Future Tales of the Miraculous

Chapter 14

Rena Rouge anxiously eyed her smartphone.  4pm on the dot splayed across the LED screen.  She paced back and forth along the Eiffel tower's narrow beams, waiting for the others to arrive.  An olive gloved hand stroked her arm, stealing her attention away for a moment. 
"Don't worry, babe. Your plan will work. We've got this," Carapace tried to assure her, cracking a sincere smile.

The fiery haired fox smiled back at her partner lovingly for a moment before frowning. Keeping her mind off of the dangerous risks they were about to make with her plan of attack against Hawk Moth and Le Paon was unavoidable. Carapace would act as bait to keep the evil duo separated.  If all went perfectly well, they narrowly stood a chance of successfully subduing both villains.

"Just don't do anything stupid.  Especially for me, okay?" 

"Can't make any promises.  Especially when it comes to you," The turtle replied with a shrug, rising from his seat and pulling her waist towards him. 

He pressed his forehead into hers, smiling into her hazelnut eyes.  From a distance, the glint of acrobatic figures quickly approaching caught their attention, causing them to break their embrace.  In a few short minutes, Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Queen Bee joined the pair at the tower.

"We're all here. Is everyone ready for the plan?"  Ladybug asked her cohorts, to which they nodded.  "Great.  There's one last thing I wanted all of us to share, before we do this."

Ladybug glanced at Chat Noir before continuing.  "Chat and I have been partners for a long time, and we work so well because of our ability to trust and depend upon each other for support.  Despite this, we didn't share our secret identities until just recently.  It was a huge risk in doing so, but it turned out to be the best decision we've made since becoming heroes.  If something were to happen, I would want to know who you all are, and for you to know who I am.  Our lives are in each other's hands after all."

She paused for a moment, smiling at her wide eyed team.  "I will understand if you decide not to join me in this, but I hope you do.   Tikki, spots off!"

Red shimmered around the heroine, leaving behind a wide grinned Marinette to greet her four teammates.  While Chat and Carapace knowingly smiled during her transformation, an unreadable stare blanketed over Queen Bee's face.  Rena let out a short gasp, shock subsiding quickly to joy as she rushed to hug her best friend. 
"I am so happy it was you all along," the red fox whispered.  "Trixx, pounce back!"

Marinette gasped at seeing Alya revealed, squeezing into her embrace tightly. "Well, now I won't feel so guilty about not hanging out as much before your big move to college."
"Wait a minute..."Alya slowly drawled, pulling away from the hug.  She cast a suspicious gaze and wagging finger towards the smirking feline. 
"I've always suspected there was something more between you two.  And you do have the same blonde hair as...."

"Adrien," Queen Bee finished Alya's train of thought, her shocked stare turning into a sad grimace.

Chat raised his eyebrows in confusion at the blonde bee for a moment before he and Nino recanted their miraculouses.  Once the boys reverted back to themselves, Adrien's curious stare returned to the lone heroine, as did the others while they awaited her response. 

"I.....I don't know if this is a good idea," Queen Bee replied, looking about nervously.

"Ah, come on. I think we've all seen our fair share of shocking surprises...." Nino relented. "I'm sure whatever you show us can't be any worse than what we are about to get ourselves into."

His bronze eyes swept over to his nodding companions then back to the blonde bee.  His head whipped back for a double take when Chloé now stood in the heroine's place.

"...Then again, I could always be wrong?" the brunet murmured.

Embarrassment colored the blonde's face, seeing that her reveal elicited stunned silence from everyone. Adrien's face displayed the mildest reaction of surprise, while Alya shook her head in refusal to accept. Nino simply gawked, letting his mouth hang open. Chloé rolled her eyes in feigned annoyance at the three, trying to mask the hurt she felt bubbling up inside from their stares.

Chloé dared a sheepish glance at her heroine idol, who was revealed to also be her long time rival and recipient of her bullying. As shocked as she was about Ladybug's identity, she still held hope that she could find acceptance of her and her redemptive efforts as Queen Bee.  This hope was crushed when she saw the bluenette's gravely concerned eyes rake her once over, her lips forming a tight, straight line.

"What is everyone gawking at?!?! It's not like it's IMPOSSIBLE to imagine that I'm a superhero, just like you all," Chloe snapped, folding her arms across her chest.

Anger quickly flickered in her dark blue eyes before the hurt and embarrassment threatened to overtake her reddening face.

"Whatever, like I ever cared what you all thought of me...," Chloé sneered defensively, swiveling around on her heels to shield herself from their stares.  Marinette shook her head and reached out to her. 

"Chloé, wait.  It's not like that.  You are as much of a her..."

A nearby explosion drowned out her remaining words, forming a blooming mushroom cloud along the horizon shortly after. 

"I think that's our cue," Alya interrupted, touching her necklace. 

  The magic enveloped the quintet in red, green, black, orange, and gold, transforming them into heroes again.  Rena Rouge quickly played a flurry of notes into her bansari, washing over both Carapace and Chat Noir. 

"Whoa, dude....i have to admit, its pretty freaky to see you as me, " Carapace said, staring at Chat Noir as the hooded tortoise hero. 
"Likewise," Chat replied, smirking at his best friend as a blonde, leather clad feline.

Queen bee wasted no time in setting out towards the explosion, leaving the group to follow along the rooftops. 

——-

Ash, smoke, and debris clouded the air around them like a thick, dusty fog, getting thicker as they moved closer to the sight of the explosion. A few nearby Parisians fled past the heroes as they embarked through the streets. The red fox and disguised tortoise branched off a different direction from the group, leaving the others to face what they could glean from the center of the explosion: an army of akumatized villians led by Hawk Moth.

Slowing to a cautious walk when the sight was a few blocks away, the duo reached a quiet, secluded dead end surrounded by towering buildings.

"How do you think they'll know we're here?" The red fox asked to her masked partner, almost in a hushed whisper while her alert eyes scanned around them.

Before he could reply, a spectre of magic interrupted, drawing itself into an eye before them. Rena's partner instinctively pulled her closer behind him, his whole body tensing when an eerie, velvety voice spoke from beyond the drawn eye.

"Hmmm, you look like my dear Chatton," the voice began smoothly, "but my eyes see through your silly illusions."

"Nope, definitely the one and only Chat Noir," he rebuked smartly, eyes narrowed on the shadowy figure appearing behind the veil of the eye.

The voice chuckled lightly. "Maybe I can convince you to show me who you really are. Or killing you may be simpler."

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