While Hawkmoth was reeling from his latest defeat, things had finally quieted back at the hotel. Since most of the damage Vanisher had done was stealing Chloé's clothes, the cure was quick to return the clothes back to the blonde brat's closet as well as turn Sabrina back to normal.

"Uh, wh-what happened? What am I doing here?" Sabrina stuttered in confusion after finding herself kneeling on the floor in front of the Le Grand Paris lobby elevator. But her confusion didn't last long before she spotted her brooch on the ground in front of her. "Oh no! It's the brooch Chloé gave me!" the bespeckled girl exclaimed when seeing the brooch off of her sweater, picking it up and holding it close to her.

Unknown to her, Ladybug and Chat Noir were standing nearby and glad to finally defeat their latest foe. But as Ladybug held up her fist for a 'pound it', she was surprised when Chat Noir didn't follow her example.

"Why didn't you listen to Chloé? She was only trying to help." Chat Noir said to Ladybug as he turned to face her, wondering why she was so short-sighted when it came to taking the heiress's advice.

"For one thing, she put us in danger with her interference in the fight!" Ladybug began, her voice heavy with thinly veiled rage as she explained herself. "And second, she completely lied to us earlier! I was not gonna listen to a liar." the spotted heroine concluded before she walked over to Sabrina, helping the orange-haired girl back to her feet and leading her to the exit. Seeing Ladybug leaving, Chat Noir decided to leave it at that and followed behind his partner, knowing that she had some solid points in her argument the more he thought about it.

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Unbeknownst to the retreating occupants of the lobby, Chloé was still up in her room watching the heroes from her monitor. But upon hearing Ladybug's claims against her, it left Chloé furious while Artemis was left a little miffed by the red heroine's bluntness.

"You're calling me a liar, Ladybug?! How dare you?!" Chloé yelled at the feed as she threw her arms into the air out of rage, startling Artemis from her semi-shocked state and glare at her pseudo niece.

"That's enough, Chloé!" Artemis exclaimed, causing Chloé to snap out of her rage and nervously turn her head to look at the older woman with her. "You know that you could have avoided this if you hadn't been so cruel to the only friend you had and told the heroes of Paris the truth. This all comes down to you and your actions." She angrily pointed out, having enough of Chloé's unwarranted outrage to the consequences of her own dishonesty.

"But... Auntie Arty,..." Chloé stammered out, now feeling like a tiny insect compared to Artemis's fury. But before the blonde brat could say anything more, her honorary aunt raised a hand up to silence any more of Chloé's excuses from spilling out of her mouth.

"I don't want to hear any of your excuses. You know very well that they won't work on me." Artemis said, her voice turning cold now that the initial fire of her rage had died down a bit. "I need to go and tell your father that the threat is gone. Don't leave this room until I get back." the Changeling in disguise ordered before she headed to the door, soon leaving Chloé all alone to glare at the monitor, her anger now even worse than before thanks to Artemis's words.

"This is all your fault, Ladybug!" Chloé shouted at the T.V., thinking that by some miracle Ladybug would actually hear her words. "I was your biggest fan, but not anymore! You don't deserve my devotion!" the heiress growled as she turned away from her T.V. and threw the remote in her hand to the ground, causing it to land on the channel change button. In response to the button being hit on the remote, the security feed was switched over to show the news instead, where Nadja and her news crew were just outside the hotel's front.

"Coming to you live from the hotel where Ladybug and Chat Noir have just defeated Vanisher." Nadja reported from the screen, the feed showing a crowd gathering outside the building while Ladybug and Chat Noir walked out with Sabrina. "Here they are now."the reporter exclaimed when seeing the trio exit the hotel, who were soon surrounded by the large group of reporters from the Mayor's earlier press conference.

"Ladybug! Chat Noir!" the reporters called to the two heroes, hoping to get them to answer their questions. But the more Chloé watched the scene that was taking place just outside of her own house, the more it enraged her to no end.

"I'm through with you, Ladybug!" Chloé roared, clenching her fist in her anger as she made her proclamation.

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Just as Hawkmoth was about to exit his lair to mope about Vanisher's defeat, he suddenly felt the fresh waves of anger radiating off of Chloé, making him stop in his tracks. Not wasting another second, the resident super villain turned on his heels and walked back to the center of his lair, the large window opening back up and disturbing the resting butterflies once again. As the white-winged insects started fluttering around the observatory-like space, Hawkmoth channeled his focus into pinpointing the source of the surge of negative emotions he felt.

"A betrayed Ladybug worshiper?" Hawkmoth questioned himself in intrigue, finally finding the source to be none other than the scorned Chloé Bourgeois herself. "Just what I need to swiftly recover from the defeat of Vanisher. This is perfect!" the purple clad psycho cheered as a butterfly approached him, allowing him to transform it into an Akuma and allowing it to flutter free from his grasp.

"Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize her!" Hawkmoth exclaimed with excitement as he watched the akuma flutter through the lair window, targeting the enraged Chloé.

Much like quite a few previous akumatizations, the akuma had very little distance to cover to reach its target with how close the Agreste Mansion was to Le Grand Paris. As a result, the akuma had entered Chloé's room through an open window just as the blonde brat took off her Ladybug mask and stomped on it, followed by her falling to her knees and breaking down crying. Seeing the opportunity presented to it, the akuma flew up to Chloé and entered itself into her earrings, the glowing butterfly symbol quickly appearing on her face as the psychic link was created.

