Once blind by the illusion of fantasy and innocence now can see nothing but rage and vengeance, for the blood of whom she loved and cherished has stained her red. Once the prey now the predator. A fox wearing human skin.
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Oh Alya, my beloved, no one will ever make me hate you. I didn’t change her design much but I did make her colors more dark and switched her tummy color to black. I was worried her fluffy tails would look weird but it turned out fine! I fixed her ears s they were an easier to draw but otherwise I’m happy that this turned out well!
Spoilers for Season 4. Draws upon and combines elements from the first three episodes: “Truth”, “Lies”, and “Gang of Secrets”. Actual Alya Salt-centric, with a focus on setting up character development.
Rather than immediately breaking up Marinette/Luka and Adrien/Kagami ASAP and only having Alya learn about the former after the fact, she finds out about it when she spots the two together. Initially, she’s more confused than anything else; why are the two of them acting like they’re, you know, a thing? Because obviously they can’t actually BE a thing, or she’d have known about it already!
Both regard her with confusion; Marinette’s confusion is laced with guilt. Hesitantly, she affirms that yes, she and Luka ARE dating… she just hadn’t told her yet. Stung, Alya declares that she had the right to know – not only are they BFFs, but she’s been helping her with–!
She has the presence of mind to cut herself short, realizing that she’s about to reveal the whole Adrien thing right in front of Luka. But Marinette still knows what she’s talking about, and sighs as she replies that yeah… yeah. That’s kind of the whole problem.
Because she told her, didn’t she? Not that she was starting to date Luka, but that she wanted to stop that whole operation. But Alya wouldn’t stop. No matter how many times Marinette insisted that she was fine with being just friends with Adrien, and wasn’t comfortable pursuing him anymore, Alya just… ignored her. Kept pushing her forward, shoving her towards him when she wasn’t ready. When she didn’t want it.
She hadn’t brought up her new boyfriend yet because she wasn’t sure Alya would listen.
Alya doesn’t exactly help her own case here. Hurt by Marinette’s obvious lack of faith or trust, she lashes out – Making some impulsive accusations she doesn’t really believe, but is aiming to hurt with. Like claiming she’s only dating Luka to try and make Adrien jealous, or something similarly awful and manipulative.
Marinette is obviously hurt by this… and also worried. After Alya leaves, she has a heart-to-heart with Luka where she admits that she’s ashamed by how she behaved while pursuing her old crush, and that she’d never do something like that to him. Luka reassures her that he believes and trusts her.
Alya proceeds to gather the girl squad for an emergency meeting. Rather than acting like a hive mind and agreeing with her insistence that friends never keep ANY secrets from each other, ever, they have more mixed, individual reactions.
Alix, in particular, cuts straight to the heart of it by suggesting that Alya’s more stung by the fact that she, the aspiring journalist, fell so far out of sync with her bestie that she wasn’t even aware of such a major change. The other girls are also willing to let Marinette have her space and whatever secrets she cares to keep from them, figuring that she’ll share them whenever she’s ready.
None of that helps Alya feel any better. She gets Akumatized into a Truth-equivalent, granted the power to magically compel her targets to respond honestly to a question posed to them while under her enchantment, which is marked by their lips turning white.
Tracking down Marinette before it goes after Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculouses, the Akuma demands to know why Marinette didn’t tell her best friend about Luka sooner.
And Marinette responds that she didn’t want to deal with the drama.
Doesn’t she want to keep pursuing Adrien?
No, because that’s brought out the worst in both of them, Marinette tearfully declares, the truth spell bringing out the emotions she usually tries to repress. She’s sick and tired of the stress, the pain, and feeling horrible all the time. And she’s sick of not being able to talk to her friend about it without Alya insisting that she’s not allowed to stop.
But… aren’t she and Alya BFFs…?
Maybe. But they don’t feel like it anymore.
