#evil!ladybug

It’s odd, she thinks, trying on a new transformation when she’s just been used to one. Shaking her head to clear her mind, a butterfly fluttering nearby is taken from the air and imbued with negativity.

“Go, little butterfly. There’s a person perfect for us down at the bakery,” she says, sending it on its way.

It takes only a few minutes for it to land on Sabine Dupain-Cheng’s wedding band.

“Cauchemère. Adrien Agreste took away the love of your life, and he broke my-” she cuts off. Now’s not the time to think about that. “Maybe you should pay him a visit for me. And in return, I will attempt to bring Papa back. Deal?”

(Her akuma name is a mix of cauchemar and mère, the words for nightmare and mother respectively :>)

She receives a wordless answer, a feeling of anger and sadness surging through the link forged between them, and before Marinette could think about it, the akuma washes over the petite woman.

Standing where Sabine had stood, Cauchemère now stands. Her form is ethereal, changing from solid structure to an untouchable one. Her eyes were pitch black and blended in with her other features. Were it not for the sprinkle of stars in them, you wouldn’t be able to tell she even had eyes. Hair floated and framed her face, as if she were underwater, and though she couldn’t seem to speak, an eerie hum accompanied her presence. The only detail that remained of her former self was the thin and gleaming silver ring.

“Bring Adrien to his knees, Maman, and then bring him to me.”

The akuma marched out- or rather, through- the door and headed for the Agreste manor.

Inside the large building, Adrien, his father, and the kwami still discussed their plan. They knew Marinette had three miraculous stones, and they planned accordingly for it. The butterfly is a distance fighter, so that would be most troublesome in trying to find and re-obtain it.

His father had read the book Marinette has cover to front, and so he is supplies the information that, should Marinette activate both the cat and ladybug miraculous stones are the same time, they would have no chance at winning.

The peacock kwami is just about to comment on how Adrien reminds it of his mother when movement catches its eyes. It tells Adrien to transform and what its power is, but that’s all the time they have before the akuma descends on them.

“She- she’s using the butterfly already!? How’d she find one so soon- so close?” Adrien shouted, backing up and preparing himself to transform and fight. Just as he called on the kwami to transform him, the hum that permeated the room stopped.

In a flash, Adrien felt the miraculous’ energy wash over him, and he heard words coming from the akuma’s direction despite the fact this akuma had no mouth.

“Adrien Agreste... my husband... my daughter... lost one... won’t lose her too.” When she stopped speaking, the hum came back.

And the meaning of her words hits him harder than any physical blow could. This akuma was Marinette’s mother. The woman he abandoned, unable to face what he had done. The woman who lost her husband and who found out her daughter was the hero-turned-villain Ladybug. Whose daughter fled, leaving her to deal with what happened. Whose daughter went and akumatized her almost immediately after.

“M-madame Dupain-Cheng, please, I-I didn’t mean... it was an accident! And Marinette, sh-”

When she hears him speak Marinette’s name, the sound increases in pitch, somehow reminding Adrien of a scream. And, with the sound, hundreds of minuscule tendrils dart forward from her. Adrien jumps out of the way in time to dodge, but some strike his father. They wrap around him, covering him completely even as Adrien tries to pull him out. Adrien begins to shout for him, but soon the tendrils return to the akuma, leaving behind an apparently sleeping Gabriel Agreste. Aside from how he appears to be having a nightmare, he seems okay, so Adrien redirects his focus to the issue at hand: getting rid of this akuma and figuring out what to do when he breaks the possessed item-

‘Wait. The item... what is it?’ he thinks, looking over Cauchemère. He doesn’t really see anything, and doesn’t get the chance to think about it before she attacks again

This time when he dodges, the tendrils follow him, so he takes his weapon- a large fan- and uses it to send himself in a different direction.

He narrowly avoids her attack, and lands on the other side of her. She’s slow to turn around, but she doesn’t attack immediately.

“Has to recharge to attack maybe...?” Adrien asks himself. It’s another minute before she attacks again.

He uses the fan to help maneuver in air again, noticing that it became even harder to dodge her attacks.

While she recharges, he rushes forward and tries to strike out with his weapon, only to find it swiping through her. His eyes widen, and he hops back just as she attacks again. 

He still doesn’t see any object on her, and just as he’s about to call on his power for help, Cauchemère attacks again, quicker than before. One of the tendrils manages to wrap around his foot, and instead of being covered immediately like his father, he is pulled up close to her. Staring into what he thought were her eyes, his struggles to break free weakened. He feels the sadness radiating from her, feels the anger and confusion and loneliness. And in himself, he feels the guilt boiling throughout his body, knowing that, at least partially, it is his fault. His fault for trying to cataclysm Ladybug. Using cataclysm on a living thing, no matter what it has done, goes against everything he believes in. So why was he going to use it on her?

Lost in his thoughts and guilt, he fails to notice notice how he was disappearing under Cauchemère’s threads of darkness- at least, not until he is jolted from his despair by something cool grazing him. He wriggles, trying to see what it was, and soon he sees it: the shining silver of a wedding band she would need no longer. 

It’s hard, he’s almost immobilized by her, but he finds just enough strength to reach down.

“I’m s-sorry, Madame... I’ve no other choice,” he says, grabbing the ring on her finger and crushing them both. A wail emits from the akuma before the darkness washes from her. Before it’s completely gone, though, the butterfly’s frame lights up her face before flickering out as the transformation melts away completely.

In place of the akuma sits Sabine, crying and shaking on the ground. Adrien steps forward, to offer her his hand, but she doesn’t take it- she refuses to take it. After a moment, the reason why dawns on him, and he flinches back. Of course she wouldn’t want to take his hand. Of course. It was the very thing that was her husband’s downfall. 

He takes a few steps back. “I- I’m so sorry,” he tells her again, before he catches sight of the akuma fluttering away. Having no idea what to do with it, and seeing his dad is still passed out, he looks for some kind of container. Not seeing anything, he runs to the kitchen to grab  a pot and lid, but when he runs back, the akuma is already gone. 

A feeling of dread fills him, and it drops like lead in his stomach. It had only happened once in the past, them not cleansing an akuma. Their very first time on the job. It’d been a mess to clean up, and he remembers with perfect clarity how his lady had almost given up, because she had made a mistake. 

He vaguely wonders if he hadn’t offered her his words of encouragement and kindness, if he’d just let her go... would everything bad that happened as a result cease to exist? Would things have turned out better, or worse?

In an attempt to shake those thoughts from his mind, he gave Marinette’s mother a sad look before running outside, container in hand. He jumps to the roof of his house, and searches all around for where the akuma went. For a couple of minutes, he sees nothing, and so he decides to move around a bit. A few rooftops away, he finally catches sight of the insect, and makes for it as quick as he can.

Unfortunately, it’s already been out for too long, and so it multiplies into horrifying amounts. 

Not for the first time, Adrien desperately wishes that Ladybug, Marinette, whoever she was now... he wishes she were on his side.

But this isn’t a fairy tale, and wishes don’t come true. Not without a lot of work, anyways. And Adrien has a lot of work ahead of him as people all over the city are turned into monsters.

From her location, Marinette smiles. She can’t tell if it’s a sad one or a happy one anymore.