"Antibug, I am Hawkmoth." Hawkmoth greeted his soon-to-be latest victim, his sadistic smile practically melting into his voice. "Ladybug has let you down? Well, I want her downfall too!" the resident supervillain exclaimed, hoping that their shared hatred of Ladybug would be the thing to get Chloé to agree to his offer.

"So, shall we defeat Ladybug together?" Hawkmoth questioned the girl, already sensing Chloé's growing excitement.

"You can count on me Hawkmoth!" Chloé proclaimed, all too eager to agree to his offer. "There will only be one heroine in Paris..." the blonde brat began as she stood up from the ground, her transformation into Antibug proceeding to wash over her as she did.

"Me! Antibug!" Antibug announced, her transformation complete before she turned to face her T.V. again, the interview of Ladybug and Chat Noir still going on during her akumatization.

"Chat Noir and I, we're an unstoppable team." Ladybug said to the reporters as the interview played from Chloé's T.V., making a devious smile appear on Antibug's face as she blew a mocking kiss at her former idol.

"Mwah! Your time is up, Ladybug." Antibug maliciously purred, followed by her turning off the T.V. before throwing her yo-yo out of her window and swinging out of the room, ready to face off against her nemesis.

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While Antibug had just left her room, the reporters continued to swarm Ladybug and Chat Noir at the ground floor of the hotel for their chance to interview them. But before they could answer anymore questions, Ladybug's earrings beep in warning of her transformation about to time out, leaving the red heroine a little pressed to exit immediately.

"Excuse me, I gotta go. Bug out!" Ladybug tensely told the reporters, backing away from the crowd as she spoke and pulling out her yo-yo.

"Thank you Ladybug." Nadja thanked the retreating Ladybug, the crowd of reporters and Chat Noir watching as she started to spin her yo-yo to leave.

However, when she looked up for a vantage point to hook her weapon onto to make her exit, a cackle suddenly filled the air around them all. In response to the new sound, everyone looked around for the source and soon noticed Antibug as she stood on the top of the hotel's main entrance.

"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have defeated Vanisher!" Antibug announced from her perch, hands on her hips as she bent over a little to ridicule her foes from her higher vantage point. "And now, I'm going to defeat you!" the inverted Ladybug akuma proclaimed, immediately giving away her true identity to the heroes below her.

"Chloé?" Ladybug and Chat Noir uttered in shock, both surprised to be facing off against the blonde brat.

"Wrong, super wrong." Antibug replied as she jumped down from her perch and landed on the ground, scaring the crowd away with her presence. "I am Antibug!" the doppelganger akuma taunted her foes, taking out her yo-yo and bouncing it up and down to show off her new skills to further intimidate them.

Fortunately for Antibug, it seemed to have worked since Ladybug backed away from her and went over to her partner, a worried look present on her face. But Ladybug's response wasn't for the reasons the akuma thought it was as she leaned towards Chat Noir's ear and whispered...

"We've got an emergency here. I'm about to change back." Ladybug quietly explained to her partner, now down to only one rapidly fading spot on her earrings.

"Go ahead, I can take care of her." Chat Noir assured his partner, pushing her behind him as he drew out his staff and stood ready to fight against Antibug. However, his show of confidence seemed to do very little in intimidating Antibug.

"Look at that. She's nothing without Chat Noir." Antibug noted in a mocking tone while Ladybug went off to find a place to hide, happy that her nemesis was running away like a coward while the feline did all the work.

"We'll see each other again soon! Trust me!" Ladybug warned Antibug with a growl, turning away from her retreat to stare the akuma down as she made her promise. With the assurance of their impending clash, Ladybug returned to her retreat, now all the more eager to return to the fight while Chat Noir covered for her.

"Looks like it's just you and me now, Antibug." Chat Noir taunted the inverted Ladybug akuma, standing at the ready for the ensuing fight between them.

"I love a good catfight!" Antibug quipped back as she spun her yo-yo behind her to form a shield, ready for their clash as well.

Taking the first move, Antibug threw her yo-yo right at Chat Noir, who jumped up into the air to avoid it and started their fight. Following Chat Noir's evade, he managed to jump all the way up to a wrap-around balcony near the roof of the hotel, Antibug following behind just as a news chopper flew up into the air to catch the fight on camera. Said fight continued just after Chat Noir landed on the balcony's overhead glass door roof while Antibug perched herself right across from him on top of a lamp. Trying to take hits at each other, the two foes ended up swapping their perches multiple times as the fight continued on, all while Chat Noir kept buying time for his partner to join in.

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Meanwhile with Ladybug, the spotted heroine had just found a good hiding place across the plaza in front of the hotel, away from the onlookers now gathering to watch Chat Noir and Antibug's fight. All the while, Ladybug had only a second to catch her breath after hiding behind an alcove wall before her earrings timed out and she changed back to her civilian self, her Ladybug disguise still covering her identity. Thankfully for Marinette, the disguise had only covered her body and left her purse untouched, which made it easy for her to open it up and dig around for a treat for Tikki after catching the exhausted kwami when she exited her earrings. But her hopes of quickly getting back to the fight were dashed when she discovered...

"Oh no! I don't have any food for you Tikki!" Marinette exclaimed in dread, looking at the red kwami in her hand with worry.

"Don't worry Marinette. I'm sure you'll find something." Tikki weakly assured, knowing that her holder would come up with a solution.

"I'll try." Marinette replied before she pulled out her phone and checked the news for any update of what was happening while she was rendered powerless.

"Ladybug has disappeared! How is Chat Noir going to get out of this on his own?" Nadja reported from Marinette's phone, the feed switching over from the reporter to show the feed the news chopper had on the fight between Chat Noir and Antibug.

