Imposter Syndrome (A Miraculous AU)

Birth

Bridgette POV
It was dark where we were born. A large dark room with a man standing before us holding a "v" shaped scrap of cloth.
"You are Ladybug, you exist to give me your miraculous and to retrieve the miraculous of Chat Noir. Now give me your earrings and I will akumatize you and you will go and get the ring." He said gripping the cloth.
I felt a momentary compulsion to hand my earrings over but when I reached up I heard a small male voice say:
"Are you out of your mind?! Don't hand me over you idiot, you'll get us both killed!" I balked slightly at the voice and looked around to see where it was coming from.
"I'm right here airhead! Now grab that cloth and let's split!" The voice yelled and I realized that it was my earrings. "What on earth is going on?!" I wondered, my anxiety suddenly spiking.
"There's no time for asking that right now just get that cloth!"
Shouted the mysterious voice that seemed to emanate from my earrings adding to my panic.
"What are you waiting for? Give me your Miraculous!" Demanded the man in the middle of the room the cloth gripped tightly in his fingers. I flinched at his tone and once again moved my hands up to my ears, only to find that there were no backings. "Looks like I couldn't give you to him if I tried, strangely rude voice in my earrings," I thought hesitantly.
"Okay well there's some good news, better news is I gotta plan."
The strange man's outstretched hand and the cloth both lit up with black dots on a sickly blue background as the voice explained his plan. Nodding I mimed removing my earrings and shifted my head to cover my ears with my hair. I timidly approached the scary man with one hand closed in a fist as though I was holding something but when I got up to him I punched him in the face and grabbed the cloth as he dropped it, muttering an "I'm sorry!" As I turned and jumped out of the mural-like window behind me. I sped through the city that I had emerged into, jumping from rooftop to rooftop before finally collapsing in near exhaustion on a far off rooftop and ducking behind a chimney.
"Nice going! I didn't think you had it in you!" The voice said and I bit my lip as I cradled my hand, which was now starting to throb.
"I wish I didn't, that was terrible..." I muttered thickly as I bit back tears.
"Sorry.... I'm guessing that was hard, huh?" The voice said and I nodded mutely as I leaned back against the chimney stack.
"So what's the plan now? Wait- actually first what do I call you?" I asked and I felt the voice balk slightly.
"What?" I shrugged and said, "Well you have to have a name right? After all I can't really keep calling you the voice in my head now can I?" I felt the voice pause before responding, "I.... don't know...... I've never had a name before. What about you? Should I just call you 'Ladybug' like mr. possessive from earlier?" I shook my head unconsciously and stated, "I don't know what's going on.... I don't even know who or what I am, but I know that that's NOT my name." We fell into an introspective silence just before a voice rang out in front of us.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" My head whipped up to see a boy in a black leather suit with a tail-like belt and black cat ears glaring at me with bright green eyes and I feel my heart lurch in fear. "Can this get any worse?!" I thought as I began to tremble, the tears I'd been holding back slipping out of my eyes.
"Never tempt worse honey, it'll end in disaster!" The voice from my earrings warned, and as though to prove his point the boy in front of us grabbed a baton from his back and made an attempt to send it crashing down onto my head. I rolled away with a squeak only to end up falling to the ground. A second voice, oddly similar to my own, called out after me as I levered myself up off the ground.
"Ow...." I mumbled as I slowly got back up.
"You okay there girl?" My earrings asked and I nodded painfully.
"Just about..... though I think I might have landed with my elbow in my own ribs....." I thought back with a wince. I looked up and for the first time since we'd been born my earrings and I got a look at ourselves. I was a small girl in a red, skintight suit with black spots all over it with raven hair up in pigtails and bright blue eyes staring out of a red mask with black spots on it. I also had the strip of cloth that I had taken wrapped around my left wrist like some kind of weird bracelet. Meanwhile my earrings were a pale, almost translucent blue with four black spots and what looked like a spot-like eye in the middle of the four. This..... isn't me..... I thought frowning. My frown deepened when I looked up at our, now two, pursuers. One of them was a girl that looked just like me, the only difference was that her earrings were red with black spots. I glanced at the boy and noticed that he had a ring on his hand.
"That must be the ring that that man wanted me to take...... why though....?" I murmured, unfortunately I guess I said it loudly enough that the two of them heard me because they immediately started attacking us.
"RUN!" My earrings yelled and I took off running down the street away from them.
"HEY! Get back here!" Yelled the voice like mine, who I assumed came from the girl.
"I think there may have been a misunderstanding!" I yelled over my shoulder as they continued to pursue us through the streets.
"I don't think they care! Keep running and maybe try using that weird round thing at your waist it looks just like the one that girl keeps throwing at us!" My earrings said and I glanced down at the thing that he was talking about. Sure enough there was some kind of roundish thing that looked just like hers. I snatched it up from my waist and accidentally hit some kind of button that revealed a screen. I skimmed through the text on it and saw the words: single use power: Senticharm.
"That! Right there the single use power thing! Use it it says to say that weird word to use it! We can use that as a distraction to get away!" My earrings yelled.
"But we have no idea what it does! The description cuts off at the end!" I thought back furiously.
"Who cares! We don't have time!!!" He responded with equal fervor.
"AGH! OKAY, OKAY! I'll try it! SENTICHARM!" I yelled and a shower of pink sparkles flew out of the round thing and turned into something that looked like a giant gun and started shooting some weird red and black spotted balls at them. I squeaked and shouted an apology as I tried to throw the round thing away, only to realize that it had a string that was hooked around my middle finger. We ended up zipping onto a rooftop as the scrap of cloth unraveled from my wrist. We landed and I looked back and saw the girl knock the gun thing over onto its face and pick up the cloth. She turned back to the cat boy.
