Chapter Text
It had not been a good week for Marinette. Ever since Lila had come back and began to spread her lies, Mari had become more and more isolated from her class. Sure, she had Felix to talk to outside of school but the constant glares and whispering were starting to get to her. She didn’t know how much longer she could sit back and ignore Lila’s lies despite what she’d promised Adrien. They were starting to affect people, case in point being how Marinette had gotten a call from Manon in tears; apparently she had met Lila and fallen victim to her honeyed lies. Lila promised Mrs. Chamack to be Manon’s new babysitter and take her to a show opening, only for Manon to be left waiting for an hour at school, ending with her calling Marinette crying after no one picked her up and her mom too busy to answer. It was tough to listen to Manon’s sobs on the phone but Marinette was able to calm her down after a while, rushing to pick her up and watched her for the day. Despite the trouble with the toddler being dealt with, Marinette had a looming sense of despair afterwards that made her feel like something bad was about to coming.
The next day, as Marinette made her way to school, a box of sweets for the class in hand. When she entered the building she began to hear whispers. Nothing new, really, but they didn’t inspire confidence in her weary heart. As she walked to the classroom she could clearly make out her classmates’ voices, causing her to pause.
“I can’t believe Marinette would do something like that!” Alya’s voice rang out in shock.
“Yeah, she did. She told me that I’m horrible, that I should just–,” the sentence was interrupted by some theatrical sniffling, “– just kill myself. And she- she said you wouldn’t believe me because you were all so stupid,” Lila said through her crocodile tears. “Out of all her words, it was what she said about you guys that really hurt. I’m used to being the target of her tormenting but the idea that anyone would say such horrible things about all of my friends?” the liar continued with painfully fake distress. Marinette rolled her eyes. As if anyone would buy into this bullshit. “It was just too much for me to handle!” Ah, so that’s the end of it at least. Although right around now there’s usually… She heard Lila break down into a fit of false sobs, an attempt to get everyone to come comfort her. Yup, right on cue, Mari thought dryly.
She was about to walk in and ignore the drama of the day when an unexpected declaration echoed through the class. “Well that’s not cool, we need to punish on her!” a male voice declared first from in the classroom. To her shock, many other students mumbled their agreement. But it wasn’t those words that finally brought her down. Rather, it was the lack of any other words. Realizing that of all the friends she’d stood by and supported over the years not a single one spoke in her defense, that was the knowledge that broke her. Mari felt the tears begin to spill down her cheeks.
“Well I found her sketchbook, maybe we could send her a message through it” Lila suggested innocently, her voice immediately losing the crying tone it’d maintained. Oh, no… Marinette dropped the pastries she was holding in a sudden panic and rummaged through her book bag. The panic tightened its grip as she realized that, for once, the liar may be telling the truth. Her sketchbook– it wasn’t there. As her world froze, she could hear the class going to town with her journal. She heard it all. The ripping of binding, the tearing of pages, the insults… She didn’t know what to do, so she just stood by the door in a broken trance until it was finally flung open by Alya as she threw out the destroyed book, the book smacking into Marinettes chest, but she didn’t react. Her friend- well, former friend she supposed, was shocked to see her but fury replaced confusion in an instant. With friends like these, who needs enemies? Alya turned to Marinette with a harsh glare and righteous indignation burning in her eyes, but it faltered when she saw the tears flooding her bluebell eyes, the pastries all over the floor, and the look of utter betrayal fixed on Mari’s face.
Alya didn’t even get a word in before Marinette let out a choked sob and ran away, leaving behind the stunned girl.
“Alya, what’s up” Nino asked in confusion as he watched how his girlfriend stood frozen.
“I think… I think we went too far,” Alya whispered.
As Marinette ran out the school building she crashed into a familiar blond boy. Sadly, it wasn’t the blond boy she was looking for.
“Marinette? What happened?” Adrien asked with genuine concern, trying to reach over to comfort the girl. Hell must have finally frozen over that day because Marinette Dupain-Cheng actually flinched away from Adrien Agreste.
“This is all your fault,” Marinette hissed out through her clenched teeth and tears. Adrien took a step back like he had been slapped. “You think she isn’t doing any harm?! That no one is getting hurt?! Well, I feel pretty hurt!! She turned everyone against me. Just like she said she would. And I stood back and let her rope them in because you said it wouldn’t matter as long as we were in it together. But we weren’t! you stood back and stayed silent, I dealt with the punishment! And now everyone hates me, and you get to keep your distance just like you have been from the start!” Marinette yelled before ending with painful weeping. Adrien tried his best to comfort his friend once more, gently reaching out for her.
