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quicksilversquared · 5 years

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Keeping Up With the Ladyblog Pt. 2

A reporter has to adapt and improvise. It’s an important skill to learn, especially when one is a reporter who is still in school and can’t skip out to film all of the akuma battles without getting grounded. So Alya gets creative and starts using old security camera footage of akuma attacks. It keeps the Ladyblog active and maybe, just maybe, she’ll finally get her scoop of a lifetime.

links in the reblog

It was much harder to get Ladybug and Chat Noir alone than Alya would have thought. Now that she had important information- super important information, crazy important information- she never seemed to be able to catch them on their own at the end of a fight. They were always surrounded by adoring fans, reporters, and too many cameras for Alya to be comfortable with when they had a little bit of time left at the end of a fight, and when they didn't, well...

They just took off far too quickly for Alya to catch them.

Alya was just starting to get frustrated when Nino suggested that she just tell Ladybug or Chat Noir that she needed to talk to them privately and soon. That way, she didn't need to get them all on their own or risk other people overhearing and breaking the story before she could.

That was a much better idea. Nino got a kiss for that.

After that, it was a piece of cake for Alya to get to Ladybug before she and Chat Noir could run off at the end of a fight. Ladybug seemed a bit distracted, trying to smile for the cameras and answer the questions being thrown at her like usual, but Alya persisted.

"Ladybug!" Alya called, weaving closer to the superhero. She ducked under Madam Chamack's cameraman's arm to get past them. There was a "Hey!" as she disrupted the video, but Alya didn't care. She rushed up to Ladybug, tugging lightly on the superhero's arm.

Maybe she wasn't going to tell Ladybug exactly what her scoop was right now, but she still didn't need any other reporters sticking their noses in and messing everything up.

"I need to talk to you and Chat Noir privately," she told Ladybug in a hushed whisper, glancing around to make sure that no one was listening in. "I have a scoop- it's about Hawkmoth."

She saw Chat Noir glance back at them, his cat ears flicking backwards briefly. He and Ladybug exchanged a look, wordlessly communicating something that Alya couldn't decipher.

"We can swing by tonight," Ladybug told Alya, one eye still on Chat Noir. "It'll probably be late, though."

"Understandable." Alya flashed Ladybug a quick smile. "And I'll try to be fast about it. Thanks!"

Ladybug nodded, and seconds later she and Chat Noir bounded out of the crowd, back to the rooftops to go back home. Alya watched them go for a second, then beat it before Madam Chamack could catch up to her and start scolding her for messing up her shot or something.

Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up at ten thirty on the dot, landing just outside of Alya's window. She let them in right away, pointing them towards her computer. Onscreen, she had the edited Heroes Day footage up, paused right near the end.

"So you might have noticed that I've been going through security camera footage to edit it into a cohesive video of the fight for the Ladyblog," Alya started, settling into her chair in front of the computer. She was feeling a little nervous now, probably because Adrien was going to end up losing his father because of this. And while it wasn't her fault- it was his asshat supervillain of a father's- she couldn't help but feel a little bad. "And this is Heroes Day. I was going through the footage from the Eiffel Tower, and I saw- well, this."

She hit Play. Onscreen, the superheroes were blown away by the giant moth's wing blasts. Hawkmoth made a hasty exit, swinging off the side of the tower and out of sight. Seamlessly (thank you, Nino- he was definitely getting a lot of video editing practice in while helping her), the view switched to the iced-over camera from the lower level. The purple blur that was Hawkmoth appeared and landed, heading unsteadily away across the platform. Another angle switch showed him heading past a camera, then slumping against the wall, fully within the camera's view. There was a flash, and the distortion effect made the view even worse.

"That's what happens when you guys transform and detransform," Alya explained to the superheroes. "It's to help keep your identity safe, I guess."

Ladybug and Chat Noir nodded. Neither looked surprised. Alya had to wonder if maybe their kwamis had already told them that, so that they wouldn't have to scramble to make sure that there were no cameras nearby when they transformed or detransformed. She wouldn't be surprised.

The ice was cleared away in a flash of red, and the three of them watched as the pixilated, staticky Hawkmoth sat on the ground for a bit before getting up. The screen split in two as he walked away, showing the clear feed of the stairs.

"I'm positive that this is Hawkmoth," Alya told them, briefly pausing the video before Hawkmoth could exit the first feed. "Look at what he's wearing there, and then in the next screen. And there shouldn't have been that many people on the Eiffel Tower in the first place. It got evacuated pretty quickly."

"There were a couple employees that got trapped up top, that Volpina girl, and then Hawkmoth," Ladybug agreed. "And those red pants and white top are pretty distinctive. Let's see it, then."

Alya nodded, starting up the feed again. She could feel the tension mount in the room as Hawkmoth headed down the stairs unsteadily, more and more of him coming into view. They hadn't even gotten to his shoulders when Ladybug gasped, a couple words that Alya had never expected to hear from Ladybug slipping out. Less than a second later, when they had gotten as far as Hawkmoth's neck, Chat Noir hissed.

Okay, so apparently the two of them were familiar with Mr. Agreste, then?

"I knew it!" Ladybug half-snarled when Mr. Agreste's face came into view. "He threw me off when he got akumatized- when he akumatized himself- but we have him now."

Chat Noir nodded, strangely pale under his black mask.

"I wanted to show you first, since I'm sure that the police would bungle the whole thing somehow," Alya said, moving over so that Ladybug and Chat Noir could see the screen better. The video had been paused again, with Mr. Agreste in frame. "I don't think that they're entirely able to deal with magic powers."