Hearing that from Marinette’s white-painted lips, knowing that it’s a magically reinforced truth, staggers the Akuma long enough for others to intervene, buying Marinette the time to escape and become Ladybug.
And the experience firmly convinces Marinette that the two of them need to have a long overdue discussion… one that doesn’t end in her spilling any secrets related to her alter ego, but instead to who she is as Marinette and where they stand right now. Alya won’t remember what the Akuma forced Marinette to say, but Marinette knows now she needs to say it again, so that she will understand.
If they’re going to salvage their friendship, they need to be honest with each other in ways that are going to hurt. They’ve got to hear each other out… and actually LISTEN rather than assuming that they already know best. They’ve got to both be willing to make an effort, or else their bond is just going to keep unraveling.
If Alya cares enough about learning the truth that Hawkmoth can Akumatize her over it, then hopefully that means she’s willing to actually hear it and deal with what it means. But that’s up to her, isn’t it? Marinette can only provide the truth; how Alya processes and copes with it is in her hands…
Thanks for waiting everyone! Here's the newest chapter. I wrote this while listening to Wolf by Miguel. Corporislatro continues to rage, and Hawkmoth begins getting concerned.
What just happened Corporislatro?
“I don’t know! I thought you said Ladybug would be useless after she got hit!”
The akuma felt a rumbling in her head, as if Hawkmoth had hummed.
It seems like her kwami is in control. That makes her unpredictable. Tread carefully, but don’t lose sight of our goal. She’s vulnerable. If we play this right, Marinette will be in your shoes by sunrise.
“Yes Hawkmoth.”
Euterpe stood, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “So what’s the plan Spots?”
Tikkibug rolled her eyes. “Split off and stake out the Grand Palais. Find a good vantage point. Ladybug is right: you’ll be most effective if you’re a surprise. We’ll lead her to you.”
The hero nodded. He stood, and sprung out from their combined hiding place, leaping from roof to roof.
Tikkibug mindlessly flicked her wrist, and the yoyo disappeared in a flash of purple light.
“So now all we have to do is find Corp and lure her to the Grand Palais, then you can Lucky Charm us to victory.” Chat said, twirling his tail.
Tikkibug winced. “Hopefully. We’ll see how I do in combat. I’m incredibly rusty.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation, you’ll probably hold up better than Plagg would,” Chat said.
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he flinched. Tikki presumed Plagg zapped him in retaliation to that comment.
Tikkibug giggled, antennae twitching. “Cheese Curd knows his way around a battle, trust me.”
Chat involuntarily purred, and his eyes widened in mortification, much to Tikki’s amusement.
“Anyways,” Chat said, his voice cracking, “how are we gonna find the akuma?”
A cackle echoed through the street.
Tikkibug smiled. “Like that.”
--
Corporislatro had been easier to find than anticipated.
Now continuing to evade her attacks while running away from her?
That was hard.
“How long do we have to do this for?” Chat shouted, using his baton to vault out of the way of an incoming beam.
He landed back on the roof, and immediately broke back into a sprint.
Tikkibug summoned her yoyo, chucking it back at the akuma, who batted it aside with her wrist.
“Not much longer, we’re almost there!”
Tikkibug pulled her yoyo back in, and threw it at Corporislatro’s ankles.
At the last second, she let go of the yoyo entirely, and the head split in two, wrapping around the akuma’s ankles and sending her crashing down to the street below.
Chat gaped at Tikkibug.
She grabbed his wrist, and pulled him along. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!”
Finally, the two arrived at the Grand Palais, and leapt up onto the glass roof.
Chat smashed one of the panels, and Tikkibug shot him a look.
“What? We have to get in somehow.”
Tikkibug glared, and dropped down, landing softly on the floor below.
Chat followed suit.
His eyes scanned the facility, looking for the fox hero. His eyes adjusted, night vision revealing Euterpe hidden in the scaffolding of the arch holding the glass dome up.
The hero sent him a quick salute, and Chat sent him a nod in return.