"Ooh, this is all my fault!" Marinette moaned in despair as she placed Tikki on her shoulder, now realizing that her anger towards Chloé had played a big part in this new mess.

"You don't have to do everything yourself. There's no harm in listening to others from time to time." Tikki advised from her new perch, still too weak to fly up to Marinette's eye level.

"It wasn't just that, Tikki! I wasn't just mad at Chloé because of her interference or her lying to us. I was also mad at how she treated Sabrina!" Marinette admitted, her voice filled with frustration about Chloé's actions. "How could she do that to someone that's stood by her after everything they'd been through!?" the designer wondered out loud, not believing how ungrateful the heiress was to the people around her.

"We can't dwell on that right now, Marinette. You need to focus on freeing Chloé from the akuma." Tikki replied, reminding Marinette of the job she still had to do. Seeing the truth in her kwami's words, Marinette took a deep breath and nodded her head in agreement.

"You're right Tikki, but right now we have to go and help Chat Noir!" Marinette concluded, placing a hand to her disguise rune necklace and deactivating her Ladybug disguise so that she wouldn't draw any attention to herself. Once it was gone, she poked her head out from her hiding spot to take view of her surroundings. "We'll find you something to eat at the hotel." the pigtailed girl decided before running back into the hotel, sneaking past a distracted Lieutenant Roger before entering the building.

Once inside, Marinette wasted no time and raced to the kitchens on the dining hall floor. Upon entering the space, both her and Tikki were happily greeted by the sight of multiple plates of cookies left out to cool on a counter near the entrance. Walking over to the plates, Marinette quickly picked one up and handed it to Tikki, who immediately took a bite out of it and started eating it. With her kwami now on her way to being recharged, Marinette exited the kitchen and took the service elevator up to Chloé's balcony to get a proper view of the fight between Chat Noir and Antibug while she waited for Tikki to finish. But when she reached the heiress's room, she was greeted by a less than pleasant sight when looking out the window.

"Ah, Chat Noir!" Marinette exclaimed in shock when she saw Chat Noir was still fighting against Antibug. But when seeing how well he was blocking each strike with his staff, Marinette sighed in slight relief to know that he was handling himself well due to the training they had done prior. 'Thanks Master Fu' the designer praised in her thoughts, thinking back to the sparring matches against her and Chat Noir, knowing they had given him the chance to learn how to counteract Anitbug's moves that she clearly copied off of Ladybug.

"Hurry up Tikki." the designer urged her kwami, hoping to get back into the action as soon as possible.

"I'm eating as fast as I can." Tikki responded after swallowing another bite of her half eaten cookie. But while Marinette and Tikki were left unable to do anything, Antibug had decided to take a different approach of fighting against the male hero.

"Aren't you tired of playing second fiddle to Ladybug?" Antibug questioned her opponent after pulling her yo-yo back towards herself, starting to make a pitch of an alliance to Chat Noir.

"And aren't you tired of copying Ladybug?!" Chat Noir fired back, knowing that his lady never thought of him as such, especially when she trusted him with quite a bit of knowledge about her personal life. With that said, he jumped over akuma and landed right behind a now shocked Antibug and pulled out his staff again. "Ready for round two?" the feline hero teased his adversary before trying to sweep her legs out from under her, causing Antibug to jump away to avoid falling.

In response to the hero in black's advance, Antibug jumped up into the air again and landed onto the balcony's glass awning when he tried to hit her with his weapon once more. Seeing the akuma trying to get away, Chat Noir ran to the edge of the balcony and followed after her, the two of them starting their fight back up again. Said fight had led to the two of them to head on up to the roof, all while Marinette poked her head out from her hiding place to watch while waiting for Tikki to finish. Fortunately for her, she didn't have to wait much longer.

"I'm good to go, Marinette." Tikki announced, flying out of her holder's purse with her energy restored to full strength.

"Yes!" Marinette cheered, happy to finally help her partner and didn't waste any more time to pull out her runestone necklace and clasp her hand over, activating her Ladybug disguise before she finally called out... Tikki, spots on!" the designer exclaimed, triggering her transformation to flow over her disguise and turn her back into Ladybug before she headed up to the roof to get back into the fight.

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Up in the rooftop pool area of Le Grand Paris, the fight between Antibug and Chat Noir had come to a pause when they made it to the top of the building and landed on different sides of the pool. But the current state of the fight had left Antibug impatient to gain the upper hand against her seemingly unworried opponent as Chat Noir calmly held his staff on his shoulders in wait for her to make a move.

"Bad kitty! Come here to get your leash back." Antibug taunted from her perch on the balcony railing across from Chat Noir, playfully spinning her yo-yo into a shield beside her.

"Sorry, but I don't take any orders from a mere copycat." Chat Noir fired back, taking his staff off of his shoulders in preparation for the ensuing hit after his mocking of Antibug.

The feline was soon proven right when Antibug threw her yo-yo at him in retaliation, leading to Chat Noir having to use his baton to bat away the incoming weapon. After a few more times in trying to hit him with her yo-yo, Antibug jumped up into the air to land on his side of the roof, only for Chat Noir to run over to the side she had previously occupied to avoid her initial plan. But just when he reached the halfway point of the distance between his old spot and the other side of the roof, the still airborne inverted Ladybug akuma threw her yo-yo at him again, giving him very little time to try and block the hit. Thankfully for him, the familiar sight of Ladybug's yo-yo had appeared in front of him and deflected Antibug's own weapon, sending it into the pool water below them.