"Right, right." Ladybug's glare was practically burning through Alya's computer as she stared down the image of Mr. Agreste. She gave herself a good shake and refocused on Alya, all business again. "That's great that you found this, Alya. We probably won't act on it right away-"

Alya nodded eagerly. "You have to plan the final boss battle, right?"

"Well, we have to do a bit of planning, yeah. We want to be safe as possible." Ladybug smiled at Alya, then pulled her yo-yo off of her hip. After tapping away on her screen, a USB stick popped out of the side of her yo-yo. "Do you think you could give me a copy of that video? We might need it in the future, if we do end up using the police to help us."

"Of course!" Alya accepted the Ladybug-patterned USB and plugged it in. She paused as her computer worked to recognize it. "Uh, you'll tell people that I was the one to do this, right?"

"Of course! I wouldn't deny you your credit, Alya," Ladybug assured her. "Actually, have you added the Ladyblog watermark to it yet? We can wait if you want to do that first."

Alya startled because oh, yeah, that was definitely something she should have done and then preened. "You noticed that?" It was something that most people didn't even register when they were watching, but it had taken Alya several tries to get the watermark to work on uploaded videos and several weeks of testing to get it to automatically show up on livestreams. Max had helped her a bit with that, but it had mostly been Alya's trial and error that finally had them figuring it out.

"Yeah. It's smart, since there's a ton of knock-off blogs now." Ladybug watched as Alya quickly clicked through her settings, inserting her new and improved (thank you, Marinette) Ladyblog logo into the corner of the whole video. She saved it, then made a copy for Ladybug. It took a minute to transfer. "How much of the fight does that include?"

"The last five minutes, maybe? And then a couple minutes of Hawkmoth at the end." The file finished loading and Alya ejected Ladybug's USB, handing it back to her. "My boyfriend and I are still working on getting the rest of the footage from the fight put together. When I post it, I'll post the version without Hawkmoth detransforming and his real identity, at least until he's been defeated."

"I think it warrants its own post, honestly." Ladybug tucked the USB back into her yo-yo. "Thank you so much, Alya. I'm sure we'll be in touch."

Alya looked up sharply at that. Ladybug winked, and for a second Alya was confused. Then it dawned on her.

Oh my GOD I'm gonna get the Fox back! I'm gonna be part of the boss battle!

Oh gosh. She wasn't sure if she was ready for that. She had only been out for a handful of battles and saying that it had gone well was probably an overstatement. She was still very much in the middle of a very steep learning curve. But if Ladybug had faith in her, then she wasn't going to let Ladybug down.

Chat Noir nodded in agreement, looking far more serious than Alya had ever seen him before. With a start, she realized that he hadn't said anything after seeing the video. That was pretty strange, but maybe seeing Hawkmoth's secret identity onscreen had really made the possibility of a final battle possible, and Alya knew how final battles went in the comics. Not everyone always made it out in one piece, and as Ladybug's self-appointed shield, Chat Noir was more likely to end up hurt.

...yeah, okay, there were definitely some scary parts to this whole superhero business. Maybe Alya could ask that they do some training sessions before jumping right into the final battle bit.

Ladybug and Chat Noir said their good-byes after that, waving to Alya as they headed out. Just as Ladybug had one leg out the window, something she had said earlier finally caught up with Alya and she reached out, the reporter in her practically begging for answers. "Wait! Ladybug, you said something earlier-"

Ladybug paused, glancing back. "Yeah?"

"You- you said that 'that Volpina girl' was on the Eiffel Tower," Alya started, frowning. "Don't you know her name?"

That got a frown on Ladybug's face. "No, why should I remember her name?"

"Lila said- Lila said that you were best friends!" Alya said, reaching for her computer again. "I have a whole interview on the Ladyblog-"

"I remember seeing part of that," Ladybug said once the page loaded on the Ladyblog. "I had never even met her before that. I did go and tell her to stop trying to use me as a way to get popular after that, but I'm going to guess that she didn't do that. Even though she definitely hates me now for calling her out like that."

Alya spluttered. "But- but she said-"

Ladybug shrugged. "Some people lie to try to get what they want. I'm going to guess that she's lied about a lot of things. She seems the type."

Alya nodded slowly. She- she was starting to get that impression, too. After all, there was the whole issue of Lila being in Paris when she was meant to be traveling. Ladybug's comments shouldn't have surprised her, really, but somehow they still had. It also meant that maybe Alya should do a bit of investigation about that, now that she had let Ladybug and Chat Noir know about Mr. Agreste.

"I certainly wouldn't trust anything that she says," Ladybug added. "But that's just me, of course."

Alya nodded as the superheroes swung off into the night. She watched them go, then turned back to her computer.

If she focused, maybe she could make some progress on what promised to be her second scoop of the summer.

Alya couldn't deny that she was a bit disappointed when two more weeks went by like normal, akuma attacks happening nearly every day and running just like usual. But it did give her more content for her blog, and that was good, so…

Maybe planning was taking longer than she had thought. Maybe they had a mentor who was on vacation at the moment. Maybe they were staking out the Agreste house to try to figure out where Mr. Agreste transformed.

Alya would have volunteered to go in and do a little poking around to try to find whatever secret entrance Mr. Agreste no doubt had to enter his lair, but she was sort of banned from the house after she had been caught doing a bit of unapproved exploring. At the moment, she was pretty sure that Marinette was the only one of Adrien's close friends who was allowed to actually hang out with him in his house. And there was no way that Alya was going to put Marinette in danger by asking her to poke around, so that was a dead end, at least for now.

So Alya decided to turn to her other scoop: figuring out what, exactly, was going on with Lila's stories.