Tikkibug flicked her wrist back and forth, summoning and desummoning her yoyo. She swirled her wrist and her yoyo morphed into a shield, which appeared on her forearm.
Chat looked at her. “How are you doing that?”
“Mastery of the miraculous comes with age,” Tikkibug said simply. “And Ladybug is having a bit of a hard time with containing the power of creation. This will relieve some of the pressure.”
Chat furrowed his brow. “So, you can turn it into anything you want?”
Tikkibug nodded.
“Then what’s the difference between this and a lucky charm?”
She flicked her wrist again, and the shield disappeared. “My yoyo is taking the form of what it is I want.” Another flick, and the yoyo morphed into a baton, similar to Chat’s. She extended it, booping him in the shoulder. “The Lucky Charm gives me what I need to win a fight, if I can figure out how to use it.”
Chat hummed. “Will I be able to do that too?”
Tikkibug’s antennae twitched.
“Perhaps,” she said finally. “I’ve had millennia to master the miraculous I embody. Your miraculous is the miraculous of destruction. Your powers will manifest differently.”
Corporislatro chose that moment to smash through the ceiling, landing on the ground in front of them, and immediately firing off a shot at Chat.
Tikkibug jumped in front of him, summoning her yoyo, and hit the beam back with deadly precision.
“We still have no clue where her akuma is,” Tikkibug said, hurling her yoyo at Corporislatro’s head.
Corporislatro grabbed the wire, and yanked. Tikkibug smiled, and snapped her fingers, causing the yoyo to dissolve in a flash of pink light, and the akuma to stumble forward.
The akuma growled in frustration, and put her hands together. Her wristlets glowed white, merging into a glowing blob in her hands. She pulled her hands apart, and the glow dissipated, leaving a comically large sewing needle in her hands.
“There,” Tikkibug said. “Those wristlets are the akuma.”
Corporislatro ran at Tikkibug, and jumped, holding the needle over her head.
Tikkibug dove out of the way, just as Corporislatro drove the point of the needle down, cracking the concrete below it.
Chat’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure?” He asked, ducking under another swing. “Alya doesn’t own wristbands.”
He planted his baton and extended it, hitting the akuma in the ribs and sending her flying.
Tikkibug’s eyes widened. “But she does own a friendship bracelet. More specifically, one that Marinette gave her. And if Alya’s mad at Marinette like Ladybug said–”
“–it would make sense for that to be her akumatized item. Good eye Tikki. But how are we gonna get to them?”
Tikkibug tossed her yoyo in the air.
“Lucky Charm!”
The ladybugs swirled, and formed...
“A potted plant?” Tikkibug said incredulously.
“Planning on doing some interior decorating?” Chat quipped.
Tikkibug squinted, looking around the room.
Her eyebrows shot up. “I got it. But Ladybug, are you sure?”
The plant seemed to pulse in response.
Tikkibug nodded. “Okay. Keep her busy Chat!”
She tossed her yoyo and latched onto the scaffolding, landing next to Euterpe.
Chat held his baton in front of him.
“Alya, come on, let’s talk this through,” he crooned.
His eyes scanned the facility, looking for any sign of movement.
The akuma sounded from behind him. “Don’t you have a hairball to be coughing up?”
Chat whirled around, but the akuma wasn’t there.
Tikkibug screamed.
“Chat Noir, three o’clock!”
Chat spun, subconsciously raising his baton up to block the slash of Corporislatro’s needle.
The akuma growled, kicking him square in the chest, sending him staggering back.
Corporislatro smashed the needle between her palms, and reformed it, creating a truly wicked looking pink polka dotted cutlass, which she slung over her shoulder.
Chat paled.
--
Hawkmoth watched as Alya pulled the cutlass out of thin air.
“Corporislatro, what are you doing?”
He felt her roll her eyes. Relax Hawkmoth. I’m just gonna rough him up a bit.
He couldn’t explain it. Something felt off.
