Adrien: So, there’s this boy I want to ask out on a date. He’s not a girl so I don’t think he’d like the same-
Lady Cardinal: His favorite flowers are camellias, I’d recommend white or red. He hates going to the movie theater because he thinks those places are too expensive. Get him dark chocolate because he hates milk chocolate. And yes, he’d love to watch a movie with you, as long as it’s not in a theater.
Adrien: Wh-I-Huh?
Lady Cardinal: Luka’s free on the weekends and on Wednesdays. It doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl, just think about what they like, not their gender.
Rose didn’t like this plan. As Chat Noir and Harmonia argued, she kept turning the idea over in her head. Sacrificing one person so that everyone else would be okay… But what if they turned over the wrong person? What if someone tried to give themselves up as the culprit and was killed because of it?
It made her shutter.
“We still can’t escape, even if we use someone as bait, right?” Kim asked. “We’re trapped.”
Max nodded. “Correct. And given the nature of this akuma, it won’t stop until we are all punished, so it wouldn’t distract him for long.”
“But it might be long enough for us to get the upper hand,” Harmonia said. “We already know his akumatized object, so it’s just a matter of getting it off him.”
“You mean the knife? He’s not just going to hand it over-”
Harmonia gave Chat Noir a withering stare. “No, it’s his necklace. Marinette made it for him as a present and he was protecting it throughout our fight with him.”
How did Harmonia know that? Rose had noticed Luka wearing a new necklace during band practice, especially since he never seemed to take it off, but he hadn’t answered when she asked where it came from. Did… did she really miss the start of Marinette and Luka dating?
Rose had been all for Adrienette since Alya had filled her in on Marinette’s crush. She and Juleka had gone to all the meetings aimed at getting the two together. But once Marinette and Luka met, and they seemed to hit it off, she’d switched teams. After all, wouldn’t a double date between the two couples be super cute? Not all the time, obviously, Rose still had plenty of things she wanted to do with Juleka that they didn’t need her older brother hanging around for, but she loved the idea of maybe one day being sisters with Marinette.
Or she had, until Marinette had turned mean. Or Lila framed her into being mean? Rose didn’t want to think poorly of Lila, they were friends, but… Luka really seemed to hate her. Even if everything they’d seen so far was Luka’s opinion, she couldn’t ignore the fact that so many people she cared about didn’t believe her. Luka was furious enough to want to hurt them. Juleka had left because of them. Surely… they’d done something wrong, right?
If Marinette really was innocent, then that meant Rose-
“There’s only so many of them, and more of us,” Alya interrupted. “What if we all attack him at the same time? He can’t stab us all at once, and it would give us enough time to grab the akuma!”
“Or we could just give him Lila,” Alix added bitterly. “He’d probably take his time with her.”
Rose gasped, horrified. Her eyes instantly darted to Lila, ready to comfort her friend… and that was the only reason she caught Lila’s fearsome glare at Alix before she wailed. Rose rubbed her eyes. Did she really just see…? Alix’s comment was harsh, but that glare…
Max coughed into his hand. “Anyway, we should assume that anyone who isn’t here is on the High Priest’s side, just in case. If we didn’t see them disappear, then they could have been brainwashed by now.”
Rose gasped. Juleka… Nathaniel wasn’t here either, and they’d gotten separated from Mylene and Ivan while running away. It was like Horrificator all over again, only this time they might find their friends brainwashed instead of trapped in pods.
Lila sobbed. “Please… please don’t give me up! He’ll hurt me if you do; Luka’s always been so mean to me!” Rose froze. As far as she knew, Lila had never been formally introduced to Lila. Lila usually missed Kitty Selection’s band practice–Rose couldn’t remember if she’d attended one, actually–and Luka didn’t pick Juleka up after school since Jules claimed she was old enough to walk herself. When had they met?
Rose had assumed that most of what the akuma said against Lila was biased, since they’d never met. But if Luka did know Lila… or maybe Rose was right, and they’d never met, but then why was Lila lying now? Is she really so scared that she’d think they’d actually sacrifice her?
“No one is sacrificing anyone!” Chat Noir shouted. “I wish Ladybug was here…”
“Well, she’s not!” Harmonia snapped. “Sorry I’m not perfect, but what else can we do? We tried fighting him, but he’s too strong!”
