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thesaltyoceanwaves · 5 years

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Bewitched Part 2

Ao3

@lenoreofraven

Today’s musical numbers: “Reason to Become a Witch” and “Congratulations” (cut from Hamilton)

“You trampled on my love and laughed. You clung on to a foolish love. The reason I became a witch, the reason why I’m cursing you… Hurry and run away, I’m a girl with a gun” - Reason to Become a Witch, NS Yoon-G

-~-~-~

There’s something exciting about sitting on top of the academy rooftop, despite Bewitched being used to running and swinging over the city all the time. Right now, she bides her time and can appreciate just how small and ant-like everyone looks from this perspective. It reminds her that the problems of her past life will be just as petty and meaningless after her plans come to fruition.

The students flood the schoolyard, none of them the wiser about what’s to come. She waits until all three of her potential targets enter the area - Adrien rushing in last and going over to Alya - and while doing so, charges up a red energy into her left hand. In the meantime, she overhears a glimpse of the conversation that they have, including a few moments where Nino actually called Adrien out for his behavior.

Hm. Perhaps I’ll spare him a cruel fate.

Once ready, she points her fingers like a gun in Lila’s general direction and fires.

All of the girls surrounding the liar - Rose, Juleka, Mylene and two girls from another class - shriek at the sight of Lila getting blasted. Sure enough, all of the attention now comes to Bewitched.

“I hope you all had a good morning, because it’ll be the last time any of you know good fortune.”

She allows for a few moments of collective gasps and hurried studying of her new form. No one, it seemed, could believe that it was actually her standing there above them. Even Lila, still frozen from her blast, has her thoughts immediately betrayed by her facial expressions.

But from high above, all of their judgments and stares mean nothing. It’s only fair considering she apparently meant nothing to them when she was a good and fair princess. The only expressions she finds intriguing, are the ones realizing just how much they messed up this time.

“M-Marinette?”

She practically rolls her eyes at the sound of this name. Damn, did he always sound this annoying? She glowers at the pathetic, wannabe knight, and dictates, “I am not Marinette. I am Bewitched. And to those who cursed me,” she pauses to cast venomous glances at both Lila and Adrien, giving her a glorious moment of seeing the two squirm, “Well, allow me to return the favor.”

The burst of red energy cackles around Lila, and the liar is forced to turn her entire body toward Bewitched. Her mouth and hands tremble, and she looks like she’s on the verge of tears.

“P-Please, Marinette,” she begs, “I-It doesn’t have to be like this!”

“Oh, it’s too late for that,” Bewitched cooes, “You can’t simply return to this school, lie to everyone, and then threaten me in the bathroom for not following your lead. And painting me to look like the envious one?” she clucks her tongue, “That’s just tasteless, Lie-la.”

Yet another collective gasp erupts across the schoolyard. All of the girls that just moments ago, were fawning over the Italian, are now studying her with raised eyebrows. Bewitched isn’t so pompous as to believe that the girls realize the lies all on their own. No, she predicts Lila’s next actions quite easily.

“That’s not true! I never lied!”

Bewitched can only laugh as she says her line, word for word. What a predictable turn of events.

By this time, Alya already has her phone out and is recording the entire interaction. Excellent.

“I’m not sure I really believe you. So, allow for me to fix that.” The red energy around Lila flares brighter than before, blinding anyone who stands too close to her. The girl group has all evacuated at least twenty feet away from the Italian. “Lila Rossi, you are now cursed to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth. Anytime you try and speak a lie, you will choke on your own words until the truth comes out.”

The red flash dissipates, leaving Lila only with a red symbol on her forehead - the Chinese symbol for “cursed”. When she realizes this, her hands race up to cover it.

“W-What did you do to me?”

“Excuse you, I’ll be asking the questions around here,” she scoffs. God, how did none of these people get sick of Lila’s whiny, cowering attitude all the time? She proclaims to be related to top martial artists and bodyguards, not to mention a superhero whose position she inherited, have secret training, but oh no, someone come save her, please! People actually eating this up though and not getting tired of all the bragging is the most tragic part. But after today, that will change. Smirking, she crosses her arms over her chest, hiding her hands so as to gather more energy. “Tell me, Lila. Have you really met Ladybug?”

She lets out a breath. “Oh, of course I have. We’re best frie-” The gagging is immediate and her hands drop from forehead to around her throat. Some of the girls that ran away earlier, are now back surrounding Lila, trying to help her stand up.

“Marinette!” Rose squeaks, “Make it stop! You’re hurting her!”

“She’s only hurting herself,” Bewitched shrugs, “If she’d only tell the truth about her relationship with Ladybug, then it’ll stop. So Lila, tell us the truth. When did you really meet Ladybug for the first time?”

The panting slows down a bit, but tears still form in the corner of the girl’s eyes. Honestly, is her pride and reputation so important that she would refuse to tell the truth? How pathetic. Hawkmoth honestly chose to akumatize this girl twice?

“A-At the park…” she gasps, “It was m-my first day… here… I was with… A-Adrien. S-She got mad at me… for lying about her on Alya’s blog.”