Ladybug could call him many things. Cruel, opportunistic, a terrorist, none of it phased him. It wasn’t like he chose his champions to be those suffering because he reveled in it.
Working with people’s energy was a lot like redirecting water. And those who were happy or satisfied, their energy was like a pond. Stable, smooth, difficult to divert, or shape.
The turbulence of the mind matched the turbulence of the energy. Those who were wronged, or upset were much easier to direct, much easier to strike a bargain with.
Alya’s energy had shifted. It went from an easily channeled river of teenage angst and feelings of inadequacy to something much darker, much deeper.
The waters were rising, and getting choppier.
He could feel it in his chest. Her anger, her hurt, her betrayal, it all filled his lungs threatening to drown him.
He raised his hand, about to call the akuma back, when the waters ceased, freezing in his lungs.
He exhaled, and the cloud of his breath hung in the air before dissipating.
in your timey wimey fanfiction, will the corrupted heroes ever de-transform?
Yes, they can de-transform, and we will see them un-transformed. I just have to design their looks, I think Alya is the only one with a design right now.
Kitsune Rouge, alternatively known as Alya Cesiare, newly named Alya Lahiffe. Alya is now 22 years old, being a part of the old Miraculous team for four years before Shadow Moth got ahold of all the Miraculouses. Alya is extremely well experienced with not only the Fox Miraculous but also the Ladybug Miraculous. She was Marinette’s pupil learning to take Marinette’s place as Ladybug if anything were ever to happen to Marinette. Alya has been taught how to translate Miraculous writing and knows how to unlock her Miraculous to the full potential. Alya has a close relationship with the Fox kwami Trixx. Alya was the first person to know Ladybugs identity and aid her in her battle against Hawkmoth and Shadow Moth. Alya and Marinette have a very close sisterly bond, one can’t be without the other. Being the best friend of Ladybug, Alya learned how to read her friends body language and knew Marinette better than anyone else(except Chat Noir).
Before corruption Alya was heavily traumatized by a certain battle that left Marinette dead and Alya taking her place of Ladybug temporarily at the age of 16. After the battle Alya became very protective of Marinette, she was the one who ripped down Chloe and Lila from their high horses and dragged them through the mud. Alya is a headstrong woman, stubborn, protective, and pushy but she loves her friends like they are her family. Just like Marinette, Alya is a motherly person to her teammates and friends. Alya is the biggest Ladynoir shipper and to this day she is still trying to get Marinette to confess to Chat Noir that she loves him before he finally captures the other girl he fell in love with heart.
After Monarch steals all of the Miraculous, Alya watches as her best friend loses the light in her eyes, placing a mask of happiness on and pretending that she is fine. It only gets worse when the damn Cat finally succeeds in stealing Marinette’s heart making her fall in love with him only for him to turn around and fall in love with another girl. After Marinette’s horrible experiences with love Alya starts to get extremely worried as Marinette swears off love and plans to live a life of loneliness and solitude until she gets all the Miraculouses back. Alya has a small grudge against Chat Noir, but it doesn’t ruin their friendship. Everything then started to get serious when a powerful Akuma brutally murdered Ladybug(Marinette) on Live television, leaving Alya with the terrifying realization that Marinette will be stuck in this never-ending bloody battle with Monarch who wants her dead and that her duty as Ladybug will forever leave her trapped in her duty to the Miraculous never being free. This is a steppingstone to her corruption.
Alya doesn’t know how much more she can take of this.
Before the Corruption Alya, was nice, tricky, and was considerate of people's feelings. As Kitsune Rouge she loves to toy with their emotions, she’s cruel, mean, and has a temper like no tomorrow. She’ll bite or scratch her enemies or targets, wanting her targets to feel the pain she felt and inflicts her trauma upon anyone. She’ll place terrible images into the minds of her targets and deliver nightmare that leave scars literally. Though with Marinette she is soft, gentle and warm. Alya hates Master Fu when she learned of how he dumped a lot of his responsibilities on Marinette. Alya stresses a lot over Marinette especially when her depression and trauma get worse. It got worse when Marinette just stops going to school at all, staying locked up in her room. It took Alya days to convince her to come out.
