Miraculous Reveals and More (A collection of One-Shots)

Orc Bound: Part 3 (771 words)

"There is no need to be difficult, Chat Noir. Simply help me with my situation and you and Ladybug can be on your way." his deep voice echoing through the room.

"Don't do anything he says Chat! He can't use your Miraculous on his own!" LB yells from below.

He whacks his cane against the bars of her containment, sending a loud clang reverberating in their eardrums. "Silence!" he commands.

Chat doesn't move from his readied stance. "What would you have us do anyway? You should probably tell us so we can decide how much we don't want to help you." he provokes.

Hawkmoth chuckles and starts to pace slowly around Ladybugs cage. "Creation and destruction: Ladybug and Chat Noir. You bring balance to the Miraculous World." he recites as if quoting a passage from a book. "But it is rumored that combining the powers can do so much more." he looks down into Ladybug's cage, "Creation to make new what has been lost." he reaches his hand out to Chat, "Destruction to cut the ties from the old reality and into the new."

"'New realities'? Yeah, I think we're gonna have to pass on helping with that one." Chat throws himself at Hawkmoth. He swings his staff but only meets air as Hawkmoth seemingly transports to the other side of the room in a blur of motion.

"It's not as bad as it sounds. I simply wish to change the natural course of this world in my favor." he says with his voice still calm.

"And what would you change about this reality, exactly?" Ladybug calls through the bars.

He stops and looks down at her, "Oh, I would reverse the pain that even I would not wish upon you, Ladybug." he smacks the iron bars again, "The sudden loss of a loved one...I would bring my wife back.

"Do you know how that feels, Ladybug? You may have faced every villain that I have thrown at you, but the true horrors are ones you don't see coming and cannot stop." he hits the bars again, causing another loud clang, he raises his voice "Do you know how it feels?!" he suddenly turns to Chat, "Do you?!" he demands curtly.

Chat seems to weaver for just a second, "Yes." he admits "I lost my mother."

Hawkmoth grins devilishly, "You understand, don't you?" he says as he walks slowly towards Chat. "We can bring them back."

"And risk destroying all reality as we know it?" Ladybug yells from her cell. "Chat!" she calls desperately, afraid for him.

"Wouldn't you give anything, try anything, to bring your mother back to you?" he coos at Chat, locking eyes with him. "Don't you wish you could see her again?"

Chat tears his eyes from Hawkmoth, directing them down at the corner of the room, "Of course." he whispers, lowering his staff slightly.

Hawkmoth lays a gentle hand on Chat's shoulder, "Then look into yourself and do what you know you must."

Chat nods slightly, "You're right." he says as he sees the faint red glow from Ladybug's cage in the floor. A small smirk escapes his lips, "I understand now." he says before suddenly smacking Hawkmoth's cane out of his hands with his staff. It lands on top of Ladybug's cage, where she promptly ropes her yoyo around it before using her Lucky Charm, a wench, to tear the bars of her cage down. Before Hawkmoth even had time to react, LB leaps from her prison to her position next to Chat.

"Don't you know that breaking the rules of reality is never the answer?" Chat chides.

"Don't let Ladybug sway you, Chat Noir! Think of your mother!" Hawkmoth demands as he slowly backs away from them, recognizing his loss.

Chat leans on his staff, "If I remember her as well as I think I do, she would never want this." he narrows his eyes, "Would your wife?"

Hawkmoth growls in frustration and defeat just before vanishing from the room in a blur of purple.

They relax from their stances. Ladybug looks up at Chat, "You were never really gonna go through with it, were you?"

He smirks and shrugs, "Well as tempting as the complete collapse of reality sounded, I had to pass." he laughs a somewhat forced laugh. "Anyway, I think there's still an Akuma rampaging about this place that we should take care of. I saw the akumatized object on the way in."

Ladybug's earring beeps, her hand flies up to touch one, "Better make it quick." she says before they both run back into the warehouse to defeat the Akuma.