Transformed, he leapt over the rooftops until he reached their spot. Ladybug was already there, sitting, legs dangling over the edge of the building and gaze on the sky. The sun was fading fast, the view streaked with orange and pink.
She looked up, watching him settle down beside her. Watched him so hard, it was like her eyes had hands and they were pummelling him all over.
He slotted his staff back in its holder. ‘Do I have something on my nose?’
‘No, just…what happened to you today?’
His brow lifted. ‘Wow. You really don’t wait, do you.’
‘I’ve been worried about you ever since.’
His heart fluttered. ‘Y-you h-have?’
‘Of course. You’re my partner…and my…my best friend. When something’s wrong with you, something’s wrong with me.’
Best friend. Had she ever come right out and told him that before, in those words? Not that he could remember. And best friends shared things with each other…didn’t they?
She drew her knees up, hugging them to her chest. ‘When you got hit today…I haven’t seen you like that in a long time.’ Her voice was small. Afraid.
‘…you mean…you have seen me like that before?’
‘Well, sure, like that time when…you know. With…with Guiltrip.’
He blinked at her. ‘Guiltrip?’
She blinked back. ‘You don’t remember that?’
‘Of course I do, but…what about it? Did I get hit then, too?’ That was ages before his father’s death. What would he have had to feel guilty or unhappy about then?
Her face underwent the strangest transformation – like something had just occurred to her and now she was trying to think how to backtrack without him noticing. ‘Never mind. Maybe I’m just mixing things up because I’m…I’m just really shaken up today.’
A lie. She was hiding something – but what? Something terrible that had happened to him, that she wanted to protect him from?
like if I were to re-write the s3 finale to segue into s5′s overarching plot of “gabriel has most of the miraculous”, i’d either go with:
A) If you still want the stipulation of “lb and cn being deprived of any help and have to rely on each other,” Gabriel runs off with the miraculous and doesn’t give it to Chloe at all. LB and CN have no clue that the miracle box has been stolen until LB tries to return the dragon miraculous and stumbles across Fu trying to fend off Hawkmoth. Gabriel would still successfully steal the miracle box for himself, but the heroes would be left with only the Turtle (as it’d be worn by Fu) and the Dragon (if you still want to keep the Heart Hunter fight as Part 1). That or you write out Heart Hunter and just give Gabriel the entire miracle box, likely only missing the Turtle from that point on.
B) Miracle Queen still happens the way it does, but Hawkmoth decides to swoop in and take the Miracle box from Chloe to take the miraculous inside for himself. LB would still be made guardian, as Mayura would still be attacking Fu with the sentimonster, but she’d only be guardian in name, as the Miracle Box would be lost to Gabriel. However, in this scenario, Gabriel would only have on hand the unused miraculous pre-s4 and the rabbit miraculous (so you’d still have Bunnix intervening) and LB and CN would still have the miraculous of the heroes possessed by Miracle Queen (plus the Dragon and Turtle if it’s not stolen by Hawkmoth). It could’ve been a cool way to introduce the rest of the zodiac miraculous’ powers, by having Gabriel use them.
Admittedly, one thing I didn’t really think about in the last post about Multiple Factions AU were the implications of the Temple being in Tibet but implying the Order was predominantly Chinese throughout history. Granted, I also mentioned people of Tibetan descent being involved, but I didn’t think about how the relationships and dynamics between these two groups of people might be poorly represented or inconsiderate considering the history involved.
While I do blame the show in part for not thinking through the implications, I blame myself for not taking more time to research and understand the issues that this could cause. For that, I’m sorry.
Honestly, I’m not really sure how to fix this. I’d rather not erase Tibet from the show entirely, but considering I’m not Asian, I’m out of my depths here. This is definitely an area of the story I’d feel much more comfortable having people of Asian descent (in this case particularly, those who are Tibetan) weigh in on. If anyone is willing to share, I’d love to hear your perspective on this issue or anything you would like to share.
Years before Hawkmoth’s rise, a conflict led to war between the Order of the Guardians and the descendants of previous miraculous holders. The former believed that their heroes needed to be chosen based off of merit and should be evaluated based off Order values, while previous heroes wanted to choose their successors and train them (or rather, raise their children to become new heroes). The heroes also thought the Order’s training of their Guardians was far too strict and cruel.
