself. Star had stopped bothering to keep track how many of the wretched things he had to put down in order to stop the snake. Maybe there were hundreds, or thousands, even Nefertiti was uncertain of the approximate number. But she made a point to slide down the mound of corpses before the fiery veins completely wrapped around the mass of decay.
Then the bodies flared in a brief blaze that slammed intense heat against Nefertiti's bronze skin. She visibly flinched against it with a hiss as if she was burned from being near it. Fortunately, the flare dwindled as swiftly as it appeared, and with it the formerly mountain of bodies had been reduced into a giant pile of white ash.
Star descended into the ashes as he slid down. The threat was gone, the blight had been eradicated, or so he had thought. The tension in his shoulders began to loosen as his feet touched the floor, but that was only temporary.
“You've done well, son. But I'm afraid your mission isn't over just yet.” A familiar voice boomed throughout the central chamber. It bounced from the walls, reaching his ears as if the voice spoke from every direction. But every hair along Star's arms and neck stood on end as he froze in place. His molten golden eyes under the mask widened in sheer disbelief as the chilling numbness began to grip at his heart.
Nefertiti's right eye narrowed as she immediately summoned the broken spear into her hands. She approached Star with her head on a swivel. But the dark-haired teen didn't bother to look around. For he knew exactly where it came from.
Star hesitantly looked over his shoulder, past the mound of ashes fluttering in the wind, and emerging from the dark tree had the upper half of a man, but the bottom half consisted of roots with sanguine roses sparsely dotted close to the hips. His skin was pale and transparent, as if it had been scraped one too many times. Underneath the skin was a mess of mutated organs and bone. Black spikes protruded around the shoulders. Dark, matted hair framed around the man's face. His eyes were akin to a pair of blood moons in the star-ridden sky.
Nefertiti's face immediately fell as her single eye caught sight of the half man. Her golden staff slightly lowered, but her grip remained firm.
“Oh Marcus… what has he done to you?” Nefertiti murmured in disbelief. Yet Marcus had never once wavered from Star as they were locked onto him. Neither said a word to each other as Marcus shambled forward on a mass of roots moving in sync. Star slowly turned to face his father, or what was left of him.
Marcus's face grimaced and twitched in silent agony as he broke the silence.
“You don't look surprised. I take it that… that you've known?” He hesitated. As if the father was afraid that his son knew of his choices, and what sins he had committed. Star didn’t answer right away as the flame-like chakrams returned to his blood-stained hands from above.
“You could say that.” Star responded. For he had already seen the exact moment when everything changed. A pivotal challenge to overcome, but Star had failed to realize how directed it was towards him until he saw what his father became.
Marcus silently nodded with a grim look on his face. Pain dashed across his expression as if the very motion was excruciating.
“How's… how's Adam? Did he… make it out?” Marcus inquired. He had planned to provide Adam a means to defend himself, a means of escape, in case Merlin decided that Marcus was no longer useful. Nefertiti's right eye shifted between the two as if she was watching a theater play at work.
“He's safe.” Star responded. His voice dry and cracked as sweat trickled down from underneath the fiery mask. The news of Star's brother had softened the tension in his father's shoulders. He watched as his father's sanguine eyes began to glaze over, as if he was looking at something far away. The man staggered away with a hiss, as if some invisible force had slammed into him. Star's brow furrowed as he tried to understand what was happening.
But then he felt it. Like reconnecting the heart to his body, he felt the summer rain dowsing the embers in his chest. The aching pain melted away in warmth that flooded his senses. His molten golden eyes widened as he immediately understood what had happened. The chamber shuddered as dust fell from cracks above.
It was a storm of emotions and thoughts that slammed against Star's psyche that weren't his own. His chest tightened by an invisible hand as his sore hands clammed up. Yet Marcus cracked a weak smile as his head hung low.
“Good… that's good,” Marcus paused as the sounds of rushing feet echoed through the chamber. She had moved quicker than Marcus had anticipated, but no less favorable.
A familiar bluenette skidded to a halt as she whipped around the chambers opening. Her breathing had grown heavy as her bluebell eyes scanned the room. They swept over the ash-covered floor with corrupted, bare trees lined along the columns. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of Marcus's grotesque form, her hand instinctively raised with her yo-yo spinning into a shield between them.
Her expression immediately softened the instant her eyes met Star’s. The tension in her shoulders melted as her lips parted. To Star, it had been no more than an hour since his departure from the real world, but to Pegabug. It had been two weeks. Two weeks of constant fighting, nightmares, and limited supplies. Yet what tormented her the most was the very connection that she shared with Star. The constant balm to the raging turmoil within her mind. But most importantly, he had become the missing piece that Pegabug had been mentally grasping for.
Star cracked a weak smile, but it was genuine with warmth. The corners of his eyes softened, but his brow gradually came together as he was suddenly self-conscious of his appearance. Black ichor stained his hands and sleeves. His tattered poncho revealed the torn shirt underneath, and his face was covered in soot and ichor smeared where he had previously wiped off. In short, he looked like he lost a fight with a bear.
OHHHH I really like this. It would be really cool to see recolors of this for higher versions of her class (not asking artist to draw that, just imagining it)
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Posted chapter 9, Point of No Return in Tales of Miracle;
Two weeks had passed since Star delved into Nefertiti's Tomb, and the seige on Paris continues to wear down their spirits. Starvation around every corner, things continue to look grim as they frantically try to get help from heroes outside of Paris. But with their communications cut off and isolated from the world, only Pegabug has been able to move in and out of Paris. However, Ladybug leaves Cat Noir in charge of the Miracles while she finishes in freeing Waka City. So that she could divert her focus into retrieving Lucien. But not everything goes as planned, and Pegabug is forced to make a decision that she might not come back from.
