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9- Time

     The downfall of Audrey Bourgeois came right after Zoé got akumatized. It started with André handing Audrey divorce papers and leaving with the girls, then came the abuse allegations from several employees and models who (or used to) work for Audrey, soon after that both Chloé and Zoé came out and told the whole world about how abusive their mom was to them behind closed doors. Lawsuits were made, reports were filed, and trials were in session, eventually Audrey had lost everything she worked for...all because of the abuse she put others through.

     Both Chloé and Zoé now live with André in their newly redecorated home, attending frequent therapy sessions and trying to figure out new coping mechanisms to prevent themselves from getting akumatized by Hawkmoth again. Life was going well for them. Of course Ladybug, Chat Noir, Sternotherus, and Hulí had to fight an enraged Style Queen while she was being taken off to jail after the trial, but that was a story for another day...

     It has been five months since everything had happened, and life was going quite good for both Ladybug and Chat Noir...For now at least...

—

     Far away from the Dupain-Cheng residence, Lila opened up her apartment door to an overly enthusiastic Alya talking to her about yet another plan to corner Ladybug and ask (more like demand) if she would give her and Nino back their miraculouses. This has been their routine for the past five months, with Alya explaining to Lila about her latest plan and in return Lila gets information regarding the miraculouses. It's quite a simple exchange..if you excluded the fact that Alya's plans are both reckless and unorthodox.

     Today was yet another day of Alya putting herself into harms way in order to get Ladybug to answer her questions. Lila, of course, was dragged into this mess and ended up becoming yet another victim of whoever got akumatized by Hawkmoth. Regardless of how annoying Alya's persistence is, Lila can't deny that the girl has some useful skills..skills that she can exploit to benefit herself and her plans.

     Lila had never been more glad for Ladybug to save her in her entire life. That new akuma, who called himself Slime-Boy, trapped her and a bunch of random civilians in a thick blob of slime. Fucking mucous-colored slime!

     If Ladybug wasn't her sworn enemy, Lila would walk up to the heroine and kiss her right on the cheek. That was just how grateful she felt to Ladybug for getting her out of that mess.

     Of course Alya had to rush over and ask Ladybug a bunch of demanding questions, the spotted-heroine and her comrades immediately gave her a glare and went off to detransform. Lila couldn't blame Ladybug, she would probably do the same if she was in the same shoes as her. Alya is a very demanding individual.

     At the end of the day though, Lila had gotten enough information to report to Hawkmoth regarding Ladybug and the other Miraculous wielders, along with some possible theories related to their powers. As usual, Hawkmoth sent her a paycheck (how did he even find out where she lived) and the two of them went on about their day.

     Was it worth getting dragged into constant akuma battles and hiding in the occasional dumpster? No, but it will be once Lila has enough money to put her final plan into action...

     "Lila, I'm leaving now!" Alya shouted from down the hall.

     "Okay, be safe!" Lila responded in a concerned tone. She already knew what kind of mess the creole-french girl is going to get herself into on the way back.

     "I will!" Alya said before she closed the door. Lila knew that was a lie, or will become one once she spots an akuma attack.

     After all, Alya is extremely desperate..completely unaware that Lila is just using her for her knowledge.. And Lila would prefer to keep it that way...

—

Gabriel has a plan in mind for how he's going to get his hands on Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculouses. It's a very difficult plan for just him to pull off, so he enlisted the help of both Nathalie and Lila Rossi in order to make this plan happen. Of course he's going to need a couple of things and some time to get it ready, but once everything is set the plan will go into fruition.

But what exactly is Gabriels plan? His goal is to create an akuma so powerful, Ladybug and her team won't be able to do anything to stop it. He just needs to get his hands on some sort of translation for the grimoire so that he can fix the peacock miraculous for Nathalie (he won't allow what happened to Emilie happen to her too). Her sentimonsters will be useful for his plan.

Lila Rossi has been feeding him a bunch of intel over the past couple of days ranging from theories revolving around the identities of Ladybug and her team (Gabriel already knows Chloé is Queen Bee again, that costume change didn't help her out much considering it's just the same suit with the addition of fur) to how each of the miraculouses work. The information she has been giving him has helped out a lot when it came to creating newer akumatized villains. It was definitely worth the money he paid for her services.

In the end once Gabriel wins, he will finally reunite with his wife again and be a happy family. Everything will be back to normal; Adrien won't have to grow up without a mother, Gabriel would get to see Emilie alive and healthy again, Hawkmoth will be gone, and Paris will continue to be safe once more. It would be everything he could ever ask for.

Of course obtaining that goal is going to be challenging, but Gabriel believes in himself and his abilities to make it all a reality. He might end up hurting a lot of people, but unfortunately that's just the reality of how being a super-villain works. As much as he tries to prevent it from happening, Gabriel doesn't have full control of his champions and their actions..which in return causes the city to be in shambles.

Gabriel doesn't want to hurt any civilians or the heroes, he just wants both Ladybug and Chat Noir to peacefully hand over their miraculouses to bring back his wife. Unfortunately they're too stubborn to give him the miraculouses, so he ends up having to use his champions to take them by force. Things never seem to go his way, as in the end his champions get defeated and the heroes get to keep their miraculouses.

One day he will win this never ending battle, and when that day comes everything from there on will change. All he has to do now is be patient and wait...

Wait for his final plan to come into fruition....

—

Mary-Jane Gardner is not a fool. She knows that her client, Marinette Dupain-Ching is Ladybug. That superhero suit and quantum masking isn't enough to trick her into believing otherwise.

But how did she manage to figure it out? Well Mary-Jane used to be a wielder of the ladybug miraculous back in the day, before Hawkmoth was around. Back in the days where crime in Paris was at an all time high...

Even after all these years, Mary-Jane was still able to recognize those earrings. Once she caught a glimpse of them, she knew that her client was the current holder for the ladybug miraculous.

"Oh Fu, you fucked up badly..." Mary-Jane thought as she sort through some files inside her cabinets at work. Choosing a bunch of teenagers to defend Paris from a supervillain? Was he out of his mind?

She'll have to give him a verbal lashing about that later. Right now her top priority is helping Marinette out as best as she could, even if that means holding off on reprimanding Fu...

Hopefully everything will be alright in the end...though Mary-Jane highly doubts that things are going to get better...