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twin-books · 1 year

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The above piece was a redraw of this old piece for my Fragmented AU. This new piece is a collaboration with @koo1creations. I did the sketch, she did the line art, I did the coloring, she added the cataclysm effects, I did the rest of the effects. We both really enjoyed making this. I am very grateful to her for helping me make this so I can finally post the second part of the Fragmented AU. If you are curious you can find the second part here: Fragmented AU 1. Where it all began. Yes, it took me one whole year to finally get to this. I was really trying to figure out how I wanted to write this and my antagonist and then life got busy... Anyway, I finally got around to it. Again, I preface by saying this story isn’t meant to have any salt. It is only for pure fun. I wanted a mystery in Miraculous and since the show refuses to give me one, I made one myself. I do try to keep it as canonically accurate as possible but the story does take place between season 3 and 4. Anyway, if you want to know what the drawing is about please enjoy the following. I decided to try something a bit new. I do hope I succeeded.

Adrien Agreste doesn’t remember September 7th. If you had asked him what happened that day he couldn’t tell you. But that doesn’t bother him.

It should, though.

It should because that was the day Ladybug and Chat Noir fought over how he barely showed up for fights anymore. That was the day Chat Noir promised her he wouldn’t miss another fight, another patrol, another moment where she needed him again.

He doesn’t remember that. But Chat Noir does.

Why?

If he had the ability, he would remember that the day started out like any other. He was juggling going to school, piano practice, private lessons, fencing, and modeling all at once. It was at night where it all went wrong. In his scramble to get things done he missed yet another important akuma battle. Ladybug had to bring in another 5 heroes and even then, still barely managed without him. They all needed training. Training she didn’t have time for. It was too much for her to handle. Between that and her responsibilities as the new guardian, she lost her cool.

When he showed up late, again, she ripped into him. Of course, she didn’t truly mean every single word she said and immediately apologized afterwards. But the damage was done. He knew he hurt her and he knew he had to fix it. So he promised he will always be there when she needs him. She appreciates the sentiment but knows he can’t keep that promise. He would prove her wrong.

When he heads home that night his chest is burning with anger. He is mad at himself for failing Ladybug. He knows he could do better.

He is so stuck in his own head that he fails to notice the small black cat following him.

Had he noticed, he may have been able to observe how it moved. It was like a glitch. Like some sort of extra in a video game missing a few frames in its walk cycle. It sucks in the light around it as it travels forward, the area around it almost appears blurry.

It's careful in its illogical movements. It stalks behind him, maintaining a safe distance. Its tail is wiggling and its eyes are fixated on Chat.

It’s hunting.

