Lady Miracle stared at him, waiting, watching as after a moment, his chest rose. Pained rattling breaths shook his body with the effort it took to make them and his face twisted in pain. It was physical, she could see that in the way his body reacted, but the way his face fell and the sob that left him, she knew he was feeling everything.
But he was still alive.
Movement out of the corner of her eye drew her out of her appraisal of the Agreste patriarch and she saw that it was Duusu and Nooroo. Lady Miracle wondered what it was like for the two Concepts to finally see the man that had used their magic to hurt millions of people being punished after seven long years. To finally re-join their fellow Kwami after a hundred years of being 'lost'.
They watched every move Agreste made, every twitch and shudder and relished every broken sob and scream of agony that had left him and was still escaping his lips. They were waiting for her, and the realisation gave her an idea.
"detransform."
Destransforming herself, Tikki appeared in a small ball of light in front of her, hovering almost protectively she glared down at the man who had abused two of her brethren as her aura joined Nooroo, Duusu and Plagg's as they reunited without words.
Marinette closed her eyes, reaching within her she summoned each of the Kwami and they appeared, one by one, in glowing balls of power and light, their aura's joining the others and filling the dome as they stared down at Gabriel Agreste with predator-like focus as he whimpered.
Not a single one of the nineteen Kwami moved. But their auras fluctuated and pulsed as they tried to reign in their anger as magic, ancient, dark and dangerous danced through the air, causing Marinette's hair to stand up and she struggled to not shudder at the feel of overwhelming power.
"Curse him as much as you desire."
Marinette turned and walked towards the edge of the dome, making a portal as the Kwami stilled. The tension in the observatory snapped with an explosion and she stepped through the portal as screams and other sounds were drawn from Paris' infamous terrorist. If his screams under her curse were bad, they were nothing compared to that.
Closing the portal behind her, the noise stopped immediately and all that was left was the silence.
It was like a plug was pulled, and all energy she had drained out of her. She couldn't believe it. It didn't seem real. After years of battles, struggles, emotional repression and abuse were over.
"We did it." Marinette whispered in shock, letting her spoken words shift the weight off her shoulders and felt immediately lighter.
For the first time since she picked up the Miraculous of Creation and Fortune, swearing to free Paris from Shadow Moth, Marinette felt free.
"We won."
Court Proceedings
"Uhh, B" Tim walked down into the Batcave. "You're going to want to see this." he went to the Batcomputer, typed something in, and brought up news coverage of a court case.
The second Bruce read the title his face darkened he said, "call everyone down."
—
"All rise. Department One of the Supreme Court of Appeals is now in session. Please be seated."
As everyone in the court took their places, the Judge began to present the case. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Calling the case of the People of Paris, France versus Gabriel Agreste, previously known as ShadowMoth. Are both sides ready?"
"Ready for the People, Your Honor."
"Ready for the Defence Your Honor"
"Lady Miracle?"
"I'm ready," the Defender nodded her head. As she walked to the podium, Lady Miracle looked around the courtroom. The case was to be heard in the Palais de Justice. The room looked too clean for the dirty truths that were about to be revealed. Making her walk to the stand painfully short.
She wasn't the only one asked to testify against Gabriel. Some of the most deadly Akuma victims and the most frequent victims were also present: Ondine, Mr. Ramier, August, who had just turned 2 years old the previous month, etc. Other reporters who had seen multiple battles also stood witness.
They filled the pews of the courtroom and in the back stood the other reporter with their cameras. The cameras that would broadcast the court case to the entire world. Where everyone would know of what went down in Paris. The mayor of Paris and the President of France both agreed to keep the Akuma attacks hidden from the rest of the world. The last thing Paris needed was for the Justice League to come in and mess up what fragile structure they had built. Heaven knows what would've happened if Superman or Batman had come and been akumatized. So instead they blocked the media and moved the JLE headquarters out of Paris to Marseilles.
Once Lady Miracle made it to the podium the Clerk came up to swear her in. "Please stand. Raise your right hand. Do you promise that the testimony you shall give in the case before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"
Does it count that the 'Gods' already loved her? I mean the kwamis are gods so...?
"I do"
"Please state your name and occupation for the record."
She gave the clerk a deadpan look because everybody knew who she was and exactly why she was there. But she answered anyway.
"Lady Miracle, Hero, and protector of Paris, France."
"Thank you. We will now begin the questioning." As madam walked up to begin questioning, the rest of the world was able to see Lady Miracle for the first time in all of her glory.
She was asked basic questions about the fights, etc.