She knew that Lila was lying about some things, at least: being on a trip abroad for several months, and about being friends with Ladybug. Those were pretty big things, so it was pretty logical to assume that a lot of the other things that she had told them were probably also lies. Still, Alya wanted to do a little digging.

And that little bit of digging turned up a lot.

"Disproving the Jagged Stone's kitten thing was easy," Alya told Nino the next time they met up. "When he was at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, they asked him about pets and he's only ever had Fang. And there aren't any of his songs that could possibly be about her, it's obvious now that I'm looking. But I don't have Prince Ali's number, Rose does, and it's not like I could just call up a bunch of movie directors and ask them- well, I could, but why would they bother replying?"

"Do you really need to find and disprove every last one of her lies?" Nino asked, waving at Adrien and Marinette as they approached from across the park. "I mean, we know. Once we tell everyone else, they'll know, too. But isn't the obvious solution right there?"

Alya gave him a puzzled look. The obvious solution? What did he mean by that? It was obvious that this was another test of her reporting skills, seeing how much information she could seek out. What else was there to it?

"The teachers?" Nino prompted after a few seconds. "If she was just telling a few lies to try to fit in and make kids fast because of new student syndrome, that would be one thing. The teachers wouldn't really care about that. But Lila was trying to get out of things and get favors because of her connections and for her 'illnesses', and she was skipping school. I think that's the kind of thing that would be important for them to know."

Groaning, Alya slouched down on the bench. "Great. Another scoop, and I have to just turn it over to an authority and wait. I hate waiting."

"It's probably an important part of reporting, knowing when to let go and let someone else take over." Nino nudged her shoulder. "Hey, cheer up. It's not like you have to stop digging once you tell Ms. Bustier or Mr. Damocles. Or you could always take the time that you've been using to research Lila's stories and go back to getting the security footage all ready to go up on the Ladyblog. Don't you still have a ton of that to do? And it'll probably get more interest before the final battle is over and Hawkmoth is defeated."

Alya had to give him that. Besides, she was getting more footage every day, and if she waited for too long then school would start again and she would never catch up.

"And if that gets old, we can always hang out with Adrien and Marinette more," Nino added quietly. "We haven't gotten to spend that much time with them this summer- especially you- because we've been busy and they've been busy. And we need to enjoy this while it lasts."

She could only nod in agreement.

As always, it was hard to hang out with Adrien and Marinette without updating them on the biggest scoop of her life. She would have updated them about her Lila research instead, but, well, Marinette clearly had suspected all of the lies already (and Alya had scoffed at her suspicions at the time, whoops) and somehow Alya got the feeling that Adrien had, too. It was all old news to them, and she felt a bit ridiculous that it had taken her so much longer to catch on. On top of that, Alya rather belatedly remembered once telling Marinette that a good reporter always checked her sources when they were discussing Lila. She hadn't done any research or fact-checking of her own then, and now Alya was feeling rather sheepish about how easy it was to disprove the lies that she had once fallen for.

So instead she said nothing. The four of them just hung out and Marinette showed off some of her designs and Nino played a couple of his mixes as they ate their picnic and wandered around the city, enjoying a relatively mild day.

It was normal, and Alya…Alya knew that it was going to end soon. Adrien's father would be arrested and what would happen after that, she didn't knew. Hopefully Adrien would be able to stay in Paris with all of them at the very least.

"It's so hard acting natural with him," Alya told Nino as they headed back to her apartment after their gathering broke up. "Like, I know that his life is going to change a ton soon- well, whenever Ladybug and Chat Noir act- and he's just oblivious. And it's awful."

"He'll be safer once his father is in jail," Nino told her. "Just focus on that. Him and all of Paris."

Tracking down a teacher in the summer wasn't anywhere near as hard as snagging Ladybug after a fight. As it turned out, Ms. Bustier was teaching summer school and all Alya had to do was get up a little earlier than usual and go in before the summer school students arrived.

And as it turned out, Alya got to see a bit of the fallout. Ms. Bustier was so taken aback by the video footage of Lila clearly in Paris on Heroes Day that she had immediately gone to the computer, looked up the phone number for Lila's mom, and called her up right then and there. It went through, and Alya listened in, trying not to look too interested. She wouldn't be able to stand it if she had to leave the room and miss hearing everything.

"Yes, I was Lila's teacher this past year," Ms. Bustier was saying. "And just this morning, we had some concerns arise about the trip that Lila was on during the school year- no, not before she arrived. She was here for a day and then said that she went on a trip around Europe for several months- you say she didn't leave Paris at all? And-" Ms. Bustier listened and then frowned. "No, we didn't close the school for akuma attacks, at least not for any extended period of time. We occasionally have had to evacuate and closed the school for the remainder of the afternoon or the morning, but we never even closed for an entire day, let alone any longer period of time. The akumas don't disrupt us that much."

Alya's eyebrows shot up. Another scoop! Lila must have told her mom that they were doing online learning in place of going in to the classroom, and somehow her mom had never checked on that. Kind of like how the school had clearly never verified Lila's claim of being out of the country.

….that seemed like a fairly large breakdown in communication, honestly.

"Lila must have lied to both of us, then," Ms. Buster was saying. "She will face consequences for that when school resumes in the fall. And- yes, consequences at home would be a good idea, too. Ah- if you have time, I wanted to ask about some of Lila's other claims?"

Alya listened raptly as Ms. Bustier listed off as many of Lila's stories as she could remember, with occasional help from Alya chiming in. On the other end of the line, Lila's mom was clearly denying that any of those things had ever happened. When she heard Lila's claims about tinnitus and arthritis, she exploded on the other end of the line, loud enough for Alya to hear halfway across the room.