The liar collapses to the ground, clearly trying to keep herself from retching. Satisfied with her response, she turns her attention to Alya and Nino. She almost frowns when she realizes that Adrien is long gone, and doing a quick scan of the courtyard, Chloe, Kagami and Felix are also gone.We’ll just have to fix that, won’t we? she notes, feeling the warmth of her energy charged finger guns.

“Well, did you get that, Ladyblogger? It turns out the whole time you were reporting about Lila and Ladybug’s legendary friendship, you were getting played for a fool the entire time. Someone who refuses to fact check and blindly believes that they’re right and yet gets fame and attention for it is just asking to be cursed.”

Before anyone can object, she fires the red beam at Alya. For good measure, she also fires a pink beam from her right hand at Nino. The couple exchange a horrified glance, trying to move toward one another, but Bewitched will not allow it.

“Alya Cesaire. You are now cursed to be wrong about everything. Every decision you make, every word you utter, whether you mean it to or not, will be incorrect. No one will ever be able to take you seriously again.”

Again, the light disappears, and the symbol appears on her forehead. Satisfied, she then turns to Nino.

“As for you, Nino Lahiffe, I’ve decided to spare you. You could have done better at defending my honor, but you at least tried, unlike a supposed best friend of mine. I’m willing to give you a second chance as one of my familiars.”

The pink light overtakes him and transforms him. His outfit converts from his usual street wear, to all black attire. Jeans, shirt, jacket… his glasses are now sunglasses, and his cap is on backwards, with cat ears present. A bit cartoony for her tastes, but it works with her general aesthetic. The chain belt tail is a nice touch though.

“Marinette, stop this!” Alya shouts, trying to run toward her. She only trips over her feet. Sitting herself back up, she clears her throat. “I know that this is just a ploy to get everyone to turn against Lila! There’s no way she’s lying!”

If she hadn’t already been akumatized, Bewitched would have predicted a butterfly being sent her way by now. Thankfully, the students in the courtyard below all see reason and merely shake their heads at Alya’s words. It feels so nice to finally be believed for once.

That doesn’t mean she’ll spare them all.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few more familiars at her side.

Some of the students start running away, so she needs to be quick in her decision making. Marc Anciel starts running toward Nathaniel. He is one of the few people to not buy into Lila’s pack of lies, and actually seems grateful for her help. He's lacking in the self-confidence department, but that’s easily adjusted. When the pink beam hits him, his outfit becomes not too dissimilar to that of Nino’s, though his cat ears are sewn onto his hoodie.

Aurore Boureal stands in front of a classroom door, ushering other students inside. How noble and brave. The two of them hadn’t interacted much, but Bewitched always sort of liked Aurore, and could relate to her. She knew what it was like to have to juggle so many activities and responsibilities, and how draining it could for no one to appreciate her best efforts. What a fitting candidate for her familiar.

Aurore’s outfit maintains the shape of her dress, but also gives her a pair of shorts and plain stockings. She owns some fishnet gloves, cutting off at the knuckles and a cat ear headband. The parasol she so iconically carries is black with white cat heads, and she uses it to close the classroom door, before pointing it at students that dare try to approach.

Most of the students are gone by this point, even Alya and Lila who are now free to move about. Still, she doesn’t want to settle for just any old people to serve as her trustworthy familiars - they have to be worthy, unlike that troubling Chat Noir. Her eyes fall on Juleka, and sure enough, the goth girl is now a part of her pack. Perhaps she believed Lila’s lies as well, but she was also Luka’s younger sister - she could afford to show a little mercy in her case. Not to mention that her outfit is already perfect for a familiar, so she just gains some cat-themed accessories.

The effects of Alya’s curse are to her benefit, though, Already, Bewitched sees her ushering everyone into the classroom. Honestly, did she think that would be an ideal location? From the look on her face, that doesn��t seem to be the case, but Bewitched isn’t complaining.

She commands her familiars to go forward.

An essential lesson in any form of martial art is self-control. Competitive matches could get heated, but a practitioner always held back a certain degree of power and force in their attacks. It was the difference between fierce competition and bloodsport.

Even as Riposte, Kagami has never wanted to throttle Adrien as violently as she does now, ignoring all of the rules of competition. The only thing holding her back at this point is Felix’s pointed glare at the clueless Agreste. And even that is only helping a little.

The three of them are panting furiously, trying not to gag at the odors radiating in the sewers. Her only wish at this point is for Luka to meet up with them, and for them to find all sort of shelter to come up with a plan to properly save Marinette.

But for now…

“Congratulations, Adrien Agreste,” Kagami scowls, “You’ve managed to make one of the kindest, most hard working girls in our entire school into the most vengeful akuma Hawkmoth has ever created. I thought Chloe Bourgeois was reckless with her bullying, but at least she attempted to change her ways. You on the other hand…”

“You’re on a whole new level of stupid,” Felix adds on, “Did you honestly think that Marinette was going to want your pushy, obsessive behavior in a relationship? You know better than anyone that she hates bullies.”

“I’m not a bully!” he objects.