She ended her testimony by saying-
"I judged and punished Gabriel according to the laws of the miraculous order and then proceeded to turn him into the authorities so that he may also face judgment in the courts of Paris." Lady Miracle said her face was hard and showed no emotion. For a while no one spoke, everyone was too busy processing what they had heard.
"Thank you, Lady Miracle" the Judge spoke, finally breaking the silence.
"Am I done?" She asked.
"Yes, unless the Defender has any more questions to ask?"
"None, Your Honor."
"Then that is all, Lady Miracle. Thank you for your time."
Lady Miracle stood and made it back to her seat.
"Next," the judge continued, " we will hear the testimony of Gabriel Agreste."
.............
"And what about Marinette?"
"Who?" Gabriel glared at the person who asked him the question.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She was the only person in the Akuma class, besides your son, that you never akumatized."
"Oh, her," Gabriel spat, "trust me, my friend, it wasn't from lack of trying. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was an absolute menace for me. Despite not having powers like that pesky bug and cat she still managed to foil my plans. I tried everything I could to akumatize Marinette. I blacklisted her from multiple fashion houses, hired crooks to scare her and steal, had her fashion website taken down for 'plagiarism', I even went as far to make a deal with one of her classmates to make her school life a living hell." he sneered, "Yet for some reason, that pesky brat managed to contain her emotions enough so my Akuma's couldn't possess her."
"And you're just going to admit to that?"
"Of course." he said matter of factly, "My fate has already been sealed. There's no point keeping any more skeletons in the closet. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was going to be my masterpiece. If I was able to akumatize her I could have gotten Lady Miracle and Chat Noir's miraculous and I could have—" he was cut off by a series of bubbles escaping from his mouth.
"What was that?" The person off-screen asked horrified.
"That was the annoying curse that—" more bubbles "was placed on me so I don't reveal too much about the miraculous. Regardless, Mme. Dupain-Cheng remained obnoxiously optimistic for the past six years, or she just blocked off any emotion that I could have manipulated." Gabriel rolled his eyes.
"O..kay, on to the next question."
Gabriel Agreste had a week-long court trial that started a week after his revelation. While the length and speed at which the trial began and finished was abnormal, Paris had wanted justice to be served as soon as possible after years of trauma. It was televised throughout France and everyone in the country watched it, many businesses and schools showing it on screen. Compiled by her and handed over to the group of lawyers prosecuting Agreste, it had been easy for Marinette to label everything nicely and put it in a folder to hand over. She already had a portfolio on the man, both Shadow Moth and Gabriel, all she needed to do was add what she had found at Agreste Manor when Ladybug was cursing Gabriel.
Some of the evidence included bribes that had been made too, and accepted by board members of Collège Françoise Dupont. Many staff members had also been bribed, the most notable being Principal Damocles, to ensure the Akuma Class stayed together. Phone calls and text messages between Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur, as well as between Gabriel Agreste and Lila Rossi, about akumatisation plans and Scarlet Swarm ideas. They dated from the day his identity was discovered back to the first Scarlet Swarm years earlier which included conversations about Nathalie being Mayura.
The calls and text messages were backed up by video footage from Agreste Manor's security system of the three as they brainstormed different powers that akumas could have in future and planned the next Scarlet Swarm. The prosecutors had akuma flight patterns that showed that Agreste Manor was the epicentre and the building remained unharmed during most of the attacks no matter the magnitude.
There were files Gabriel had made on each of the past heroes, labelled by their hero names, holding photographic evidence that he had had stalked them on multiple occasions after their reveal, despite the Temps being thirteen at the time. The only file that wasn't labelled by their hero name was Marinette's, and upon closer inspection it was revealed why.
The file had been made before and she was revealed to have been Princess Justice and later Queen Mean and was filled with plans on ways to akumatised her. It was the largest file out of all of them and it showed she had been stalked by the middle-aged man.
It was almost an obsession, his interest in getting her akumatised. On the plans that failed he had jotted little notes how to improve whatever traumatic or upsetting thing he made happen to her that had nearly caused her to become one of his akumas.
It was disturbing and more than a little numbing as Marinette listened and watched footage, read documents and learnt about how obsessed the middle-aged man who had terrorised her city had been with her for years.
Luka, her honorary brother, had held her hand for the duration of the trial, gently rubbing circles on her skin with his thumb. Felix and Kagami muttered about defiling his grave, small and dangerously. Jagged, Zoe and Penny sat in stony silence tapped their legs like they did when they were planning to destroy someone.