"Nice yo-yo. But mine's better!" a voice towards Chat Noir's left quipped to Antibug, causing both the feline and akuma to look and see that Ladybug had finally arrived, angrily staring down at the inverted imposter as she stood across from Chat Noir once again.

"Nice of you to join me, M'Lady." Chat Noir greeted his partner, glad to see her before she ran up to his side to join him.

"Thanks, kitty. But we'd better focus on the task at hand." Ladybug replied, hoping to get this akuma over and done with as soon as possible. "I'm thinking of the akuma's in the yo-yo." the spotted heroine theorized, not taking her eyes off of Antibug as she made her claim to make sure she didn't attack them while they made their plan.

"I'm thinking it's in her earrings." Chat Noir spoke up, voicing his own idea of where the akuma could be as he held his staff at the ready for an attack.

"Why?" Ladybug asked, curious as to how he came to that conclusion.

"She was already wearing them when she was akumatized, and her yo-yo was destroyed." Chat Noir explained, "Also, considering she's basically a copy of you, the source of power being at the same place makes sense." he added.

"Good eye, kitty." Ladybug praised with a smile, using her finger to playfully ring Chat Noir's bell.

"Thanks." Chat Noir happily replied, a soft blush appearing on his face at her kind words before he leaned right up into Ladybug's face.

But the moment of teasing was interrupted when Antibug had enough of their ignoring of her and quickly threw her yo-yo at them. Thanks to their experience in akuma battles, Ladybug and Chat Noir had narrowly avoided the hit, causing a pot to receive the hit instead. When her first attack had failed, Antibug used it to her advantage and pulled the pool cover over the pool with her yo-yo. With the pit of water between them taken care of, Antibug ran across the glass panel and started battling against the two heroes. Using her spot on the floor, Ladybug tried to knock Antibug to the ground by sliding towards her, only for the doppelganger akuma to leap into the air and avoid the attack.

Quickly getting back onto her feet, Ladybug only had seconds before Antibug threw her yo-yo at her to use her own to make a shield to protect herself. In retaliation after the inverted akuma had drawn back for another attack, Ladybug used the opportunity to attack her foe as well, leading to the two of them to end up in a face off against each other. A flurry of yo-yo strikes and clashes had begun to take place between the two girls, which left Chat Noir out of the clash and stood off to the side but stayed ready to help his partner if she needed it. Eventually, the face between Antibug and Ladybug had come to an end after their yo-yo's tied up with each other before being drawn back by their owners, revealing just how evenly matched they were. Deciding to try and tip the scales to her advantage, Ladybug finally called for her...

"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug exclaimed, summoning her main power to assist her. Unfortunately for her, Antibug had the same idea when she called on her...

"Anti-Charm!" Antibug proclaimed, copying Ladybug and summoning her own conjuring powers. When the glow of the spotted advisaries's powers had died down, it was revealed to those on the roof what each Charm had given their respective wielders.

"Weighted gauntlets? This is a first." Ladybug remarked when the Lucky Charm fell into her hands, looking at the set of weighted gauntlets with curiosity. But her thoughts were interrupted when she looked up to see a cackling Antibug holding the ridiculously sharp sword her Anti-Charm had given her.

"What? You're going to defeat me with your fists against my sword? Child's play!" Antibug taunted her opponent, clearly thinking that she had the upper hand in this fight.

At the sight of the much bigger weapon in her enemy's hands, Ladybug began looking around for a plan to defeat Antibug to come to the forefront of her mind. But to her surprise, all that she could see in her thoughts were Antibug, her sword, and the gauntlets in her hands as they lit up in her vision. After another moment of thinking, Ladybug finally understood what needed to happen and rolled with it.

"See that's your downfall, you're always so quick to judge." Ladybug fired back to Antibug, putting on the gauntlets as she spoke. "You need a sword to fight me, while I can beat you with only my fists." the spotted heroine announced, her confident voice leaving Chat Noir in awe of her while Antibug was left even more infuriated than before.

"Oh you are so going down! I don't need this to defeat you!" Antibug growled before she threw her sword to the side, unknowingly falling for Ladybug's bait.

"Chat Noir, now!" Ladybug shouted to her partner, prompting the hero in black to see the opportunity to help presented to him.

"You got it!" Chat Noir replied back just as Antibug realized that she had been tricked, quickly used his staff to hook through one of the numerous holes on the sword while the inverted akuma ran towards him to retrieve it. Just as Antibug neared him, Chat Noir used his baton to throw the sword all the way to the Eiffel Tower before the akuma could grab it, leaving her shocked to see her weapon gone.

"And now you can't use the sword and cheat your way out!" Chat Noir happily exclaimed as he walked over to Ladybug, to which left the disarmed Antibug all the more enraged.

"See? You're nothing without your Chat Noir!" Antibug whined, turning to face Ladybug in her rage.

Unfortunately for the heroes, Ladybug's earrings started beeping, starting the countdown to her detransformation. But not even a second later, that beeping was followed by one form Antibug's earrings, revealing that she was going to lose her powers soon too. This prompted Hawkmoth to jump back into the frey now that Antibug was going to return to her civilian self in the next five minutes.

"Take her Miraculous before it's too late!" Hawkmoth yelled from his end of the psychic link, hoping to instill a sense of urgency in his current akuma so that she would do as she was told.

"Yeah, yeah, I know!" Antibug replied back, cutting off the link before she made to attack the heroes again. But just as Chat Noir got ready to attack, Ladybug held out her arm and stopped him from going any further before she gave him a side glance.

