Poor Sabrina. She is stuck doing her own homework and Chloé's because Chloé apparently "has some important things" that she wants to do. I mean look at how sad Sabrina is.
Chloé, would it hurt someone to do your own work for once?
@miraculousl4dybug @livinthebilife tagged as requested :)
Part 10 | Part 12
With Adrien officially no longer talking to Chloé, she seems to get ten times meaner in the following month. She’s rude to everyone, constantly criticising everything she can think of, and she treats Sabrina so appallingly that the poor girl now comes to school with bags under her eyes and a permanent defeated smile. Marinette’s heart aches for Sabrina, honestly.
Chloé’s also caused at least four akumas since Gamer had been defeated. Three are students from their school that she’d ruthlessly bullied, while the fourth is a little boy she’d gleefully picked on in the park. And now Ladybug and Reine Nuit are dealing with a fifth person akumatised because of Chloé: an elderly lady called Antiquator, dressed in a long white Edwardian dress, with primped, curly dark hair, short black gloves, lilac skin, and glowing violet eyes.
“How on earth does an old granny get akumatised?” Reine Nuit comments as she and Ladybug hide with Chloé, Sabrina, and Adrien in an empty store. Down the street, Antiquator is zapping people and things all around her, and anything she zaps turns into an antiquated version of itself. Cars turn into automobiles; streetlamps turn into old gas lights; and people are turned into versions of themselves that may have been around a hundred years ago or so. Nothing particularly harmful, but certainly annoying.
“No idea,” Chloé scoffs, clutching her broken arm to her chest.
“Chloé Bourgeois!” Antiquator howls. “Come out, my dear, so that I may teach you the manners that a rich young brat such as yourself should have learned years ago!”
“Of course,” Ladybug sighs. “Chloé, what did you do this time?”
“Nothing! And I’m offended that you’d think that of me, Ladybug!”
Ladybug raises an eyebrow. Chloé shifts.
“Well…”
“Chloé was in a hurry to get to her hair appointment, so she pushed the lady out of the way!” Sabrina says. “Then when the lady told her that she needed to learn some manners, Chloé just said that –”
“Are you actually serious, Sabrina?” Chloé stamps her foot and towers over Sabrina, who shivers and ducks behind Ladybug. “How dare you just spill everything like that, especially when Adrien’s filming it all? What, are you gonna tell her all your little secrets too? How you love to dress up as Reine Nuit? How you suck your thumb in your sleep –”
“Chloé!” Ladybug cuts Chloé off. “Stop it.”
“Why? She humiliated me!”
“By giving us the deets we need to figure out where Oldie’s akuma is?” Reine Nuit says. “I think it’s in her ring, by the way.”
“You should be nicer to your best friend, Chloé,” Ladybug says. “And to others. You’re not being a very nice person.”
“Excuse me?” Chloé hisses.
“…So, I’m just gonna go Cataclysm the ring,” Reine Nuit says slowly.
“Lucky Charm.” Ladybug catches the bottle of motor oil and tosses it to Reine Nuit. “Pour that under her feet.”
“You gotcha, angel bug.”
“How dare you treat your number one fan like this?” Chloé swells with rage. “After everything I’ve done for you, Ladybug!”
“If you were really my number one fan then you’d want to treat others with kindness,” Ladybug says firmly. “I don’t condone bullying, Chloé.”
“Bullying? I don’t bully people! I only respect those who are worthy of moi!”
“Chloé –”
“No!” Chloé clenches her fists, whimpering when she moves her broken arm in the process. “How could you do this to me, Ladybug? How could you just betray me like that? Just because everyone treats you like you’re God –”
“Here you go.” Reine Nuit pops back in and hands Ladybug the empty bottle of oil, then stands aside to let Ladybug step outside and purify the akuma.
“Miraculous Ladybug!”
Chloé doesn’t look any happier once her arm has been mended by the ladybugs. Instead, she just looks angrier.