Clearly someone was going to be getting in a lot of trouble tonight. Alya wasn't going to be surprised if Volpina made another appearance.

"Well, that was….something," Ms. Bustier said with a sigh once she had hung up several minutes later. "Some of Lila's stories had seemed far-fetched when she was telling them, but there were so many that I thought that there would be no way that she would lie that much. I didn't see any reason for her to. But clearly I was wrong."

Alya nodded. She had kind of taken the same approach, honestly. One out-of-place story would have been suspicious. Dozens of them? There had to be some truth there.

Apparently not.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Alya," Ms. Bustier told her. She looked tired. "I'm sure Lila's mom and I will be in contact to keep a situation like this from happening again. And… while I would normally ask you to not share this with other people, since you overheard a phone call I had about another student and normally we don't do that, this time it's fine. Normally everyone would know all of that already. And I might send out an email tonight to the families, since Lila was trying to manipulate people with her 'connections' and we need to cut that off." She sighed, massaging her temples. "I'll add it to my list of things to do. And- oh, my students are coming in now. Was there anything else, Alya?"

Alya shook her head. "No. That's it. Well-" she hesitated, thinking up one last question, something that had been bugging her ever since she shared her video with Ladybug and Chat Noir. She hadn't wanted to ask her parents (and they weren't likely to know anyway), but Ms. Bustier might be able to put her mind at rest. "I had a hypothetical question."

A hint of a smile showed up on Ms. Bustier's face. "Ah, yes, the famous hypothetical question. What were you wondering, Alya?"

"If- hypothetically- if someone were to only have one parent and that parent got arrested, what would happen to them?" Alya asked, hoping that Ms. Bustier would know. "Hypothetically!"

Ms. Bustier frowned. "Does this have something to do with Lila? She still has both parents, Alya, even if they aren't together."

"No, nothing to do with that whole mess," Alya said quickly. "And it's hypothetical."

That got a smile on Ms. Bustier's face. "Alya, in my experience, the more hypotheticals someone adds to a question, the less hypothetical it is." The smile vanished as she grew serious again. "As for your question…. well, if they have relatives around who are able and willing to take them, then they would likely go there. Otherwise, a trusted family friend might take custody….though if one parent was arrested, the family friends would be very closely examined to make sure they were innocent."

Alya nodded. She still didn't know where that would leave Adrien. Were Nathalie and the Gorilla innocent in all of this?

"Is there…" Ms. Bustier glanced at the door, then back at Alya. She lowered her voice. "Alya, can I ask who you're asking for? So I can be on the lookout to help?"

"It…" Alya hesitated. She didn't want to go and spoil Ladybug and Chat Noir's work, but it wouldn't hurt to have an adult looking after them, too. "I don't know how much I can say, because it's an ongoing investigation…"

Ms. Bustier frowned. "Alya, what have you gotten involved with?"

"It's a Ladybug and Chat Noir thing! I'm not getting tangled up with normal criminals," Alya assured her teacher. Ms. Bustier didn't look any more happy with that.

"Magical criminals aren't any better. That might be worse, actually. Alya…"

"I just did some research for them," Alya assured her. "There was no legwork involved."

Ms. Bustier didn't look convinced.

"And I promise I'll let you know more as soon as I can." Alya shifted from foot to foot, glancing towards the door as the noise level outside got a little louder. "And I'll try to stay safe."

"Coming from the girl that goes charging towards akuma fights, I'm not sure how reassuring that is," Ms. Bustier said with a sigh. "But- Alya, let me give you my phone number and my email. Contact me when you're allowed to. Promise me."

"I will," Alya vowed.

Finally, finally, Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up at Alya's window again, only an hour after she got back from the school. Much to her excitement, they were carrying her Miraculous.

"There's no boss battle today, but we think that we'll need the Fox's powers," Ladybug told her. "So we thought of you, of course."

Alya grinned as she accepted the box and opened it up, beaming as her kwami popped into view. "Hi, Trixx!"

"Hiya, Alya!"

"So what are we going to be doing?" Alya asked eagerly as she hooked her Miraculous around her neck. "Training?"

Ladybug laughed. "Not quite. Your comment about the police gave us an idea, that we might be able to use them to set a trap. So we told them about Mr. Agreste and showed them your evidence, on the condition that they'll follow our lead and not try to take him on on their own. They're going to get him to come in to the station, where he'll have a harder time transforming."

"We didn't want to try to attack him in his lair," Chat Noir chimed in. "We scoped it out a little- well, my kwami did- and what we found was…. well, disturbing. And we have our suspicious about Mayura, and we don't want them nearby, either. One at a time is easier."

Alya frowned. "So… what are we doing today?"

"Well, the police are going to call Mr. Agreste today to claim that they have a lead about where Mrs. Agreste is," Chat Noir said, glancing at Ladybug. "And that he has to come in- in person, not via Skype- to look over some things. We want to see his reaction to the call."

Alya was still officially lost as to why they needed her.

"But we want to hear it, too," Ladybug continued, seamlessly picking up where Chat Noir picked off. "And- we asked Trixx about this- if you do a small illusion, maybe something not very big or noticeable- then you can use it as basically a- what do you call it, Chat Noir? Those spy things?"

"Why do you assume that I would know what they're called?" Chat Noir pouted at Ladybug, and honestly, Alya regretted ever thinking that the two of them were cool. "They're like the Extendable Ears things in Harry Potter, I guess?"

"It's essentially like setting a bug," Alya corrected them dryly. Then she perked up. "Oh! I'll be doing the listening! That's cool!"