"Sorry kitty, but you need to stand back. This is between me and the cheap knock off." Ladybug told Chat Noir, who backed up and let her take over from there after hearing her cold tone. With the space between her and Antibug cleared, Ladybug pounded her right fist into her left palm a few times as she walked towards the inverted akuma.

"Chat Noir and I are a team, meaning we work together to pick up each other's slack." Ladybug said in a fury laced voice as she neared Antibug.

Starting to get a little worried, Antibug pulled out her yo-yo and tried to attack Ladybug, only for the spotted heroine to lift up her arm and let akuma's weapon wrap around it. Thinking that she could use Ladybug's seemingly obvious folie to her advantage, the doppelganger akuma tried to pull her yo-yo back towards her, which failed when Ladybug held her ground and hadn't moved an inch. Antibug tried again to knock Ladybug off of her feet, but the heroine retaliated by pulling her restrained arm back, taking the yo-yo right out of the akuma's hands and threw it away from the building. At the sight of her only remaining weapon being taken away, Antibug looked at Ladybug in shock.

"But that doesn't mean I can stand on my own when needed." the spotted heroine nearly growled before she took a running start at Antibug, surprising the inverted akuma so much that she was left unprepared for the spotted heroine tackling her.

The two girls quickly found themselves rolling along the ground, both trying to get a hit on one another before they tumbled to a stop near the edge of the pool. Once they stopped, Ladybug found herself on top of Antibug before her foe tried to push the spotted heroine off of herself. Without her weapon, Antibug had no means to defend herself before Ladybug grabbed her by the neck and started punching her in the face. Thanks to the added weight of her gauntlets and the close combat training from Master Fu, Ladybug had the upper hand against Antibug despite her holding back from drawing blood.

But to her surprise, the doppelganger akuma had lasted a lot longer than Ladybug thought she would, trying to evade her restrained blows. Unfortunately for Antibug, all she could do against her opponent was flail her arms around when she tried to attack back, failing to land a real hit against Ladybug. The fist fight finally ended when Ladybug landed one last hit on Antibug, knocking her out cold so she could take the akuma's earrings and smash them on the ground with her fist to release the akuma. As the akuma started fluttering in the air above her, Ladybug took off her gauntlets and placed them on where her yo-yo was usually held while grabbing her weapon to take care of the corrupted butterfly.

"No more evildoing for you, little akuma!" Ladybug exclaimed as she opened her yo-yo to reveal the sparkling pool of cleansing energy inside. "Time to de-evilize!" the heroine in red shouted before she threw her yo-yo toward the akuma, catching it in her yo-yo.

"Gotcha!" Ladybug cheered when the yo-yo was back in her hands. A second later, she released the purified akuma, setting the white butterfly free. "Bye, bye little butterfly," the spotted heroine said as the butterfly flew away, right before throwing the Lucky Charm up into the air.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" Ladybug cried out, summoning the magic ladybugs and cleansing cure. Any and all damage done by the fight against Antibug had been reversed, the balcony railing repaired and the sword from Antibug's Anti Charm disappeared. Following that, the knocked out Antibug had been roused from her unconscious state and turned back into a now disoriented Chloé.

"What am I doing here?" Chloé wondered out loud from her spot on the ground, looking around to see that she wasn't in her room anymore.

"Pound it!" Ladybug and Chat Noir cheered to her right, doing their post-battle ritual and immediately giving Chloé some clue as to what had happened.

"Ladybug?" Chloé questioned in confusion, rising to her feet and drawing the spotted heroine's attention to her.

"Chloé, I..." the spotted heroine began, nearly gagging at the thought of even thinking about what she was going to say next. "I'm... sorry about what happened earlier." Ladybug forced out, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked off to the side to avoid looking the blonde brat in the eye.

"Thinking back on it, we would've defeated Vanisher sooner if I'd taken your advice." the red heroine tensely admitted, wanting nothing more than to take a running leap off of the hotel than to apologize to Chloé of all people for slightly bruising her pride.

"Oh." Chloé managed to spew out, her surprise prohibiting her from recognising the forced niceness Ladybug was showing her before she quickly recovered her composure. "In that case, I might reconsider." the heiress replied, a coy tone filling her voice.

"Reconsider what?" Ladybug asked, confused as to what Chloé was talking about now.

"I might just have to stay your most devoted fan after all!" Chloé cheered, happy to have been given the recognition she believed she deserved for her earlier help.

"Oh. Well, thanks... I suppose." Ladybug responded drily with a recoil, having no other way to reply before a thought came to her that would be considered polite. But with that said, she started to walk away to leave... only to stop short and realize that there was still one last loose thread to fix before she could finally get away from Chloé.

"You should work things out with your friend Sabrina." the spotted heroine advised Chloé, not turning back to face her in the hopes of tempering her simmering anger from flaring up right then and there. Being the one to foster the reconciliation of Sabrina and Chloé was the last thing Ladybug wanted to do, but she knew that it would most likely be the best way for things to remain drama free for a bit.

"Well... since it's coming from Ladybug, I'll think about it." Chloé replied, now seeing that the people around her that had advised the very same thing had a point when her idol brought it up.

But regardless of how Chloé reached that conclusion, Ladybug was just glad that she could now leave, her blood pressure lowering to a more regular amount. With the advice being said, Ladybug's earrings beeped for a third time and signaled to her that she needed to leave right then and there.

"Looks like I have to go." Ladybug said in a suddenly cheerful tone, happy to leave the heiress's presence before she turned to face her partner. "Thanks for your advice, Chat Noir." the heroine in red thanked, a smile appearing on her face when she spoke.

