Chapter Text
“Uhh, B,” Tim walked down into the Batcave. “You’re going to want to see this.” He went to the Batcomputer, typed something in, and brought up news coverage of a court case.
The second Bruce read the title his face darkened, “Tim,” he said, “call everyone down.”
—
“All rise. Department One of the Supreme Court of Appeals is now in session. Judge Berntrant Louvel presiding. Please be seated.”
As everyone in the court took their places, Judge Louvel began to present the case. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Calling the case of the People of Paris, France, versus Gabriel Agreste, previously known as Hawk Moth. Are both sides ready?”
“Ready for the People, Your Honor.”
“Ready for the Defense, Your Honor”
Marinette began to tune out the court hearing. She was only here as a witness. Nothing more. She didn’t want to be here. She shouldn't have to be here. She wanted to be home with her parents and mourn her lost childhood that she spent fighting an emotional terrorist. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned and despite her title, luck didn’t seem to be on her side. So here she was, wearing her spots for one last time to put that maniac away for good.
“–bug. Ladybug?”
“Yes?” looking up she realized that the whole court was staring at her. “Is there something wrong?” she asked.
“It's time for you to give your testimony to the court,” the Public Defender, Mme Josephine, softly stated. She was a short middle-aged woman with dark chocolate skin and her hair tied up in a bun. She gave off a warm motherly vibe that calmed Marinette’s nerves ever so slightly.
“Are you sure you're ready for this?” She placed a reassuring hand on Ladybug’s shoulder. “It’s only been two weeks. No one would blame you if you wanted to give your testimony later,” she said softly so that only the two of them could hear her.
“I’m ready,” the Defender nodded her head and gave her a pitying smile. “The sooner this man is behind bars the sooner I can rest in peace.” As she walked to the podium, Ladybug looked around the courtroom.
The case was to be heard in the Palais de Justice. The room looked too clean for the dirty truths that were about to be revealed. There were fourteen pews in the room, seven on each side, that were stationed behind the defendant and the persecuted. Since Ladybug was to give her testimony today, she sat at the front of the room. Making her walk to the stand painfully short. She wished she had more time to get there so she could steel her nerves.
She wasn’t the only one asked to testify against Gabriel. Some of the most deadly Akuma victims and the most frequent victims were also present: Ondine, Mr. Ramier, August, who had just turned eight the previous month, as well as Officer Roger Raincomprix, Andre Bourgeois and Aurore Beauréal. Other reporters who had seen multiple battles also stood witness.
They filled the pews of the courtroom and in the back stood the other reporters with their cameras. The cameras that would broadcast the hearing to the entire world. Where everyone would know of what went down in Paris and everyone would know how she failed.
The mayor of Paris and the President of France both agreed to keep the Akuma attacks hidden from the rest of the world. The last thing Paris needed was for the Justice League to come in and mess up what fragile structure they had built. Heaven knows what would've happened if Superman or Batman had come and been akumatized. So instead they blocked the media and moved the JLE headquarters out of Paris to Marseille.
Once Ladybug made it to the podium, the Clerk came up to swear her in. “Please stand. Raise your right hand. Do you promise that the testimony you shall give in the case before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”
“I do”
“Please state your name and occupation for the record.”
She gave the clerk a deadpan look because everybody knew who she was and exactly why she was there. But she answered anyway. “Ladybug, Hero, and protector of Paris, France.”
“Thank you. We will now begin the questioning.” As Mme. Josephine walked up to begin questioning, the rest of the world was able to see Ladybug for the first time in all of her glory.
Though her age was unidentifiable it was obvious to everyone that the young woman before them had seen too much. They could tell that she had seen horrors unimaginable and had survived through it. Unlike the polka-dotted suit she had in her starting years, Ladybug’s new uniform forgoed the multiple spots and replaced them in only a few, choice places.
She had long black boots that went up past her thighs and black fingerless gloves that went up her arm and faded into red past her elbows. Her torso was red with the ladybug symbol in the center above her breast. On her back was a small red and black shield that resembled her suit in the early days of Hawk Moth's reign.
Once Ladybug was seated the Defender began her questioning, “Ladybug,” she started, “ Is it true that you began battling Hawk Moth six years ago after the akumatization of Ivan Bruel?”
“Yes”
“And is it true,” she continued, “That two weeks ago today you and Chat Noir were able to end Hawk Moth's reign during the Final battle?”
“... yes”
“The information on the Final Battle is vague. We only know of the aftermath of the battle. Could you go through the events of the battle as well as the events that led up to it?”
Ladybug knew that this was coming. She had prepared herself for this. However, knowing and doing were two different things. It did give her slight relief that once this was over she would never have to talk about this and could finally leave this behind her. She took a deep breath and began to regale what had happened.