“No!” Marinette snapped glaring daggers before running off to god knows where. Adrien just sighed and shook his head. Though he truly didn’t want to, he had a feeling he might have to fight Marinette today. But before he could go after her he needed to find out exactly what it was that made her so upset. Adrien walked towards the school with a newfound determination in his eyes.
-
Marinette ran to the nearest park. The tears made it hard to see but she didn’t care. She looked for someone, anyone she knew and that would be willing to listen. She just needed to talk to someone - talking would help. She fervently tapped on her phone, texting the blond she would have preferred to run into to meet her in the park. It didn’t take long for him to appear. He looked around in a panic until his eyes finally fell on his friend.
“Marinette?!!” Felix cried, shocked. The shaking girl dropped her bag and collapsed into his steady arms. In all the time he had known the girl, she had never cried like this. She was always one with bright eyes and neverending hope, but today there was nothing but emptiness in her eyes.
“I can’t do this!! I can’t do it anymore!! They hate me! They all hate me, after everything I did for them!! I can’t live like this!” Marinette cried into the boys chest, his arms wrapping tightly around her. Felix took a moment to process the information before pulling back from Mari and giving her some room. He then took one of Marinette’s ribbons, that had come loose at some point during her breakdown, and tied it around their hands, connecting them. Marinette stared in confusion through watery eyes.
“It’s ok. I’m here,” Felix said in a soft voice giving her hand a squeeze. “I’m here,” he repeated as he pulled her back into a hug. The ribbon was a reassurance for his friend, something to ground her to him. She found herself melting into his embrace and with a shaky breath, Marinette began telling him what happened, the betrayal she had felt, the worthlessness that consumed her. With every word Marinette spoke, she felt slightly more at peace with her situation. With every word Marinette spoke, Felix felt increasingly more angry on her behalf.
“Don’t listen to them. They’re idiots that can’t see what’s good even when it’s right in front of them. Don’t worry Karma will come around to them,” Felix said to comfort the girl, but it did nothing but fuel his own anger. If he could go over there, if he could just have 10 minutes alone with that class, he would make them suffer.
He would make them know true pain for what they’ve done to Marinette, his light in the dark.
Both teens were so distracted by their feelings that they failed to notice the black butterfly that flew purposefully towards them. It seemed to hesitate however, like the negative emotions from these two were just too dangerous. Whoever was controlling the little butterfly didn’t seem to care about the risk though and it was soon forced to land on the ribbon that kept them connected. When it hit, both teens seemed to relax, as if being shut down. Little did Hawkmoth know a certain red Kawmi snatched up a pair of earrings and got herself far away alway before the akuma hit.
“Hello, Karma. I am Hawkmoth. I will give you the power to bring punishment to those who deserve it, and mercy to those who do not and all I asked for in return is the Ladybug and Chat Noir Miraculous. Do we have a deal?” The voice in their head asked.
The voice sounded very familiar to both Felix and Marinette… However, Felix was already thinking ten steps ahead. And he knew exactly how he would win.
Felix and Marinette looked forward, eyes filled with tears and rage.
“Yes, Hawkmoth.”
–
Adrien stomped into his classroom, his eyes held fierce flames of judgement. He noticed as he came in that the class had the gall to look proud save for Alya, who looked worriedly at the door. Everyone else held their head so fucking high that it made Adrien want to puke. Or scream. Or both. The worst was Lila; she had such a smug smirk that she looked like the cat that ate the canary.
“What the hell did you guys do?” Adrien snarled, his words like venom. Despite his tone, Lila was undeterred and expertly began her tearful routine.
“Oh Adrien, it’s horrible. Marinette texted me last night. She called me horrible names, and told me to kill myself. Can you believe it?” Lila asked with fresh tears trailing down her face. Most of the class looked angry on Lila’s behalf upon hearing the accusation again, but Alya just ducked her head.
“Actually, no. I can’t believe it. Because Marinette’s phone has been broken for the past week and she only just got it back this morning,” Adrien snapped and the class froze at his words. Lila looked like a deer caught in headlights as she tried to find a way to back up her lie. However, Adrien didn’t let her follow her devious train of thought.