During this conflict, the miraculouses were scattered across different factions. Five of the most powerful, the Ladybug, Cat, Fox, Bee and Turtle, remained with a Guardian-in-training, Wang Fu. The remaining two, the Peafowl and Butterfly, went missing somewhere in Europe. And the zodiacs were taken by various parties. Hoping to protect the five kwamis, Fu fled the Temple, bearing a grudge against the Order, and what would eventually be known as the Rightful Heroes.
Fast forward to present day. Hawkmoth attacks the city of Paris, looking to claim the Ladybug and Cat miraculouses and make a wish to save his wife’s life. However, Team Miraculous are not the only ones interested in putting a stop to Hawkmoth’s evil-doing. Now knowing where the location of the Butterfly is, the rival factions close in, promising to make our heroes’ lives far more difficult than before.
What none of them realize is that all of this conflict will lead to the rise of a new group… and an old enemy from the ancient past.
What is this AU?
This is a semi-salty AU that focuses on the addition of “rival factions” or antagonists for our heroes to face off against. I say semi-salty because I find that Hawkmoth is a disappointing, stale villain who cannot carry the show long-term. I’m also somewhat salty about how certain side characters are either underutilized or misused (Lila, Kagami, Luka, Sabrina) or feel they’re being introduced for the sake of affecting audience opinion on another character (Felix and Zoe). There’s also how the show will often reset towards the status quo However, this is an AU mostly focused on addressing these issues, as well as allowing growth and progress to be made on behalf of other characters and relationships, so I consider it more of a “fix-it” than a full-blown salt AU.
There are two major sources of inspiration that I credit for the creation of this AU. One is the 2003 TMNT series, with its rotating gallery of antagonists (specifically Bishop and the line of legacy Shredders), and this post made by @lenoreofraven back when “Feast” aired.
Highlights include: more focus on Alya, Nino and Chloe, a proper Chloe redemption arc, a Lila/Felix team-up, Lila still being “bad” but nowhere near as evil as Hawkmoth (and more likely to be redeemed), Luka and Kagami being more relevant to the plot, and fleshing out Sabrina (plus Kim!)
It’s also a semi-flexible AU. I decided to allow use of Kwami Swaps or other add-ons that change up the dynamics between characters. I’ll get into more of that later on. But the version of the AU I’m mostly focused is semi-canon compliant (meaning Love Square is still endgame, DJWifi is a thing, etc), so I will focus on that first.
What can we expect, project-wise?
This AU is mostly for fun, so I do not currently plan on doing an on-going project for it. At most, I might do an outline and some snippets/scenarios to give an idea of what it may look like. But an on-going fic (at this point) is a bit much for me to handle when I have another project going on and various real world obligations.
That being said, if anyone would like to use any of the ideas from this AU for their own stories, I have no problem with that. I’d love to see what you come up with, so feel free to share with me!
What are the main changes from canon?
--> At this point, I don’t have a set timeline in place for this AU, but I do have some ideas for restructuring the story. Not every season may be covered in this AU (s4 is currently airing as I am brainstorming). But the biggest change is the fate of Hawkmoth and Mayura - because of the arrival of other factions, they will be defeated earlier on (sometime before S4 or the equivalent of that season in this AU).
—> Season 1 stays roughly the same in terms of spirit (mostly akuma of the day plots), but there is more focus on Alya, Nino and Chloe to foreshadow them becoming heroes, as well as on Nathalie becoming Mayura. Chloe is still mostly mean and petty and has a lot of progress to make. When her and Sabrina fight, leading to Sabrina’s akumatization, it’s a permanent strain on the friendship. Both Felix and Lila are introduced at the end of the season, where they officially form their alliance. The Guardians arrive in Paris, including one Tomoe Tsurugi. Throughout the season, the news has been reporting unrest within the population concerning Hawkmoth’s actions. This leads Numbesis out of their stasis, and they begin to take action. The main conflict is on Team Miraculous vs Hawkmoth.