When it meows, Chat jumps in surprise and then turns to it. It is sitting still. Those visual glitches are no longer a problem with it frozen in place so Chat doesn’t notice a thing. He carefully approaches. Its pupils grow wider as a result. It’s clearly excited. “Hey there little guy...” Chat says, crouching down in front of it, only an arm’s length away. “What are you up to?” It doesn’t move. “I bet you’re doing great compared to me.” Chat falls to the ground, sitting crossed-legged. He sets his elbow on his knee and rests his head in his hand. “I can’t seem to do anything right.” He sighs. “Or nothing I want to do right.” He reaches his hand out to pet the cat’s head. When Chat looks away it leans into the pet. Chat is no longer paying attention to it, absentmindedly petting it as he rambles on about the earlier day events. “I just want to make it up to her! I wish I could be both Chat Noir and Adrien.” Another sigh escapes him. “You’re so lucky all you have to do is hunt mi-” He’s cut off by a sharp pain shooting up his arm. He lets out an agonizing cry. It feels like venom is shooting through his veins. His reaction time is quick and he rips his arm away from the cat. Or, at least, he thought he did. It takes him a little longer to realize the cat’s jaw is still clamped onto his hand, somehow holding him in place, and its grip is getting tighter. He watches in horror as spines protrude from its tail, flesh falling off to give way to them. It is accompanied by the loud cracking and twisting of its spine. It’s a sound that makes Chat want to gag. His eyes grow wide as he quickly stands up trying to shake it off. It somehow pulls its whole body forward with pure muscle power and digs its claws into his arm, its tail wrapping up and around the rest of his arm, the spines digging through his suit and into his skin. How? How is it doing that? That shouldn’t even be possible! His suit is made of magic! Unless... It’s made of magic too. He notices that somehow, even with its jaw firmly locked onto his hand, its lips begin to melt away, making it appear like it’s smiling as wide as the Cheshire cat. There’s a loud crack. A bright green, electric like energy manages to escape through the gaps in its teeth and skin. That’s when it occurs to Chat that this is his right hand and the pain shocks him back to reality. “My miraculous!” He screams, slamming the creature into a wall. He continues this several times but its grip only gets tighter. Its teeth sink into his skin, making it feel like it’s hitting bone, as it sets his nerves on fire. He’s only making it angry. Chat narrows his eyes knowing what he has to do. “Cataclysm.” He growls. The creature suddenly yelps in pain and immediately jumps off Chat, splitting into several smaller versions of itself, each shifting and morphing into incomprehensible shapes. It seems it can no longer hold its more “innocent” appearance. Chat is quick to take his opening and uses his baton to bat each piece of thing into a wall. It doesn’t put up much of a fight. It seems his cataclysm really frightened it. It quickly sunk into the wall, much to Chat Noir’s shock, forming an exact shadow of him and quickly running off. He begins to chase but only stops when he feels his right hand begin to numb. He looks down to examine it and finds a fracture in his ring with crackling magical energy quickly seeping out. He looks back up to find the creature has disappeared in all the other shadows, masterfully blending in. With his predator out of his sight he grabs his rapidly numbing arm. He then notices that despite just using cataclysm, there is no countdown timer. He needs to get home. No time is wasted. He makes it to his home and through his bedroom window in what he could have sworn was under five minutes. His hand is shaking now, he can’t seem to control its spasms. His heart is racing a million miles a minute. “Plagg, claws in!” He immediately whispers, afraid of shouting for fear of waking someone. Even in a crisis like this he still can’t get his priorities straight. Almost instantly the rapidly escaping energy is sucked back into the ring as Plagg appears beside Adrien’s head. Slowly the feeling begins to return to his hand but he still can’t seem to stop the shaking. He turns to Plagg and notices how Plagg twitches, similar to Adrien’s hand, as if he can’t control his body either. “Are you okay?” The little cat asks, seemingly unbothered by his own jittering. “Am I okay?” He cries. “Are you?” Plagg looks down at his own paws and notices the way they tremble. His eyes grow wide in horror. “What-What happened?” “I don’t know!” He says in exasperation. He was hoping Plagg would have the answers. He runs his fingers through his hair, trying to ignore the shaking of his hand. This motion gives Plagg a perfect view of the ominous glowing coming from the bottom of his ring. He quickly grabs Adrien’s hand and flips it over to look at his palm. There’s a small fracture in the band of the ring. “No! No!” “What’s wrong?” “The reason I can’t hold my form is because my magic is seeping into you!” Plagg says. “You aren’t meant to hold this kind of magic without some sort of conduit! If this keeps going this could cause a huge disaster! I’m talking extinction of the dinosaurs' levels of bad!” “What?” “We have to tell Ladybug! I think the grimoire has a page on how to fix this!” “No!” Adrien yells after