"I'm going to try to talk to them." I thought with a sudden swell of confidence as I saw the damage that I had inadvertently caused.
"Are you out of your mind?! You could get us both killed!!!" My earrings argued but I shook my head and gave a confident smile.
"Wish me luck!" I murmured before jumping down into the street in front of them. They immediately assumed fighting stances, the boy holding his baton like a staff and the girl holding the cloth in front of her like some kind of talisman.
"Stop right there Sentibug!" She yelled glaring at me. I felt a momentary compulsion to freeze in my tracks, just like when I'd been ordered to hand over my earrings but I pushed it away. I put my hands up and took a tentative step forward, earning a gasp.
"Look, miss, I think we might have had a misunderstanding." I said earnestly as I looked into her bright blue eyes.
"If this is in any way about me punching that man back in that dark room, in my defense, he was being very mean and scary." I explained trying to sound reasonable as I continued my approach. The girl gave me a confused look and the boy moved in front of her and yelled, "Not another step!" I stopped, taking a deep breath to steady my nerves.
"Be careful, I don't think that one wants to play." My earrings warned and I nodded.
I don't think you're wrong.... I thought back, glancing at the boy's defensive pose.
"My name's- well actually I don't know what my name actually is, up till now I've only been called "Ladybug", " airhead", "honey", "girl", or- what was it you called me "Sentibug?" I actually don't hate that one but I don't think any of those are good names, and they definitely don't suit me." I rambled as I looked upwards thoughtfully.
"Hey, look at that, that looks like a good name." My earrings said directing my attention to a sign over a Greek restaurant that said "Pallas" in big fancy writing. Weirdly the word lit up in pale blue with black spots but I just shrugged it off as I rolled the word around in my head.
"Pallas" yeah! Yeah! Pallas! Now that sounds like my name! I thought feeling a rush of excitement and.... I don't really know validation?
"Pallas, call me Pallas!" I said to the two, still defensive people in front of me. The girl who looked like me raised her eyebrows and looked at me in slight confusion and shock as I held one of my hands out in hopes of seeming friendly.
"You aren't a normal sentimonster are you?'' She asked me slowly as though she was coming to a conclusion.
"I..... don't know what that is.... but I'm... flattered?" I half asked, giving her a confused shrug. She started walking towards me and the cat boy looked like he was starting to panic.
"What are you doing Ladybug?! She's dangerous!" He yelled and I leaned over to look at him around the girl, apparently Ladybug which made a lot of sense when I thought about it, and glared at him in offense.
"That's rude! I am not dangerous I'm just scared, confused, and slightly tired- I've been running around a lot today and I've only just been born, just because I was made to be athletic doesn't mean I am....." I said, frowning. The boy lowered his baton with a look somewhere between confusion and shock just like Ladybug.
"Give her a chance Chat, I mean think about it, she's completely resistant to being controlled by her amok, clearly her Senticharm seems to be better for offense and let's be honest here, Akumas and Sentimonsters have been getting more and more dangerous, we might actually be better off letting her help out from time to time. Besides, she seems kinda harmless....." Ladybug said, I stood stock still, stunned by the kind perspective of the girl in front of me. That's... that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me... I thought tearfully earning an eye roll from my earrings, not that I'm entirely sure HOW he rolled his eyes just that he did. Unable to stop myself I launched myself at Ladybug, tackling her in a tear stained hug. The cat boy, Chat, moved to defend her but Ladybug just laid on her back staring down at me in bemusement as I buried my face in her shoulder.
"You're the first person to be kind to me!!!!" I wailed sobbing against the rough surface of her suit. There was an electric silence in which my hiccuping sobs were the only sounds to fill the air before a stunned murmur left Chat's mouth.
"She isn't going for her amok...." He said, earning a weak nod from Ladybug as she slowly sat upright, unable to shift me as I had latched onto her with both my arms and legs, and tentatively moved to hug me back. As I hung onto her I felt the exhaustion of the day hit me. I had only just been born and I'd already gone through more turmoil and physical activity than even I knew was normal. As a result I found my sobs slowly coming to a stop and my breathing getting deeper and more even as Ladybug ran a comforting hand along my back. As my eyelids started to flutter I heard Ladybug muttering, "She's like a child, she doesn't really know anything about what's going on and she just latched onto the first person who showed her any kindness or warmth." In my tired daze I noticed an empathetic wince cross Chat's features.
"I still don't trust her.... But I don't think she's much of a threat...." He admitted his green catlike eyes flicking up to meet mine. Ladybug glanced around the street and removed one of her arms from where it was hooked around me. She threw her yo-yo up into the air and quietly called , "Miraculous Ladybug!" I glanced around in quite wonder as a slew of pink lights filled the air fixing all of the damage around us. I buried my face back into her shoulder and allowed myself to doze off a little then, barely aware as we ended up swinging through the air or when she gingerly detached me from her and wrapped something warm around my wrist. But I was JUST aware enough to notice the momentary warmth that pressed to my forehead and the murmured words, "Bye-bye little feather." I have no idea how long I was asleep for but when I finally woke up it was night and I noticed that the scrap of cloth was around my wrist again and that I was alone on the roof of a big building. My earrings reminded me that we should probably get going because we had no idea where we were and we could probably get into trouble again when a door opened onto the roof and a girl with short black hair and brown eyes walked out.
"Ladybug?" She asked looking confused.
"No um.... My name is Pallas.... It's a bit of a long story....." I replied still rubbing sleep out of my eyes.
"Well my name is Kagami, and I think we have time." She said with a soft smile. I smiled back and took her invitation to come inside. And after a long explanation and some unexpected kindness my earrings and I suddenly found ourselves with a new home.