Chasing Ladybug 📸 (A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfic)

22 • Now | Truth (Un)Revealed

Ladybug grabs the yo-yo from her side, effortlessly catching the akuma before it can escape out the window. She purifies it, setting it free, and watches as the white butterfly roams around the room. It floats down towards Theo's lifeless body on the staircase in the underground room.

She steps over to the opening and looks down, staring hard and closely at him. A disturbed part of herself thinks Theo's going to wake up and grab her, that he's still here, and beg her to love him. But he doesn't move.

The events of the past few months play on repeat in her mind, over and over as an ugly constant reminder: this is what he did to you.

All the horrible that happened were because of him; Theo made her life a living hell. He stalked her, took pictures of her without consent. He invaded her privacy in more ways than one. He forced himself into her life and pretended to be her boyfriend. He kidnapped and held her captive for a week with barely any food and water, locked in a dark room day after day, chained up and gagged with a rag. She couldn't move. She couldn't talk.

Theo took Marinette's voice, and her freedom, too.

Ladybug stares down at the yo-yo sitting in her hand. If I call my lucky charm and use the magical ladybugs to fix everything, I could bring Theo back, and heal my broken wrist. Her eyes trace over his face, his eyes left wide open, and her eyes close tight as she chokes out a sob.

Theo hurt me... he tormented me. Worse, he tried killing Adrien! Why should I give him another chance to do it again?

She returns the yo-yo to her side. "Tikki, spots off."

Adrien looks over. "You want to keep him..."

Marinette turns around. She couldn't look at Theo's body anymore. "He deserves it."

He grabs her hand, squeezing it tight. "It's your call, Milady."

"I..." She turns to the model and wraps her arms around his neck. "I'm afraid if I bring Theo back, he's not going to stop. This madness... I think it's with him forever. He tried to kill you to be with me. I don't want to live a life in fear, always looking over my shoulder, wary of people. I want to just... live."

Adrien kisses her forehead. "We have to call Officer Roger. If we just leave Theo here, eventually someone's going to wonder where he is, and it's better if we clean up Copycat's mess than make everything worse."

"Are you going to tell them that you... killed... Theo?" Marinette asks.

"I have an idea," The model admits, stepping back from his girlfriend. "But it involves a story where you killed Theo... in self-defense, at least."

"O-Okay," She whispers, a little confused. "I guess that makes sense. He did keep me captive here."

"Once we show Officer Roger Theo's—" Adrien glances over to the shrine-like walls and table covered in pictures of them and their classmates, "—creepy hobby,  he'll have no reason to dispute our story. I mean, he was a gross pervert after all. He doesn't get to die with a good name."

Marinette tilts her head, asking, "But if we show Officer Roger everything, how are we going to protect your secret identity?" She gestures to the pictures of Adrien and Cat Noir with a red string connected. "You already had your reputation ruined, I don't want your most important secret out."

He glances behind her at the wall. "Theo did most of the work for us."

"What do you mean?"

Adrien walks over to the wall Theo made just for him. He removes the picture of himself beside his superhero alter ego and rips off the red string. He grabs a post-it note, scribbling three question marks before he sticks it to the board. There, now it looks like Theo didn't know Cat Noir's secret identity.