Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug Chat Noir Rena Rouge Carapace and also Queen Bee

Crisis Averted

"I know. But I'm saying that if everyone looks exactly like me, then I will look exactly like everyone else as well, meaning I still won't stand out. It just doesn't make any sense in this context," Juleka argued with Hawkmoth mid-akumatization.

"Could you please just take the powers and go?" Hawkmoth pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Not unless you give me powers that will actually make me stand out and get noticed by others," Juleka stated her condition stubbornly.

"..Fine," Hawkmoth begrudgingly paused to consider a different theme to fit with Juleka's demands.

"Juleka?" Rose walked up to the bench she was sitting on and cautiously sat down next to her. "I'm sorry about the photo. I wish I could do something to help but..." Rose's voice trailed off. 

"I don't know. I just wanted so badly to prove to you that you weren't cursed and all I've done is the exact opposite of that. I'm sorry..." Rose looked away, ashamed at being unable to help.

Juleka stared at Rose and then back at the hand mirror she was holding. She set it down on the bench and the akuma flew out of it, fluttering away. "Rose, look at me," Juleka put her hand on the side of Rose's head so that she was facing her. "Listen to me. If you ever blame yourself again, I'm going lose it."

Rose blinked. "What?"

"Yes, this entire situation sucks. But you had nothing to do with that. It wasn't even your fault. Like, at all."

"I know, but seeing you upset made me upset. And being in this photo was so important to you!" Rose pointed out.

"I know it was, I'm not going to pretend like I don't care. And I'm absolutely going to kill Chloe once this is all over. But you know what, Rose?"

"What?"

"None of that means anything to me when you're upset. You're what makes being invisible actually tolerable," Juleka smiled. "I'm not going to kill Chloe because she made me miss another school photo. I'm going to kill her because she almost made you cry. And nobody gets away with that," She said without a hint of irony in her voice. Rose laughed anyway.

"What is this? How could she have overcome her negative emotions just like that?" Hawkmoth asked out loud.

"Perhaps love is stronger than hate after all," Nooroo suggested inside Gabriel's subconscious.

"Silence!"

Gabriel de-transformed and left his evil lair, wondering what to do now that his hobby of tormenting children was done for the day.

---

"I'll fucking kill you, Chloe. Don't test me," Marinette threatened.

"Language!"

Marinette ignored Tikki's scolding. "This was Juleka's only chance at showing up in a photo and you ruined it. For what? Just so you could stand next to Adrien?"

"I'm his BFFAE! Of course, I'm going to stand next to him in the first class photo he's ever been in!" Chloe argued.

"That doesn't excuse ruining it for someone else! Now give me back the memory card!"

"No, it's done. Just move on already," Chloe dismissively waved her hand.

"If Juleka gets akumatized over this, I'm going to help her beat the shit out of you."

"Why not do it right now?" Chloe taunted.

Marinette responded by punching her in the face. Chloe grabbed her face in pain and fell over.

Marinette jumped on top of her and the two girls started kicking, scratching, and biting each other like rabid animals. Sabrina didn't dare get in between them.

Marinette managed to grab the memory card off Chloe. She forcefully pushed herself off of her and sprinted out of the door, almost bumping into Mr. Damocles in the process. "Sorry! I'll explain later!" Marinette quickly apologized as she continued to run away as fast as she could. 

Mr. Damocles barely had time to register what Marinette had said before Chloe immediately barged out of the room, chasing after her.

Sabrina nervously walked up to Mr. Damocles. "Sorry about that. Here's five hundred euros from Chloe to forget about this whole thing." Mr. Damocles hesitantly accepted the bribe and Sabrina ran off after Chloe.

"...That class is going to be the death of me," Mr. Damocles shook his head as he entered his office and closed the door behind him.

---

Marinette looked around the school for Juleka, eventually seeing her outside. "Hey, Juleka!" The two girls on the bench turned to look at Marinette.

"Yeah?" Juleka called back.

"I'm going to fix this! So don't get akumatized while I'm gone, ok?"

"...Ok?" Juleka responded quizzically.

"Great! Thanks!" Marinette ran off to find the photographer.

She eventually found Vincent in the gym, taking a photo of the next class. "Yeah, this probably should've been the first place I looked," Marinette admitted to herself as she walked up to him.

"Ready?" He asked, getting ready to snap the photo.

"Excuse me? I think you dropped this." Marinette held out the memory card.

"Hm?" Vincent looked back at the screen and saw that the card slot was empty. "Ah! Grazie." He thanked her, taking the card and inserting it back into the camera.

"So, I know you're busy, but one of our classmates wasn't in the photo you took. Is there some way that you could do it again?"

"Well...I'm already running late with everything that's been going on and," Vincent paused to look around. "Mr. Damocles is paying me by the hour, so he won't be very happy with this."

"Yes, I understand that. But maybe you could take it after you're done here in school? We could set it up in the park next to here." Marinette suggested hopefully.

"Well..." Vincent seemed unsure of the whole thing.

"Please?" Marinette asked. "This is really important to my friend. And we really want an awesome photo to be taken by an awesome photographer. Please?" Marinette repeated.

"Well, when you put it that way..." Vincent said, the flattery starting to work on him. "Ok!"

"Yes! Thank you! Sorry to bother you!" Marinette said, running off while Vincent finished taking the next photo.

"Crisis averted, Tikki!"

"Dupain-Cheng!" She heard a voice calling from a distance.

"Nevermind." Marinette ran away from Chloe once again.

---

"Ready?" Vincent asked, ready to take the photo again. Adrien was standing next to Chloe in the frame and held onto her while she was going absolutely feral, trying to attack Marinette. Adrien had just enough strength to prevent her from doing that. Meanwhile, Rose gently kept her hand on top of Juleka's to encourage her not to murder Chloe right then and there.

"Ready!" The class said in unison.

"Aaaaaaannd," The camera snapped, and the photo was taken. "Voila!"

The class looked at the photo together. It was perfect. Chloe was blurry as hell, Adrien somehow still looked picture-perfect while holding onto her, and most importantly, Juleka was directly in the center, her image being perfectly clear for everyone to see.

"The class photo curse is broken!" Rose cheered.

"Thank you, Marinette." Juleka said.

"No problem. And you can thank me by not killing Chloe. I still need her alive for reasons that I can't discuss right now," Marinette said, understanding that Queen Bee was still an extremely useful partner even if she did hate her.

Juleka groaned dramatically. "Fine..." She ripped up her step-by-step plan on how to murder Chloe and get away with it.

"Thank you."