Soon, almost at the instant that soft, ladybug-spotted healing light swept across the room, the suffocating tension within the wardrobe subtly yet drastically changed.
The light was invisible to others, but for Alya, who was affected by negative magic, it was like an epiphany.
The persistent, gloomy, and hateful fog in her mind was instantly dispelled.
She blinked sharply, her light brown eyes regaining their usual clarity and vitality, and her dark black lips returned to a healthy pink.
She looked blankly at the phone she was still holding, the screen frozen on the 'touching' scene of Jaden embracing Chloé outside.
"What... what am I doing?" she murmured subconsciously, her voice full of confusion.
However, her murmur was completely covered by a polite knock at the door that happened to come from outside.
"Miss?" It was Armand, the butler's, steady voice, "Dinner time."
This voice was like a pre-arranged secret signal.
Sabrina's heart almost skipped a beat. She knew this meant everything was over.
She reacted incredibly fast, almost at the moment Alya was about to speak again, she lunged forward, extending her trembling hand, and clamped it firmly over Alya's mouth, blocking all her impending exclamations.
"Mmm... Mmm!" Alya was bewildered by this sudden action and instinctively tried to struggle.
"Don't make a sound!" Sabrina leaned close to her ear and, speaking so quickly she almost bit her tongue, told her everything that had just happened, "You were affected by an Akumatized Person... you said bad things about Marinette... you also posted online slandering Jaden... and then... then you found Chloé... you suggested... we acted out this play..."
Every word was like a bullet, shooting into Alya's mind.
She stopped struggling, completely stunned.
She... said those harsh things to Marinette?
She... on the internet, used the most vicious words to slander Jaden, who had always been so kind to her?
Even... this absurd play to frame Jaden was actually... her own suggestion?
A cold chill, mixed with shame and fear, shot up her spine to the top of her head.
She took out her phone, trembling as she unlocked it and opened the forum blog.
When she saw the post, signed with her ID, with its glaring title and unbearable content, her face instantly drained of all color.
She didn't care about the situation outside, nor did she care that Chloé and Jaden were still acting; her fingers frantically tapped on the screen, deleting that post and all the replies, every single one, until it was completely clean.
After doing all this, she felt as if all her strength had been drained, and she slumped into a corner, quietly waiting for the judgment to descend... Inside the room, the knock on the door was also Chloé's signal.
The last trace of sadness on her face, buried in Jaden's arms, quietly vanished, replaced by the calm satisfaction of a successful plan.
She knew that this "monologue" she had meticulously arranged for the evening was now ready for its curtain call.
She reluctantly raised her head from Jaden's embrace, her face still bearing the perfectly timed shyness of a clear sky after rain. She carefully asked towards the door, "Jean, is something the matter?"
"Miss, it's time for dinner."
(This is a lie, it's a signal. When the butler says "dinner time," it means Ladybug and Cat Noir have already dealt with the Akumatized Person. The performance should end.)
"Understood, Armand," she said, and for once, she got the butler's name right on the first try.
Armand, outside the door, paused slightly, then understood that this was the signal for the end.
He respectfully replied "Yes" and then silently retreated with noiseless steps.
Chloé turned her gaze back to Jaden, her ice-blue eyes once again filled with dependence and expectation: "Um... would you like to... have dinner together?"
Jaden was about to speak when his phone in his pocket vibrated urgently a few times.
He took it out and glanced at it. For some reason, Marc and Nathan didn't call but sent several messages that seemed extremely urgent.
(This is also a signal. If they send "very urgent" messages instead of calling directly, it means the plan has changed, and he needs to get away immediately.)
Jaden looked up, a apologetic smile on his face: "Although I would very much like to have dinner with you, my Queen. However... I seem to have very, very important matters that I must attend to immediately."
"Is... that so?" A perfectly timed look of disappointment appeared on Chloé's face.
"Yes."
Jaden stood up, his tone gentle yet carrying an undeniable seriousness, "However, please rest assured.
Next time, your knight will definitely have dinner with you."
He still used the "Queen and Knight" rhetoric, giving her an irresistible, future-filled excuse.
"Then... alright." Chloé nodded in agreement, "Then... next time."
Jaden gave her a gentle smile, turned, and left the room without further delay.
