Marinette and Adrien were home in their apartment.
Gabriel and Nathalie were home in the mansion.
That was when the news broke about some sort of disturbance in downtown Paris.
Marinette was at her desk working on her designs when she heard her phone chime. She grabbed it and checked the message. "Adrien!" she called out.
"Yeah, I see it," he replied, coming into the room.
"Do you think we should both go?"
"Probably. I mean, the alert doesn't even specify what's happening. Plus, you know that I love seeing you in your costume," he said smugly.
She laughed and stood up. "Alright, let's go see what's going on. Tikki, spots on!"
"Plagg, claws out!"
Once they were both transformed, Chat Noir grabbed her hands. "How I've missed seeing you, M'lady," he purred before giving a chaste kiss to her lips.
She tilted her head slightly. "I missed you too, Kitty. But come on, we should go."
"Ladies first," he said, gesturing out to the balcony.
Ladybug turned to go outside, but stopped at feeling a playful slap on her butt. "Adrien!" she yelled, turning back to him.
He put his hands up in a surrender motion. "It's not my fault. You're too sexy!"
She groaned as she went outside and flew off with her yo-yo, Chat Noir following with his baton.
After a few minutes of traveling, they finally stopped on the edge of a building, looking down at the street. People were running in all directions. Some people were ducked behind cars with their phones out, trying to record what was happening. Ladybug twisted up her face in confusion until a figure appeared from around a corner.
A tall thin man appeared. But he was too tall, he had to be at least two and a half meters in height. He was dressed in a burgundy and black steampunk tailcoat with silver gears covering it, black pants, an oversized black top hat and goggles.
"What in the world?" Ladybug whispered. She was so shocked at what she was seeing that she didn't move from her spot.
Chat Noir seemed equally as shocked beside her. "It... it almost looks like..."
"Don't even say it!" she interrupted, keeping her eyes on the man. "There has to be some kind of reasonable explanation for this. Come on, we need to find out." Ladybug finally swung down and landed near the man.
Chat Noir landed next to her and they both stared up at him.
He smiled. "I don't believe I've ever had the pleasure Ladybug, Chat Noir."
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Ladybug demanded.
"I'm Victorlution, and an old friend of yours sent me."
"Who sent you?" she demanded, taking a step closer.
"Oh Ladybug, come now. I thought it was obvious. Hawk Moth sent me."
Audible gasps were heard from the bystanders around them.
Ladybug shook her head. "No he didn't," she replied quietly.
"Yes, she did," Victorlution taunted.
"That just proves that you're lying," Chat Noir said, moving forward as well. "We all know that Hawk Moth was a guy. And he's gone now."
"Well maybe the old Hawk Moth is gone. But the new Hawk Moth sent me here. I heard her voice and she gave me my powers. And she understands me, unlike everyone else in this city. So I'm going to help her out. I'm going to take your Miraculouses away from you and give them to her because she's the one who deserves them."
Ladybug thought that she was going to have another panic attack. This couldn't possibly be happening. The Butterfly Miraculous was safely hidden away. She had just seen it a few days prior. This had to be a dream... no actually, it had to be a nightmare. Yes, that was it. Just another nightmare. She would wake up any moment in her bed next to Adrien.
Suddenly she was knocked over to her side to the ground. Too preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn't even realize that Victorlution had grabbed one of the gears from his coat, magically enlarged it to the size of a tire, and hurled it over. Chat Noir pushed her out of the way just in time, landing on top of her. They stared at each other for a split second before he spoke. "I'm so sorry, M'lady. I don't know why they're doing this again."
"No," she argued, tears starting to well up. "Don't be sorry."
As he looked down at her, he wanted to lean in and kiss her. He wanted to let her know that everything would be okay. But he knew that he couldn't. Undoubtedly someone was recording the whole thing, and they couldn't let on that they were a couple.
So instead Chat Noir nodded and then stood up, pulling Ladybug to her feet. "Let's take care of this, then we'll go deal with the real problem," he said, his voice full of contempt.
She nodded. "Lucky charm!" she shouted, throwing her yo-yo up into the air.
A red and black spotted toothbrush fell into her hands.
************************************
The akuma was in Victorlution's top hat. It took a few tries, and a few cataclysms, but they finally found it. Now that they were both over eighteen years old, Ladybug and Chat Noir had unlimited access to their powers. They didn't need to detransform and recharge anymore, which was exceedingly helpful.
Ladybug had mixed emotions when she saw the akuma flutter into the air. She wasn't sure if she wanted to cry from sadness or scream from anger. Maybe both.
She caught it with her yo-yo and purified it back into a regular white butterfly.
Chat Noir rushed up to her. "We need to go see them," he said, not bothering with their traditional fist bump.
"No," she replied. "I need to check on the Miracle Box."