“Have you used Lucky Charm yet?”
“No, but do you seriously think we can beat him in five minutes before I transform back?”
“I carry some cookies on me for Tikki to recharge.” Harmonia shot Chat Noir a confused look. “Me and Ladybug switched Miraculous once, and… it’s just in case. What I mean is, you can transform back quickly once you use it. And since this is going to be the only time you get the Ladybug Miraculous, then you don’t really need to worry about your secret identity.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Harmonia scoffed, and then sighed. “But you’re not exactly wrong. Lucky Charm!” Harmonia threw her yo-yo up into the air and caught… a flower. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“A flower?” Alix complained. “We’re in a garden, we could have just pulled that off a bush!”
“Maybe it means we’re supposed to fight the High Priest in here?”
As her class chatted about the lucky charm, Rose’s face grew pale as she stared at the rose in Harmonia’s hand. It was about her.
She was going to have to tell them that she’d been the one to push Marinette.
All this talk about a Tikki with murderous intent made me want the opposite: A Ladybug that gets the most innocuous and innocent of items as their Lucky Charm, and they still manage to use it as a lethal weapon… and since Marinette wouldn’t do that… normally, I thought about who could, and I remembered when Juleka had the idea of kidnapping Kagami… not murderous, but still very pragmatic soooooo…
Ladybug!Juleka AU.
Marinette doesn’t purify Stoneheart’s akuma like in canon, but instead of giving the Miraculous to Alya, who she just met, she decides to give it to Juleka, who has always looked like a calm and collected girl, always pragmatic, nice, and a good problem solver. Plus, she knows she can keep a secret. So she slips Juleka the Ladybug earrings.
Tikki is disappointed to find herself with this new girl(who Master Fu didn’t chose) but realizes she has no other choice (Unless she wants to out Marinette) and decides to do the best she can with Juleka.
Juleka transforms, her suit consisting on black leggings with some red spots, a red long sleeved romper with black spots, combat boots and black gloves. (Basically her concept art clothes, but Ladybug themed) Also, the purple hues in her hair become red, and her eyes become black.
She considers the name “Ladybug” but decides to change it for considering it too “Cutesy”, and after Tikki vetoes “Creepy Crawler”, and other names that made Tikki slightly nervous, she finally settles as “Lady Beetle”.
Lady Beetle starts pretty much as a standard ladybug holder, getting a seemingly random Lucky Charm and then using it to turn the tide of the battle… but then Juleka started to notice a few things:
1) The Akumas weren’t being really themselves, as victims as they were, they were out for her blood.
2) Purified victims didn’t remember anything about their time of Akumatization
3) Her “Miraculous Ladybug” fixed everything… so instead of getting more creative with her lucky charms, she got pragmatic. WAY more pragmatic.
A bouncing ball against Evillustrator? She aims to his mouth, and while he’s choking, she breaks his pencil.
An oven mitt against Rogercop? She fills it with some heavy paperweights and goes to town on his head.
A wrench against the Bubbler? Oh look, something to use as a blunt weapon!
A Ladybug Costume against the Pharaoh? She grabs a random civilian and uses her as bait.
So yes, if there is a way to use a Lucky Charm as a weapon, Juleka will use it.
To her credit, she was hella confused when she got a BFG against Malediktator. And she switched her bag of marbles for Anti-bug sword to great effect.
Tikki and Chat Noir are slighty scared of her. Plagg loves her and wants to meet her ASAP. Fu is wary. Marinette is… conflicted.
The public loves her, but thinks she could tone down her violence a liiiiiitle bit.
Honestly, I feel like Copycat wouldn’t happen in Kuro Cardinal. Juleka would probably show up at the reveal since Marinette’s main reason on missing the reveal is that she was being a thief, one. Two, I feel as if Empress wouldn’t akumatized Theo into Copycat to copy Kuro Neko due to the genders. Not saying that it can’t happen, but I feel as if it’d be unlikely. Three, Cat Noir also aggravated Theo by telling him that he and Ladybug are romantically involved. Kagami wouldn’t do that, so it wouldn’t stand. Even if Lady Cardinal was confronted with this revelation from Theo, she’d make it very clear that she’s only interested in girls. So now I’m thinking of a replacement chapter for it.
This isn’t just me making excuses for not writing Copycat.