With Marinette being self-destructive, Alya is forced to go through Marinette’s things and is horrified to learn about Marinette’s plans, she wonders if her best friend will ever be happy and learns that Marinette has already accepted that she’ll be alone forever believing that Chat Noir would be better off without her, putting others over herself again. Alya swears if she ever gets her hands on Felix she was going to murder him, but a certain cat already called dibs.
It got worse when she found Marinette’s diary and plans.
She has the powers of the Fox Miraculous but boosted. The corrupted Akuma mixed with the Miraculous allows her to not only make illusions but make realistic illusions that can be touched and even fought with. The power of Mirage is the power of creating an illusion and her illusions are very powerful and hard to break. She can create illusions that can trap a person inside their mind. The second power is reality; she can steal people's worst nightmares or fears and make them a reality with her illusions. She also has all the animal tendencies of a feral fox. She has two powers, Mirage, and Reality. She can shapeshift and change form if needed.
The reason why the corrupted miraculous hero’s prefer to stay transformed is because when they are not transformed the Akumas hold is weaker and some times their old selves come to light but the corrupted kwamis like to remind their holders why they are doing this as the kwamis also have the same goal; corrupt Marinette so they can have their family whole again as the corrupted kwamis miss their guardian and Tikki. The corrupted kwamis are manipulative and their words are like poison venom that their holders feed off of. They are always successful at getting their holders back on track. Though the team does detransform sometimes so they can hang out with their kwamis as they missed them over the years that Monarch had them.
Because Monarch melted down the ancient Miraculouses of the very first miracle box that ever existed. The Miraculous feel incomplete, no longer whole or able to support the Kwami that inhabits the Miraculous. The rings feel wrong to the ancient magic that was used to create and protect the Miraculous and the Miraculous is trying to fix itself whenever it can with the kwami's powers. But due to Monarch using them mainly for transferring the power of the Miraculous over to the Akuma, the Miraculous no longer has the power to fix itself.
So when Monarch had the stupid idea to kidnap all of Ladybug's team and force the rings on them and then akumatize the rings. The Miraculous used the Akuma to fix itself while using the Akumas magic to make itself complete all while corrupting the Kwamis and the users. The Miraculous begins to use the Akuma and suck the Akuma of all of its magic, so it's a never ending cycle of the miraculous stealing magic from the Akuma and the Akuma stealing magic from the butterfly miraculous that it's being powered by, the Miraculouses start to become corrupted because the Akuma is giving them the wrong kind of magic to fix the Miraculous and make it complete.
The miraculous, the Akuma, and the holder merge into one with their soul, and that's how it's corrupted because the miraculous is feeding off of the Akuma and the body that's attached to the miraculous is feeding off the magic of the corrupted miraculous to get strength and be powerful.
When the corrupted fox ring was placed on Alyas hand she was filled with rage and hate, Trixx welcomed her in her own mind and the two bonded over their hate for Monarch. Instead of being tricked into manipulation Alya takes ahold of the corrupted miraculous and asks Trixx if there was a way to end this, to kill Monarch and get Marinette her happy end. Trixx tells Alya that if they give into the corruption that they’ll be as powerful as a God and that they’ll be the ones calling the shots. Alya makes a deal with Trixx, she’ll help Trixx and the other kwamis corrupt Marinette in exchange Alya wanted to be the first to kill Monarch in this and every other timeline.
“Is that really all you want? You could have anything Alya! All you gotta do is get us our Guardian.”
“I want that man DEAD, I want him and his BLOODLINE DEAD. I’ll get you Marinette, and then I want the freedom to kill him, OVER and OVER, and OVER again. You and Marinette can live the life you all wanted but I want to make sure Monarch-no-GABRIEL AGRESTE SUFFERS!”