“Perfect princess Ladybug,” Chloé hisses, her bright blue eyes glossy. “Everyone loves you because you’re such a goodie-two-shoes! Well, I don’t need your lecture! And I don’t need you!” She directs this last part at Sabrina, jabbing the redhead with her finger before flipping her ponytail and storming out.
“This is all my fault,” Sabrina mumbles. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, you should have.” Ladybug puts a hand on Sabrina’s shoulder, giving what she hopes is a reassuring smile. “It takes courage to stand up to your friends, Sabrina.”
“But now she’ll hate me!”
“Can’t you make friends with anyone else?” Reine Nuit says. “That whole Chloé thing doesn’t seem healthy.”
“I don’t want to! Chloé’s just had a tough life, okay?” Sabrina snaps. “It’s my job to be the best friend ever for her! And I totally ruined that!” She runs out, sobbing. Ladybug grimaces at Reine Nuit.
“That went well,” she says. Reine Nuit just shrugs.
“I dunno what you want me to say.”
Ladybug is prevented from replying by her earrings beeping. “Gotta go! Bug out!”
.
The next day, Chloé’s not at school, but Sabrina is, and so she’s forced to sit up the front alone with hunched shoulders.
“We should talk to her,” Marinette whispers to Alya as Ms Bustier does roll call. “She looks pretty miserable.”
“Now, class –” Before Ms Bustier can say anything more, their classroom door is kicked open to reveal a familiar blonde ponytailed girl. But it’s not Chloé; at least, not normal Chloé, anyway. Instead, she’s wearing Ladybug’s suit and mask but in inverted colours: black with red spots.
“I’ll prove to all you losers that I’m better than Ladybug! I am Antibug!” Chloé declares. Her eyes narrow at Sabrina, who whimpers when she approaches. “Sabrina Raincomprix. Antibug doesn’t like traitors!” She giggles. “Hey, that’s something Ladybug would say!”
“Help!” Sabrina shrieks when she’s dragged out of her seat and slung over Antibug’s shoulder. With a mad laugh, Antibug shatters the classroom window with her yo-yo and swings out, taking Sabrina with her.
“Um…” Ms Bustier blinks. “Class is…cancelled for now. I need to go and tell Mr Damocles that one of my students was just…kidnapped by another.”
Marinette takes advantage of her classmates swarming out of the room to duck up the back, where she can’t be seen. As soon as the classroom door shuts, Tikki comes flying out.
“This is my fault, Tikki!” Marinette says. “If I hadn’t been so hard on Chloé –”
“You told Chloé exactly what she needed to hear, Marinette,” Tikki says firmly. “Her reaction is on her.”
“But now Sabrina’s in danger!”
“Then you’d better go save her!”
Marinette takes a deep breath. “You’re right. Tikki, spots on!” The transformation washes over her, warm and bright and full of life, leaving Ladybug in her place as the pink sparkles fade. When she bursts out of the classroom and rounds the corner down the hall, she nearly collides with Reine Nuit, who yelps and catches her to stop her from falling.
“Guess I swept you off your feet,” Reine Nuit grins. “Get it? Because I transformed in a supply closet? With brooms?”
“Ha, ha, very funny,” Ladybug says, rolling her eyes. “You know the situation, right?”
“Chloé Bourgeois is Antibug. And she kidnapped Sabrina,” Reine Nuit says. “I think the whole school heard that. Where would she have taken Sabrina?”
Ladybug chews her lip, then pulls out her yo-yo and swipes to the news channel to see if there’s any information there. Nadja’s face immediately appears on-screen.
“I’m Nadja Chamack! Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! We’ve just received reports of a new akuma called Antibug, who appears to have a hostage at the Eiffel Tower!”
“Let’s go!” Ladybug says, flicking her yo-yo closed. She and Reine Nuit bound away through Paris towards the Eiffel Tower, where helicopters can already be seen even from this distance. When they arrive, they spot the news crew and police force on the ground. Up at the top of the Tower is Antibug, who has a sobbing Sabrina tied up tightly and dangling off the edge of the Tower, with the extra rope from her bonds wrapped around the tip several times to secure her.