Plagg before he can escape through a window. “Adrien. This is really, really, really bad. This can’t wait.” “Please. I-,” Adrien is struggling to find the words. He’s ashamed to admit that he just doesn’t want to bother Ladybug again after he let her down earlier. He fears her look of disappointment. “Can’t we just-” He takes a moment to breathe. “Can’t we just figure out what happened first and get our story straight before we bother Ladybug about this?” Plagg’s eyes drift to Adrien’s hand, the convulsions becoming more and more violent as time goes on. Then he looks into Adrien’s shaky eyes. “Adrien…” Plagg bites his lip. “Fine. But let’s make this quick! What do you remember?” “Okay. Cool. So, um…” He hums in thought, trying to go over the events in his mind. “I was heading home and then I stopped for a moment in that alley way. I was trying to figure out how to make it up to Ladybug-” “Not important. Skip to the point where the miraculous broke.” “Right! Sorry.” Adrien pauses for a moment, trying to think it through once more. So much of it didn’t make sense. “I was petting this cat. It looked like a normal cat. But then it bit me. And this cat, this thing, had the jaw strength of a crocodile!” Plagg nods in understanding, showing he’s following along. “It grew spines out of its tail,” He makes a disgusted face as he recalls that memory, “and then wrapped it around my arm and it somehow pierced through my suit. And then I heard this loud crack and saw this bright green light and I just knew… I knew that was the miraculous.” “How?” Plagg gives Adrien a puzzled look, seemingly having a hard time wrapping his head around the scene Adrien is describing. “I don’t know!” Adrien says, continuing on, “I tried slamming it into a wall but that only made it angrier so the only other thing I could think to do was use cataclysm.” He turns to look at Plagg and that’s when energy starts crackling out of the ring again, suddenly sucking Plagg into it with him shouting protests along the way. Adrien jumps back in surprise, staring down at the ring as the energy starts stinging his skin. He can feel his hand going numb again. “Plagg? Plagg! I didn’t say claws out!” He feels his heart rate spiking. Something isn’t right. “Plagg, claws in.” Nothing. “Plagg, claws in!” Nothing. “I said claws i-” He cuts himself off when he sees the black beads suddenly appear one by one, surrounding his hand like a swarm of wasps. Surrounding his ungloved, unprotected hand. “Plagg?” He whimpers. He’s scared now. With nowhere else to go and no magical outfit to protect him from the raw power of destruction it directs its wrath towards Adrien. The black particles seep into his skin causing unimaginable pain as he falls to his knees. “Plagg, claws out or in or whatever! Please, Plagg!” He begs, but the pain only gets worse. He’s not escaping this. He quickly rips the ring off, in a futile attempt to stop it. He tosses the ring aside and lets it slide under his dresser. Too late. Tears pour down his cheeks as he screams in agony. He cannot hear the shouts from Nathalie or his father. They are asking if he is okay, what is going on? Cracks similar to the one his miraculous bears begin to form in his skin, followed by violent magical energy trying to escape through them. He’s consumed by the rapidly escaping magical light as two pairs of panicked footsteps can be heard racing towards his room. “Adrien!” When the door is slammed open that light is already gone. Adrien is curled up in a ball on his bedroom floor. His eyes are squeezed shut. He is no longer screaming. Nathalie races over to him while Gabriel looms in the doorway. “Adrien! What is going on? Are you okay?” She helps him up and onto his bed. He’s silent. The silence is deafening. Gabriel steps forward. “Adrien. It’s the middle of the night.” He says, sternness in his tone. He eventually lets out a sigh. “Why were you screaming?” “I’m sorry…” Adrien says, shaking from a lingering unknown fear. “I don’t know. I don’t know!” He can’t remember! Why can’t he remember? What happened? What happened? Adrien begins to sob. Nathalie pulls Adrien into a tight hug while Gabriel clenches his fists and turns to leave. “Gabriel.” Nathalie says, calmly. “He needs you.” Gabriel stops and looks back at Nathalie. “You look like you have it handled.” He says and takes his leave. Nathalie’s grip on Adrien gets tighter. He can tell she’s angry but she would never say that. Instead she rubs his back. “Shh…” Her tone is soothing and brings his pulse back down to a normal pace, “It will be okay, Adrien. I’m right here.” It takes a while to calm him down but eventually Nathalie can finally lay Adrien to rest in his bed. “Call if you need anything.” She whispers to him. Once she has made sure all his fear is silenced she heads for the door. “Good night, Adrien.” He feels so tired. He pulls the sheets over his head, shielding his eyes from any light that comes from the moon and the stars. He can no longer remember why he was so upset. He eventually succumbs to sleep, unable to notice yet another sudden bright light that fills his room for merely a second. Chat Noir is now standing in the middle of his room. Chat looks around in confusion before fleeing out the window. He’s in a bit of a daze. Wasn’t that Adrien Agreste’s room? Why was he in Adrien’s room in the middle of the night? What happened? He can’t remember.