"Of course. We're a team, aren't we?" Chat Noir responded, his own smirk gracing his face while keeping his arms crossed over his chest.

"Unstoppable." Ladybug replied as she walked over to him, followed by her placing a quick kiss on his cheek, leaving him surprised and blushing. "Bug out!" the spotted heroine called out before she ran past him and left the roof, swinging away with her own cheeks turning red after her little display of affection to her partner.

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After the second akuma of the day, Marinette had headed back to school only to find that classes had already ended for the day. While it was a little frustrating to know that she missed yet another half day at school for more reasons than one, Marinette was actually glad to not have anything else to worry about that day. With that, she had gone home after grabbing her bag from her locker, the rest of her afternoon free to finish her homework before dinner. That is exactly what the pigtailed girl did, leaving the rest of her night afterwards to have her video call with Jim and Toby. Which is where she found herself at the moment, sitting at her desk and dressed in her pajamas, waiting for Jim to pick up her call so they could have said catch up. Thankfully for her, she didn't need to wait long for Jim and Toby's blown-away expressions to appear on her screen.

"By the look on your faces, I'm assuming you guys saw the news." Marinette noticed with a smirk, placing her hands on the back of her head as she leaned back in her desk chair in a relaxed fashion.

"TWO! TWO AKUMA'S IN ONE DAY!" Toby exclaimed, clearly finding the day's events worth noting... not that Marinette blamed him for it. "WHAT THE HECK KIND OF JOINT WAS HAWKMOTH SMOKING WHEN HE THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA!?" the geology nerd questioned in the same raised voice as before, making Marinette have to hold back a laugh at his little jab at the city's resident supervillain.

"I honestly have no idea, Tobes. I'm just one half of the people who clean up the messes he makes." Marinette replied, shrugging her shaking shoulders as she tried to swallow her laughter down.

"Seriously though, how are you after that, sis? It definitely wouldn't have been easy to face two akumas on the same day." Jim observed, clearly worried about his little sister as he and Toby pulled out their lunches. The menu that day was leftover meatloaf from Jim and Barbara's dinner the previous night, celery and carrot sticks, and fresh baked chocolate tarts for dessert after Jim had decided to try a new recipe Marinette recommended earlier.

"It wasn't." Marinette remarked, her stifled laughter dying down with Jim's question as she stretched her still sore muscles. "But it definitely would have been a lot worse if Chat Noir hadn't been there." the designer added, a smile appearing on her face at the mention of her partner.

"Speaking of which, how is he? We saw he handled Antibug pretty well while you were MIA." Jim asked as he pulled out his piece of meatloaf, taking a bite out of it after he spoke.

"He's fine, don't worry." Marinette assured her older brother, watching as Toby had followed Jim's example and started eating his own meatloaf. "Even if Antibug tried to turn him on me." she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and looking off to the side with a stoney pout.

"But Antibug was really nasty trying to do that with him!!" Marinette growled, her voice taking on more of a bite when recalling what she had heard earlier. "Ugh, I should have punched her even harder with my gauntlets!!" the red-tipped harried girl growled, throwing her hands up into the air as she vented to her brothers.

"Gauntlets? Where did you get those?" Jim questioned before taking another bite out of his meatloaf, a little confused as to where his sister had gotten such a serious weapon.

"They were my Lucky Charm." Marinette nonchalantly replied, her anger calming down while she didn't notice that Toby and Jim were looking at her like she grew two heads. "Did the news not get that part?" the designer inquired when seeing the looks on the boy's faces, herself now confused that they didn't know what happened the more she thought about it.

"Uh, no! Since when does Tikki give you weapons for the Lucky Charm?" Jim questioned incredulously before taking another bite from his lunch, shocked by the new development and on the edge of his figurative seat.

"Also... did you duke it out on Antibug?" Toby asked after swallowing a bite of his meatloaf, leaning towards Jim's phone screen in his excitement for the answer.

"Okay, first question: Since now, I guess. Second question: I absolutely did, and it felt so good!" Marinette replied with a smile, squealing while answering the second question.

"THAT'S OUR SISTER!!" Toby cheered, pumping his fist into the air and subsequently almost losing his lunch if he didn't scrabble to catch it a second later.

"But since we don't know the full story for some reason, mind telling us what happened?" Jim questioned Marinette, making a smile appear on the girl's face at his inquiry.

"With pleasure." Marinette replied, followed by her readjusting herself in her seat so she would be comfortable when telling the boys of her recount of the earlier battle that the news didn't catch.

From that point on, the call consisted of Marinette outlining what had happened with Vanisher, all while her brothers kept on eating their lunch and listened with rapt attention. She explained her's and Chat Noir failed questioning of Chloé, then Artemis's assistance in helping them find out who Vanisher was, which Toby added to and crossed out on his ever growing lists. The conversation then headed to what had happened while Marinette was absent for the fight and plus her frustration at Chloé's actions earlier.

Following this was her recount of the rooftop fight against Antibug, where Marinette explained how she had received a serious weapon for her Lucky Charm instead of the normal random item. Needless to say, Jim and Toby were left in awe of this new change in pace with their sister's powers. Obviously, she had left some details out... like her impromptu kissing of Chat Noir's cheek before leaving the scene. But the boys were left more impressed when Marinette had said that Chloé's aunt had been a huge help to them during the first fight.

"Hold it, hold it, hold it! You're telling me that Chloé has a pseudo aunt, who can also kick some serious butt?" Jim questioned, trying to make sure that he had heard her right and that his ears weren't playing tricks on him.