“Release my daughter, Antibug!” Officer Roger orders through his megaphone. Ladybug and Reine Nuit take this chance to leap up to one of the viewing platforms to avoid being seen. “Or the strong arm of the law will come down hard on you!”
“Then why hasn’t it?” Antibug cackles. “Ladybug, Reine Nuit, you’d better come and save this poor little civilian quick smart! Or else she’ll be taking an impromptu lesson in bungee jumping!”
“Oh, shut your pathetic hole already,” Antibug sighs. “I don’t know why I put up with it, honestly.”
Ladybug and Reine Nuit exchange a look. They need a plan. They can’t just go charging in there –
“I’m going to count to ten! And if you “heroes” aren’t in front of me and giving me your Miraculouses, a certain police officer is going to end up childless!”
– but they need to make a move before Antibug sends Sabrina hurtling to her death.
“One!”
“We need to focus on saving Sabrina,” Ladybug says. “We can’t do anything while Antibug can drop her. And she’ll be expecting one of us to play diversion while the other saves Sabrina.”
“Two!”
“What if we do let Antibug drop her, though?” Reine Nuit says with narrowed eyes.
“Three!”
“What? Are you crazy, Reine Nuit?”
“Four!”
“It might be the best way to free her, Ladybug. You can catch her with your yo-yo.”
“Five!”
“But what if she’s expecting us to do something like that?” Ladybug says. “She can’t be certain that we’re not hiding nearby, waiting for her to drop Sabrina so that we can save her.”
“Six!”
“You really think Chloé’s that smart?” Reine Nuit says.
“Seven!”
“She’s got Hawkmoth in her head now. We don’t know what he’s told her.”
“Eight!”
“We win either way,” Reine Nuit argues. “If she drops Sabrina, we catch her. And if she doesn’t drop Sabrina, we know that we need to be smarter about it.”
“Nine!”
“I hope you’re right,” Ladybug sighs. It’s too late now to come up with another plan anyway. “I don’t know how far my Miraculous Ladybug goes when healing stuff.”
“Ten!” Antibug giggles and goes silent. Ladybug and Reine Nuit tense near the edge of the platform, ready to spring into action, and Ladybug moves on autopilot when she hears Sabrina’s terrified scream. She swings out, ready to catch Sabrina…only to find that Antibug hadn’t actually dropped Sabrina, but rather had released the rope dangling Sabrina from the Tower just enough to create the illusion of letting the girl fall. Which would have made Sabrina scream. And Ladybug had fallen for it.
“Ladybug?” Reine Nuit hisses, still safely hidden. “What’s going on?”
“There you are, you little insect!” Antibug says, securing Sabrina’s tether again. “You would’ve actually let me drop Sabrina, wouldn’t you?”
“Like I was gonna let her actually crash,” Ladybug calls back. With the game up, she swings up to the top of the Tower to confront Antibug, with Reine Nuit right behind her. There’s no point in Reine Nuit staying hidden; no way will Antibug fall for the same trick twice.
“Help me, Ladybug and Reine Nuit!” Sabrina sniffles. Her eyes are red-rimmed behind her glasses and her cheeks are shining wet, and Ladybug’s heart breaks for her but she can’t figure out a way to free Sabrina yet, so she forces herself to give Sabrina what she hopes is a reassuring smile.
“Help me, Ladybug and Reine Nuit!” Antibug mimics in a shrill voice. “Give me your Miraculouses, or I’ll drop Sabrina for real this time!”
“You expect us to believe you after what you just pulled?” Reine Nuit says. Antibug rolls her eyes.
“You might not even have been here yet,” Antibug says. “That was just a way to flush you out if you were. And it worked.”
Reine Nuit curses under her breath, then leaps forward and charges at Antibug. Antibug easily dodges, deflecting attack after attack with her yo-yo, and Ladybug takes this chance to rush to where Sabrina’s rope is attached to the Tower and unravel it. She’s only got one shot at this. If she fails, Sabrina could end up splattered on the ground!
“Ladybug?” Sabrina whimpers when she jolts downward as Ladybug gets her tether free.