He nodded. "Okay, meet me at home afterwards." Grabbing the baton from his lower back, he took off.
Ladybug tossed the toothbrush in the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"
When everything had returned to normal, she quickly left the scene. She went straight to the metro station. Landing in an alleyway nearby, she detransformed into Marinette and ran into the building. "Please be there, please be there, please be there..." she kept repeating to herself as she made her way to the lockers.
She dug her hand around in her purse and grabbed her keys. Almost dropping them from nerves, she finally found the right one and inserted it into the lock. The door opened and her heart sank. Then she slowly lowered herself down to her knees. Tears came to her eyes as she looked at the empty locker.
She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. The Miracle Box was gone. And the kwamis were gone with it. They were her responsibility, and she had failed them.
After a minute of complete despair, Marinette picked herself up and wiped her face. She closed the locker door and left the building. Then she went back to the alleyway, transformed into Ladybug again and returned to the station.
Everyone there was shocked to see the superhero walk through the door. The closest officer widened his eyes as she approached him. "I need to speak with the person in charge of security here," she told him.
"Y... yes, Ladybug," he sputtered. "Come with me this way." He led her to an office where they found the head of security.
The man was equally surprised to see her. "Ladybug, what an honor! What can I help you with?" he asked.
"I need to check the footage from your security cameras for the last several days."
"Of course. Does this have anything to do with the akuma attack today?" he asked excitedly.
She glared at him. "I'm sorry, but this is an important police matter and I'm unable to provide any details. I just need to check the footage and then I'll be on my way."
"I understand. Please come with me." The man led her to a separate room full of television monitors. Tons of different angles of the metro station could be seen on the screens. "Is there a certain camera that you're interested in?" he asked.
"I'm afraid that I can't say. Would it be possible for you to leave me here alone?"
"Yes, of course. Whatever you need Ladybug." He quickly explained how to use the equipment.
"How far back does the footage go?" she asked.
"It runs for about a hundred and fifty hours before it starts to re-record over the prior footage."
She nodded.
"Please let me know if you need any more assistance," he finished before stepping out.
Ladybug got to work. First she found the camera that had a close-up view of the locker. Then she started to slowly rewind the tape. After a few minutes she found what she was looking for. She watched it from the beginning.
The person in a black hoodie walked down the row of lockers until they reached number 368. Then they grabbed a key from their pocket and opened the locker door. After a minute, he or she unzipped their backpack, put the Miracle Box inside and zipped it closed. Finally the person closed the door and walked away.
Ladybug looked at the time stamp on the footage. 21:40 on Saturday, the evening before.
Then she rewound the tape all the way until she saw herself go to the locker days earlier. No one else approached it in between.
Done with her search, she fast-forwarded the video back to its current time. The security officers couldn't know which one she was looking at.
"Thank you so much," Ladybug said to the man as she exited the room.
"You're welcome. We're always here to help if you need us."
************************************
While Ladybug was at the metro station, Chat Noir went directly to his father's house. He was mildly surprised seeing the front door of the house wide open.
Storming inside he found his father and Nathalie in the foyer.
"Adrien," Gabriel said, completely unsurprised to see his son. "We were expecting you to stop by as soon as we heard the news. Where's Marinette?"
"Why are you doing this?" Chat Noir demanded, ignoring the question.
Gabriel shook his head. "It wasn't us this time. We had nothing to do with it. Just ask Nathalie."
He continued to glare at his father, not believing one word.
"It's true," Nathalie pleaded. "It wasn't us."
Now Chat Noir glared at her.
"Come on Adrien," Gabriel continued. "You know that we gave up our Miraculouses years ago. Besides, why would we go through all that trouble again? Your mother is gone. And even if we had another reason, we already know exactly who you are. We already know where we could get your ring and Marinette's earrings, so why would we bother with the akumas?"
"You're seriously trying to convince me that you had nothing to do with this?" he asked.
"That's exactly what we're trying to tell you," Gabriel replied.
A minute of silence passed.
"I hope for your sake that you're telling the truth," Chat Noir seethed.
"We are."
Chat Noir turned to leave but stopped when his father spoke again.
"One more thing, Adrien." Gabriel grabbed a stack of papers from the folder that Nathalie was holding and stepped forward, giving them to Chat Noir.
He furrowed his brow as he looked down at the papers in his hand.
"It's the prenuptial agreement that I had our lawyers draw up," Gabriel explained. "Bring them home so Marinette can look them over."
Chat Noir nodded and casually flipped through the papers. After a few seconds he calmly uttered a single word. "Cataclysm." The papers disintegrated into dust in his hand and sprinkled down to the floor. "Whoops," he said, sarcastically. "Looks like you're going to need another copy."
Gabriel scowled while Nathalie tried to contain a smile behind him.
"Have a good night," Chat Noir continued as he spun around and left through the front door.