"Do you have the time?" Ladybug asked her. "Like, you don't have to babysit today, do you?"

Alya laughed as she shook her head. "Nah, Nora's taking Ella and Etta for the week. It's about time, too, since I did most of the babysitting during the school year."

"Good." Ladybug headed towards the window. "Ready? Or do you need to let someone know that you're going out?"

"I'll tell my mom that I'm going out with my boyfriend," Alya decided after a moment's thought. "And then I'll transform in the alleyway. Meet me down there?" she added.

"Of course," Ladybug agreed easily. Chat Noir nodded.

Alya made to move towards her door again, then paused and glanced back at the superheroes. "Do you two have to tell your parents when you're going out, too? What excuse do you use?"

"Oh, I told them I was going out with my boyfriend," Ladybug said breezily, grinning at Alya cheekily. "They were fine with it, of course."

"It's not like she was lying ," Chat Noir added in, his grin twice as cheeky. "After all, she's hanging out with me."

Ten minutes into their stakeout, Rena Rouge still hadn't managed to get a straight answer out of Ladybug and Chat Noir about whether they were kidding about the dating thing or not. She wanted to think so, of course- three big scoops in one summer would be amazing, and confirming Ladynoir would actually be a positive scoop- but they weren't giving her anything.

"Okay, they're going to call in the next couple minutes," Ladybug said, checking her yo-yo. "Rena, send in the mini-illusion. And then we're going to have to focus."

"This won't set off my timer?" Rena Rouge checked one more time. "Because that would stink to miss anything."

"No, it only uses a fraction of your power. Trixx said you would have half an hour at the least before the timer might start counting down." Ladybug glanced at her yo-yo again, then hunkered down on the rooftop. "And we have to make sure that we're not seen. If we are…"

Rena Rouge nodded. Mr. Agreste might just start acting instead of actually reacting realistically, and they didn't want that. That would completely defeat the purpose of coming out at all. It was a basic rule of stake-outs, really.

Bringing her flute to her lips, Rena played a short tune, envisioning a small white butterfly as she flicked the light off of the end. It formed and fluttered away, headed right for the house. Rena Rouge bit her lip as she watched it go, hoping that she had done it right. They wouldn't know right away, but hopefully they had a couple minutes for her to check the butterfly's hearing abilities first.

"A little lower- to the side- yes, hover it right there," Chat Noir urged, peeping over the side of the rampart. "Or maybe have it land against the house."

"Done and done." Rena held down her ears and peeped over for a moment as well before flattening herself to the rooftop. "Okay, and now I listen, I guess…?"

On top of her head, her fox ears twitched back and forth as she tried to focus on her connection with the butterfly illusion. Slowly, she started picking up voices. As Rena strained to listen, they got louder.

"-this zipper isn't the right shade to go with this fabric, what was the sewing room thinking? It's too bright, it'll catch the light if even a hint of the zipper isn't covered. Must I really specify every single bit of the design? What's next, telling the sewing room that the right side of the fabric is meant to face out?"

Great. Fashion talk. Nothing interesting yet.

Nathalie's voice joined Gabriel's. "I'll look into it at once and see who was responsible. I'll let them know that this will be a dark mark on their record and further mistakes will put their job in jeopardy."

"See that you do. I won't stand for employees that can't use their brain when sewing."

"Anything?" Ladybug whispered, making Rena Rouge startle. "Does it work?"

"It works. They're just talking fashion. Something about the wrong finish on a zipper."

Oddly enough, Ladybug looked interested. "Wait, what-"

"Not the time, Bug," Chat Noir murmured, and Ladybug settled down with a bit of a pout.

The banal fashion talk continued for another minute, and Rena tried not to groan as it turned to the business side of the fashion house. She was saved, though, by the ringing of a phone.

"It's happening!" Rena Rouge told Ladybug and Chat Noir, pulling their attention back from whatever whispered conversation they were having. "The police are calling, and Nathalie is headed over to get it!"

The other superheroes froze, then scrambled into position. Rena Rouge returned her attention to the conversation, though there wasn't really much to it. Nathalie was listening more than talking, and her tone gave nothing away.

"She's impossible to read," she faintly heard Ladybug complain. "C'mon, give something away."

"She's thanking them now," Rena Rouge relayed. "And hanging up- now shush so I can listen!"

The other superheroes shushed.

Rena Rouge held still as a statue, listening closely as Nathalie relayed the police's message to Mr. Agreste. Next to her, Ladybug and Chat Noir huddled around her yo-yo, watching Mr. Agreste's expression on the zoomed-in feed.

"He looks super annoyed," Ladybug whispered. "There's- there's something not right there. Why would he look annoyed?"

"If he knows that they can't have a lead, maybe," Chat Noir suggested after a second. "Or can't have a correct lead, at least." He was pale. "He's a supervillain. Do you think-"

"Shh! I'm trying to listen!" Rena hissed at them. "I don't want to miss anything!"

Ladybug and Chat Noir promptly shut up.

"They would come here if they suspected anything about us," Gabriel was telling Nathalie. Down below, Rena could see him pacing, going back and forth in front of the window. "If they suspected that we know what happened, or that we know where Emilie is, they would come here and take us into custody. No, they've found some false lead. But I'm still going to have to go in, just to keep up appearances."

Rena Rouge gasped. Adrien's father knew where his wife was? That was awful. Had he done something to her?

"What did they say?" Chat Noir wanted to know. "What-"

"Shh, I'm listening!"

"I said that I would call them back once I had talked with you about when we could go in. Unless you just want me to go?"

"No, they would consider that strange. I'm going to need to go in myself." Gabriel scowled. "And they're going to expect me to be rushing in right away. It's what anyone else would do. When…?"