—> Season 2 is where we start to see more radical changes. Again, more focus is placed on foreshadowing the heroes (“Queen Wasp” is cut so there is no train stunt). It may also be combined with episodes and storylines from Season 3. The episodes may not always have akumas, since the new factions want to collect as many of the Zodiacs as they can, before taking the non-Zodiacs. The Cult of Numbesis starts to rise during this time, with Kagami and Luka being introduced as early on as possible (especially before Despair Bear, so the two of them can be invited for the party). Sabrina and Kim are clearly shown moving on and doing their own thing to set up them serving for the Order. Heroes’ Day allows Chloe’s arc to come full circle - she saves a transformed Fu and is temporarily given the Bee to help Ladybug. From there, Ladybug will test her and decide if she’s worthy to keep. This is where the timeline starts to get a bit murky for me, unlike Season 1 which is a bit more clear cut in terms of vision. When Hawkmoth and Mayura are defeated (end of S2 or a fixed version of the S3 finale to account for Chloe’s redemption) has yet to be decided, so I will refrain from giving away too much after that.
--> The non-zodiac miraculouses are emphasized and shown to be more powerful than the zodiacs. The zodiacs are by far easier to master, and thus, the zodiac users may give our heroes a bit of trouble when they first arrive. The non-zodiacs, by contrast, have far more potential to grow powerful, and may offer multiple powers (so we can eliminate the temporary power boosts), but are more difficult to master. The zodiacs will have their powers nerfed a bit to accommodate for this change, though I haven’t full settled on what I want those powers to be. Some I can see staying the same (like the horse, mouse and monkey), with others I see just nerfing the power (the dragon can only transform to one weather element during their transformation), and some I would change the power entirely (snake becomes hypnosis, rabbit gets a healing power instead of time travel).
--> The Order has been expanded to include other people of Asian heritage. I did this mostly because I didn’t want Tomoe siding with Hawkmoth, and could see her acting as a Japanese ambassador of sorts for the Order. So when you see members of the Order of Guardians, you will see predominantly people of Chinese and Tibetan background, but you will also see members of Japanese, Korean, Thai, Filipino (I realize there’s some debate over whether they consider themselves Asian or Pacific Islander, but we’re including them anyway), Vietnamese, and Malaysian backgrounds. I like to think of them as diplomats or representatives, especially if we confirm the existence of other Miracle Boxes in other countries later (which for now is a no). Alternatively, I could see some of the zodiacs having shown up in those countries (maybe Tomoe finds a miraculous and is approached by a Guardian member, and she only relents in giving it to them if she is allowed in as a member).
What are the factions?
There are five factions in total that I have decided for this AU. Three of them originate from canon, while two I created for specific intents of this AU. They are Team Miraculous, Hawkmoth and Mayura, The Order of the Guardians, The Rightful Heroes, and the Cult of Numbesis. They all have different goals, motivations, and relationships with each other, which puts them at odds with potential for temporary team-ups.
The miraculouses are split across the factions. The only ones I have set in stone are that Fu has the ladybug, cat, turtle, fox and bee from the start, while Gabriel has the butterfly and peafowl.
The remaining three factions will have at least two of the zodiacs within their possession upon throwing themselves into the ring. I suppose which ones they start with could be swapped out, but for the sake of this post, I gave them specific ones. All of them share a similar goal of collecting or stealing the remaining zodiacs before the other factions do, but they want them for different purposes.
Starting Miraculouses: Ladybug, Black Cat, Fox, Turtle, Bee
Goals: Stop Hawkmoth from terrorizing Paris, and reclaim the butterfly and peafowl. Reform the Guardians. Stop the Cult of Numbesis, and reclaim the miraculouses from the Rightful Heroes.
Not much to add here in terms of changes. They’re the same as in canon, though Chloe’s redemption arc sticks, and the three added heroes get more a storyline to foreshadow them joining the team later. They might start off as temporary, but later earn the right to hold onto their miraculouses once they’ve proven themselves trustworthy.
Hawkmoth and Mayura
Members: Gabriel Agreste (Hawkmoth) and Nathalie Sancoeur (Mayura)
Starting Miraculouses: Butterfly and Peafowl
Goals: Claim the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculouses in order to cast a wish and resurrect/heal Emilie Agreste.
Roughly the same as in canon, although once the other factions start showing up, it’s only a matter of time before the two of them are defeated. My angle for Gabriel is to start off “well-intentioned” but completely goes off the rails. If his actions here are as bad as they are in canon, he will not be getting redeemed. Team Miraculous may or may not have to consult him at some point after his defeat in order to deal with Numbesis.