“You have to trust me, Sabrina,” Ladybug says. “I’ll get you down.”
“Hey!” Antibug finally notices what Ladybug is doing, and she snarls and bats Reine Nuit aside. “Don’t you dare –!”
“Go!” Reine Nuit shouts, dive-tackling Antibug. Making sure that she’s got a tight grip on Sabrina’s rope, Ladybug takes a dive off the edge of the Eiffel Tower and waits until she’s near one of the viewing platforms before throwing her yo-yo at it while swinging a shrieking Sabrina back up at the sky. Her split-second calculations pay off; her yo-yo arc is perfectly angled to catch Sabrina as she starts falling, and Ladybug wraps herself around Sabrina to protect her as they go rolling along the cool metal floor of the platform.
“Oh my god,” Ladybug gasps, pushing herself onto her back. “I can’t believe that worked.”
Sabrina just keeps crying. Ladybug hurries to sit up and untie Sabrina, who throws herself at Ladybug and hugs her so tightly that black spots dance before the hero’s eyes.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyou,” Sabrina sobs. “You saved my life – thank you –”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Ladybug chokes out. “Let’s get you back to your dad first.”
Sabrina nods and lets go of Ladybug, who gasps in air. “But what about Reine Nuit?”
“She’ll be fine…I hope. I have to trust that she can hold her own.” Ladybug wraps an arm around Sabrina’s waist, then uses her yo-yo to carefully swing back down to the ground. Sabrina lets go about a metre above the ground, landing with a sharp exhale before running to her father.
“Dad!”
“Sabrina!” Roger throws his megaphone away and wraps Sabrina in a bear hug, burying his face in her hair. The scene makes Ladybug smile briefly before she remembers that she’s currently in the middle of an akuma battle and her partner is fighting said akuma alone. She swings back up to the top of the Tower, just in time to instinctively catch Reine Nuit when Antibug sends her flying with a hard kick while her baton lies nearby.
“Whew!” Reine Nuit breathes when Ladybug sets her down. She dives to grab her baton and hefts it in front of her. “Nice timing, angel bug.”
“Where could her akuma be?” Ladybug says. She dodges Antibug’s yo-yo and hits back with an attack of her own, but Antibug dodges that in return. They’re too evenly matched, like mirrors!
“Not her earrings.” Reine Nuit points at a pile of black dust nearby. “I crushed ‘em but no akuma came out.”
“Stand still!” Antibug snarls when Ladybug leaps out of the way of another attack.
“Her yo-yo?” Ladybug says.
“Don’t think so,” Reine Nuit says. “She didn’t have it when she was akumatised, did she?”
“Hmm.” There’s one way that Ladybug can solve this problem. “Lucky Charm!”
“Anti-Charm!” Ah. Of course Antibug can summon her own Charm. And when she gets a massive sword, while Ladybug gets a pepper shaker, Ladybug ponders the best way to throttle a kwami after she turns back into Marinette.
“You know, the only reason I’m not totally freaking out right now is because I’m choosing to believe that you have a plan, buggy,” Reine Nuit says rather casually. Too casually, really. When Ladybug glances over, she sees that her partner’s bright green cat eyes are locked on Antibug’s giant sword.
“Give me a minute and I will, kitty.”
“A pepper shaker?” Antibug laughs. “Really? I guess this goes to show that I really am the better one of us, Ladybug!” She springs into action, swinging her sword at the heroes, and Ladybug and Reine Nuit yelp and leap out of the way. “Now, give me your Miraculouses!”
“Hurry up!” Reine Nuit demands. She extends her staff to propel her to the other side of the narrow platform, just before Antibug can slice her in two. But Antibug is there in a heartbeat, knocking aside Reine Nuit’s staff and cornering her against the Tower tip with the sword.
“You see?” Antibug’s eyes glimmer as she digs the sharp edge of her massive sword into Reine Nuit’s unprotected chin. “I don’t need you, Ladybug. I don’t need your lectures! I don’t need Sabrina! I’m the better one!”