The moment the heavy door closed completely behind him, all expression vanished from Chloé's face.
She straightened up, tidied her slightly disheveled clothes, and spoke towards the wardrobe in a cold, emotionless tone: "Alright, Sabrina, you can come out now.
And bring that four-eyed nerd with you."
The wardrobe door was pushed open, and Sabrina and Alya emerged, one after the other.
As soon as Alya came out, she glared at Chloé with an expression full of anger and shame. Sabrina's words had already made her understand everything.
"Chloé, you used me!"
She rushed forward, wanting to confront her.
However, before she could get close, she was stopped by a cold glare from Chloé.
"Used you?"
Chloé chuckled, her laugh filled with disdain, "I didn't use you to do anything, Alya. It was you who suggested 'acting' to expose the 'scumbag'.
It was also you who came up with the brilliant plan of finding someone to 'play the pitiful victim seeking help'.
I merely went with the flow and helped you fulfill your 'wish'."
She slowly walked in front of Alya, looking down at her, her voice very low, yet like a serpent's tongue, full of menace.
"You wouldn't want... Jaden to know that you were the mastermind behind all of this, would you?... How would he look at you then?"
This sentence precisely hit Alya's weak spot.
All her anger and accusations were, at this moment, blocked by immense fear and shame.
She couldn't imagine what would happen if Jaden, if Marinette, if anyone knew that she had orchestrated all of this... Alya's body stiffened, and in the end, she could only turn her head away in humiliation.
"Hmph." Chloé watched her reaction with satisfaction, then put on her usual condescending, charitable expression, "Given your 'help' tonight, I'll be magnanimous and invite you to dinner.
Of course, you can also choose to take it to go."
With that, she no longer looked at her, and pulling Sabrina, she walked into the dining room within the suite.
Alya naturally had no face to stay, and she fled from this place that made her feel utterly humiliated... Walking out of the hotel, the cold night air of Paris blew on her face, clearing her confused mind somewhat.
The first thing she did was take out her phone and dial the number she most dreaded facing.
The phone rang for a long time before it was answered.
"Hello? Alya?" On the other end of the line, Marinette's voice was a bit tired, yet filled with concern.
Hearing this voice, Alya's tears could no longer be held back and burst forth.
She felt like she must be the worst friend in the world.
"Marinette..." she choked, "I'm sorry... I... I said really mean things to you... I..."
"Are you okay?" Marinette on the other end of the phone didn't seem to care what she had said, only let out a long sigh of relief, her voice filled with the relief of surviving a calamity.
Because just now, she had just detransformed.
That battle was more difficult than expected.
She and Cat Noir were both unfortunately struck by Dark Cupid's arrows during the chase.
In that instant, a strong feeling of disgust for their partner surged into their hearts. But they were, after all, battle-hardened heroes, and with powerful willpower, they redirected that negative emotion.
They aimed together at their common target—Dark Cupid.
Finally, with a brilliant coordinated effort, Ladybug used a giant mirror created by her Lucky Charm to reflect Dark Cupid's arrow back at himself, causing him to be struck as well.
As he fell into a chaotic state of self-hatred, Cat Noir used Cataclysm to destroy the quiver on his back, revealing the Akumatized blue gemstone accessory hidden within.
Ladybug stepped forward, crushed the accessory, and purified the Akuma Butterfly.
"Miraculous Restoration—"
As the healing light swept across all of Paris, everything returned to normal.
After the battle, the two silently turned and left, the atmosphere still a bit delicate... Jaden sat in a taxi heading home, his phone screen displaying messages from Nathan and Marc.
"How was it? Solved?"
"OK."
He simply replied with two letters.
He returned home to find a flat, brown paper package he had never seen before. Opening the door, he was greeted by the familiar, quiet darkness.
He turned on the light and put on his slippers.
Then he examined the package. There was no sender's name or address on it.
He picked up the package with some confusion and opened it.
Inside was a drawing.
The drawing depicted a young man wearing a black Chinese-style sleeveless top and white wide-leg pants.
He wore cat ear decorations on his head, several black ribbons fluttered in the wind behind him, his eyes were stern, and his posture was upright, like a knight of the night, full of oriental mystery, stepping out of an ink wash painting.