“You came here with your lies and I let it go because I thought you would improve!! But instead you’ve driven away Marinette! Our everyday Ladybug! Do you have any idea what will happen if she gets akumatized?!” Adrien asked and fear laced the last sentence. Marinette was the smartest of the students and the only one who could think like Ladybug. She would be an enemy who could go against Ladybug and have a real shot at winning. It scared Adrien. In truth, it scared them all when they actually stopped and thought about it.
“Dude, is that true?” Nino asked for the rest of the class. If what Adrien said was true, it means they had hurt their everyday Ladybug, their friend, for no reason. God, what had they done.
“Yes. Let’s hope Chat Noir and Ladybug find her fast,” Adrien commented before the teacher came in forcing and forced them to sit down. Clearly, Chat Noir wouldn’t be doing any finding any time soon. The class shared a feeling of hopelessness as they prepared to see their once-friend made into an akuma. Adrien waited impatiently until he had a chance to get away to transform.
Please be alright Marinette, he pleaded quietly, “I’ll be there soon”.
-
Two figures walked into the hospital. It was very clear they were both akumas. Their skin was a gray color; the girl with dark hair wore black while the guy with white hair wore white. The girl seem to have white as an accenting color, seeing how her dress had white embroiled flowers on it. The guy had the same on his white shirt but with black flowers instead. Both of their outfits seemed to have Chinese roots. And If one had anything, no matter how small, the other had the same thing but flipped and in the opposite color. The only color on the two was their eyes, the girl had piercing red while the boy had soft green; nether comforted the poor staff.
Many of the hospital workers froze. While sometimes akuma affected them indirectly (like flooding the city), they had never had one enter the hospital. Most just stared at the two, though one nurse was smart enough to make a post about it on the Ladyblog. One of doctor’s starring at them had, his attention was pulled away from the akumas by a little girl grabbing his arm.
“Why couldn’t you save him?!” the brown-haired girl screamed out through tears catching everyone’s attention - even that of the akumas. The doctor tried to shush the girl, who didn’t realized they were in danger. She ignored him, gesturing to an open room where an old man lay on a bed, the heart monitor was a flat line. “Why didn’t you save him?! He didn’t do anything!! Why couldn’t you save him?”
The akumas looked over at the commotion, empathizing with the girl full of sadness in her heart. The girl was right, the man didn’t deserve to die. He was a good father who tried to help everyone. He had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time, taking his daughter to school only to be hit by another driver. The black-headed girl brought up her hand, causing the nurses to moved away from the akuma, expecting something bad to happen.
But nothing bad did.
Instead, the girl moved her hand forward, and in that moment the old man who had been dead moments ago took in a big gasp and the heart monitor sputtered to life. This immediately got the crying girls attention and the doctor’s, who both ran into the room to check on the once dead man. The nurses looked at the akuma in shock. This akuma didn’t try and attack anyone, it didn’t try to hurt anyone at all. Just the opposite in fact - they had saved a life, they resurrected the dead.
The two akumas smiled at each other, a message passing without words. The blond boy started to pull the black girls hand to move her through the hospital. As they walked none of the nurses tried to stop them. After all, what harm would they do? It seemed that everyone who was in the hospital because of an accidents or just down on their luck was visited by the akuma. The black-haired girl waved, smiled and gave small gestures to the patients. Every patient that the black-haired girl visited was cured. Cancer cured, bones mended, and sickness gone. Everyone visited was healed.
Except for one.
The man was on a bed, cuffed, cussing up a storm. He was a drunk driver, and the one who had killed the previously mentioned old man in a car wreck, but he didn’t care. Even after sobering, he yelled, screamed and cussed the doctors out, believing he had done nothing wrong. The white-haired boy glared at the man. He could see everything vile the man ever did. He didn’t care for what he had done; he had taken many lives with his drunk driving, had his license revoked, but he didn’t care. The boy just glared at the thrashing man on the bed and then silently brought his hand up to his chest, holding it a few inches from his heart. The boy made a gesture like someone gripping something. At that moment, the man stopped like someone had just clutched his heart. The drunk’s heart monitor was going wild, going in every direction. The nurse quickly ran into the man’s room to try and save his life, but his heart monitor stopped, maintainingd a steady flat line. As the nurse tried to resurrect the dead man, the white-haired boy walked away with a smile.