“I wasn’t trying to lecture you, Chloé,” Ladybug says, holding her hands up to try and placate Antibug into not hurting Reine Nuit. Her stomach jolts at the sight of the thin line of scarlet welling against Reine Nuit’s dark skin under Antibug’s blade. Why can’t she come up with a plan? What on earth can she use the pepper for? “I was trying to offer you advice.”
“Advice? Ha! I don’t need your advice!”
“Well, Adrien’s not talking to you anymore, is he?” Ladybug says. “I thought that my advice would help you get him to talk to you again.”
“It’s not about – why should I have to change myself to make my friend like me again?”
“You shouldn’t have to change yourself,” Ladybug says soothingly. “No one dislikes you for being stubborn. Or headstrong. Or not sugary sweet. What people dislike is that you’re mean to them. That you threaten them to get your way, just like you blackmailed Mr Damocles into giving you Max’s spot.” Her earrings beep at that moment. What’s interesting is that Antibug’s black mask also beeps and flashes, then loses a red spot. Of course! The akuma must be in the sunglasses she wears, and it looks like they’ve turned into her mask!
“It’s not my fault that they can’t handle me!” Antibug shrieks and leans back to swing her sword through Reine Nuit’s throat. With this opening, Ladybug acts purely on instinct; she throws her yo-yo to catch Reine Nuit around the waist and pull her out of the way of the sword. Now that she knows where the akuma is, a plan suddenly hits her, involving the pepper, Reine Nuit, and the tip of the Eiffel Tower.
“I need you to distract her again!” Ladybug says, yo-yoing her partner’s staff back. Reine Nuit groans as she takes it.
“If that sword cuts me in half, you’re so Lucky Charming up a tube of glue to stick me back together,” she says, then leaps back into battle with Antibug. Ladybug throws her yo-yo to loop around Antibug’s ankle, then leaps up to feed it around the tip of the Tower, much like Antibug had done to Sabrina. Then she jumps back down to the platform.
“Take care of her mask when I say so! That’s where the akuma is!” Ladybug calls. Reine Nuit nods.
“Cataclysm!”
With everything in place, Ladybug waits until Antibug and Reine Nuit are closer before jumping and sprinkling pepper all over Antibug’s head. As predicted, Antibug descends into a sneezing fit and loses her grip on her sword, letting Ladybug yank on her yo-yo to haul Antibug up into the air by the ankle.
“Now!”
Whistling, Reine Nuit walks up to Antibug and swipes her sparking claws across the black and red mask, which crumbles into dust and releases the horrid purple akuma. Now that Antibug’s harmless, Ladybug lets her drop to the metal below their feet to free up her yo-yo.
“Good job, kitty,” Ladybug says, catching and purifying the akuma before throwing the pepper shaker in the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!”
After the healing ladybug stream fades away, Antibug melts away to reveal Chloé, who blinks and squints around at her surroundings. “Uh, what am I doing here?”
“Pound it!” Ladybug and Reine Nuit say. Chloé narrows her eyes at them.
“I was akumatised, wasn’t I?” she says. Ladybug looks at Reine Nuit and nods down at the ground. Taking the hint, Reine Nuit starts to bound down the Tower to take care of Sabrina.
“You were,” Ladybug says, kneeling next to Chloé. “I’m not going to apologise for what I said during Antiquator, Chloé. But I will apologise for not making more of an effort to check up on you and make sure you were doing okay afterwards.”
Chloé snorts. “I don’t need your pity,” she snarls. “I need Adrien back.”
“Then try to be nicer. The reason Adrien won’t talk to you is because then you can continue to be mean while still having him as a friend.”
“Whatever.”
“Chloé –”
“Just take me home!” Chloé snaps. “I don’t need you, Ladybug.”
Ladybug’s mouth downturns. “Well, I’m more than willing to be there for you if you ever need me again,” she says as she gathers Chloé in her arms. Chloé just ignores her. Although she can’t deny that she really dislikes Chloé, Ladybug can’t help but sympathetically wonder what’s going to happen from here on out.
