Under Oath | Ladynoir ✓

40 | chat blanc

A HAND LANDED ROUGHLY OVER Plagg's body.

He awoke with an indignant yell, but the noise shrivelled in his mouth when he saw Adrien in the bed, curled into a ball. His holder had beads of cold sweat on his brow, and his eyes were struggling to focus themselves.

"Plagg," he said in a weak voice, "help."

"Adrien. What's happened? What's happening?"

"Duusu," Adrien gasped, pushing his knuckles against his temple. He curled into a ball on the mattress, trembling. "He's inside my head. I can't— Ladybug. Go tell Ladybug."

In the corner of the room, a blue haze of ether materialised. Plagg looked at the forming sentimonster and thought he saw a white claw, a lock of pale hair. Usually wielders of the Peacock Miraculous needed agreement to form a sentimonster, but Duusu was the kwami of Emotion. It was wildly impressive that Adrien had suppressed the manifestation this long, but it wouldn't last. He couldn't fight a force as strong as Duusu.

But if Plagg went to get Ladybug's help, and she saw Adrien like this...

"She'll figure out your secret identity," Plagg whispered.

"I know but— ow," he seethed in pain, eyebrows furrowing sharply. "Go!"

Plagg didn't need telling twice. In the dead of morning, he zipped across Paris to the Dupain-Cheng bakery faster than he had ever travelled. He found Marinette and the kwamis sleeping and started pulling at Marinette's hair. "Wake up, wake up. Ladybug, my holder needs your help."

"What?" she mumbled, pushing herself to sit up. The electronic clock on her headboard shelf read 12:13AM. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes while yawning, "Is Chat Noir okay?"

"No," Plagg said bluntly, "he's not. You need to come quickly. He needs you."

That did it. Ladybug was awake and transformed in the blink of an eye.

She followed Plagg out of her skylight and across Paris, slinging her yo-yo expertly around lamp posts and balconies—

"Oh," she gasped. Ladybug made a faint whining sound and stumbled to a stop on a rooftop. Her legs gave out beneath her and she put a hand to her chest, breathing laboured. "I'm sorry, Plagg."

"No, no, no." Plagg grabbed one pigtail with his paws and tugged with all his might. She didn't budge.

"I feel— I feel so exhausted," she admitted. "I want to rest."

"That's not you! It's because Duusu has used his powers without a holder!" Plagg remembered the dinosaurs and his own adolescent mistake and winced. "Now you're feeling the effects. I don't know what the emotional aftermath will feel like for everyone, but you need to push through it."

"Haven't I done enough?" Ladybug said. Her face was blank like a statue, but tears started to flow. "I gave up years, dreams, people. I've done everything for this city. I let go of Adrien to prioritise the investigation," she admitted, the first splinter of pain cleaving her face in half. "I'll have to let go of Chat Noir to put our jobs first." She looked mournfully up at Plagg. "What more do I have to do?"

"Chat Noir needs you," Plagg said. "Please."

Ladybug shut her eyes, forcing another bout of tears down her masked cheeks. She nodded her head exhaustedly, pushing herself to stand. "Fine. Lead."

They arrived at Le Grand Paris. On the rooftop sat the sentimonster, a version of Chat Noir clad entirely in white. He hadn't seen them arrive; he was sitting with his back turned, feet dangling off the ledge, tail curled on the stone behind him.