This was Karma’s wrath.
And Karma’s wrath was about to hit two different areas: the final destination was Hawkmoth, but first they had to make a stop at a school full of stupid teenagers.
–
Hawkmoth was panicking, he was really past the point of panicking; his house had been shut down like it was under the threat of an akuma. Because it was. Hawkmoth couldn’t really control the akuma, the two vastly different emotions during akumatization made it much more difficult to control than he expected. He thought they would be a normal akuma trying to get their revenge before having to be reminded to get Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous. It wasn’t until the akuma split up after the hospital that he peered into the boys thoughts, wondering what he was planning. He had figured they would start to go after the miraculous but no that wasn’t the case.
‘Get out of our head Gabriel. We’re coming for you. Karma is coming for you’ the boy thought before Gabriel was complete shut out of his mind. The male, who he discovered was his nephew Felix, had so much anger behind the thought that he didn’t dare take it lightly. He tried to call back the akuma, tried to take away their power; but it couldn’t be done. The akuma had somehow secured their power. Noroo always warned him that abusing the miraculous would be his downfall; he just didn’t think it would be like this. Gabriel order his workers to guard every entrance while he paced back and forth. He was thinking about how to stop this, how to get the akuma back.
How could he stop Karma?
Oh Gabriel, Karma gets everyone eventually
He didn’t get long to think about it before his doors were thrown open. He looked at what was thrown at the door, however it wasn’t an object that was thrown at the door, it was a person. It was Natalie but right now she was Mayura, but she didn’t look like the terrifying villainess that portrayed herself as. She was curled up around a bar that went straight through her, going in her stomach and out her back. She whimpers out softly trying to hold the bar, as if it would stop her pain.
“Natalie!” Gabriel yelled out in shock. How could the akuma do this?
“I warned you, you would suffer Karma if you stood in the way” Felix-no I’m sorry, Karma said shaking his head, like that you would at a small misbehaving child. Karma then looked at Gabriel with his soft green eyes, but they didn’t offer any comfort. Gabriel took a step back when Karma took a step forward.
“Gabriel Agreste. You have committed so many atrocities, you will face Karma’s wrath” Karma said in a stern voice making Gabriel shake, however he tried to hid his fear.
“I’m just trying to save my wife!” Gabriel argued.
“That doesn’t matter. You caused so much grief for people, so much suffering, ; you will get what you deserve” Karma informed with a dead expression, not breaking eye contact he kicked a box towards Gabriel that knocked into something.
“Then I’ll fight you!” Gabriel yelled holding out a cane as a weapon.
“That’s your choice” Karma informed. What Hawkmoth didn’t realized was that the box caused a chain reaction, it hit other stuff, knocked stuff down, let loose a wire. A wire swept down in a flash, around neck height.
The wire severed Hawkmoths head from his body.
-
Adrien kept tapping his foot, not paying attention to anything his teacher had said. He was worried, really worried about Marinette; he would have transformed and gone to check on her but class started before he got the chance. Some of the class seemed sad, thinking about what they had done while others just looked normal. They didn’t care about what happened, they didn’t care about their friend.
It made him sick.
‘God why does my arm keep itching’ Adrien thought as he rolled up the sleeve to scratch at it. It didn’t take long before he felt pain, a stabbing pain in his arm. Adrien let a scream causing eyes to be turned on to him; red began to spread on of his arm. As it kept going down his arms he could see, a word? Whatever is doing this is carving a word into him. It wasn’t until the word was complete that he knew who it was.
‘Coward’
‘Oh god Marinette did this to me’ he thought through tears. He heard Nino scream in pain before he decided to run out. He needed to find a place to transform, to save his friend, to say he was sorry.
-
The girl Karma just finished her work on the little Nino doll, words freshly carved in; if she closed her eyes she was in the classroom. She could hear their panic, feel their terror. Karma let out a heavy sigh, she wasn’t made to punish others, that was her other halfs job; however he was going after Hawkmoth so there wasn’t much she could do. She looked down at the doll and it had lost all of its features, appearing to be that of a voodoo doll. Karma took a deep breath before imagining a friend, well a former friend. As her anger built up the doll took the shape of that friend, Alya. Karma just glared down at the doll; needle in hand, ready to make them pay. However she kept hesitating, as it wasn’t in her nature to hurt people.