“Oh? Then what would you call yourself then? A hero? No, I don’t think you’re worthy of that title anymore,” Kagami barks, “You know if it were my decision to make, you wouldn’t even have that ring anymore.”

His eyes widened. Even Felix couldn’t contain his surprise at the statement, his hands shaking.

“You mean to say… that this obsessive, entitled doormat of a human being… is Chat Noir?”

“Y-You’re not supposed to know that!” Adrien exclaims, “H-How did you-”

“I had my suspicions, but your reaction confirmed it. Not to mention, when Ladybug decided to take a break, her reasons and story was awfully familiar to Marinette’s,” she sighs, “That means you went to that journalist girl and made her write stories and articles trying to get you two to date…”

Oh god. Images of Marinette scrambling across the school yard, plastering fake smiles, attempting to keep her voice even and level, anxiously reading from her phone only to hide it from the three of them… screw keeping her composure, Kagami wants nothing less to vomit then and there. Just what the hell snapped in this kid’s mind to make him act out the way he did?

For a moment, she weighs the idea that maybe she might be at fault. Had she tried veering Adrien away from Marinette on the ice skating date, might this all have been averted?

No, she reminds herself. It doesn’t matter the reason for his obsessive behavior. It’s still wrong. She glances over at Felix to remind herself of that. He’d point out just how irrational that all was.

Neither her nor Marinette were responsible for this temper tantrum .

She’s not sure how he managed to do it, but Luka has somehow managed to find them in the sewers, and leaps over to them. He’s completely winded, and Kagami can’t help but wonder just how far he had to run to get here. The fact that he made it here so quickly too doesn’t do much to ease her anxieties, either.

“What did I miss?” he asks in between breaths.

“Apparently, Mr. Model Behavior here is actually Chat Noir,” Felix scowls, “And not only has been playing the part of the Nice Guy to Marinette as a civilian, but also as a so-called hero. Hence, our current situation.”

Luka is one of the softest, most gentle souls Kagami has ever known. From time to time, she teases him about this, and her and Felix would refer to Luka and Marinette as cotton candy or marshmallows for their sweet and silly behavior.

But Luka once admitted to having a bit more impulsive, and angry side. This was as a result of him having problems using the right words to speak. He often kept this in check through meditation and his music. When he felt like screaming, he listened to Jagged Stone or heavier music and just let it all out. He worked hard to keep it under control and Kagami never would have suspected his problem unless he told her about it.

The flash of anger that races across his eyes is still a surprise to her.

“What the hell were you thinking, Adrien?”

“Woah, take it easy there-”

Luka slamming his hand across the wall is enough to make them all collectively jump. “Shut the hell up. Don’t tell me what to do. You didn’t take it easy on Marinette when you decided to ruthlessly pursue her into being your girlfriend. You remember that day at the ice rink?” The scowl in the back of his voice starts to dissipate a bit. Kagami can’t help but wonder if Luka is actually on the verge of tears from everything. “I told Marinette to go after you, not because I wanted her to, but because I thought it would make her happy. I cared about her a lot, but I knew for a fact that she wasn’t mine to control. Knowing that you went out of your way to hurt her for your own selfish purposes…” he looks away, his voice faltering, “Damn, you really know how to sicken a guy.”

“You’re just jealous that she confessed to me and not you,” Adrien retorts.

“As I recall,” Felix interrupts, “ You rejected her. It seems you were only interested in her once you found out she was Ladybug.”

Luka lifts his face up and regards Adrien with an even harder glare. “What?”

“Enough,” Kagami scowls, rubbing her temples. After this entire situation was fixed, she was going to get herself a nice pot and a half of tea to alleviate the headache she was going to have. “This isn’t going to get us anywhere. Adrien,” she spits, regarding him with a cold glare, “You and I will go and get Chloe. Luka and Felix, I’m leaving this with you.” From her inside jacket pocket, she pulls out the snake miraculous, “Only use it if you have to. See if you can calm Marinette down from her emotional state.”

“I should be the one to go to Marinette,” Adrien mutters, trying to get away.

“Marinette is looking to give you the worst curse she can muster,” Kagami points out, “Going in without backup is the dumbest idea you have, and you’ve had plenty of those today.” The boy has the nerve to pout, but she fights back the urge to retort any further. “Luka… are you going to be alright?”

His eyes are closed, and he lets out a breath. She knows that later he’ll probably be blasting Jagged over the Seine, but with Felix gently touching his shoulder, Luka sighs and let’s it go. “I’ll be fine. If we can just help Marinette... “

“We’ll manage something,” Felix says assuredly, “Hurry up and get Queen Bee. We’re going to need all of the help we can get.”

Longg and Tikki pop out of her pocket, only giving her a silent nod of agreement. With everyone on the same page, the two groups split up, and Kagami only hoped that Chloe managed to keep herself hidden away from Bewitched.

#miraculous ladybug #ml salt #ml salt fic #nice guy adrien #nice guy adrien au #nice guy adrien the musical #adrien salt #alya salt #akumanette #akumatized marinette #chameleon salt

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