“Chat and I had suspected Gabriel back at the beginning of his reign when his son Adrien had gone to school with a book on the miraculous. He said that he had gotten it from his Father’s study. However, shortly after he was put on our suspect list, he was akumatized into The Collector. We should have known better than to eliminate our only suspect.” Her face was clouded in anger and shame.
“What made you and Chat put Gabriel back on your list of suspects?” Mme. Josephine asked.
“Honesty?” Ladybug started, “It was pure luck that we figured it out. Adrien, Gabriel’s son, had gone down to his father’s study last month to ask if he could go out with his friends the next week to celebrate their final summer in lycée since they were going to be in classe de terminale at the start of the new school year. However, when he reached the study he saw Gabriel entering his lair. As soon as he saw that he went out to find me.”
She remembered that night well. She was sitting outside reading, enjoying the warm night and her mug of tea when her kitty came and crashed onto her balcony.
“Adrien? What’s wrong?” he was crying. Breathing so hard to the point of hyperventilation.
“Bug,” he gasped out, “you were right. I should have known. I should have known! We could have ended this years ago. It was him all along. This is all my fault. It’s all my fault!”
“Kitty, slow down! What’s your fault? What was I right about?” he collapsed to the floor and kept repeating that it was his fault. “Kitty?” his eyes were wide and his pupils were contracted as he stared at her balcony floors crying. Marinette knew that she wasn’t going to get anything out of him while he was like this so she joined him on the ground and wrapped him in her arms. “Why don’t you let Plagg out for a snack and we can cuddle on my bed inside?”
“Huh?” He asked, “ Oh, yeah. Plagg, claws in.” After he released his transformation Marinette could see that he was still in his day clothes and hadn’t had the time to change into his pajamas.
“Come on, kitty,” Marinette said, getting up and reaching out her hand, “Let’s go inside. You can take a shower and I also have some PJs for you to change into” Adrien mutely took her hand as they went down through her skylight.
Once he was changed into one of the extra pairs of pajamas that Marinette kept there for him, he climbed onto her bed where Marinette was waiting with open arms for a cuddle.
“Are you ready to talk?” she asked gently. “What happened, minou?”
Adrien, whose back was resting on her chest, took in a deep breath and started talking, “I was going into Father’s study about an hour ago to ask if I could join you, Kagami, Chloe, and Luka on our summer trip before we started classe de terminale next semester.”
“Yeah, I remember,” Marinette replied, “Chlo had to threaten you before you finally worked up the courage to ask him.” She said with a slight chuckle.
“...yeah, well,” Adrien continued, “when I went down there the lights to his study were already on and the door was cracked open. I peeked through the crack in the door to check if he was still in his study or if he had retired for the night. Mari, he– he did something to Mother’s painting. And then the floor opened up and he descended like he was on some sort of elevator.” Marinette could feel him shivering against her. “It makes too much sense. He’s always been cold and distant. And I bet that he wants our miraculous to bring Mother back. But she wouldn’t have wanted that!”
“Now wait just a minute, Adrien,” Marinette interrupted, “Just because Gabriel is a horrible father and is cold doesn’t mean that he’s the one that’s been terrorizing Paris since we were twelve. Maybe that was just a secret passageway into his inspiration area?”
“Come on, Mari. You don’t seriously believe that?” He flipped over to giver her an incredulous look.
“Well not entirely,” she answered honestly, “But I don’t want to think that the person we’ve been fighting all these years is one, your father, and two, was so close to us this whole time.”
“I shouldn’t have crossed him off the list so early on,” Marinette pulled him tighter against her chest as he continued his confession, “ I was naive. I shouldn’t have forced you to cross him off the list just because I’m related to him.”
“You were,” Marinette admitted and she heard him suck in a breath, “but we were children. We started fighting this war when we were twelve. You couldn’t have known better. Neither of us knew better. We were thrown into a war that was not our own with no training and were given powers we were too young to handle. It’s as much your fault as it is mine, but we can fix this together.” she promised, “ for now let’s get some sleep. It’s already 2 AM. In the morning we can discuss battle plans.” Marinette kissed the crown of his head as she laid down, pulling him down with her. “Sleep well, my love.”
“Night, Bugaboo,” he said as he pulled her against her chest, “ I don’t know what I would do without you. I love you”
“And I you.”
“After Adrien told me what he had discovered, Chat and I strategized how we were going to deal with it for two weeks.”
“And Adrien Agreste was crucial to the defeat of Hawk Moth?” she inquired.
“He was,” Ladybug agreed.
“How did Adrien find you that night?”
“Well Chat and I have done nightly patrols for the past four years. When he went out that night he caught me right outside the Eiffel tower where Chat and I normally ended our patrols.” Ladybug clenched her hands on top of the witness podium, “He was so scared,” she said. Everyone could see the righteous anger on her face.
“And what role did Adrien play in the Final Battle,” the Defender asked.
Ladybug sucked in a breath and steeled herself to regale the painful tale.