"They said that the detective would be in all day tomorrow, just choose a time. You have meetings throughout the morning, then a break from eleven fifteen to two forty-five, then again after five."

Rena Rouge reached blindly for the notepad that she had brought along, scribbling that down. Just in case.

"I'll meet with them at twelve-thirty. That gives me some time if anything runs over." Gabriel sounded irritated. "I hope it doesn't run for long. I need to get some designing done."

"Of course, sir."

"And I'm going to go check on Emilie now. I want you to keep an eye on her tomorrow, while I'm at the meeting. Just in case."

Nathalie was frowning, and it was clear in her voice. "You think they might be up to something?"

"Something doesn't feel right. Why would they even think that they might have any leads on Emilie? It's impossible." Gabriel headed over to the portrait of his wife. "I don't like it."

"Wishful thinking, perhaps. Or they've actually got a lead on some other missing person, but they just misidentified them."

"He said he was going to check on Emilie," Rena Rouge hissed. "Keep an eye on him. Watch what he does."

The dual curse that she got from Ladybug and Chat Noir wasn't unexpected this time.

"I'm switching this to video mode," Ladybug announced. "Chat Noir-"

Chat Noir already had his baton out. "I'll take a backup video, so we don't miss anything."

"One would hope that Paris's esteemed police department would be more careful than that." Mr. Agreste didn't sound impressed as he addressed Nathalie. "But I agree, that's the most likely explanation. You can take care of calling the police back?"

"Of course."

They fell quiet, and Rena Rouge glanced over at Ladybug and Chat Noir. They both had intense looks of concentration on their faces as they manipulated their screens. Within a minute, both let out an exclamation and sat back.

"He's got some sort of elevator built into the floor," Ladybug explained to Rena Rouge. "And the buttons are built into the painting. We're going to have to look at the recording more closely to figure out exactly what they are. Hopefully that goes straight to- to wherever Mrs. Agreste is."

"Are you going to try to find her?" Rena Rouge asked excitedly, visions of a stealth mission already dancing through her head. "Are you going to break in in the middle of the night and push the buttons and-"

"We're going to go in once both Hawkmoth and Mayura have had their Miraculous removed and are in police custody," Ladybug said firmly. "We don't want to make Mr. Agreste any more suspicious than he already is."

…Rena supposed that that made sense.

They didn't stick around for long after that. Nathalie called the police back and when Mr. Agreste hadn't reappeared by the time the call ended, they decided that that was about as much information as they were going to get today.

"Are you going to need me tomorrow?" Alya asked once they were back in her room. She didn't want to give up her Miraculous, not yet. "For the confrontation?"

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchanged a glance, then Ladybug rolled up on her tiptoes to whisper something into his ear. After a quick discussion, they seemed to reach a consensus.

"There's not going to be much of a battle, hopefully," Ladybug said slowly. "I mean, I'm going to restrain him as soon as he gets into the room- or as soon as I get into the room, I don't think we've decided which way we're doing it yet."

"I'd say have the detective give him a made-up story first," Chat Noir suggested. "Then he'll be more relaxed."

"Right. But Mayura is still a wild card. So maybe keep the Miraculous and Trixx will let you know if we need help. If things go smoothly, we'll let you know when you can make your post about Hawkmoth's identity," Ladybug told her. "You might want to have that ready to go as soon as we contact you. I'd be surprised if the police don't make the announcement as soon as they can, so you'll want to beat them."

Alya nodded. "Already written and formatted. I just have it in my drafts and set on private posting right now, just to be safe."

"Good." Ladybug smiled. "We'll be in touch, Alya! Have a good rest of your evening."

"I'll try," Alya said wryly, trying not to think about how Adrien's life was soon going to be uprooted. "I'll try."

"I can't believe we're hanging out this morning. This morning, of all times!"

"Well, it's our last chance to do it normally." Nino squeezed her hand. "D'you think you can manage to act normal for a bit?"

Alya winced. Honestly, after hearing what she had the previous day about Adrien's mom? She might have to refrain from talking to Adrien too much until after everything came out.

"And speaking of normal- or not so much," Nino murmured all of a sudden, shaking Alya's arm. "I know Adrien and Marinette were getting closer- well, you've missed most of that, actually, since you've been so busy- but look at them!"

Alya's head shot up. Her two other friends were headed down the street together, Marinette's arm wrapped around Adrien's. Their heads were close together as they talked, and Alya couldn't deny it- they looked a lot closer than they had been even only a couple weeks before. She wanted to squeal with glee- if they weren't dating now, they were definitely close- but at the same time, she couldn't deny the tendril of dread that curled around her heart.

She wanted Adrien and Marinette to be together, of course. Marinette had had a crush on him for so long, and they would be adorable together. But now?

Adrien would be going through the hardest part of his life soon, and there was no way that he'd actually be in a state of mind to be a good boyfriend during that time. They might be able to weather it if they were in an established relationship, but with a barely-started one?

Alya didn't want their relationship to crash and burn before it had even gotten a proper chance.

"Okay, but at least Marinette will be amazing at supporting him," Nino pointed out, almost as though he were reading Alya's mind. "And if they aren't dating this morning, what are the chances that they'll be able to start before everything? I mean, there's two hours before he goes in to the station. There'll only be, what? Thirty minutes max before he gets arrested?"

"I wish we could warn him somehow before the news breaks, but there's no way." Alya frowned. "D'you suppose I should try to contact Ladybug and Chat Noir and ask...?"

"They're pretty compassionate, Alya. I'd be super surprised if they haven't already come up with a plan." Nino squeezed her arm reassuringly. "I bet that the police are planning to send someone to talk to Adrien before they let you know that you can post the video."