‘Remember they hurt you’ her other half said in her head, as if some kind of twisted encouragement. She nodded to herself feeling his rage; if he could talk he must have finished his job.
Karma began to work on the Alya doll, as she was carving the word ‘traitor’ into the dolls stomach she heard something close by. It was the sound of feet hitting the ground.
“Marinette please don’t do this” Chat Noir cried out as he moved towards the sitting akuma. Karma just shook her head, she could feel the boy’s worry but it was too late now.
“Go away Chat. I don’t want to have to hurt you” Karma said taking a moment to stop carving.
“I don’t ether. Please just give me the akuma so Ladybug and I can fix it” Chat said holding out his hand, asking for the object. Marinette let out a chuckle, not an evil one, but a sad one. Chat faltered after as he heard the broken sound.
“Ladybug isn’t coming” Marinette said.
“What?”
“Ladybug isn’t coming Chatton. Please go away before I have to hurt you” Marinette pleaded with the hero. He paused for a minute before reaching forward, as if to grab the object. However before he got close enough an object came flying out of nowhere knocking the poor hero back. Her other half appeared by her and just stared at her.
“You ok?” He asked, his voice sounded like a twisted mix of Marinette and Felix’s, just as hers had.
“Yes, I’m dealing with the class. Could you distract the kitty?“ Karma asked and with a simple nod her other half was off to deal with the hero. She quickly gave him a mental note of to not hurt Chat Noir; after all he had came to check on her and didn’t try to attack. Karma then turned her attention to the doll, quickly finishing her carving. Every bit of pain Marinette had felt was transferred to the doll. However she saved most of her anger for one person in particular. She closed her eyes and let out all her anger, every nasty thought she had ever had. When she open them again the doll looked like Lila, the girl that made Marinette’s life a living hell. She brought the needle down on the doll, carving the same word over and over again.
‘Liar’
-
Chat wasn’t having a good time fighting the boy. It seemed everything he tried to do to stop him was countered and he couldn’t land a hit. The worse part was he wasn’t feeling any of it; it was like the akuma was taunting him, like they were playing cat and mouse. Chat felt like the mouse at this point. He tried everything to get back to Marinette but the other was having none of it. He felt like he was fighting for ages before he saw Marinette walked up. Chat grimaced at this he would have to fight two akumas on his own, God where was Ladybug?
Marinette however didn’t do anything other than go over to the boy, she put a hand on his arm which made him drop his fight pose. They looked at each other before Marinette shook her head no. They started to reach into their pockets, Chat was still on guard though, he didn’t trust them. The akuma held out their hands together and opened them, letting Chat take a peek.
It was the butterfly and peacock miraculous.
“What?-How?” Chat started confuse.
“And the ribbon as well. That’s where the akuma is” Karma states together earning a shock look from Chat.
“Why?” was all Chat could ask.
“We know you know the guardian and he can fix this mess” They offered. Chat stood there in silence for a minute before grabbing the objects and running off. He left Karma behind.
“I’m going to miss this” Felix confessed to the girl.
“I will to, but it’s the right thing to do” Marinette said as they sat down on a bench waiting for the Miraculous cure to happen. They loved the feeling of being so close, of being together; but they had to separate, it’s what Karma would do.
-
“Master” Chat said flying into the Chinese shop. Any words he had thought up vanished when he saw Ladybug’s Kwami, floating close by Fu with sad eyes.
“So Ladybug wouldn’t help?” Chat asked confused. He didn’t understand, why would Ladybug give up her earrings especially with such a dangerous akuma.
“Chat Noir……The akuma is Ladybug” Fu said, and causing Adriens world to shatter. Ladybug is Marinette, Marinette is Ladybug, he let down Ladybug. Despite his state he handed over the miraculous and the akuma, Fu tried to question him but he wasn’t paying attention, he was numb. He caused his Lady to get akumatized, he let down his friend.
After a few minutes of talking from Tikki, she finally convinces him to power down and put on the earrings. Paris needed the miraculous cure and he was the only one they could trust. He powered down before putting on the earrings and saying the magic words.
“Tikki, spots on!”
After the transformation finished he looked over at the black and white ribbon, the proof that he messed up. He quickly tore it and caught the akuma before shouting the words.
“Miraculous Ladybug”
Everything would go back to normal. They now have the butterfly miraculous, everything would be ok right?
The stinging on his arm said otherwise.