The Order of the Guardians
Members: Su-Han (Mentor/Guardian), Sabrina Raincomprix (Cottontail), Kim Le Chien (King Monkey), Tomoe Tsurugi (patron/member)
Starting Miraculouses: Rabbit and Monkey
Goals: Overthrow the other factions and reclaim the missing miraculouses. (Some are divided on their opinion regarding Team Miraculous - some want to convince them to join, others think they should have their memories wiped).
Su-Han recruits Sabrina and Kim after they find the rabbit and monkey, and vigorously train them to hunt for the remaining miraculouses. He doesn’t want them going after Team Miraculous at first because A. They are well-liked by the city and B. They aren’t experienced enough fighters to take them on. While they have conflicting goals, Su-Han wants his heroes to convince the heroes to speak with the Order (which they are advised not to do by Fu, since Fu doesn’t trust the Order).
The Rightful Heroes
Members: Amelie Graham de Vanily (Mentor), Lila Rossi (Cavallina), Felix Graham de Vanily (Ratpack), Marianne (former wielder)
Starting Miraculouses: Horse and Mouse
Goals: Reclaim the missing miraculouses, specifically the non-Zodiacs, and defeat Hawkmoth before Team Miraculous. Claim glory and honor for their ancestors and family line. Fame (in Lila’s case).
When her son was denied the right to the Butterfly and Peafowl and it ended up in the “wrong hands,” all following the death of her beloved husband, Amelie swore she would find the missing miraculous. When she sees news of Hawkmoth attacking the city of Paris, she takes the chance to pack Felix up and head to Paris to track them down. Over the years, they managed to get their hands on the rat and horse, but are looking for another candidate for Felix to go into the field with.
Enter Lila. Following a roughly equivalent episode of “Volpina,” Amelie is actually able to research and find out that Lila is indeed a descendant of the fox hero. She decides to recruit Lila, training her to become the horse wielder, and work together to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.
Marianne is listed here because I gave her the same family background as I did in TOtMiS - she is Felix’s great-grandmother on his father’s side.
The Cult of Numbesis
Members: Numbesis (Leader), Luka Couffaine (Viperion), Kagami Tsurugi (Ryuko)
Starting Miraculouses: Snake and Dragon
Goals: Eliminate Hawkmoth and take both the Butterfly and Peafowl. Destroy the Order of the Guardians and Rightful Heroes. (How they feel towards Team Miraculous is ambivalent).
Talks of protest begin some time after Hawkmoth starts attacking Paris. The citizens decide to take preventative measures by doing deep breathing exercises, and various techniques to keep calm. Others decide to take more drastic measures, and numb themselves to their emotions entirely. This attracts the attention Kagami Tsurugi, who feels the constant pressure of perfection, as well as guilt over her own akumatization, and Luka Couffaine, who has had anger management issues and difficult expressing his emotions in the past (which is the same backstory I gave him in TOtMiS, but here, he starts off with less control over it). Fearing they might hurt the ones they love, the two join the order to numb themselves to their anger.
Numbesis’ backstory is still one I’m fleshing out and haven’t decided on. One idea I have is that they are a being created by both The Order of the Guardians and the Rightful Heroes, as a sort of anti-kwami. They were not supposed to be the only one, but circumstances forced the Order to pull their resources from the project.
I have a oneshot here that can give you an idea of what Numbesis is like.
What are the AU variants/add-ons?
These are just AU ideas that I wanted to play around with, but felt that they weren’t wholly necessary to the main storyline, or they became a whole AU within their own right. The main version of the AU is canon compliant in terms of endgame ship, but being the biased Lukanette shipper that I am, I shamelessly came up with scenarios that had them as endgame as well. I also wanted to play around with different character dynamics and relationships, hence, this list of variants.
—> Lilanette Childhood Friends Scenario: Adds my “We Used to Be Friends” AU into the mix. Lila and Marinette met when they were children and became pen pals. However, Lila’s hunger for attention and fame clashes with Marinette’s heroic duties and eventually leads to a falling out. Childhood friends to enemy scenario. Can be added alongside other AUs depending on your set-up.