"I hope so."

"Someone sure looks serious today," Marinette called, and Nino and Alya hastily broke apart."Did someone rain on your parade?"

It certainly felt like a dark stormcloud was overhead, just waiting to burst, but Alya couldn't say that. Instead, she forced a smile. "We were just discussing having to babysit the twins and Chris later this week. They don't exactly get along well."

Marinette made a face at that. "Ugh. Yeah, I can see where they might clash a little. But- oh! Do you know who Chris would probably love? Max! He's big on all of the 'big kid stuff', as Chris calls it."

Nino grinned. "Oh, you are absolutely right. I'll text Max about that and see if he's even interested in spending a bit of time with Chris."

Alya had thought that the anticipation would make the morning absolutely creep by. She wasn't wrong- but anticipation wasn't the only thing making it go so slowly.

It was worry, it was concern, it was the nagging feeling that maybe she should say something to Marinette and suggest that she and Adrien hold off on dating, if they hadn't already started.

Surely they would have said something if they had decided to start dating in the world's absolute worse sense of timing? Alya thought they would, but then again Adrien and Marinette were clearly super close now, far more than they had been even a week earlier. Right now, Adrien was sitting with his head pillowed in Marinette's lap, looking thoroughly content as Marinette ran her fingers through his hair. Earlier, they had seemed practically glued together at the hip. It was clear couple behavior, and it was making Alya nervous.

And then at the end of their little friend get-together, the two of them left together. Alya peered after them and spotted their interlaced hands.

That was not good.

"Don't worry too much about it, babe," Nino told her. "Marinette's smart, she'll understand that Adrien won't be feeling his normal self for a bit and she won't judge him for it. And maybe they'll even be together when the police find him. It'll be good for him to have someone actually supportive around when he gets the news."

Alya couldn't help but worry about it. She worried about it while she ate lunch (read: played with her food). She worried about it while she washed up their dishes (read: ran the dishes absently under water and waved the sponge vaguely in their direction). And she especially worried about it as she got everything set up in her room, ready for Ladybug's message.

The clock ticked forward. Alya watched as it reached twelve-thirty, then twelve thirty-five, twelve forty, twelve forty-five...

Surely the superheroes had taken Hawkmoth's Miraculous by now. Alya pulled up a news feed from Paris, nervous that something had gone wrong.

Ugh. She would have much preferred being there herself.

Twelve forty-seven. Twelve forty-eight.

"They likely have to find and inform Adrien first," Trixx reminded her. "I'm not feeling any signs of distress from Plagg or Tikki."

Twelve forty-nine. Twelve fifty-

Alya's phone dinged with a message. She grabbed for it.

Ladybug: Hawkmoth and Mayura in custody. Go ahead and post, then come down to the police station ASAP. They'll be making an official announcement at 1:15.

Alya grinned, reaching for her computer. After one last check- the post time would be correct, the post would be public, not private, and it would sent out an alert to all of her subscribers just like the live akuma streams always did- Alya hit post. The page refreshed and there it was, right at the top of the page.

Hawkmoth's Identity Revealed!

Ladyblog Live Stream: Paris police announce the capture of Hawkmoth and Mayura; Ladybug and Chat Noir victorious!

"Today, at twelve thirty, Paris police called Gabriel Agreste in for questioning. At twelve forty-one, we made an arrest, and his Miraculous was confiscated. At twelve forty-five, we determined Mayura's identity to be Nathalie Sancoeur and arrested her several minutes later. At this moment, Ladybug and Chat Noir are searching the mansion, trying to locate the Peacock Miraculous."

"How did you discover his identity?"

"We were presented with a video put together by the Ladyblog that showed Hawkmoth detransforming on Heroes Day. Without the Ladyblogger's efforts to go through all of the footage from the akuma attacks, we would have been unable to make this breakthrough. She presented the video to the superheroes a couple weeks ago and then they brought it to us so that we could collaborate on our strategy to take him down. We wanted to avoid a battle as to avoid unnecessarily endangering our superheroes and the citizens of Paris, so we called him in using a cover story that we had found a lead on his wife, Emilie Agreste's, disappearance. It was an effective strategy, and there was very little struggle."

"And Mayura? How did you find out who she was?"

"Gabriel Agreste told us, though not intentionally. He called out her names while caught off guard when Ladybug restrained him. Police waiting close to the house had no trouble getting in and arresting her as well."

"Are there more suspected collaborators?"

"Not at the moment, though we are keeping the possibility in mind."

"How did Mr. Agreste get his hands on the Miraculous?"

"We don't know that. It will certainly be part of our investigation. That is all the information that we have at this time."

Three Months Later

Alya couldn't help but grin as she looked around her room. Clipped articles hung from her walls, chronicling the crazy, crazy journey that she had been on ever since she discovered Hawkmoth's identity. Her classmates had helped her collect every article that had been written about the arrests and all of the subsequent investigations, and now they papered her walls.

Ladyblog Breaks the Case! read one, featured predominantly. Below was a still from her famous video, with Gabriel Agreste headed down the stairs of the Eiffel Tower. The article was one that she had memorized, and in particular the section with the interview that Ladybug and Chat Noir had given the city's reporters. They had given her full credit for figuring out who Hawkmoth was, and even for giving them the idea to collaborate with the police.

Her blog had gotten a huge spike in attention when she posted the video unveiling Hawkmoth. It had gotten an even bigger spike after that, with everyone who heard the interview curious about what other work Alya had done. She had had to resist the urge to go back and edit all of her early articles, the ones that had included a whole lot of inaccurate speculation and fangirling. Those hadn't been great reporting at all, but in the end Alya let them be, as an example of how much her work had improved over the past months.