"Why is it that she's so mean, and yet gets all the cool stuff? It's so unfair!" Toby whined as he abandoned his remaining veggies, not finding this new information about Chloé appealing.

"No denying it, Toby." Marinette said, finding herself agreeing to Toby's side of the argument the more she thought about it. "But regardless of her being Chloé's aunt, she really helped us out before taking Chloé up to her room, and seemed to have no room for her usual bushagal." the pigtailed girl remarked, causing Jim to nearly choke on his last veggie stick at the less than proper word.

"Language!" Jim exclaimed in a nearly wispy voice after he cleared his airways, making Marinette freeze and look at him with sudden panic.

"You know what that word means?" Marinette asked, her face draining of color at the possibility of Jim knowing exactly what it meant and lecturing her to not use said language.

"Draal told us." Toby replied before he started eating his chocolate tarts, confirming Marinette's current fears.

"Oops." Marinette meekly uttered, shrinking in on herself in preparation for the lecture she was sure was coming.

"Eh, it's okay. If there's anyone that deserves a couple of swear words thrown at them, it's Chloé." Jim assured his sister, glad that his sister was starting to loosen up on voicing her more unsavory feelings towards her childhood bully while taking out his own chocolate tarts before biting down on the first one. "And Hawkmoth. Definitely Hawkmoth." the Trollhunter added, his mouth full of chocolate and pastry crust while Marinette giggled in relief.

"Amen to that, big brother." Marinette proclaimed after her giggling died down, happy that she didn't earn herself a scolding from her big brother. Granted, she could instill fear in the boys with her anger, but that didn't stop her from undermining the power Jim had over her as her big brother. When push came to shove, Marinette knew that Jim could be quite fierce in matters concerning their family.

"On the upside, your Trollish is getting really good." Toby noted after he finished off his first chocolate tart, already taking a bite out of the second one.

"Thanks, Tobes. I've been practicing a lot in the free time I have that isn't taken up with training sessions with Master Fu and Chat Noir." Marinette explained, proud of her progress in her most recent endeavor in learning the language.

"It really shows. You sounded just like Draal when he first said that word to us." Jim remarked, impressed with how well Marinette was going in her studies.

"I'm glad to hear it. It hasn't been easy to get the accent right." Marinette admitted, followed by her face starting to fall a bit as she trailed off in thought.

"Is everything okay, MariFairy? You look a little down." Toby asked, both him and Jim concerned for her when seeing the sudden change in her mood.

"I'm fine, Toby. It's just..." Marinette began, only to come up short for a second to find the right answer. "I'm still ticked off at Chloé for how she treated Sabrina." the red-tipped haired girl finished, finally finding the right way to word her response.

"Oh, yeah. You guys are sort of friends, right?" Jim inquired, causing Marinette to nod in confirmation.

"Yep. But even if we are only sort of friends, I still care about her." Marinette elaborated, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest while looking off to the side. "Especially when it concerns her choice in BFF." the designer added, not taking her gaze off of the floor.

"Didn't you mention that she said Chloé has a softer side at one point?" Toby asked as he finished his chocolate tarts, remembering what Marinette had told them in the video call after Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!!'s first impromptu visit to Jim's house.

"Yeah, and her aunt confirmed it." Marinette replied, now looking at the screen as she spoke. "But considering what happened today, I feel like they're wrong and looking at things through rose tinted glasses." the pigtailed girl admitted, voicing her true thoughts on the matter.

"Or you could be acting a little hard on her." Jim remarked, finishing off his first tart and leaving Marinette to gawk at him.

"Big brother say what now?" Marinette managed to say, glaring at her brother.

"Look, I'm the last person that wants to defend Chloé, especially with what she's done to you." Jim admitted, beginning to explain his reasons. "But Sabrina and this aunt character have known Chloé longer than you, and have seen this side of her more often than anyone else." the Trollhunter pointed out, bringing up the facts that had seemed to slip past Marinette's judgment of Chloé.

"It tends to be easy to judge someone when you don't have all the facts." Jim concluded, leaving both Marinette and Toby in surprise at his insightful explanation.

"Yeah... I guess you have a point." Marinette replied, relenting now that she saw Jim's logic, even if she still had reservations about the idea. "Looks like your duel with Draal taught you more than one thing." the red-tipped haired girl remarked, an amused smirk appearing on her face and leaving Jim curious.

"Oh yeah? What exactly is that?" Jim questioned before he bit into his last tart, a playful tone filling his voice as he spoke.

"Empathizing with your foes." Marinette simply responded... followed by her face contorting again as she drifted into thought again. "Then again, Draal is on our side now, so he doesn't count now." she added, now remembering that Draal had changed his ways and was probably not the best example now.

"After all, while Draal was awful, at least he dealt with consequences for his actions, and he has honor. Chloé, however..." Marinette went on, remembering every time the other girl had been awful to her, "I am willing to wait to see if she actually can become a decent person, but I don't think I can accept her aunt's reasoning, let alone Sabrina's." Before Jim could answer, the movement was interrupted when the bell rang on Jim and Toby's end, signaling that their time was up.

"UGH! Why does the bell always have to ring in the middle of our catch ups!?" Toby groaned in annoyance.

"We only have thirty minutes to have our catch ups, Toby. That's just the way it is." Jim reminded his best friend as he started packing his bag, even if he thought it wasn't fair either.

"Yeah I know." Toby responded, soon followed by a sigh. "Man, I can't wait for the day when we don't have to worry about a time limit." the rounded boy said during his sigh, making both siblings softly chuckle at his remark.