That face was unmistakably his own.
And that unique, spirited art style, he seemed... to have seen it somewhere before.
In Jaden's room, only a desk lamp was lit, its warm yellow glow like a small, warm island, encircling him and the two drawings in front of him.
He laid the drawing he had just taken from the package flat on the desk.
"A very good piece," he murmured softly, his fingertip gently tracing the smooth lines on the drawing.
He could feel that the artist's skill was quite proficient, and more importantly, this drawing was infused with some... very strong emotion.
He stood up and took out a drawing from his sketchbook—Ladybug, which he had drawn that afternoon at the cafe with Marc and Nathan.
He placed the two drawings side by side.
Under the lamp, two figures from different imaginations quietly gazed at each other.
The Ladybug on the left wore a peculiar battle suit, a fusion of red and black, with an odd hairstyle and eyes that held a mixture of persistence and danger he couldn't comprehend.
She came from his dream, a vague and unsettling fragment.
The Cat Noir on the right was heroic and dashing, full of the cool aesthetic of Eastern art, like a protagonist from a popular manga or game.
He came from an unknown, benevolent "fan."
"It just feels... a bit mismatched."
Jaden looked at the two drawings and smiled.
They really didn't match.
One was full of an eerie, almost otherworldly sense of reality; the other was an exquisite, benevolent fantasy of a secondary dimension.
But he didn't dislike this feeling. He carefully tucked the new drawing into the front page of his sketchbook, then put away the Ladybug drawing as well.
For him, this was just an interesting little interlude on Valentines Day.
He didn't delve into who the mysterious sender was, but simply accepted this gesture as a gift.
He turned off the desk lamp, and the entire room plunged into complete darkness.
Outside the window, moonlight flowed like water, silent and serene... And on a rooftop not far away, a red figure quietly disappeared behind the shadow of a gargoyle.
Ladybug was half-crouching, the screen of her yo-yo clearly broadcasting the scene in Jaden's room.
She held her breath, her heart pounding with nervousness.
She saw it, saw Jaden's surprise when he opened the package.
She saw it, saw his seriousness as he placed her drawing under the light and examined it carefully.
He didn't throw it away! He kept it!
When she saw Jaden carefully put both drawings into his sketchbook and then turn off the light to rest, Marinette's heart, which had been anxious all night, finally completely settled.
An indescribable joy and satisfaction, like the sweetest honey, instantly filled her entire heart.
The corners of her mouth uncontrollably turned upwards, forming a brilliant yet shy smile.
Her large blue eyes, still bright as stars in the night, curved into beautiful crescents.
She was satisfied.
She quickly put away her yo-yo, her agile figure tracing a graceful arc across the rooftops of Paris, landing silently on her attic balcony.
With a flash of light, she detransformed.
"I saw it! Tikki! He saw it! He kept it!"
As soon as Marinette returned to her room, she could no longer suppress her excitement. She hugged the tiny kwami and happily spun in circles on the spot.
"Oh, Marinette, I'm so happy for you."
Tikki, while enjoying this "dizzying" joy, also asked with some confusion, "But why didn't you wait until tomorrow to check? What if he had found out?"
"The wait was too long!" Marinette stopped spinning, her face radiant with happiness, "I just wanted to know his reaction immediately, right now, this very instant!
Luckily... luckily he liked it!"
She hummed a happy tune, opened the secret door, and went downstairs for dinner. Tonight's dinner would surely be extra sweet... Meanwhile, in Adrien's room.
A black figure leaped in through the window, the light faded, and Adrien collapsed onto his bed, looking a bit tired.
"My cheese—" Plagg, as soon as he emerged from the ring, immediately let out his characteristic wail, "I haven't finished eating yet! Curse those Akumatized Persons, interrupting my mealtime!"
"You'll have plenty of time to eat, Plagg."
Adrien smiled helplessly, took out a spare piece of cheese from the drawer, and tossed it over.
Just then, there was a gentle knock on the door.
Adrien jolted, instinctively glancing at the huge screen on the wall, which he hadn't had time to turn off, displaying photos of Jaden and Ladybug.
He scrambled over, quickly turned off the screen, then made a "hide quickly" gesture to Plagg, who was currently feasting.
