Into Another World (kotlc/mlb au)

Chapter 21

"A... a Summoning?" Della repeated, the blood fading from her cheeks.

"Yeah!" Adrien interjected, hoping this information would save Ladybug's life. "We were there! There was all this power and we saw all the kwami spirits escaping and... it nearly killed us."

He decided to leave out that they managed to have a conversation with Tikki and Plagg. He wasn't sure what would come if the court realized they could communicate with the spirits.

Come to think of it, he still didn't have a clue as to how they were able to communicate with them.

"How would you know about a Summoning? We've banned them," Alina said.

"Exactly; why do you think the Neverseen are a rebel group?" Ladybug rolled her eyes a little.

"Let's be hypothetical and believe this," Alina said. "Why would we trust a criminal to help us stop this Neverseen group?"

"Because if we don't, Aelesia really will fall," Ladybug said.

Alina stiffened. "Your Majesty, I think we've heard enough from this fugitive."

"Quite," Alden agreed. "Council, your verdict?"

The twelve Councillors all closed their eyes, and it was an uncomfortable silence for a while.

What's happening? Adrien thought, hoping Sophie would hear.

They're discussing telepathically, Sophie transmitted. Sorry it took so long. The Summoning forced Nooroo's power out of me too so I'm no longer imitating. But yeah. Emery mediates the conversation. Unfortunately, given how much they hate Ladybug, I don't think it will end well for her.

Emery opened his eyes, standing up and approaching the fugitive. "You, Ladybug, are guilty of your many crimes. Thievery, smuggling, resisting arrest, perjury, and eliciting fear of a theoretical concept–"

"But the Summoning actually happened!" Ladybug argued.

Emery didn't stop. "You are not only charged with these crimes. You are also conceited, rude, uncivilized, conniving, selfish, foolish, unruly, unkempt, impresentable, immoral, unpolished, and downright barbaric."

Adrien wanted to slap him silly. Emery clearly had no clue who she really was.

But standing under the soldier's grasp, she didn't argue. She just... stood there, letting the court outright insult her.

"Put together, you are a blight among Aelesia and its good citizens. We'll see to it that you are executed at dawn, if the suggestion is in the approval of His Majesty."

Alden gave a curt nod. "Approved. Ladybug, you are to be executed by way of beheading when the first rays of the sun hit the earth."

"No!" Adrien cried. "You can't kill her!"

"She's a criminal," Emery simply shrugged him off. "And she will have to pay the price for her crimes. Lock her in the dungeon for now."

The last Adrien saw of Ladybug was her struggling to break from the soldiers' grips as they dragged her away.

"And... Adrien Agreste," Emery turned to him, and Adrien feared for a split second that he was about to suffer the same fate. "We're relieved to see that you've come back safe and sound. That you survived the ordeal."

Sure, Adrien had survived.

But after witnessing Ladybug's death sentence, he knew he wouldn't live.

He couldn't live if the girl he'd just promised not to leave alone again was going to die. This was most likely going to be a public spectacle, a warning to other Aelesian fugitives, telling them that they were next.