She had, however, gone back and switched the page with Lila's "interview" to private, keeping the footage as a just-in-case but not wanting to keep that train wreck of lies up.

(That particular investigation of hers had ended up having a newspaper article of its own, since the news that a collège student had skipped several months of school by lying to both school and her mom about her whereabouts was pretty insane. Mylène was the one who had spotted the article, which didn't mention the student by name but did say that the student would be attending a school for troubled youth in the fall rather than going back to their previous school. That was probably for the better, because, well, none of Lila's former classmates had been particularly thrilled about being duped for so long.)

Alya moved her attention on to the next section of wall. There had been a whole slew of discoveries right after the arrests- a book about the Miraculous, a cursed Miraculous pin, scrolls in some strange code, Hawkmoth's lair (armed with a crazy amount of weapons), and notes about combining the Ladybug and Chat Noir Miraculous. And then, right after that-

EMILIE AGRESTE FOUND- ALIVE, CURSED, ASLEEP

-Adrien's mother had been found under the mansion, sealed away in a glass coffin. Ladybug and Chat Noir had taken her, the cursed Miraculous (and Hawkmoth's Miraculous), the book, and all of the scrolls to an undisclosed location. Two weeks later, Emilie Agreste had showed up in the hospital, tired and weak but awake and alive. Adrien had been thrilled, and doubly so when the superheroes and the police announced that Mrs. Agreste wasn't guilty of any wrongdoing and was free to resume her life. Mrs. Agreste had largely kept to herself after her return, preferring to stay in the mansion rather than going out, but Adrien had said that that was because she was still recovering from being in a coma for so long- she got tired very easily- and she didn't want to be harassed by reporters searching for an interview.

Alya had only met her once, and briefly. Marinette, who spent a ton of time in the Agreste manor (even though she claimed that she and Adrien weren't dating yet), said that Mrs. Agreste was a perfectly lovely if perhaps very nervous woman.

(Once, Alya had asked if she was good mother-in-law material. Marinette had turned bright red and said nothing, which- well, Alya could tease, but she wasn't going to push. Not yet, anyway.)

Smiling at the memory, Alya continued running her finger down the wall. Under the batch of articles about Mrs. Agreste's discovery, recovery, and innocence from the Hawkmoth mess was another headline, this one smaller.

No Further Suspects in Hawkmoth Case

According to Adrien, absolutely everyone in the household had been questioned, including him. He had been pretty quiet for several days after that, and Alya suspected that he had been shaken by whatever interrogation that the police put him through. He had been taken out of the mansion by child services during the questioning and subsequent searches, which hadn't helped at all. Thankfully Ms. Bustier had stepped in at once, taking Adrien in until his mom was released from the hospital.

All the questioning ended up producing was false leads that petered out, and a few small charges against the people who had created the system to get up to the lair and down to Mrs. Agreste's cavern but hadn't mentioned it as anything out of the ordinary and worth looking into at any point, but no one else who had worked directly with Hawkmoth or known about his secret identity. Adrien's bodyguard came up clean, which both Adrien and his mom seemed relieved about.

Thankfully Adrien didn't seem to hold any hard feelings towards Alya for being the one to find out about his father. She had worried about that after he was questioned, since she had seen him talking to Marinette but not her, but Nino had assured her that Adrien wasn't really talking to anyone else, either. After a few days, though, he was mostly back to normal.

Trial for Gabriel Agreste Starting Today: What to Expect

The trial went on for several weeks, and as the person who had found the video evidence, Alya had to go in. Much to Alya's delight, Rena Rouge had been called in as well for one last hurrah, testifying in front of the jury about what she had overheard when the police called the manor. Saying good-bye to Trixx after that had been hard, because she really, really doubted that she would get the Miraculous back again. There wasn't a need for it to be out and, as they had just seen, it was dangerous for too many Miraculous to be out and about in case someone was trying to find them.

She would be fine, though. Being a superhero had been cool, but she was being taken seriously as a reporter now, and that was super-cool, too.

GUILTY! Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur Both Sentenced

Hawkmoth and Mayura Behind Bars For Good

The End of Terror in Paris: Hawkmoth Trial Ends with Guilty on All Counts

There had been celebrations in the streets that night, and the balloons for all of the city's superheroes had flown again. Alya rather suspected that the mayor had something to do with that, since only Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Rena Rouge had been directly involved with Hawkmoth's defeat, but she wasn't going to complain. After all, her boyfriend's balloon got to be part of the parade, too. Alya and Nino had been in the thick of the celebrations, and so many people had gone up to her to thank her for her role in discovering Hawkmoth's identity and get a photo with her.

Alya was pretty certain that she had blushed for the entire evening. It had been a bit overwhelming for sure, but hardly in a bad way. The superheroes had dropped in partway through to pose for pictures with her, and the photos had ended up on the front page of the newspaper the next day.

And now...

"Alya, are you coming? We need to leave soon!"

"I'm almost ready!" Alya called back, smoothing down her dress for the awards ceremony. She checked her reflection in the mirror- the dress fit her to perfection, thanks to Marinette's tailoring skills- before returning her attention to the final clipping, one that she had only just put up that morning.

Paris's Ladyblogger to Receive Young Journalist of the Year Award

"Alya!"

"Coming!" Alya called back. With one last look at her wall, she headed out the door, smiling to herself. The past few months had been pretty crazy, but honestly?

She wouldn't change it for anything.

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #Keeping up with the Ladyblog #alya cesaire

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