Plagg, understanding, grabbed his cheese and dove under the bed.
After doing all this, Adrien straightened his clothes, took a deep breath, and went to open the door.
Outside was Nathalie.
"Nathalie?"
"Adrien."
Nathalie's face bore a rare, faint smile, "Mr. Agreste finished work early today. He... has time to have dinner with you."
"What?"
Adrien heard this and froze. He couldn't believe his ears.
Dinner? With his father?
How long… how long had it been since he and his father had sat at the same dining table and had a proper meal?
A month? Half a year? Or a year? He couldn't remember anymore.
"Nathalie… is… is this real?"
He asked, somewhat uncertain, afraid it was just his imagination.
Nathalie's smile deepened slightly. She nodded solemnly.
Unbelievable joy filled Adrien's heart.
He didn't bother to say anything more, quickly bypassed Nathalie, and ran towards the small dining room that was usually so cold and quiet.
Sure enough, the figure he both revered and longed to be close to was sitting alone, quietly, at the head of the dining table.
Gabriel was dressed in casual home clothes, losing some of his usual authority and gaining a touch of a father's warmth.
He merely nodded faintly when he saw Adrien rush in.
Adrien sat down in his seat somewhat stiffly. Nathalie also walked in, habitually preparing to stand behind Gabriel.
"Nathalie,"
Adrien mustered his courage and said softly, "You should sit down and eat with us too."
Nathalie paused, then instinctively looked at Gabriel.
"Sit," Gabriel said, his voice flat but brooking no argument.
And so, an extremely rare dinner, composed of three people, began.
No television, no tablets, no work.
At the dining table, there was only the faint clinking of cutlery and the aroma of food.
This meal was unusually quiet, yet a strange warmth, named "home," slowly flowed through the air.
Gabriel looked at his son sitting opposite him. He observed his somewhat stiff posture, and the soft sheen of his golden hair under the light as he ate with his head down.
He suddenly felt that he knew far too little about this son of his.
During this time, his mind had been consumed with how to use Jaden, how to revive Emilie. He had poured all his time and energy into that plan filled with obsession.
But now, as he truly sat here, looking at his living son, he suddenly felt an unprecedented clarity.
Perhaps, while waiting for a "miraculous" to happen, he had more important things he could do.
Nathalie sat quietly to the side, observing Gabriel's thoughtful gaze, no longer as obsessive as usual, and then Adrien's cautiously joyful expression.
A faint, uncertain hope also rose in her heart.
Perhaps… everything was still developing in a good direction.
Outside the door, the burly Bodyguard peeked through the crack and saw the harmonious scene in the dining room.
Silently, he gently closed the door and returned to his post.
A genuine smile appeared on his face… However, on the other side of the world, in Paris of another parallel universe, the night was not so quiet and beautiful.
The night sky here was distorted by a strange energy, presenting an ominous purplish-red hue.
Two figures, one red and one black, were chasing a third figure at an astonishing speed over the scattered rooftops.
"Goodwill Butterfly! Stop right there!"
Leading the chase was a girl in a red-and-black polka-dotted jumpsuit, but her demeanor was completely different from Marinette's.
Her face wore a mad and obsessive smile, and her eyes gleamed with terrifying red light. She was this world's Ladybug—Shadybug.
Following closely behind was a young man in black leather, his claws glowing with destructive green light, his eyes cold and full of impatience.
He was—Claw Noir.
They were chasing a figure in a purple suit, out of place with this world's darkness.
He was Goodwill Butterfly—this world's Gabriel.
"Please stop! If you keep this up, this world will be completely destroyed by you!"
Goodwill Butterfly dodged attacks clumsily while earnestly trying to persuade them.
"Shut up!" Shadybug shrieked. She suddenly stopped, forming a pincer attack with Claw Noir behind her, blocking Goodwill Butterfly's path.
"I'll ask you one last time, where did you take my person?"
"I've already told you, I sent him to a place… a very safe place for him,"
Goodwill Butterfly panted.
"Safe?" Shadybug let out a sharp, neurotic laugh. "In this world, no place is safer than being by my side!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she threw her yo-yo into the air: "Lucky Charm!"