—> Team Miraculous Section Scenario: Swaps out Adrien, Alya, Nino and Chloe for the members of Kitty Section. Marinette remains as Ladybug, but the new line-up consists of Cat!Luka, Bee!Rose, Fox!Juleka and Turtle!Ivan. Adrien becomes either a neutral party or works for this father (though he’s heavily manipulated). Kagami remains a member of the Cult of Numbesis, and is either given a new partner or both miraculouses. Adrigami romance still possible but more likely to be of the star-crossed lovers variety. Alya joins the Order of the Guardians, and Chloe joins the Rightful Heroes. Nino could be either Kagami’s new partner or entirely neutral. Heavy on the Lukanette.
—> Adrien’s Angels Scenario: Mister Bug teaming up with Cat!Kagami, Queen Bee, Carapace and Fox!Wayhem. Both Marinette and Luka are members of the Cult of Numbesis, with a forbidden romance (because all of their emotions are supposed to be silenced). Alya still joins the Order of the Guardians. Heavy on the Adrigami.
—> Magical Girl Team Scenario: The girl squad forms Team Miraculous. Marinette as Ladybug, Alya as Rena Rouge, Cat!Juleka, Turtle!Mylene, and Bee!Alix. Rose might be left out for the most part, but would eventually gain butterfly/peafowl (maybe both, or the remaining one could go to Sabrina or Kagami). Adrien is forced into working for his father, Kagami and Luka are with Numbesis, and Chloe is with the Rightful Heroes. Nino is neutral. Whether or not there is an endgame ship is at your discretion.
—> Power Plays/Hard Mode: When Fu escapes the order, he only has the Ladybug and Cat miraculouses (maybe some zodiacs if you’re feeling generous). The butterfly and peafowl still end up with Gabriel, the Rightful Heroes take the Bee, Numbesis receives the turtle, and the Guardians are left with the fox. The stakes are higher than before now that the most powerful miraculouses are split across faction lines. Can be combined with other scenarios, depending on your set-up.
I will probably throw around more ideas and scenarios as I go, but for now, I would consider this the de-facto masterpost. Hope you all enjoyed reading!
Listen, I didn’t make the “Multiple Factions” AU thinking I was going to write a whole, long post about it, I just braindumped ideas and it became a thing.
Still brainstorming for “Multiple Factions,” and I have storylines for Luka and Kagami in mind.
Both of them start off joining the Cult of Numbesis. Kagami comes from a family that values disicipline and control. Feeling that she cannot live up to her mother’s expectations, she joins to become the daughter she thinks her mother wants.
As for Luka, he has more difficulty controlling his emotions (like what I hinted at in TOtMiS). He eventually grows into his more canon self, and still has his empathy and intuition. However, he tends to lash out more in the beginning and is more easily overwhelmed. So he joins because he doesn’t want to feel like a burden to his family and become a frequent akuma target.
Both of them eventually change sides to Team Miraculous with some help from Marinette and Adrien. They’d both start with the snake and dragon and carry that over after changing sides, but once Hawkmoth and Mayura are defeated, I think they would take the Butterfly and Peafowl as well (the zodiacs won’t be as powerful in this AU).
I really don’t like the concepts and powers of some of the ML kwamis and miraculouses, so I made myself a new chart for my personal fanfictions, and figured I’d share it here, if anyone’s interested.
I tried making a chart with html on here, but it just showed up as a box, like it couldn’t show it, so here we are in list form.
Key: Miraculous - Concept - Name - Power
Miraculouses that are the same as the show: Ladybug, Cat, Fox, Bee, Peacock, Mouse, Snake, Horse.
Miraculouses shown in the show, but I’ve changed either the concept or power:
Moth - Empathy - Nooroo - Same as Show
Rabbit - Energy - Fluff - Super Speed
Dragon - Change - Longg - Just the ability to change into the three different weather patterns shown in show
Monkey - Mischief - Xuppu - Drug like silliness
Miraculouses not shown yet:
Ox - Strength - Stompp - Super strength
Tiger - Courage - Roarr - Sonic soundwave
Goat - Perfection - Ziggy - Ability to stop time temporarily
Rooster - Honesty - Orikko - Ability to make everyone in a certain radius unable to lie