"Me neither, Tobes. But you guys need to head over to your next class before you're late." Marinette advised her brothers, not wanting to be the reason why they were late.

"Oh, come on! You know our next class is English!" Toby whined, shooting her a glare as he packed up his own bag. "We hate that class!" the geology nerd exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air in frustration.

"Why you do, I have no idea." Marinette admitted in a tired voice, not understanding why they didn't like one of her favorite classes. "But unless you want said class to get any worse, you'd better get going." the pigtailed girl reiterated, hoping to get the message through their thick skulls.

"Yeah, yeah, we're going." Jim chanted as he and Toby finished packing their bags, standing up and walking over to their aforementioned dreaded class. "We'll see you tonight, sis!" the blue-eyed boy added, waving at his sister through the phone screen.

"Bye MariFairy!" Toby farewelled, leaning into Jim's side as he made himself appear on the screen and wave goodbye as well.

"Arrivederci, boys! Don't get yourself into any trouble, okay?" Marinette responded, waving back at her brothers and making sure they wouldn't get themselves killed before the next time they talked.

"We'll try. Bye, Mari!" Jim assured before hanging up the call, the screen turning black after the connection between the teens was severed.

With the call ended, a tired smile appeared on Marinette's face as she pushed herself away from her desk and stood back onto her feet before heading up to her loft bed to go to sleep. But instead of getting under her covers to go to bed, she bundled herself into the corner of the loft at the head of the space, causing her kwami to glance over her in worry from her little bed on the shelf above.

"You okay, Marinette?" Tikki asked, her concern bleeding through her voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just thinking about what will happen tomorrow with Sabrina and Chloé." Marinette admitted, her gaze redirecting itself to look at her kwami. "Mostly for Sabrina." she added, far less concerned for Chloé than Sabrina after all the stuff the blonde brat had done.

"I'm sure things will turn out well. Have a little faith." Tikki assured Marinette, flying out of her bed and hovering in front of her holder.

"Hard to do with Chloé... but I'll try." Marinette agreed, knowing that she had to at least try to be the bigger person in this circumstance... even if she would much rather not be. "Okay, time to get some sleep. This was one exhausting day." the designer said, followed by a yawn slipping past her lips.

"Agreed." Tikki replied, flying back over to her bed while Marinette pulled open her sheets and slipped under them, both the kwami and girl ready to drift off. "Goodnight, Marinette." the red kwami said in a sleep-filled voice, the warm covers making it harder to stay awake.

"Goodnight, Tikki." Marinette replied with a sleep-filled voice, pulling her sheets further up her body and snuggled into her covers, soon drifting off to sleep. Seeing her holder falling into dream land, Tikki followed Marinette's example and found herself having fallen asleep too.

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(Time skip)

The next morning had finally come, and classes had started back up at Collège Françoise Dupont. After the bell rang and the students of Miss Bustier's class flooded into the room, Chloé had finally walked into the classroom after nearly everyone else was in their seats.

"Hey, here's Antibug." Alya quietly pointed out to Marinette as she slid into her seat, leading to the both of them watching as Chloé sat down in her own seat, crossing her arms once she was settled. Then not even a second later, Sabrina walked in too. "And Vanisher? Huh, now all we need is Ladybug and Chat Noir." the reporter remarked with a smile, leaning her head on her propped up arm to get a better view of Sabrina as she walked up to the other side of Chloé's desk and stood next to her seat, looking at the ground sadly.

"Well? What are you doing? Sit down." Chloé told Sabrina when she noticed the girl not moving to do so, causing the bespeckled girl to gasp before she sat down next to her BFF with a smile. Unknown to Sabrina, Chloé actually let a small smile grace her face when seeing the ginger-haired girl once again at her side... which didn't go unnoticed by Marinette or Alya.

"Did you see that? Chloé sort of smiled nicely!" Marinette pointed out, shocked at what she had just seen. "I think she's actually happy to have Sabrina back." the pigtailed girl observed, sort of glad to see the two girls starting to get along once again.

"Weirdly enough, I think the feeling is mutual." Alya noted, still watching the interaction between Sabrina and Chloé going down. As she did, Marinette had turned to keep watching just as Sabrina took out her tablet from her bag, followed by Chloé sliding a star shaped brooch in front of the ginger-haired girl. At the sight of the new brooch, Sabrina gasped in delight.

"And put it on your sweater, it'll make it less horrible." Chloé suggested in a seemingly tired tone, prompting Sabrina to follow the recommendation and happily put it on her right shoulder.

"Thank you Chloé!" Sabrina replied, glad that she and Chloé were friends again.

"Yeah, yeah. You can show me your gratitude later, class is starting." Chloé replied in the same tired tone as before, waving off the gratitude with her hand. But when she turned to face the board, her seemingly annoyed tone was soon proved to be otherwise when Chloé let another smile appear on her face again, obviously happy to be friends with Sabrina again as well. At the sight of Chloé's smile, Marinette couldn't help but be glad for both of the girls now that they reconciled.

"While I don't think that it's going to be getting better between them that what we've seen before, I think they'll always be friends." Marinette concluded, a faint smile on her own face when watching the two girls in the front row. "In their own way, at least." the pigtailed girl added, her earlier worries still simmering below the surface as she pulled her tablet out of her bag.

"I still prefer our way, though." Alya replied while Marinette placed her tablet onto the desk they shared, prompting them to playfully meet knuckles and smile at each other. Unbeknownst to them, sitting in the desk below them was a smiling Adrien, who was glad that things were back to normal for the time being. But unknown to either hero... things were only going to change quite a bit in the very near future.