Unlike the main world, what appeared from her yo-yo was not a random, thought-provoking tool, but a pitch-black automatic cannon emanating an ominous aura!
"Speak! Or not!"
She aimed the cannon at Goodwill Butterfly and frantically pulled the trigger. Countless energy beams poured down like a storm.
Goodwill Butterfly hastily imbued himself with the ability of "illusion," and the energy beams passed through his translucent body, exploding in a series of fireballs on the buildings behind him.
"Damn bug!"
Claw Noir, standing by, grew impatient. He lunged forward, his right claw gathering destructive energy: "Cataclysm!"
However, his claw also passed through Goodwill Butterfly's illusion, causing no damage.
He didn't know that each time he used this unrestricted "Cataclysm," a tiny, imperceptible wisp of black energy would reverse-corrode his own body; the cost was silently accumulating.
"Tch, it's like this again!" Claw Noir withdrew his hand in annoyance. "This annoying butterfly always uses this trick.
It's another fruitless day today."
He glanced at Shadybug, who was still wildly firing, then turned, seemingly preparing to leave.
To him, this was just a boring game. He didn't know or care who the "he" in Akuma's words was.
Meanwhile, Goodwill Butterfly, in his ethereal state, was like a fleeting, violet smoke.
He looked at the girl before him, completely consumed by madness and obsession, his face filled with pity and helplessness.
"Listen to me, this world is heading towards collapse…"
He desperately wanted to explain, to awaken their last shred of reason.
However, his words were cut short by Shadybug's sharp, maniacal laugh.
"Collapse?"
Her eyes glowed with terrifying red light, her face a picture of pathological excitement,
"Before I find him, what does it matter to me if the whole world burns to ashes!"
She gave Goodwill Butterfly no chance to explain. The "miraculous" in her hands was no longer a power that brought luck and solutions, but a pure weapon that stopped at nothing to achieve its goals.
From her palm, a pitch-black energy orb condensed out of thin air.
The core of that energy orb emanated a pure destructive aura, identical to Claw Noir's "Cataclysm."
This was a destructive projectile she had directly replicated through distorted creative power.
"Boom—"
Without hesitation, the projectile, trailing a long, space-ripping wake, hurtled towards Goodwill Butterfly.
Goodwill Butterfly's heart tightened.
He immediately dodged. And just where he had been, the projectile touched the edge of a building, and there was no earth-shattering explosion, only a dead silent, soundless annihilation.
The sturdy stone structure, as if pixels had been wiped from existence, instantly turned into nothingness, leaving a chillingly smooth void.
This scene utterly bewildered Claw Noir, who had just been about to turn and leave.
His footsteps halted, and his pinkish-purple cat eyes were filled with disbelief.
He knew very well that while his "Cataclysm" was powerful, it was an ineffective physical attack against Goodwill Butterfly's ethereal ability.
Therefore, he could stand his ground without dodging.
But… he actually had to dodge Akuma's attack?
What did that mean?
It meant that the "destructive projectile" she created had essentially transcended the physical plane; it was pure conceptual destruction.
This power… was even purer, and more… dangerous, than his, the legitimate wielder of "destruction."
"It's not over yet!"
Shadybug looked at the frantically dodging Goodwill Butterfly, her smile growing even crazier.
She used both hands, and one destructive projectile after another, like continuous artillery fire, swept towards Goodwill Butterfly.
The entire rooftop instantly became a forbidden zone of death. Goodwill Butterfly could only rely on his instinctive premonition of danger, constantly leaping through the hail of projectiles, his situation precarious.
He knew that if this continued, he would eventually run out of energy.
He had to leave.
Seizing a gap in the projectile barrage, a glint flashed in Goodwill Butterfly's eyes. The Akuma Butterfly within him instantly flew out, tracing a graceful arc in the air before immediately re-entering his body.
This time, what he imbued himself with was no longer illusion, but the power of teleportation!
"Buzz—"
Just as the new round of projectiles was about to engulf him, the space around his body twisted, and he vanished into thin air.
Shadybug's attack missed, blasting most of the rooftop into nothingness.
She looked at the empty space in front of her, letting out a frustrated shriek.
She immediately flung her yo-yo, hoping to use the guidance of a Lucky Charm to track Goodwill Butterfly's whereabouts, but this time, the Lucky Charm gave her no hint.
"One day… one day I will catch you!"
She uttered a curse-like vow to the empty night sky, "For my beloved… for the person I must have!"
Claw Noir, beside her, watched her mad struggle, achieving nothing despite immense effort, and couldn't help but quip: "I say, you put in so much effort, and in the end…"
Before he could finish, an even more terrifying yo-yo, wreathed in destructive energy, whizzed past his cheek with a howling sound, instantly pulverizing a statue behind him.
Claw Noir's hair stood on end in fright.
Shadybug slowly turned her head, casting him a glance with her cold, emotionless red eyes.
"If you dare to say one more word,"
Her voice was terrifyingly calm, "I'll kill you too."
With that, she ignored her stunned partner, her figure flashing and disappearing into the night.
Claw Noir looked in the direction she left, then thought about the destructive power wrapped around that yo-yo just now.
A chill rose from the bottom of his heart.
He was clearly the owner of the Cat Noir miraculous, so why… did he feel that woman's power was closer to the essence of "destruction" than his own?
He stopped thinking and also leaped, heading back… Back in the huge and empty room, Adrien de-transformed.
A bone-deep weariness washed over him, and his complexion seemed even worse than last time.
Plagg flew out of the ring, but its mouth was tightly gagged by a strange muzzle, allowing it to only make anxious "mmm mmm mmm" sounds.
Adrien looked at it, frowning.
He knew this must be "its" doing. It didn't want him to get any information about the miraculous from Plagg.
He sighed, and could only reach out a finger, gently tapping, sending the incommunicable Plagg back into the ring.
He walked to the large floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the purplish-red, sickly sky outside, lost in thought… Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, the parallel world's Marinette also returned home.
There was no warm aroma of a bakery here, no loving greetings from parents.
Her room was almost coldly neat; instead of her hand-drawn designs, the walls were covered with one photo after another… of her and Jaden together.
She de-transformed. This world's Tikki timidly flew out of her earring.
There was no muzzle on its mouth, but it still dared not say a word, only looking at its owner with wide, fearful eyes.
Marinette took a dry biscuit from a drawer and casually tossed it to it.
Tikki, as if granted a great pardon, immediately snatched the biscuit and hid behind the desk lamp, devouring it.
It knew that "never say what shouldn't be said" was the only rule for its survival here.
Marinette ignored it.
She walked to the wall covered with photos, stretched out a finger, and with an almost pilgrimage-like reverence, gently caressed the smiling, gentle boy in the photos.
"Jaden…"
Her voice, at first, was so gentle, filled with infinite longing.
"See, we were so happy when we were together…"
She caressed a photo of the two of them at an amusement park, a happy smile on her face.
But gradually, her eyes began to turn obsessive and crazed.
"They hid you… they thought that way, I wouldn't find you…"
Her voice became cold, "But they were wrong… I will definitely find you.
I will clear away everyone who stands in our way."
"Wait for me…" She gave a strange smile to the photo, "Soon, we'll be together forever."
Tikki, curled up in the corner, trembled… At the same time, Goodwill Butterfly's figure appeared in another room filled with newspaper clippings and city maps.
This world's Alya was wearing headphones, typing furiously on her keyboard in front of the computer. Goodwill Butterfly's sudden appearance startled her.
"Hey! Don't you know it's rude to just barge into a girl's room?"
She took off her headphones, hands on her hips, but there wasn't much reproach in her tone.
"I am very sorry, Miss Alya."
Goodwill Butterfly's face was filled with apology and urgency, "But I… I need your power now."
Alya looked at him and nodded. She was already prepared.
"Alright."
Goodwill Butterfly said no more; he released the Akuma Butterfly from his body.
The butterfly, which should have represented evil, now glowed with a soft light.
It gently flew into Alya's phone, which was on the table.
A powerful energy, transcending this space-time, surged into Alya's body.
"The power to traverse time and space has been given to you,"
Goodwill Butterfly said, and then he passed through the shimmering, time-stream portal that Alya had opened with her new power.
The moment he passed through the gate, the Akuma Butterfly floated out of Alya's phone again, quietly hovering nearby, awaiting its master's return.